Knock, Knock Who's There: Apple Records Meets Eurovision

MAY 15 1970 · 12:10

Mary Hopkin · "Knock, Knock Who's There?" · United Kingdom · 1970 Placement: 2nd · Language: English · Composers: John Carter, Geoff Stephens · Venue: RAI Congrescentrum · Host: Amsterdam, Netherlands · Type: upset · Broadcast: color crt Mary Hopkin came to Eurovision 1970 with the strangest credentials any British entrant had ever brought to the contest: she was an Apple Records artist, signed directly by Paul McCartney in 1968 after he reportedly saw her on the ITV talent show 'Opportunity Knocks' and decided she sounded like the folk voice the Beatles' fledgling label needed. Her first single, 'Those Were the Days,' produced by McCartney himself, had gone to number one in Britain, number two in the US, and sold roughly eight million copies worldwide, turning a 19-year-old Welsh-language folk singer from Pontardawe into one of the most recognizable new voices in the English-speaking pop world. The BBC selected her for Eurovision through its annual 'A Song for Europe' format and 'Knock, Knock Who's There?' won decisively. The song itself, written by John Carter and Geoff Stephens, was a piece of light mid-tempo pop built on a single metaphorical knock. In Amsterdam, Hopkin delivered it in a long white dress with her voice at its most crystalline, carrying the slight reserve of a singer who knew she was being watched by more than Eurovision. Dana, a teenaged Irish singer in a plain sleeveless dress, won the contest with 'All Kinds of Everything,' a pastoral ballad that opened Ireland's extraordinary run of Eurovision dominance. Hopkin finished second by six points — her single then peaked at number two on the UK charts, selling over a million copies, and became the signature song she performed across the 1970s. Context Eurovision 1970 was reshaped by the previous year's four-way tie, which had prompted four countries to boycott in protest at the absence of a tie-break rule. Hopkin was managed through Apple Corps, which meant the BBC's Eurovision entry was effectively subcontracted to the Beatles' production infrastructure — producer Mickie Most handled the studio recording. Hopkin reportedly had reservations about the song, preferring the folk direction of her early work, but honored the public vote. Legacy 'Knock, Knock Who's There?' became a standard of early-1970s British light pop, covered repeatedly and occasionally revived in television specials. The Apple Records connection gave the entry an unusual cultural weight — for a brief window, Eurovision had drawn from the same pool as the Beatles' own label. Hopkin left the Eurovision scene immediately and pursued a folk-leaning career. Mythology Hopkin's entry is the rare case where a superstar label — at its precise creative peak — sent one of its artists to Eurovision, finished second, and never tried again.