1970s Dave Edmunds

Welsh born Dave (1944) had his first band with his brothers in 1954 called The Edmunds Bros Duo. He joined several bands after that including Love Sculpture which had a top ten single hit with Sabre Dance. The hit was thanks to radio one DJ John Peel championing it.

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Dave went solo in 1970 and had a big hit with I Hear You Knocking which was the Christmas No.1 in 1970. The song was written by Dave Bartholomew and Pearl King from way back in 1955. Smiley Lewis had the original No.2 hit with this song. Smiley died in 1966.

The song was a hit both sides of the Atlantic and sold over three million copies. In 1972 Edmunds appeared in the film Stardust with David Essex. The film was a huge success and Dave Edmunds was kept in the public eye which helped with the next singles.

In 1973 Dave had another cover hit with Baby I Love You which was written by Jeff Berry and Ellie Greenwich.  The song was 1963 hit for the Ronettes and was produced by Phil Spector. Dave Edmunds version got to No. 8.

Dave had another hit that year, with yet another cover. Born To Be With You a 1956 hit for the Chordettes. Dave’s version got to No. 5 in the charts. Moving on to 1977 gave Dave his next top thirty UK hit with I Knew The Bride a Nick Lowe song.

1979 and Dave stormed the charts again with two hit singles that year. The first was Girls Talk a cover of Elvis Costello’s record, followed by Queen Of Hearts from the album Repeat When Necessary.

Interview with Dave Edmunds