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Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 2 - The 1960s

Started by daf, June 12, 2019, 01:55:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

machotrouts

Instrument soup. I can't tell what Mick's saying, I can't tell what the guitars are saying. At a loss here. I don't believe this is recorded at an acceptable enough quality to release. Bring back the cold cutting clarity of Ken Dodd.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

He's saying something about being a disaffected youth in the Nineteensixties. As for Mick...

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

This TOTP performance sounds better than the actual recorded version, plus it features Mick doing that jerky Mick dance of his. Bobby Gillespie is all his fault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpvUJ5VAaw

That's a great TOTP performance. Credit to the director for capturing the band's vibrancy. Mick is the most charismatic and photogenic British lead singer ever, surely?

This Youtube upload has good sound quality - from the 1965-67 box set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmFvK4WjeiE

It's one of my favourite Stones riffs but it doesn't really go anywhere so outstays its welcome and there's the problem of Mick's vocal being (deliberately?) indecipherable.

daf

Hey there, Georgie Best, Swinging down the street in your pants and vest, it's . . .

206.  The Seekers - The Carnival Is Over



From : 21 November – 11 December 1965
Weeks : 3
Flip side : We Shall Not Be Moved
Bonus 1 : Promo film
Bonus 2 : Farewell Concert

The Seekers : 
QuoteFollowing "A World of Our Own", which reached #3, their next single, "The Carnival Is Over" became their second UK chart topper.

Earlier in 1965, they had met Paul Simon who was pursuing a solo career in the U.K. following the initial poor chart success of the Simon & Garfunkel's debut LP, 'Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.'. The following year, The Seekers released the Simon-penned "Someday One Day" (b/w "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen"), which reached #11 in March 1966 UK.

 

Their version was Paul Simon's first U.K. success as a songwriter, and his first solo major hit as a composer outside of his work with Art Garfunkel. Bruce Woodley co-wrote some songs with Simon, including "Cloudy", "I Wish You Could Be Here" and "Red Rubber Ball" which became an American #2 single for The Cyrkle.



Early in 1966, after returning to Australia, the Seekers filmed their first TV special, At Home with the Seekers. The band were named "Best New Group of 1965" at the NME Poll Winners Awards, and appeared at the celebratory Wembley Arena concert, on a bill which included the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Dusty Springfield and the Animals.

In September, "Walk With Me" (b/w "We're Moving On"), peaked at #10, and their next single - a re-recorded version of "Morningtown Ride" - reached #2 in November. The song had been recorded earlier as an Australian single from the 1964 album "Hide and Seekers" and appeared on the 1965 American debut, "The New Seekers".

In December 1966 they issued their absolute masterpiece - "Georgy Girl" (b/w "The Last Thing On My Mind") - the title song for the British film of the same name starring Lynn Redgrave and James Mason.

 

Thanks to the exposure from the film, and the fact that the song was totally wicked and skills, it became their highest charting American hit when it reached #2 in February 1967. While only a #3 hit in the UK in March 1967, it rightfully bagged the number 1 spot in Australia, becoming their biggest hit by far - shifting a massive 3.5 million copies worldwide. Its writers, Jim Dale and Tom Springfield, were nominated for the 1967 Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1966, but lost out to boring old "Born Free" - BOO!

In March 1967, The Seekers returned to Australia for a homecoming tour, which included a performance at 'Music for the People', at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, attended by an estimated audience of 200,000. Accompanied during their 20-minute set by the Australian Symphony Orchestra, the film of their appearance was incorporated into their 1967 Australian television special The Seekers Down Under, which was screened on Channel 7 and drew a then record audience of over 6 million.

But the Carnival was almost over for The Seekers - their next single, "When Will The Good Apples Fall" missed out on the Top 10, with a #11 placing in September 1967, and they came back down to Earth with a bump when "Emerald City", their final UK chart entry, struggled to #50 in December 1967.

Tom Springfield had written "The Olive Tree" as a solo showcase for Judith for The Seekers' live show, and it was decided to record and release it as a solo single - becoming a modest #33 hit in June 1967.

 

The B-side, "The Non-Performing Lion Quickstep", was written by Judith herself with David Reilly, as were both sides of her second solo single - "Again And Again" (b/w "Memories").

The single flopped, but the genie was out of the bottle, and during the New Zealand tour on 14 February 1968, Durham approached the other group members to announce that she was leaving The Seekers to pursue a solo career and the group subsequently disbanded.

