Big Tree: Emma

Although Hot Chocolate had released eight singles by 1975, but none had charted in the US until Big Tree was licensed the recording of “Emma” in 1975. This was a tune that I had forgotten about and you never hear it on oldies radio. I have two theories on why this occurred.

One is the confusion over the song’s title. Because the woman in the song is referred to both as Emma and Emmaline, most people thought the name of the song was either “Emma, Emmaline” or “Emmaline.”

Composed by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson, the song was inspired by the sadness Brown experienced over the death of his mother. The second theory is that, because the song ends with a suicide, the subject matter is not politically correct to be remembered to this day.

That wasn’t the case in 1975, as “Emma” rose to number 8 and was the band’s third highest charting US hit. It was only eclipsed by 1978’s “Everyone’s a Winner” at #6 and 1975’s “You Sexy Thing” at #3.