10cc is a British rock music group who achieved their greatest commercial success during the 1970s
The group was group formed in 1972 in Manchester, England by members of the bands Hotlegs and The Mindbenders. They were renamed and relaunched by music guru Jonathan King, who signed them to his UK Records label.
The original 10CC lineup consisted of two skilled musician-songwriter duos, all of whom were multi-instrumentalists. The team of Eric Stewart (born January 10, 1945) (vocals and guitar) and Graham Gouldman (bass, guitars, vocals) created some of the group's most 'commercial' numbers. They met in the late 1960s while they were members of The Mindbenders, the former backing group of singer Wayne Fontana. Gouldman had already achieved considerable success in his own right as a songwriter in the 1960s, penning several major international pop hits for UK-based bands, including The Yardbirds' "For Your Love", Herman's Hermits' "No Milk Today" and The Hollies' "Bus Stop".
The other and more experimental team was Lol Creme (vocals, guitar, keyboards), and Kevin Godley (vocals, drums), who brought a distinctive 'art school' sensibility to the group. Godley and Gouldman had attended the same high school and a shared passion for music meant that in their teens Godley and best friend Creme would often 'hang out' with Gouldman at their local Jewish Lads' Brigade.
In the sleeve notes to the 1996 CD reissue of their 1975 LP The Original Soundtrack, Graham Gouldman described himself and Eric Stewart as "guitar freaks". He also cited some of the quartet's very diverse influences, which included Maurice Ravel, Isaac Hayes' Shaft soundtrack, The Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach, Little Richard and Jimmy Webb.
They quickly established themselves as a high-calibre band, combining innovative music stylings, sharp vocals, rich harmonies and great instrumental skills with witty, topical lyrics and ironic, toungue-in-cheek humour, and they have drawn favourable comparisons with contemporary American group Steely Dan.
10CC was also notable as one of the first UK pop-rock acts to be able to operate as a fully self-contained unit -- they wrote all their own songs, played and sang all the music (they used no outside session musicians at all on their first four LPs) and (like The Beatles) the group boasted three lead singers. Stewart was an accomplished studio engineer engineering and the quartet self-produced all their records.
A crucial factor in their success as an independent writing-performance-production unit was the fact that Stewart and Gouldman had wisely purchased a share in Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, where most of their early ouput was recorded. The group later opened Strawberry Studios South in Dorking, Surrey.
The original lineup of the group recorded four increasingly accomplished LPs and managed for a time to achieve increasingly wide popularity and chart success, whilst still being taken seriously by critics.
Their first recording together was a single released under the Hotlegs name, Neanderthal Man, which cracked the UK charts. After backing Neil Sedaka, the group released their first single as 10CC, the Fifties pastiche "Donna", which reached #2 in the UK, their self-titled debut album (1972.)
Their second UK single "Rubber Bullets", became their first British #1 record in 1973. After signing to the Mercury Records label, they had more success with their second album Sheet Music (1973) which included the hits "Wall Street Shuffle" and "Silly Love".
Their third and most successful LP, The Original Soundtrack (1975) included the major international hit "I'm Not In Love", which reached #1 in the UK. Although the group had failed to achieve any chart success in the Unted States, "I'm Not In Love" finally provided them with their first US hit, reaching #2. It has has since become a staple of "Hits and Memories" radio programming.
"I'm Not In Love", a collaborative effort based on an idea of Stewart's, is notable for its distinctive choral backing. This ethereal sound was created by laboriously building up eight or nine overdubs of the voices of Stewart, Godley and Creme singing a single note in unison. This multitrack was then mixed down and dubbed down onto a 16-track tape. This process was then repeated across all sixteen tracks to create a 'virtual' choir that could 'sing' chromatic chords. These multitracks were then cut into a number of endless loops, each which contained the basic notes of the main chords used in the song. This rich choral effect could then be played by using the mixning desk rather like a keyboard -- each chord could be sounded by bringing up the fader for that loop. In this pre-sampler time, the group were able to simulate a large polyphonic choir, creating a tonal effect similar to that produced by the well-known choir setting on the Mellotron, but with a far richer sound, and in full stereo. The LP was also notable for its epic opening track, "One Night In Paris", an 8-minute, multi-part 'mini-operetta' which is thought to have been an influence on "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.
Their fourth LP, How Dare You (1976) included the hit "Art For Art's Sake", but by this time the formerly tight personal and working relationship between the four memebrs had begun to fracture, and it was the last album with the original lineup. After its release Godley and Creme left the band to work on a solo project -- which eventually became the triple LP set Consequences (1976) -- and to develop the "Gizmo", a motor-driven electric guitar effect they had invented, which would mechanically bow the guitar stings produce endless sustain. First used during the recording of The Original Soundtrack", Godley and Creme had originally created the device as a means of cutting recording costs -- by using it on an electric guitar with studio effects, they could simulate orchestral string sounds.
