Yeah I know what you’re thinking, “It Started With A Kiss”, “So You Win Again”, “No Doubt About It”…BUT…there was a time in the early 70’s when Hot Chocolate had some stuff going on.

The B-side of their 1972 single “You’ll Always Be A Friend” is a track called “Go Go Girl”, a tough piece of guitar driven, almost Freakbeat, Mod pop. Their ’73 single “Brother Louie” is an early anti-racist song (go check out the lyrics) and ’74’s “Emma” is a doom laden classic (c’mon, the Sisters Of Mercy covered it !). I’ve been DJ’ing a single from this very album, “Heaven Is In The Back Seat Of My Cadillac”, for years, it’s as funky as funky gets.

And then I discover that one of my favourite tunes of recent years, Smoove ’n’ Turrell’s “You Could've Been A Lady”, is another cover of a Hot Chocolate song, hence I now own this album from whence it hails. It was originally released as a single in 1971 and I’ve no idea why they waited until 1976 to put it on this album. I have absolutely no clue what the rest of it sounds like outside of the 2 tracks I own it for (“…Cadillac” and “…Lady”) and I likely never will. So you can now take that haughty “Hot f*ckin’ Chocolate !” look off your face and have a listen.

You Could've Been A Lady - https://youtu.be/5Puo_9AeYTY?si=BLMVZOiO6YgHISvs