Middle of the Road
is a Scottish pop group who enjoyed success across Europe and Latin
America in the early 1970s. Four of their singles sold over one million
copies each, and received a gold disc. The tracks were "Chirpy Chirpy
Cheep Cheep" (which went on to sell over 10 million), "Sacramento",
"Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" and "Soley Soley". By early 1972 the group
had sold over five million records.
Lead singer Sally Carr, drummer Ken Andrew, guitarist Ian McCredie and his bassist brother Eric McCredie,
founded the band on 1 April 1970 in Glasgow, Scotland. They already
played together under the name Part Four since 1967 and later in Latin
American style under the name Los Caracas.
Under the name Los Caracas they won the UK TV talent show Opportunity Knocks.
They moved to Italy in 1970 because they had not found success in the
United Kingdom. There they met the Italian music producer Giacomo Tosti,
who gave the band their distinctive sound and gave them their
international break.
The band had their first and biggest hit record in the United Kingdom
with debut UK single, "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" to reach #1 in the UK
Singles Chart in June 1971 and keep it for four more weeks. In all,
Middle of the Road had five hit singles in the UK during 1971-1972. The
band had especially strong success in Germany, where they achieved
eleven Top 40 hits in 1971-1974. As an example of this, Frank Valdor was
fast to adapt Sacramento as his "party records". Songs like Chirpy
Chirpy Chip Chip and Sacramento were played a lot on Scandinavian radio.
In 1974 early Bay City Rollers member Neil Henderson joined the
band on guitar. He wrote and co-wrote songs for Middle of the Road
(including the singles "Rockin' Soul" and "Everybody Loves A Winner" and
1974 albums, You Pays Yer Money And You Takes Yer Chance and Postcard,
all released in Germany via Ariola like their first German LP, Music
Music), but their commercial success could not keep pace with that of
earlier songs.