STEVE HARLEY AND COCKNEY REBEL Scored Their Only No 1 Hit In The UK 50 Years Ago Today

Top singles from the past

22 February 2025

On this day 50 years ago STEVE HARLEY AND COCKNEY REBEL scored their
only No 1 hit in the UK with supreme pop pearl Make Me Smile (Come Up
To See Me)
.

The late great Steve Harley (1951-2024) wrote it after the band’s
original members, except the drummer, left him. He said the song
was “a finger-pointing piece of vengeful poetry. It’s getting off my chest
how I felt about the guys splitting up a perfectly workable machine.”

The song featured on their 1975
LP The Best Years Of Our Lives .

STEVE HARLEY: Facebook

Never understood why they didn’t also score a No 1 hit with their
1973 debut single, the brilliant symphonic ballad ‘SEBASTIAN‘.

Happy 73 To Cockney Rebel STEVE HARLEY

27 February 2024

STEVE HARLEY, the former frontman of 70s glam rock legends Cockney Rebel
was born Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice on 27 February 1951 in Deptford, London.

Happy 73 to the supreme songwriter who had to tell people all the time that he
wrote more than one song, hinting at Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me).

I agree 200%. Their 1973 debut single SEBASTIAN (on their excellent first
album The Human Menagerie) is their 24 Carat gold masterstroke.

Bombastic rock opera at its sublime best.

Steve Harley: Instagram – Bio – Discography