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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

sevendaughters

think it's great that someone is writing about an existential film that really moved him to metaphor rather than the gumdrops and cod-spiritual shit of that time, fuck you Sandra

The Culture Bunker

I think it was actually Donald Skinner that made the comment, more in a baffled manner than "what a tit!"

daf

Couldn't fit all the press cuttings into my already overstuffed post yesterday, so here's some more "solid gold archive action" rescued from the bin . . .

Bonus Walker Brothers EXTRA! :
Quote         
   

gilbertharding

"Oh, I'm so ugly - not like Alain Delon," for crying out loud.

Quote

It's quite funny seeing all these tropes literally as they are invented. Pop star as serious, misunderstood artist. Tortured genius.

I mean, I'm sure it's quite sincere, and it should go without saying that I think Scott and the Walkers are utterly brilliant - but come on.

kalowski

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on December 12, 2019, 01:19:21 PM
I think it was actually Donald Skinner that made the comment, more in a baffled manner than "what a tit!"
Oh yes, Donald Ross Skinner.

daf

The Allan Clarke Diaries : Volume 2, it's . . .

211b. (NME 210.)  The Hollies - I Can't Let Go



From :  26 March - 8 April
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Running Through the Night
Bonus 1 : Promo Film
Bonus 2 : Beat Club

The Story So Far : The UK / US Albums
QuoteIn early 1963, after the success of the Birmingham-based group The Brumbeats, and the tidal wave of "Brumbeatmania", many artists and repertoire men from London-based record labels went to Birmingham in search of other beat groups. However, Ron Richards from Parlophone got on the wrong train, ended up in Liverpool, and caught Manchester band The Hollies playing that night at the Cavern Club. Richards promptly signed them to Parlophone, and the rest was Geography.

After the group was signed to Parlophone, The Hollies made their studio recordings at EMI Studios, located on Abbey Road in London. The group was produced by Ron Richards, who was the primary assistant to George Martin. By the end of 1963, despite the departure of original drummer Don Rathbone, The Hollies' single releases had been successful enough for Parlophone to release an album by the group.

"Stay with The Hollies" was released in January 1964. From the beginning, the songs performed by The Hollies were known for the vocal harmony between Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, and Graham Nash, which enabled them to bring a different sound to older tunes. Most of the songs on the album were originally written and performed by Americans, including their recent Top 8 UK single "Stay", "Talking 'bout You", "Do You Love Me" and  "Rockin' Robin".

 

In June 1964, Imperial Records acquired the US rights to The Hollies and released the first LP as Here I Go Again after the moderate success of that single in America. Imperial removed five UK LP tracks – "Baby Don't Cry", "Mr. Moonlight", "Little Lover", "Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It" and "Candy Man" – and added the Hicks/Elliott original "Keep Off That Friend of Mine".

The Canadian album, Stay with the Hollies, like the US album, included the non-LP singles "Just One Look" and "Here I Go Again"; in addition, it contained the Hollies' first two UK hit singles, "(Ain't That) Just Like Me" and "Searchin'", plus one non-album B-side, "Hey What's Wrong with Me".

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"In The Hollies Style", their second album, was released in November 1964 on Parlophone Records. In Canada, it was released on Capitol in October 1965, with an altered track listing. As a result of poor sales of stereo copies of the band's debut album in the UK, In the Hollies Style was only available there in mono while stereo mixes were shipped to other markets.

Recording for the album commenced on 13 April 1964 when the band recorded the tracks "Time for Love" and "Don't You Know". Recording continued on 27 April when"You'll Be Mine", "It's in Her Kiss", "Come on Home", "Too Much Monkey Business" and "I Thought of You Last Night" were put to tape. Three more songs, the eventual B-side "Come on Back", "Set Me Free" and "Please Don't Feel Too Bad" were recorded on 30 June.

The group then did not enter the studio for almost two months, returning on 16 August to record "What Kind of Boy" and to attempt the eventual single, "We're Through". Not satisfied with the arrangement from this session, they re-recorded "We're Through" on 25 August, at which time the final two songs recorded for the album, "To You My Love" and the opening medley "Nitty Gritty/Something's Got a Hold on Me", were also recorded.

Unlike its predecessor, 'In The Hollies Style'  had several songs written by members of the band. 7 of the 12 songs on the album were written by Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks, and Graham Nash, and were credited to the members under the pseudonym "L. Ransford".

 

The Canadian version of the album only included five of the songs on the UK version, while also making room for three of the band's UK non-album hits ("We're Through", "Yes I Will" and "I'm Alive"), two B-sides ("You Know He Did" and "Come on Back", and one other song from the I'm Alive EP - "Honey and Wine".