 

Their final performance, on Tuesday 9 July, was screened live by the BBC as a special called Farewell the Seekers, with an audience of more than 10 million viewers. The special had been preceded by live shows at London's Talk of the Town nightclub and a recording of one of their shows was released as a live LP record, Live at the Talk of the Town. It reached #2 on the UK charts.

Also in July, the compilation album The Seekers' Greatest Hits was released and spent 17 weeks at No. 1 in Australia. It was released as The Best of The Seekers in the UK and spent 6 weeks at No. 1 in 1969, knocking The Beatles 'White Album' off the top of the charts.

Following the Seekers' split, Judith Durham pursued a solo career. In 1969 she released a Christmas album called For Christmas with Love recorded in Hollywood, California, and later signed with A&M Records, releasing more albums, including : Gift of Song (1970), and Climb Ev'ry Mountain (1971).

 

In 1969, Keith Potger formed and managed another group, The New Seekers in the UK, which were more pop-oriented, and would go on to achieve considerable chart success in the early 70s.

Guy Athol hosted his own TV show in Australia, A Guy Called Athol, before entering politics in 1973.

Bruce Woodley released several solo albums and focused on songwriting, including co-writing the patriotic song "I Am Australian" with Dobe Newton (of the Bushwackers) in 1987.

From 1972, Guy, Potger and Woodley planned on reforming the Seekers without Durham. By 1975 they had recruited Louisa Wisseling, a semi-professional folk singer formerly with Melbourne group the Settlers. They had a top 10 Australian hit with the Woodley-penned "The Sparrow Song".



Woodley left the group in June 1977 and was replaced by Buddy England, a former 1960s pop singer and member of Pushbike Song hit-makers The Mixtures. In 1978, Guy was replaced by Peter Robinson and Cheryl Webb replaced Wisseling as lead vocalist, leaving only Keith Potger from the original Seekers line-up.

In 1988, Guy, Potger and Woodley decided to reform the Seekers again - this time with Julie Anthony, a popular cabaret singer. In May, the group sang "The Carnival Is Over" at the World Expo 88 in Brisbane. In June 1990, Anthony left and was replaced by Karen Knowles, a former teen pop singer on Young Talent Time. However the unique timbre of Durham's voice was missing from their sound and the group split again.

The Seekers with the classic line-up of Durham, Guy, Potger and Woodley, finally reunited late in 1992. In March 1992, all four met together for the first time in 20 years at a restaurant in Toorak, and two months later that they decided to do a reunion concert, which led to a 102 date tour. The 25-Year Silver Jubilee Reunion Celebration tour in 1993 was sufficiently successful that the group has continued to perform and record together, on and off, ever since.



In the late 1990s, Durham was stalked by her former personal assistant, a woman who sent her dozens of doormats through the post (!!)

In May 2013, during The Seekers' Golden Jubilee tour, Durham suffered a stroke which diminished her ability to read and write—both visual language and musical scores. During her convalescence she made progress to rebuild those skills. Her singing ability was not affected by the stroke.

In April 2019, The Seekers released "Farewell" - a live recording from their 50th Anniversary tour of 2013. This was their last album with Judith Durham as lead singer. Following Judith's retirement from live performance, the band continued on as The New New New Old Seekers The Original Seekers with the addition of long-time 'Seekers' producer and guitarist/singer Michael Cristiano as the band's 'fourth voice'.

The Single :
Quote"The Carnival Is Over" was a Russian folk song from circa 1883 about the Cossack ataman Stepan Razin known as "Iz-za ostrova na strezhen" or "Volga, Volga mat' rodnaya" which became popular in Russia as early as the 1890s.

The original Russian lyrics of the song, written by the poet Dmitry Sadovnikov to a folk melody, told about an episode of the 1670–1671 Russian Peasant Uprising in which Stepan Razin allegedly killed his captive, a beautiful Persian Princess, by throwing her into the water from his boat. The murder was meant as a sacrifice with which Razin hoped to appease the much loved and feared Volga River - the daft ha'porth!

There is also a strong resemblance in the tune, tempo and emotional appeal to the iconic Welsh song Myfanwy, by Joseph Parry, which was written earlier in 1875.

The melody from the Russian folk song, was adapted with English-language lyrics, written by Tom Springfield, for the Australian folk pop group The Seekers in 1965, after a trip to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio.

