Lordy be, it's the tartan twangers!
The Bay City Rollers sort of took the world by storm for a year or two, spawning what many called Rollermania, with some even claiming they would become the next Beatles. Well we all know how that worked out for them. These guys actually existed since '66 but it took them until '74 to land on the UK singles charts with the song Remember. The Rollers had many hits but of course the biggie that just about everyone on the planet knows is Saturday Night, with that catchy spelling lesson within the chorus. Fun and learning, all at once! Who knew?
The Rollers had a string of hits but the one that I liked, and still like, best is Shang-a-Lang, which boasts some of the band's heavier guitar power chords, strung together nicely with their melodic sing-a-long vocals.
Contrary to the kilted poses in the above photo, the band actually wore pants - funny-looking short pants to be exact. Tartan pants. And tartan scarves. And tartan shirts. And tartan tartar sauce. You name it. This was part of their Scottish branding, and the UK fans loved it, and the UK fans dressed the part, too.
Me, I liked the music back during their musical peak. I was young enough to have little knowledge of much beyond this sort of teen pop. The Rollers' song Saturday Night hit number one on the US Billboard chart in '75, and that was when the mania began on this side of the pond. It was in '76, after a lot of action high on the US song and album charts, that the band began to falter. Personnel changes and waning public interest were taking their toll. The music scene was rapidly changing, with the emerging disco and punk genres taking the front seat. The Rollers tried valiantly to resurrect themselves periodically during the 80's and 90's, but nobody but die-hard fans from the glory days cared much.
My dear old Rollers greatest hits 8-track, still intact.
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