David Essex's 10 greatest songs ever, ranked

22 October 2024, 15:34

By Mayer Nissim

Rock on!

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Musical theatre, the movies, telly... David Essex has been a success in several fields during his remarkable career, but none more so than as a recording artist.

He's racked up 16 Top 40 albums and 19 Top 40 singles, and is still taking those songs on the road to this day.

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David Essex's good looks certainly did their bit in helping catapult him to superstardom, but ranging from post-Beatles rock 'n' roll to proto glam rock, David Essex's hit singles lived up to the hype.

Picking out his biggest and best hits is no easy task, but that's just what we've done.

Read on for the ten greatest David Essex songs from across his career.

City Lights

David Essex - City Lights (1976)

Out on the Street was the first David Essex album to fail to crack the top ten, but his fourth LP still went Gold eventually and was packed with classic tracks.
That included lead single 'City Lights', which went to number 24 Like many songs here, it was ably produced by The War of the Worlds man Jeff Wayne.
"I was just feeling sort of, 'Who needs all this old crap. No one is particularly taking me seriously; perhaps you shouldn't be taking it seriously', Songfacts quotes David telling Melody Maker about his feelings at the time.
"I was feeling a bit like knocking it on the head. This was all around the time of 'City Lights'. There was a lot of aggression in that song."
Rolling Stone

David Essex "Rolling stone" (live officiel) | Archive INA

David's 1975 album All The Fun of the Fair came at pretty much the peak of his fame and its lead single was 'Rolling Stone', a title already heavy with resonance from Muddy Waters to Mick and Keith to Bob Dylan to The Temptations to Jann Wenner.
This 'Rolling Stone' is a brooding menace of a song, heavy bass and David's own growls and grunts evened out with some female backing vocals and swirling keyboards. Well worth its number five spot in the charts.
If I Could

David Essex - If I Could (Official Audio)

Another single taken from All The Fun Of The Fair, and it's worth nothing that it was this album that gave the 2008 jukebox musical based on David's songs its title.
As well as his run of glam power pop singles, Essex could also turn it on with his beautiful love songs, and the plaintive, piano-led 'If I Could' is among his very best.
Lamplight

David Essex - Lamplight (‘That’s Christmas Sez Les!', 26-12-73)

After breaking though with his starring turn in That'll Be The Day, David Essex finally broke through after years of trying with his debut Rock On album in 1973.
A quick glance at the credits for the album proved immediately that David Essex was much more than just a pretty face (and a pretty voice).
He wrote seven of the album's 11 tracks, including this stomping bit of glam/music hall mashup featuring bass playing from session god Herbie Flowers and percussion from Ray Cooper.
Oh What a Circus

David Essex - O What A Circus

As glam faded and punk (and disco) rose, David Essex was beginning to slip away from the charts and hearts.
He was even dropped by his record label around the time he was tapped to play Che in the first West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita.
It was a role originally played on the concept album by musical legend Colm Wilkinson, but Essex certainly made it his own.
Produced by Wombles legend Mike Batt, Oh What A Circus is contrafactum (same tune, different words) of the better-known 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' and has Che brushing aside the spectacle of Eva Perón's funeral and her supposed achievements.
Silver Dream Machine

David Essex - Silver Dream Machine (From The Film "Silver Dream Racer")

Back to the songs written by David Essex himself, and 'Silver Dream Machine' was even produced by him, too.
The song was taken from the 1980 movie Silver Dream Racer, which starred Essex as wannabe motorcyclist Nick Freeman.
The film did okay, but powered by droning guitars reminiscent of those racing motors, the song did even better, peaking at number four in the charts.
Rock On

David Essex - Rock On (Audio)

David Essex had released almost a dozen singles without even touching the charts when he starred in That'll Be The Day with Ringo Starr and Rosemary Leach.
On the soundtrack to that movie was Essex's own 'Rock On', and the song was also the lead single and title track of Essex's own debut album.
And what a song. A decidedly weird, dubby, spacious, with Jeff Wayne's sci-fi production making it sound not like a 1950s throwback, but instead like aliens from outer space doing their best 1950s impression having somehow heard our rock 'n' roll.
A total masterpiece, it went to number five in the UK and, incredibly, number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
Covers by Michael Damian and Def Leppard grabbed plenty of sales and attention, but didn't quite match the strange excellence of the Essex original.
A Winter’s Tale

David Essex - A Winter's Tale (Video)

A rare Essex hit that the man himself didn't write, and also one of Tim Rice's songs written without Andrew Lloyd Webber – instead having music from Wombles creator/'Bright Eyes' writer/'Oh What a Circus' producer Mike Batt.
"David Essex rang me late in 1982 - just after my return from Australia, and asked if I could write him a Christmas hit," Batt said.
"It was already late October so we didn't have much time. I was due to be writing with Tim Rice the following day- and was hoping to develop my idea for a musical about the Aztecs..."
They got through some chorus and a couple of lines of the verse together, before Batt finished it off himself and passed it over to Essex.
It more than did the trick, only being kept off the top of the charts by Phil Collins' cover of 'You Can't Hurry Love'.
Hold Me Close

David Essex - Hold Me Close (Official Audio)

The second (and last) of David Essex's two number one singles. Written by the man himself, produced by Jeff Wayne, 'Hold Me Close' was the obvious pop pick of his third album All the Fun of the Fair.
Less glammy than many of his other hits, it offered up a Brit-poppy, almost vaudevillian vibe that showed off David's lighter side brilliantly.
Gonna Make You A Star

TOPPOP: David Essex - Gonna Make You A Star

'Rock On' was the bigger international hit, but 'Gonna Make You A Star' is maybe David Essex's best-known hit over here, and it was his first number one record, too.
It's equal parts rock 'n' roll, keyboardy proggy excess (thanks to Jeff Wayne) and glam stomp.
It's a futuristic, cynical, witty, self-deprecating muse on the nature of stardom, success and failure ("I know I'm not super hip / I'm liable to take a slip").
That's something that David Essex, who became an overnight success after nearly a decade of trying, knew all too well. A classic.