 

The track spent three weeks at No.1 in the UK Singles Chart in November and December 1965. At its 1965 sales peak, the single was selling 93,000 copies per day, and is No.30 in the chart of the biggest-selling singles of all time in the United Kingdom, with sales of at least 1.41 million copies in the UK alone.

The song also topped the Australian charts for six weeks, from 4 December 1965, and reached No.1 in the Irish Charts for two weeks.

Other Versions include :  "Volgan aallot" by Hannes Saari (1926)  /  "Stenka Razin" by Fedor Chaliapin (1930)  /  Theodore Bikel (1956)  /  "Vilken fröjd och vilken smärta" by Marianne Kock (1966)  /  "Stenka Rasin" by Ladi Geisler (1969)  /  Freddy Quinn (1970)  /  "Irgendwo auf fremden Straßen" by Bruce Low (1972)  /  James Galway (1981)  /  Boney M. (1982)  /  Ann Breen (1985)  /  Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1986)  /  Foster & Allen (2004)  /  Eve Graham (2005)  /  Daniel O'Donnell & Mary Duff (2007)  /  Judith Durham (2009)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Dave Monk (2016)  /  a robot (2019)

On This Day  :
Quote21 November : Björk, singer (The Sugarcubes), born Björk Guðmundsdóttir in Reykjavik, Iceland
22 November : "Man of La Mancha" opens in a Greenwich Village theatre in New York City
22 November : Muhammad Ali scores 12th-round KO of Floyd Patterson to retain his world heavyweight boxing championship
25 November : Dame Myra Hess, British pianist, dies age 75.
26 November : France launches its first satellite, Astérix-1
29 November : "Anya" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC
2 December : Comedian Tony Hancock marries publicist Freddie Ross
3 December : USSR launches Lunik 8; it crashes on the Moon
3 December : The Beatles release their sixth album 'Rubber Soul'.
3 December : The first album by The Who, 'My Generation', is released in the United Kingdom.
4 December : "Roar of the Greasepaint" closes at Shubert NYC after 232 performances
4 December : Gemini 7 launched with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell
5 December : Charles de Gaulle is re-elected as French president.
8 December : Abe Burrows' "Cactus Flower" premieres in NYC
8 December : The Race Relations Act becomes the first legislation to address racial discrimination in the UK.
9 December : A Charlie Brown Christmas, the first Peanuts television special, debuts on CBS
10 December : J Mascis, (Dinosaur Jr.), born Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. in Amherst, Massachusetts
10 December : "Yearling" opens at Alvin Theater NYC
11 December : "Yearling" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 3 performances
11 December : "Anya" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 16 performances

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote                 

#1235
It's beautifully sung with gorgeous harmony vocals but could have been recorded in the early 50s; put into context when you see that Rubber Soul came out in that period

Ballad of Ballard Berkley


purlieu


daf

As can be seen from the chart clipping, it kept The Who off the Top Spot -



Nice one, mums and dads - stick it to the kids!

Isn't Len Barry's NME #1 before The Seekers?

Why does the clipping show The Who as LW #1?

daf

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on November 22, 2019, 05:17:03 PM
Isn't Len Barry's NME #1 before The Seekers?

No spoilers young shaver! (it's up next)

Quote
Why does the clipping show The Who as LW #1?

Good spot! It's from the Music Echo (formerly 'Mersey Beat') chart.


DrGreggles



"Cliff, it's the police again.
They want to do another search."

grassbath

I hate these over-earnest, vibrato-heavy female singers of the Joan Baez/Mary Hopkin stripe - something a bit frightening about it, kind of robotic, with the insistent pagan chug of the tambourine. I feel like Edward Woodward being carried to his fiery death by a host of beautiful, dead-eyed maids.

kalowski

Quote from: daf on November 22, 2019, 04:34:02 PM
As can be seen from the chart clipping, it kept The Who off the Top Spot -



Nice one, mums and dads - stick it to the kids!
One, Two, Three by Len Barry! What a stomper!!

daf

DAVE CLARK ALERT!

Dave Clark and the Dave Clark Five's film 'Catch Us if You Can' on NOW on Talking Pictures TV!!

daf

I've never Northern Soul like you before, it's . . .

