Billy Don't Be a Hero US version sold over three and a half million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in June 1974. Donaldson and the Heywoods's version was a massive hit in Latin America and Japan as well, but it remained largely unknown elsewhere as of late July 2017. "Billboard" ranked it as the No. 21 song for 1974. Despite the song's popularity, it was poorly received, and it was voted No. 8 on "Rolling Stone" magazine's readers' poll of "10 Worst Songs of the 1970s." The song is mentioned as having played on K-Billy's "Super Sounds of the '70s
Paper Lace Phil Wright's Original 70s Paper Lace) the band initially questioned appearing. However, with the show having weekly viewing figures of 7 million, they concluded that going on the programme was a "no brainer", and the band won Opportunity Knocks for five consecutive weeks. Based on Opportunity Knocks' performances, songwriters (Mitch Murray and Peter Callander) offered the band "Billy Don't Be a Hero", with the possibility of more songs if it took off. Billy Don't Be a Hero would spend three weeks at Number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1974, with a total of 14 weeks on the