Hotlegs
Encyclopedia
Hotlegs was a short-lived English band best known for its hit single "Neanderthal Man
" in 1970. The band consisted of Eric Stewart
, Kevin Godley
, Lol Creme
and – briefly – Graham Gouldman
. In 1972 the band was relaunched as 10cc
.
According to Eric Stewart
, in the 2009 BBC 'The Record Producers' radio documentary, the band's name came about because "there was a lovely girl at the time, a receptionist called Kathy, and she used to wear these hot pants, and we always used to call her "hot legs", and so we thought we'll call the group Hotlegs".
and had delivered the vocals for that band's best-known track, "A Groovy Kind of Love
". The Mindbenders disbanded in November 1968 and Stewart teamed with Peter Tattersall, a former road manager for Billy J. Kramer
and the Dakotas, and Gouldman, a fellow Mindbender and aspiring songwriter, to become joint owners of a Stockport
recording studio which in 1969 was renamed Strawberry Studios
.
Stewart and Gouldman enlisted Godley and Creme, longtime friends of Gouldman who had earlier launched an abortive career under entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky
as duo Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, and the team gained work writing and performing bubblegum
songs under a variety of band names for US producers writer-producers Jerry Kasenetz
and Jeff Katz
of Super K Productions
, as well as other session work.
The song consisted primarily of a chanted chorus backed by Stewart's and Creme's acoustic guitars and a lumbering drum rhythm provided by Godley. The song was released as a single under the moniker Hotlegs and reached No.2 in the UK Singles Chart
in July 1970 and No. 22 in the US, ultimately selling two million copies worldwide.
The band recorded a follow-up album, Thinks: School Stinks
, for Philips
before branding themselves as Doctor Father
in August 1970 for a new version of "Umbopo" on Pye Records
. The song was one they had originally recorded for Kasenetz and Katz for release under the name Crazy Elephant. Doctor Father's version failed to attract airplay or sales.
In October 1970 the band was invited to tour Britain with The Moody Blues
. Gouldman was asked to join the band on bass, marking the gigs as the first at which the four future members of 10cc played live on stage. After just four shows, however, the tour was cancelled when John Lodge of the Moody Blues contracted a virus.
Gouldman recalled that the band returned to their homes in Manchester expecting something else to turn up. "But nothing happened," he said. "It was really quite amazing. We'd opened a tour with the Moody Blues ... we were expecting offers of work to arrive, but no one asked us to do anything. The next Hotlegs records flopped and we didn't get a single offer of work. It was extraordinary. We'd had a hit record that had sold two million copies and nobody wanted us."
Another single was released by Hotlegs in Britain – "Lady Sadie" (1971, a very naughty lyric with a standard arrangement) – and two others overseas ("Run Baby Run", US and "Desperate Dan", Germany and Spain), but none charted.
In 1976 Stewart, by then achieving success with 10cc, admitted: "'Lady Sadie' had no class and no originality. It was a very mediocre pop song." The album also presented a problem, he said: "That was so different to 'Neanderthal Man' that it was totally alien to what people were expecting from us. It was a good record, a little ahead of its time. It was similar to the things we are doing now. It was very melodic with chord structures that hadn't been used before – and some of the sounds that we used on that album hadn't been heard at the time."
The band returned to the studios to work with other performers. Stewart said: "We sat down one day and said, 'Hotlegs is defunct – let's face it.' And we decided to carry on with our production work."
Godley, in a 1976 interview, described the band as "doomed". "I'm afraid we blew the whole thing," he said. "The first thing we did was take a holiday, and because I'd never been able to afford a good holiday I flew off to Antigua
. We'd been working ever since we'd left college and we were knackered, so Lol and I just bought the tickets to Antigua and off we went. We also bought cars as soon as we came back and then went into the studio to make the LP.
"We did the whole thing wrong. We should have stayed in England, gone on tour, made promotional appearances, given interviews to the Press and TV and so on, but we just vanished to Antigua. And when we came back Hotlegs had gone cold. The record had now gone out of the charts and no one had ever really discovered who we were. The follow-up single 'Lady Sadie' just bombed out and the album hardly sold at all – though I still say that was a bloody good album. Basically it included the songs and the ideas that we had been hoping to bring into that LP for Giorgio Gomelsky. Most of the tracks were from the Frabjoy period and it's an interesting LP."
After Thinks: School Stinks received worldwide release, it was repackaged (in the UK) by the Philips
label in December 1971 (with the previously unissued "Today" replacing "Neanderthal Man") and again in Britain in 1976 as You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It
with two additional songs. The title song of the British repackaged album had originally been the B-side of "Neanderthal Man"; part of it had also been reworked to become "Fresh Air For My Mama" on the 1973 debut album
by 10cc
.
The lack of further chart activity saw Hotlegs labelled as a one-hit wonder
. In 1972 Hotlegs was relaunched as 10cc.
Neanderthal Man (song)
"Neanderthal Man" is a song by Hotlegs, an English pop band that was later relaunched as 10cc. The song, initially created only as a studio exercise to test drum sounds on new recording equipment, sold over two million copies and reached No.2 in the UK and No. 22 in the US...
