Steve Harley’s Make Me Smile re-enters Top 40… thanks to Top Gear!27/01/2015
By Liv Moss
Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) is back in the midweek Top 40 after a campaign by Jeremy Clarkson for viewers to purchase the track, following the musician being handed a speeding fine.
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel’s former Official Singles Chart Number 1 Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) has re-entered the chart at Number 25 in today's sales flash after being mentioned on Top Gear at the weekend.
Discussing a speeding fine Steve had been given, Jeremy Clarkson joked: “He’s eeking a meagre living out of, let’s be honest, one hit single. Everyone loves that song - you can’t trust someone who doesn’t like that song.”
“Imagine if everybody did it - he would wake up tomorrow and think ‘I’m Number 1, where did that come from’?” Richard Hammond added, “It would cheer him up.”
Can the track continue to climb? Find out in the Official Chart Update tomorrow at 4pm.
www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/steve-harleys-make-me-smile-re-enters-top-40-thanks-to-top-gear-3445/Then 1975
Now 2013
I first heard the song when Duran Duran did a cover in 1982
Top Gear: 1970s pop classic rockets up music charts after Clarkson's speeding fine appealBy AARON BROWN ublished: 12:48, Mon, January 26, 2015
A 1970s pop classic has rocketed up the charts after the presenters of BBC hit show Top Gear last night urged viewers to download the track – to help pay a speeding fine.
Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May encouraged viewers to buy 'Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)' by Steve Harley during Sunday night's episode of the motoring show.
And the appeal, which featured on the first show of Top Gear's 22nd series, has now helped the 63-year-old rocker reach number 26 on the iTunes download chart.
The 1975 glam rock single soared past modern acts Maroon 5, One Direction and a track from the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey film, just 16 hours after the Top Gear episode aired on BBC Two.
Controversial host Clarkson encouraged viewers to download the track to help Harley - who was slapped with a £1,000 speeding ticket after he was clocked doing speeds of 70mph on the M25, in Kent, at a time when the limit was temporarily dropped to 40mph.
On last night's show, Clarkson joked with his fellow presenters, saying: "He's ekeing a meagre living out of, let's be honest, one hit single.
"Everybody loves that song – you can't trust someone who doesn't like that song."
The Top Gear episode also featured co-host May deleting 'Make Me Smile' from his smartphone so that he could then pay to re-download it.
Fellow presenter Hammond added: "Imagine if everybody did it – he would wake up tomorrow and think 'I'm number one, where did that come from?'
"It would cheer him up.
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)' sold more than one million copies globally when it was released in the mid-1970s and has since been covered by other artists more than 120 times, most notably by Duran Duran.
As the track continued to climb the iTunes UK chart, singer songwriter Steve Harley tweeted about his gratitude for the Top Gear campaign for the "poor sods" caught out by the speeding cameras.
He posted: "Thanks @jeremyclarkson for kicking off the #makemesmilefoundation, more than happy to subsidise the poor sods who drive down Swanley Way! SH"
Last night's first episode of the new Top Gear series was simultaneously broadcast across 50 countries, including Australia and nations in Africa and the Middle East.
Clarkson later posted on Twitter: "Top Gear is being broadcast simultaneously round the civilised world tonight.
"It's on in America tomorrow."
BBC Top Gear is the most-watched factual TV show in the world, distributed to some 214 territories and watched by 350million viewers each week.
The Emmy Award-winning motoring show earns the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, more than £300million each year.
The 22nd series of Top Gear will feature the three presenters designing a new-and-improved ambulance and road-testing a brand new GT in the tough Australian.
Meanwhile, actors Will Smith and Kiefer Sutherland will feature as a 'star in a reasonably-priced car'.
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/554327/Top-Gear-Series-22-Episode-1-Steve-Harley-Make-Me-Smile-1975-iTunes-Chart
Top Gear helps Steve Harley's 'Make Me Smile' rise up iTunes chartBy Tom Eames
Monday, Jan 26 2015, 11:53am EST
Top Gear fans have helped send Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel up the iTunes downloads chart.
On last night's (January 25) episode, Jeremy Clarkson urged fans to download the classic track 'Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)'.
The tongue-in-cheek 'Make Me Smile Foundation' was launched by Clarkson after Harley was caught speeding on the M25 in an area where the limit had been temporarily reduced to 40mph. He was fined £1,000 for the offense.
Clarkson said: "He's [making] a meagre living out of, let's be honest, one hit single. Everybody loves that song - you can't trust someone who doesn't like that song."
Richard Hammond added: "Imagine if everybody did it - he would wake up tomorrow and think, 'I'm number one, where did that come from?' It would cheer him up."
The song had reached as high as number 25 on iTunes on Monday (January 26).
Harley later tweeted a message of thanks to Top Gear and fans who had downloaded the song.
The single originally reached number one back in 1975, and has since re-entered the chart in 1992 (46), 1995 (33) and 2005 (55).
Read more:
www.digitalspy.com/music/news/a624447/top-gear-helps-steve-harleys-make-me-smile-rise-up-itunes-chart.html#~p2FZ9mGxk7xjUC#ixzz3Q8BwiEMX
www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/top-gear-presenters-give-pop-5044579