206b. (NME 203.)  Len Barry - 1-2-3



From :  11 - 17 December 1965
Weeks : 1
Flip side : Bullseye
Bonus 1 : TV Performance
Bonus 2 : Hullabaloo
Bonus 3 : Len Barry Interview

QuoteLen Barry was born Leonard Borisoff on June 12, 1942 in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Barry had little thought of a show business career while still in school. Instead, he aspired to become a professional basketball player upon his graduation. It was not until he entered military service and had occasion to sing with the US Coast Guard band at Cape May, New Jersey, and was so encouraged by the response of his military audiences, that he decided to make music a career. Upon his discharge from military service, Barry returned home to Philadelphia and formed a vocal harmony group with some old school friends.

The Dovells originally formed in 1957 as The Brooktones, taking their name from Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, where each of the original members - Jerry Summers (lead and first tenor), Len Borisoff (lead and tenor), Mike Dennis (second tenor), Arnie Satin (baritone), Jim Mealey (bass), and part-timer Mark Stevens (tenor) - attended classes.



Inspired by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers,  The Brooktones performed for the next few years and even though their "No, No, No" gained some recognition in Philadelphia, the group had little success outside the immediate area.

In December of 1960, after a live audition was arranged for the quintet with Cameo/Parkway, they were quickly signed to the label. Cameo exec Bernie Lowe suggested the Brooktones change their name to The Deauvilles (after the Deuville Hotel in Miami Beach), but the group thought it was too hard to spell and changed it instead to The Dovells.

The Dovells' first single, released in March 1961, was a re-recorded version of "No, No, No" which fared little better the second time it was released. In May, the Dovells recorded "Out in the Cold Again" and a new song based on a dance that Parkway promotion man Billy Harper had witnessed kids doing at the Goodwin Fire Hall in Bristol, PA, just outside Philadelphia called "The Stomp". Renamed "Bristol Stomp" for the recording, the song broke out of the Midwest and began to get airplay, gaining enough momentum to go national, and by mid-October, made it all the way to number one.

Realising they were on to a good thing, they released a string of frugging platters, including : "Do The New Continental"(b/w "Mope-Itty Mope Stomp") in January 1962  /  "Bristol Twistin' Annie" in April  /  "Hully Gully Baby" in July  /  and "The Jitterbug" in November 1962.

 

They continued to shake a non-stop shoe throughout 1963 with "You Can't Sit Down" in March  /  "Stompin' Everywhere" in April  /  "Dance The Froog" in August  /  and "Stop Monkeyin' Aroun'" in October 1963.

 

During this period, The Dovells backed up Fabian, Chubby Checker, and Jackie Wilson, recorded as an uncredited vocal group behind Checker, cut their own shit version of "Let's Twist Again", and appeared in the film 'Don't Knock the Twist'. Touring continuously, the inevitable tensions arose and ultimately exploded at a Christmas show performance in Miami Beach in December 1963, resulting in Len Barry quitting the group.

Len Barry's first solo single, "Don't Come Back" was released in February 1964 on Cameo, followed by "Hearts Are Trump" in April, and "Let's Do It Again" in July 1964, on Mercury.

 

Newly signed to Decca, "Lip Sync (To The Tongue Twisters)" was released in May 1965, but it was with his next single that he finally cracked it.

Released in July 1965, "1-2-3" peaked at number 2 in the US, selling over four million copies. Released in the UK October it climbed to #3 in the official chart, but Topped the NME chart for a week in December 1965.

 

He became a major singing star in the United Kingdom. Highlights of his European tour included featured performances at the London Palladium and Royal Albert Hall as well as numerous appearances throughout England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

His next single, "Like a Baby" reached the Top Ten in January 1966. But that was it as far as the charts were concerned - his later singles, including some future Northern Soul floor-fillers, were all flops : "Somewhere" in March 1966  /  "It's That Time Of The Year" in July  /  "I Struck It Rich" in  September  /  "The Moving Finger Writes" in April 1967  /  and "456 (Now I'm Alone)" in August 1968.

Barry's respect of the Native American culture led him to write and produce the instrumental "Keem-O-Sabe". The song went to number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 for The Electric Indian. With Bobby Eli he helped write the hit singles "Zoom" for Fat Larry's Band, and "Love Town" for Booker Newberry III.

 

In May 2008, Barry reinvented himself as an author with the publication of novel, Black-Like-Me. The storyline involved a pair of Caucasian siblings growing up in a largely African-American neighborhood, accepted by some, rejected by others.

