Penned by the band’s Dave Luther for his skiffle-pop band comprising of ex-pat Englishmen from his Wellington Diamond United football team, ‘Pretty Girl’ lodged for three weeks at No.1 in August 1970. Ironically, by the time the single topped the chart Hogsnort Rupert had broken up, disappointed by the few hundred sales the single had garnered in its first six or so weeks of release. As C’mon had done in the 60s, TV show Studio One was to prove influential in creating hits for New Zealand artists. Chris Bourn, producer of the series, asked the band to make a video showing the latest release from the previous year’s contenders. One Thursday night screening of the video on the primetime show, including the cheeky Alec Wishart line “Come on my lover – give us a kiss”, was all it took to turn ‘Pretty Girl’ into an overnight sensation. The next day the song’s producer Peter Dawkins rang Luther excitedly to say that retailers had ordered 2000 copies that Friday morning alone. Out for dinner later that night with his wife, Luther was astonished to be pestered for his autograph. By the following Monday the HMV record presses went into overdrive to keep up with demand. Eventually selling more than 50,000 copies, ‘Pretty Girl’ became the biggest-selling single of 1970 and went on to win that year’s Loxene Golden Disc Award.