Australian singles charts:
Eagle Rock entered the Kent charts on 10 May 1971 and held the #1 spot for an incredible 10 weeks. The song was #1 on the Top 100 of 1971.
Album:
The song is on Daddy Who? Daddy Cool which entered the Kent album charts on 19 July 1971. It reached #1 on 30 August 1971 and remained on top for 7 weeks.
Songwriter:
Ross Wilson
Producer:
Robie Porter
Record label of Australian release:
Sparmac
Wikipedia:
Daddy Cool guitarist, vocalist and the song’s writer Ross Wilson was living and performing in London when he wrote Eagle Rock.
The ‘Eagle Rock’ was a 1920s black dance performed with the arms outstretched and the body rocking from side to side. “Doing the eagle rock” is also a metaphor for sexual intercourse.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Rock_(song)
Australian Music History:
Daddy Cool recorded their first album which spawned the hits Come Back Again and Eagle Rock in a marathon two day session and the rest, as they say, is history.
Read more: australianmusichistory.com/daddy-cool/
The Advertiser:
Ross Wilson says Eagle Rock actually pre-dates Daddy Cool, with Wilson playing the song with the late Ross Hannaford in pre-Daddy prog-rock band Sons of the Vegetal Mother.
Wilson says the song was written in a deliberate attempt to create a dance craze, something he and Hannaford felt was lacking from modern music at the time.
Wilson admits there are some smutty connotations.
“Look, as time went by I realised that anything to do with ‘rock’ is actually about sex,” he says.
“All of those songs – Rock Around the Clock and the like – they’re actually all about rooting!
“Rocking is rooting and dancing is a kind of foreplay.”
Read more: www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/confidential/aussie-rock-legend-ross-wilson-reveals-the-origin-of-one-of-our-most-bizarre-musical-traditions/news-story/0e547ed311f564e410df1a61fd481be3
Wikipedia – Elton John:
Elton John toured Australia during 1972 and was so inspired by Daddy Cool’s hit single Eagle Rock that, with lyricist Bernie Taupin, he wrote Crocodile Rock. The cover of John’s 1973 album Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player, which featured Crocodile Rock, has a photo of Taupin wearing a “Daddy Who?” promotional badge. Taupin is also seen wearing Daddy Cool memorabilia on albums Tumbleweed Connection and Honky Chateau.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Rock_(song)
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
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