The Single :
Quote"1 - 2 - 3" was co-written by Len Barry, John Medora and David White. The recording's chorus and accompaniment were arranged by Jimmy Wisner. It was recorded by Len Barry, and released in 1965 on the American Decca label.

The writers were sued by Motown Records at the time, claiming that the song is a reworking of Holland-Dozier-Holland's "Ask Any Girl" released by The Supremes as the B-side to their single "Baby Love" the year before. They denied the claim, but after two years of litigation, agreed to give the Motown writers 15% of the song's writing and publishing royalties, and Holland-Dozier-Holland are now listed as co-authors.



"1-2-3" reached number 2 in the US Billboard chart behind "I Hear a Symphony" by The Supremes. Overseas, the song peaked at number 3 on the boring old Record Retailer UK Singles Chart, but #1 on the dead cool NME chart!

In 1994, it was sampled in Edwyn Collins' single "A Girl Like You", becoming the singer's biggest solo hit.

Other Versions include :   Jack Jones (1966)  /  Cilla Black (1966)  /  Sarah Vaughan (1966)  /  Jan & Dean (1966)  /  Jane Morgan (1966)  /  David McCallum (1966)  /  Floyd Cramer (1966)  /  Jimmy Smith (1966)  /  Dik Dik (1966)  /  Kings (1966)  /  Ornella Vanoni (1966)  /  Herbie Mann & Tamiko Jones (1967)  /  The Chambers Brothers (1973)  /  Al Stewart (1984)  /  The Associates (1991)  /  Larry L (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /   paxukulele (2017)  /  Steven Galatioto with Ray and Erina (2017)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote   

Captain Z

One second late, I'm not reading.

For a 2:20 record, it really sounds like it's run out of ideas in half that.

grassbath

Agreed with Captain Z, shame as I was really geared up for something storming from the first 30 seconds or so. Must be pretty awesome to walk into a club with this blasting though.

The Culture Bunker

The title of song and singer didn't bring any response, but on hearing it I recognised it mainly for the backing vocals (the "it's so easy" bit especially). Not sure if I'm remembering the original or something subsequent that ripped it off.

kalowski


The Culture Bunker

Thinking about it, was the song used in an advert sometime from the late 80s onwards? 

purlieu

Didn't sound like a song coming from the mouth of someone called Len Barry.

Song wasn't notable but I enjoyed the arrangement and production.

machotrouts

Oh no! My unbroken streak of posting about every #1 before the next #1 is posted, regardless of whether or not I have anything of value to say about it – broken! How could I possibly recover from this. There is simply no way to recover from this.

machotrouts

Quote from: daf on November 22, 2019, 02:00:00 PM206.  The Seekers - The Carnival Is Over

I saw the latest post was the Seekers, thought "ugh, that can wait" and ended up several days late. Fucking Seekers.

Now that I've finally brought myself to listen to it, I'm a bit taken aback by how Anne Shelton it is. Judith is soldier's-wifing it right up. An odd return to 1940s schoolmarmpop.

Quote from: daf on November 22, 2019, 02:00:00 PM21 November : Björk, singer (The Sugarcubes), born Björk Guðmundsdóttir in Reykjavik, Iceland

Sorry, which Björk do you mean... ah, Björk from the Sugarcubes, right.

A tragedy that we'll never cover her here. Up there with Nine Inch Nails for me. Leona Lewis cover 'Ancestors' please.

machotrouts

Quote from: daf on November 25, 2019, 02:00:01 PM
206b. (NME 203.)  Len Barry - 1-2-3

This seems to be a tune. Not sure this Barry feller is the right mouthpiece for it. Just find myself thinking "this should be a Supremes song" then scroll down and discover it sort of was and it wasn't as good. Oh well. The Edwyn Collins song is better than any of this obviously.

Quote from: Captain Z on November 25, 2019, 02:15:29 PM
One second late, I'm not reading.

I wonder if the forum can't handle more than one post at exactly the same second? I happened to notice, in another thread, a post that was at daf o'clock:

Quote from: checkoutgirl on November 25, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
I went to a sci-fi convention about a year ago. It wasn't my idea, I'm not retarded.

Let's bring checkoutgirl in here to have a big fucking fight about it.

machotrouts

Quote from: machotrouts on November 27, 2019, 01:48:12 PMHow could I possibly recover from this. There is simply no way to recover from this.

Oh turns out it's quite easy. Okay.

daf


daf


daf