Bay City Rollers (video still)

The lone gold record in the [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Bay City Rollers[/lastfm] repertoire was just one of a vast number of hits by the songwriting team of Bill Martin and Phil Coulter.

Bill Martin was a Glasgow-born songwriter and music publisher whose first song was a 1963 single by [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Tommy Quickly[/lastfm] called “Kiss Me Now.”

The next year, he entered into a songwriting partnership with Tommy Scott that turned out hits for [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Van Morrison[/lastfm] and [lastfm link_type=""]Serge Gainsbourg[/lastfm].

His partnership with Phil Coulter was born in 1965. Over the next 10 years, they saw their work recorded by [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Los Bravos[/lastfm], the[lastfm link_type=""] Troggs[/lastfm], [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]George Harrison[/lastfm] and [lastfm link_type=""]Cliff Richard[/lastfm], to name just a few.

Among their most well-known hits were “Puppet on a String” by [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Sandie Shaw[/lastfm] and the songs “Shang-A-Lang” and “Saturday Night” by the Bay City Rollers.

Though it wasn’t released in the UK, “Saturday Night” was the a Number 1 hit for the Rollers and their only record to reach gold status. Released in September 1975, it went gold almost instantaneously. (As a point of fact, the BC Rollers did score five gold albums between 1975 and 1977).