THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

773-Mud-Tiger Feet.

1974-Number 1 single.

Best Bit At 0.01. Not every song can boast it’s own dance moves that everyone of a certain age knows how to do, but this one does. ‘Yeah, Yeah!’

Mud were formed in Carshalton, Greater London, England, in 1966, by Rob Davies, (lead guitar) (see also best songs 928) Les Gray, (1946-2004) (vocals) Dave Mount, (1947-2006) (drums) and Ray Stiles (bass.) Mud were first signed to ‘CBS Records’ in 1967, and released four singles without any success between 1967-1970. It was when signing with Mickie Most, (1938-2003) and his ‘RAK Records’ label in 1973, and being introduced to the legendary songwriting team of Nicky Chinn, (see also best songs 860 and 686) and Mike Chapman, (see also best songs 860-686 and 402) that Mud finally made their commercial breakthrough. Mud would work with Chinn and Chapman through until 1976, when they then left ‘RAK Records’ to join ‘Private Stock Records,’ where they enjoyed two more top 20 singles. When ‘Private Stock’ went bankrupt, Mud signed with ‘RCA Records,’ but they were soon dropped by that label, when the hits died up.

After Mud split in 1980, Les Grey reformed the band with new members, calling the group ‘Les Gray’s Mud.’ With Gray as the one constant the group with differing members would remain active until Gray’s death in 2004. Following his death, the three remaining members of ‘Les Gray’s Mud’ were given permission by the other founding members of Mud, plus that of Gray’s family, to continue using the band’s name, which they rechristened ‘Mud II,’ which at the time of writing remain active with changing membership. Also since 2015, Rob Davis and Ray Stiles, who are the two surviving founding members of Mud, have been performing together again under the band name ‘Mud’, alongside new members Keith Read and Pete Phipps. In total there have been 24 different members of all the variations of ‘Mud’ between 1967 to the present day.

The discography of Mud includes seven studio Albums released between 1974-1982, and 36 singles issued between 1967-1985, there are also 10 official compilation Albums available. In the UK, Mud achieved 15 top 40 singles, with three of them, ‘Tiger Feet,’ (1974) ‘Lonely This Christmas,’ (1974) and ‘Oh Boy,’ (1975) all making the Number 1 spot. ‘Oh Boy’ remains as the only song that ‘Chinn and Chapman produced, that got to Number 1, but wasn’t a song that they hadn’t written as well. Outside of the UK, Mud had their greatest success in the Netherlands, where five of their singles all reached the Number 1 position.

Les Gray was born Thomas Leslie Gray, on April 9th, 1946, in Carshalton, Surrey, England, he died on February 21st, 2004, of a heart attack, whilst fighting throat cancer, at the age of 57. Les Gray released two solo studio Albums, and five singles between 1977-1982, with his cover version of ‘A Groovy Kind of Love,’ reaching Number 32 in the UK in 1977. In 1992 Gray moved with his wife Carol to live in the Algarve region of Portugal, where he lived out the rest of his life. He was well known for his distinctive vocal impersonation of Elvis Presley, (1935-1977) particularly on Mud’s Christmas Number 1 single ‘Lonely This Christmas.’

‘Tiger Feet’ was the first of five singles released from Mud’s debut studio Album ‘Mud Rock,’ from September 1974, with the song being co-written, and co-produced by Nicky Chinn, and Mike Chapman. In the UK ‘Tiger Feet’ was the best selling single of 1974, with over 700,000 copies sold, and over a million sold worldwide. Mike Chapman has credited Mud’s bassist Ray Stiles for his input, particularly for the songs ‘memorable bass lick.”Tiger Feet’ is a song about someone who is attracted to a person whom they see dancing. The narrator feels a strong connection to this person, and says that they have ‘Tiger Feet,’ because they move so swiftly and gracefully like a tiger.

‘Yeah, yeah. All night long, you’ve been looking at me. Well, you know you’re the dance hall cutie that you longed to be. Oh well now, you’ve been laying it down. you’ve got your hip swinging out of bounds, and I like the way you do what you’re doin’ to me.’