Brotherhood of Man’s 1970 transatlantic hit United We Stand – #10 in the UK, #13 in the US and #9 in Canada – was adopted as a clarion call for the post-Stonewall gay rights movement and used as an anthem of solidarity by America’s Democratic Party.
Hardly an outcome that multiple Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter and producer Tony Hiller could have imagined in 1969 when he assembled four of Britain’s top studio session singers – Tony Burrows, Roger Greenaway, Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie – as the Brotherhood Of Man.
For the next few years, Hiller kept Brotherhood of Man alive as a studio project, employing various session singers.
In 1973, he assembled the quartet of Martin Lee, Lee Sheriden, Sandra Stevens and Nicky Stevens (who weren’t related) to perform as the group on a Belgian TV show.
The foursome gelled and ultimately became the line-up that was chosen to represent Britain in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest.
Lee and Sheriden were co-writers of their entry, Save Your Kisses For Me – a perky, country-tinged pop song with a similar twist to Chuck Berry‘s Memphis Tennessee (ie: the ‘baby’ referred to throughout is a child).
On the night of 3 April 1976 in Den Haag, Holland, they performed it with some unbelievably twee elbow jerking, knee-lifting dance movements.
It had won long before all the votes were tallied, picking up 164 out of a possible 204 points – more points than any entry in the contest since 1956.
Save Your Kisses For Me charted at #1 in Britain, Holland, Belgium, France and Norway, #2 in Germany, #10 in Australia and #27 in America, and remains to this day the biggest-selling Eurovision single ever.
The group had several other hits, including Angelo (#1 UK, #1 Ireland, #4 Holland, #2 Belgium, #14 Germany), Oh Boy (#8 UK, #7 Holland, #9 Belgium, #6 Ireland), My Sweet Rosalie (#30 UK, #5 Holland, #2 Belgium) and Highwayman (Top 20 Holland and Belgium).
Although the hits dried up by the end of the 1970s, the group remained a popular live draw until their retirement in 2020. Sandra and Martin fell in love soon after meeting and married in 1979.
Martin Lee died on 29 September 2024, aged 77.
Nicky Stevens
Vocals Sandra Stevens
Vocals Martin Lee
Vocals Lee Sheriden
Vocals
Video
You May Also Like
Romantics, The As one of the first generation of American bands to emerge from the revival of local…
Donny Osmond Few can make the claim that they grew up in the public eye as truthfully as…
Sam Apple Pie Sam Apple Pie hailed from Walthamstow (East London) in the late 60's and played all the…
Ross Ryan Australian singer/songwriter Ross Ryan's debut album Homemovies (1972) was recorded independently at Channel Nine's studios in Perth, for…
Bette Midler Bette Midler grew up in Hawaii, where her parents Fred and Ruth had moved in the…
Bobby Sherman Before Shaun Cassidy, even before David Cassidy, there was TV teen heartthrob Bobby Sherman. At the height of…
Richie Havens Richie Havens' roots were in gospel and doo-wop, before graduating onto the coffeehouse circuit of the…
Dave Warner's From the Suburbs Dave Warner was born in Bicton, Western Australia, in 1955 and was educated at Aquinas College…
In 1973, he assembled the quartet of Martin Lee, Lee Sheriden, Sandra Stevens and Nicky Stevens (who weren’t related) to perform as the group on a Belgian TV show.
