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
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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.
