My Top 1000 Songs #762: Rock 'n' Roll Love Letter

Look, I'd very much love to salvage some credibility and assure you that I'm talking about the version of this songs by perfectly respectable power pop legends The Records (of "Starry Eyes" fame). But I'd be lying. Nope, we're going all in on the Bay City Rollers here.

As a child of 9, first discovering AM Top 40 radio, spending every afternoon glued to my handheld transistor radio, absorbing whatever WLS Chicago had deemed popular, the Bay City Rollers--alongside Sweet--were the bubblegum pop troubadours who first captured my attention. "Saturday Night," of course, was the big one, the massive radio hit that was all the rage as my musical obsession was kicking into gear. But I preferred the follow-up 1976 single "Rock And Roll Love Letter." It was marginally less cheesy, and, while I didn't have the word for it at the time--kinda glam. The guitars hit a little harder, more like those Sweet songs I loved, plus there was this cool sounding moog-y synth solo (again, kinda Sweet-like). 

Yes, it's still a silly little bubblegum pop track, performed by those Scottish boys in their absurd outfits, but even 9-year-old me recognized a killer hook when he heard one. And guilty pleasure or not, it was a huge part of my formative years that'll always hold sentimental value for me.

I much later discovered the song wasn't even an original. Philadelphia singer-songwriter Tim Moore first recorded the song in 1975, but his slowed-down version lacks the Rollers' charm. Still, kinda cool contrast:

And then there's the Records' afore-referenced cover... much more of a new wave power-pop vibe but, nope, still not the best one: