You ladies who are over 40 years old probably remember this group well.
Long before the days of “The New Kids on the Block“, “Nsync“, and “The Backstreet Boys“, there was “The Bay City Rollers“…..
The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish Pop Band popular worldwide during the 1970′s and one of the first examples of the dreaded musical genre known as “The Boy Band”.
The group was founded in Scotland in the mid 1960′s. At that time, the band was known as “The Saxons“. Seeking a less Scottish sounding name, they allegedly got their new name by throwing a dart at a map of The United States. Supposedly, the dart landed in Arkansas, and not wanting to be known as “The Arkansas Rollers”, the band threw a second dart, with that one landing on the town of “Bay City, Michigan“.
They released a number of albums and had a great deal of success in the United Kingdom during the early 70′s but it was not until 1976 that they would get their first chart hit in the US.
That single, “Saturday Night” would be their first and biggest US hit, rising to #1 on the Billboard Charts.
They would go on to chart six singles into the Billboard Top-40 charts, all in the years 1976 and 1977.
During the mid 1970′s they were worldwide teen heartthrobs and were featured on the covers of dozens of magazines.
I was in like the 5th and 6th grades when they were at their peak and remember that every other girl in school seemed to own a Bay City Rollers T-Shirt or Lunchbox. (Yes, we used lunchboxes back then…)
Their songs included:
Saturday Night
You Made Me Believe in Magic
Rock and Roll Love Letter
I Only Wanna Be With You
The Way I Feel Tonight
Money Honey
Rock and Roll Love Letter
The end of the 1970′s saw the beginning of major personnel changes in the members of the band and a failure to achieve any more chart success in the United Kingdom or in the US.
The group officially broke up in 1981.
At their peak in the 1970′s, The Bay City Rollers were:
Les McKeown – Vocals
Eric Faulkner – Guitar
Stuart Wood – Guitar
Alan Longmuir – Bass
Derek Longmuir – Drums
As of today, McKeown and Faulkner still tour playing the Rollers hits but due to legal reasons, they are unable to use the Bay City Rollers name.
In 1974 two weeks after i asked Les McKeown, if i could join the band. I handed him a piece of paper outside his house, as he was going to meet the others in the band. And on that piece of paper were a few of the words to a song which later became their first no1 hit. Bye Bye Baby. And the rest you know as history.
I remember listening to the Bay City Rollers as a young teenager on a trip home to England and still enjoy listening to their music.
Memories – Saw them in Seattle. Amazing.