A hit in 1973 for David Essex. Surely written in about five minutes, full of nostalgia swatches (with a touch of the de rigueur boogie), from the Rock and Roll Revival of the day. And minimalism - the recording consisted mainly of a bass guitar, an echo unit, and an actor. It has aged better than the motormouth maximalism of "Life is a Rock". But still, you have rock and roll, soul music, the aforementioned boogie, the 50s anthem "Summertime Blues", "Blue Suede Shoes", the Isley Brothers' "Shout", perhaps via Lulu, and James Dean. A vast rock iconography trip in three minutes. I have no idea who fills the blue jeans.

The song was originally written by Essex for That'll Be the Day, a film designed to capitalize both on the nostalgia boom and on Essex's success playing Jesus in Godspell on the stage; the film's producers rejected it, maybe because it didn't fit in musically with this British American Graffiti.

It was covered, years later, by an American soap opera star named Michael Damian, and, no doubt, his version was full of rock star bombast, far removed from the simplicity of the original; Essex wasn't a rock star - his pop-singing career fizzled several times before "Rock On".