" in 1970. The band consisted of Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
, Kevin Godley
Kevin Godley
Kevin Godley is a British musician and music video director.He was born in a family of Jewish descent, and went to North Cestrian Grammar School in Altrincham....
, Lol Creme
Lol Crème
Lol Creme is an English musician and music video director, best known for his work in 10cc. He sings, plays guitar and keyboards.-Biography:...
and – briefly – Graham Gouldman
Graham Gouldman
Graham Keith Gouldman is an English songwriter and musician who is a long-time member of British band 10cc.-Early life and 1960s pop career: 1946–1968:Gouldman was born in Broughton, Salford, England...
. In 1972 the band was relaunched as 10cc
10cc
10cc are an English art rock band who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1970s. The band initially consisted of four musicians -- Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme -- who had written and recorded together for some three years, before assuming the "10cc" name...
.
According to Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
, in the 2009 BBC 'The Record Producers' radio documentary, the band's name came about because "there was a lovely girl at the time, a receptionist called Kathy, and she used to wear these hot pants, and we always used to call her "hot legs", and so we thought we'll call the group Hotlegs".
History
Stewart had earlier enjoyed success as a member of the 1960s pop band The MindbendersThe Mindbenders
The Mindbenders was a 1960s beat group from Manchester, England. They were part of the mid 1960s British Invasion with their chart-toppers "Game of Love" and "A Groovy Kind of Love"....
and had delivered the vocals for that band's best-known track, "A Groovy Kind of Love
A Groovy Kind of Love
"A Groovy Kind of Love" is a pop song written by Toni Wine and Carol Bayer for the Screen Gems music publishing company. It is heavily based on the Rondo movement of Sonatina in G major, op. 36 no. 5 by Muzio Clementi...
". The Mindbenders disbanded in November 1968 and Stewart teamed with Peter Tattersall, a former road manager for Billy J. Kramer
Billy J. Kramer
Billy J. Kramer is a British Invasion/Merseybeat singer. In the 1960s he was managed by Brian Epstein, who also managed The Beatles, and he recorded several original Lennon and McCartney compositions.-Early life and career:He grew up as the youngest of seven siblings and attended the St George of...
and the Dakotas, and Gouldman, a fellow Mindbender and aspiring songwriter, to become joint owners of a Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
recording studio which in 1969 was renamed Strawberry Studios
Strawberry Studios
-Formation:The facility was originally called Inner City Studios and located above a music store in the town centre. In early 1968 it was bought by Peter Tattersall, a former road manager for Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Tattersall invited Eric Stewart – then lead guitarist and singer of...
.
Stewart and Gouldman enlisted Godley and Creme, longtime friends of Gouldman who had earlier launched an abortive career under entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Gomelsky
Giorgio Gomelsky is a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter and record producer. He owned the Crawdaddy Club where The Rolling Stones were house band, and he was involved with their early management. He hired The Yardbirds as a replacement and managed them. He was also their...
as duo Frabjoy and Runcible Spoon, and the team gained work writing and performing bubblegum
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
songs under a variety of band names for US producers writer-producers Jerry Kasenetz
Jerry Kasenetz
Jerry Kasenetz is an American bubblegum pop producer who worked with Jeff Katz, the two working together as the Super K production company, to manufacture and produce bands like The Music Explosion, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Crazy Elephant, and The Ohio Express....
and Jeff Katz
Jeff Katz
Jeffrey Katz is an American music producer, one of the first exponents of bubblegum pop.-Music career:He is one half of a hitmaking duo with Jerry Kasenetz, the two working together as the Super K production company...
of Super K Productions
Super K Productions
Super K Productions was a 1960s American recording production company under Buddah Records, headed by producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz, whose groups specialized in bubblegum pop. Their biggest successes were The Ohio Express, The 1910 Fruitgum Company, Crazy Elephant and The Music Explosion...
, as well as other session work.
Brief success
"Neanderthal Man" was created by the trio of Stewart, Godley and Creme as they dabbled with newly-installed recording equipment at Strawberry Studios, perfecting drum layering on a four-track machine.The song consisted primarily of a chanted chorus backed by Stewart's and Creme's acoustic guitars and a lumbering drum rhythm provided by Godley. The song was released as a single under the moniker Hotlegs and reached No.2 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in July 1970 and No. 22 in the US, ultimately selling two million copies worldwide.
The band recorded a follow-up album, Thinks: School Stinks
Thinks: School Stinks
Thinks: School Stinks is the first album released by British pop band Hotlegs. The album, featuring the band's hit single "Neanderthal Man", was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport near Manchester and engineered by the studio's co-owners, Eric Stewart and Peter Tattersall...
, for Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
before branding themselves as Doctor Father
Doctor Father
Doctor Father was the band name used by British musicians Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – later of 10cc – for the release of a single, "Umbopo", in August 1970....
in August 1970 for a new version of "Umbopo" on Pye Records
Pye Records
Pye Records was a British record label. In its first incarnation, perhaps Pye's best known artists were Lonnie Donegan , Petula Clark , The Searchers , The Kinks , Sandie Shaw and Brotherhood of Man...