Stewart and Gouldman decided to keep going as 10CC and Paul Burgess (drums) augmented the duo on their next LP, Deceptive Bends. Against expectations, it proved to be a great success and yielded two hit singles, "Good Morning Judge" and "The Things We Do For Love". After recruiting guitarist Rick Fenn, keyboardist Tony O'Malley and drummer Stuart Tosh (ex-Pilot) as full-time members, the group went on the road, and during this period they recorded their next LP, the live album Live And Let Live (1977), which mixed their hits with material from the previous three LPs.
1978's Bloody Tourists, redorded with the new lineup, was less consistent than its predecessor, but still provided the band with another UK and Australian hit, the reggae-styled "Dreadlock Holiday".
Godley & Creme became known as a songwriting and recording duo after their departure from 10cc, but became far better-known as producers of music videos in the 1980s, having honed their skills on the series of innovative music videos for their own singles. The video to their 1985 song "Cry" is especially memorable as one of the first mainstream uses of morphing technology.
Graham Gouldman teamed up with Andrew Gold to form the group Wax.
The name 10cc is often reputed to refer to the amount of semen an average adult male ejaculates; it was in fact suggested by Jonathan King, who had dreamed that a band called 10cc was being hailed as the best band in the world. The average amount of semen ejaculated is 2.5 cubic centimetres.
Hit singles discography
- 1972 "Donna" UK # 2
- 1972 "Johnny Don't Do It!"
- 1973 "Rubber Bullets" UK # 1
- 1973 "The Dean And I" UK # 10
- 1973 "Headline Hustler"
- 1974 "The Worst Band In The World"
- 1974 "The Wall Street Shuffle" UK # 10
- 1974 "Silly Love" UK # 24
- 1975 "Life Is A Minestrone" UK # 7
- 1975 "I'm Not In Love" UK # 1, US #2
- 1975 "Art For Art's Sake" UK # 5
- 1976 "I'm Mandy, Fly Me" UK # 6
- 1976 "The Things We Do For Love" UK # 6, US # 5 (1977)
- 1977 "Good Morning Judge" UK # 5
- 1977 "People In Love" US # 40
- 1978 "Dreadlock Holiday" UK # 1
- 1978 "For You And I" UK # 85
- 1980 "One Two Five"
- 1980 "It Doesn't Matter At All"
- 1981 "Les Nouveaux Riches"
- 1981 "Don't Turn Me Away"
- 1981 "The Power Of Love"
- 1982 "Run Away" UK # 50
- 1982 "Feel The Love"
- 1983 "24 Hours"
- 1995 "I'm Not In Love" (Acoustic re-recording) UK # 29
Albums discography
- 1973 10cc UK #36
- 1974 Sheet Music UK #9, US #81
- 1975 The Original Soundtrack UK #4, US #15
- 1975 100cc: The Greatest Hits of 10cc UK #9
- 1976 How Dare You! UK #5, US #47
- 1977 Deceptive Bends UK #3, US #31
- 1977 Live and Let Live (live recording) UK #14, US #146
- 1978 Bloody Tourists UK #3, US #69
- 1979 Tropical and Love Songs (compilation)
- 1979 Greatest Hits 1972-1978 UK #5
- 1979 The Things We Do for Love: Best of '76–'83 (compilation)
- 1980 Best Of 10cc (compilation)
- 1980 Look Hear? UK #35, US #180
- 1981 Ten Out of 10
- 1981 10cc in Concert (Live)
- 1983 Windows in the Jungle UK #70
- 1987 Changing Faces: The Very Best of 10cc and Godley and Creme UK #4
- 1987 The Collection (compilation of first two albums)
- 1990 A Decade of Hits (compilation)
- 1990 Hits (early singles and B-sides compilation)
- 1992 ...Meanwhile
- 1993 The Early Years (compilation)
- 1993 10cc Alive (live)
- 1993 Food For Thought (Compilation of later material)
- 1995 Mirror Mirror
- 1996 King Biscuit Flower Hour (live from 1975)
- 1997 The Very Best of 10cc UK #37
- 1998 The Singles (singles compilation)
- 2000 Best of the Seventies (compilation)
- 2000 Live (live)
- 2001 Two from Zen (first two albums rereleased together)
- 2001 Good News: An Introduction to 10cc (singles and B-sides)
- 2002 Singles (singles compilation)
- 2002 Alive: The Classic Hits Tour (live)
- 2002 Best Of The Early Years
- 2002 Dressed To Kill (singles and B-sides compilation)
- 2002 20th Century Masters: The Best Of 10cc (compilation)
- 2003 Ultimate Collection (three-disc best-of compilation)
- 2004 Complete UK Recordings 1972-1974 (Compilation)