Gary Glitter--Rock and Roll (Pt. 1 & 2)--1972

     In the U.S., Gary Glitter is known for one top ten hit in 1972, which has become one of the best known sports arena anthems in history. In Britain he had a major string of top five hits, including three number one's going up til 1975. Even after that, he would be in and out of the charts all the way to the mid-90s. He is probably known more so for a string of convictions beginning in the 80's which ranged from a series of DUI's and public intoxication, to the last 20 years fighting child abuse and child porn convictions in the UK and Vietnam.
     Back in 1972, the former Paul Francis Gadd had certainly paid his dues musically. As early as 1960 as Paul Raven, he released several singles that went nowhere. He ended up in 1964 playing warm up to the "Ready Steady Go" show on the BBC (the UK's answer to American Bandstand), and in 1965 joined the house band for the Mike Leander Show. After a change in name to Paul Monday, he formed the group Boston International who were together close to five years.
     The song, "Rock and Roll" (Pts. 1 & 2) were recorded for a solo album that now christened, Gary Glitter was doing in 1971. It was a part of a fifteen minute jam which was whittled down to to a little under six minutes to fit on both sides of the single. Although it was Part 1 (which actually has words to it) which became a hit around the world, it was the instrumental Part 2 which became a hit here in the US. (reaching #7). Because of the success of the flip side, many times it's referred to as Part 1.
     It became part of the sports lexicon in 1974 at Kalamazoo,  Michigan of all places. It seems that the public relations guy, named Kevin O'Brian would play the song whenever the home hockey team, the Wings, would score. When O'Brian left for a bigger position for the Colorado Rockies hockey team in 1976, he took the usage of the song with him. After the demise of the team in 1982, the two other major league teams in Denver, the Broncos and the Nuggets, took the song up. Before the decade was up, you could hear it in just about every major league stadium.
     For your listening pleasure, I'm going to put up both sides, since the