. The song was one they had originally recorded for Kasenetz and Katz for release under the name Crazy Elephant. Doctor Father's version failed to attract airplay or sales.
In October 1970 the band was invited to tour Britain with The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
. Gouldman was asked to join the band on bass, marking the gigs as the first at which the four future members of 10cc played live on stage. After just four shows, however, the tour was cancelled when John Lodge of the Moody Blues contracted a virus.
Gouldman recalled that the band returned to their homes in Manchester expecting something else to turn up. "But nothing happened," he said. "It was really quite amazing. We'd opened a tour with the Moody Blues ... we were expecting offers of work to arrive, but no one asked us to do anything. The next Hotlegs records flopped and we didn't get a single offer of work. It was extraordinary. We'd had a hit record that had sold two million copies and nobody wanted us."
Another single was released by Hotlegs in Britain – "Lady Sadie" (1971, a very naughty lyric with a standard arrangement) – and two others overseas ("Run Baby Run", US and "Desperate Dan", Germany and Spain), but none charted.
In 1976 Stewart, by then achieving success with 10cc, admitted: "'Lady Sadie' had no class and no originality. It was a very mediocre pop song." The album also presented a problem, he said: "That was so different to 'Neanderthal Man' that it was totally alien to what people were expecting from us. It was a good record, a little ahead of its time. It was similar to the things we are doing now. It was very melodic with chord structures that hadn't been used before – and some of the sounds that we used on that album hadn't been heard at the time."
The band returned to the studios to work with other performers. Stewart said: "We sat down one day and said, 'Hotlegs is defunct – let's face it.' And we decided to carry on with our production work."
Godley, in a 1976 interview, described the band as "doomed". "I'm afraid we blew the whole thing," he said. "The first thing we did was take a holiday, and because I'd never been able to afford a good holiday I flew off to Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
. We'd been working ever since we'd left college and we were knackered, so Lol and I just bought the tickets to Antigua and off we went. We also bought cars as soon as we came back and then went into the studio to make the LP.
"We did the whole thing wrong. We should have stayed in England, gone on tour, made promotional appearances, given interviews to the Press and TV and so on, but we just vanished to Antigua. And when we came back Hotlegs had gone cold. The record had now gone out of the charts and no one had ever really discovered who we were. The follow-up single 'Lady Sadie' just bombed out and the album hardly sold at all – though I still say that was a bloody good album. Basically it included the songs and the ideas that we had been hoping to bring into that LP for Giorgio Gomelsky. Most of the tracks were from the Frabjoy period and it's an interesting LP."
After Thinks: School Stinks received worldwide release, it was repackaged (in the UK) by the Philips
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
label in December 1971 (with the previously unissued "Today" replacing "Neanderthal Man") and again in Britain in 1976 as You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It
You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It
You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It is an album by British pop group Hotlegs.The album was released in 1976 after Hotlegs, a three-piece band from Stockport, near Manchester, had added a fourth member, Graham Gouldman, changed its name and achieved international chart success as...
with two additional songs. The title song of the British repackaged album had originally been the B-side of "Neanderthal Man"; part of it had also been reworked to become "Fresh Air For My Mama" on the 1973 debut album
10cc (album)
10cc is the debut album by British rock band 10cc. It was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, which was part-owned by guitarist and engineer Eric Stewart, and released on Jonathan King's UK Records label. The album reached No.36 in the UK....
by 10cc
10cc
10cc are an English art rock band who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1970s. The band initially consisted of four musicians -- Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme -- who had written and recorded together for some three years, before assuming the "10cc" name...
.
The lack of further chart activity saw Hotlegs labelled as a one-hit wonder
One-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...
. In 1972 Hotlegs was relaunched as 10cc.
Albums
- Thinks: School StinksThinks: School StinksThinks: School Stinks is the first album released by British pop band Hotlegs. The album, featuring the band's hit single "Neanderthal Man", was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport near Manchester and engineered by the studio's co-owners, Eric Stewart and Peter Tattersall...
– 1970 - Song – 1971 -repackage of above album, minus "Neanderthal Man" plus two tracks ("Today" and "Loser")
- You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of ItYou Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of ItYou Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It is an album by British pop group Hotlegs.The album was released in 1976 after Hotlegs, a three-piece band from Stockport, near Manchester, had added a fourth member, Graham Gouldman, changed its name and achieved international chart success as...
– 1976 (contained all of the Hotlegs material)
Singles
- "Neanderthal ManNeanderthal Man (song)"Neanderthal Man" is a song by Hotlegs, an English pop band that was later relaunched as 10cc. The song, initially created only as a studio exercise to test drum sounds on new recording equipment, sold over two million copies and reached No.2 in the UK and No. 22 in the US...
" / "You Didn't Like it Because You Didn't Think Of It" (1970) - "Lady Sadie" / "The Loser" (UK, 1971)
- "Run Baby Run" / "How Many Times" (US, 1971)
- "Desperate Dan" / "Run Baby Run" (Germany and Spain, 1970)