Listen: Cigarettes, Women And Wine / Chicory Tip ChicoryWinesomanyrecordssolittletime.mp3

Having scooped a UK release of ‘Son Of Your Father’ off Giorgio Moroder’s own German version, Chicory Tip ended up at #1 as a result. Not so in the US. Giorgio’s reached #48, while Chicory (as their name was shortened to for that one US single) peaked at #91. Despite the UK coup, Moroder wrote it, thereby still earning off every sale without having to schlep about in glam trousers and platforms, as the band did. In fact, Chicory Tip apparently hated their new found teen success, thus live, would deliver heavy blues rock instead. Bad career move.

Back in the studio, the Chicory Tip camp was smart enough to keep a winning formula going for a few more replicas of that lone #1, right down to having the band cover Moroder songs exclusively as A sides. A few charted, but despite heavy airplay from the influential Radio Luxembourg, BBC’s Radio 1 wouldn’t touch ‘Cigarettes, Women And Wine’, supposedly due to the cigarettes mention. Big cheat. They were a perfect mix of Glam and synth rock, and had they continued mixing the two elements, the result may have been much closer to what Manfred Mann’s Earth Band achieved, especially with Giorgio Moroder as producer.

Their sound certainly pointed to a whole musical revolution that wasn’t too many years away.