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Released in September 1965, "Hollies" was The Hollies' third studio album. It went to No. 8 in the UK album charts. Originally available in mono only, it was reissued in stereo under the title "Reflection" in 1969.

Of the twelve tracks on this album, only "So Lonely" was issued on a single in the UK - as the B-side to the 1965 hit "Look Through Any Window", a song recorded concurrent with the rest of this album. In Scandinavia "Very Last Day" and "Too Many People" were issued on 45, with the former becoming a major hit in Sweden. The song "Put Yourself in My Place" was also recorded by Episode Six in 1966 as their debut single.

 

In November 1965, Imperial released Hollies, with a slightly different track listing, as "Hear! Here!", removing "Fortune Teller" and "Mickey's Monkey" from the UK album and added the recent singles "I'm Alive" and "Look Through Any Window".

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Released in June 1966, "Would You Believe?" was the Hollies' last album with original bass player Eric Haydock, who took a leave of absence from the group after the American tour that followed the last recording session for the album.



Recording for the album commenced on 14 September 1965 when the band recorded the traditional folk-song "Stewball". The group then did not enter the studio for exactly three months, returning 13 January 1966 to record "Don't You Even Care" and the eventual single "I Can't Let Go" . Three more songs, "Oriental Sadness", "I Take What I Want", and "Hard Hard Year" were recorded on 28 February.

 

The Hollies' third US album was released under the title "Beat Group!" one month before the UK album.

Included on the US album was the UK B-side "Running Through the Night", "A Taste of Honey" plus the 1963 track "Mr. Moonlight", while the cover songs "Stewball", "Sweet Little Sixteen" and "I Am a Rock" plus the original "I've Got a Way of My Own" were omitted.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Released in December 1966, "For Certain Because" was the fifth UK album by the Hollies and their second released in 1966. It was the first Hollies album recorded with new bassist Bernie Calvert who replaced Eric Haydock.

   

It was also the first Hollies album in which all the songs - which included "What's Wrong with the Way I Live",  and "Don't Even Think About Changing" from Clarke, and "Tell Me to My Face" and "Clown" from Nash - were written by members of the band, and the first on which they did not use the pseudonym "Ransford".

 

Retitled "Stop! Stop! Stop!" for the US and Canadian markets and issued with a different, full-color cover image of the group, it was the first Hollies album on which the track listing for all of the US, the Canadian, and the UK versions remained the same; that would not happen again until the 1970s.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Released in June 1967, "Evolution", their sixth album, peaked at number 13 in the UK album chart. Drummer Bobby Elliott only played on three songs on the album due to appendicitis and, as a result, he was substituted for by Dougie Wright, Clem Cattini and Mitch Mitchell.

The album cover artwork was created by the Fool, with the psychedelic cover photo by Karl Ferris.

Karl Ferris : "they wanted to break from their 'Pop Beat' sound into something more psychedelic. So I listened to the music that they were recording at Abbey Road Studios, and got an image of them pushing through a membrane into 'the Psychedelic world', and so in summer of 1966 I took a studio shot of them pushing out their hands and the lead singer pointing through clear plastic. Over this I superimposed a shot of William Morris Art Nouveau wallpaper with an illustration and 'Love' lettering drawn by my girl friend Anke. This combination created the image of the Hollies 'pushing through to a new wave of music style and consciousness'. I worked with the Fool (lead by Simon Posthuma) on this, and they did the lettering, the back cover design and the group's costumes."

 

The US/Canadian cover differed from the UK cover by dispensing with The Fool's overall cover design, and The Hollies' name was placed on the cover in more conventional psychedelic-influenced lettering.

The song "Have You Ever Loved Somebody?" was released in September 1966 both by The Searchers and Paul and Barry Ryan as singles. It was first released by the Everly Brothers on their Two Yanks in England album.

The album was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road studios in just six days spread over three months in early 1967, at the same time the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The first session occurred on 11 January where "When Your Lights Turned On", and the B-side "All the World is Love" were recorded.

The single "On a Carousel" was completed during the next session on 13 January along with the album track, "Lullaby to Tim". Two songs sung in Italian, "Non Prego Per Me" and "Devi Avere Fiducia in Me" were also recorded on that day specifically for release as a single in Italy.

The next session on 22 February was dedicated to two more songs meant specifically for release in Italy, "We're Alive" and "Kill Me Quick". "The Games We Play" as well as the Graham Gouldman-penned "Schoolgirl" were also begun during this session. The final songs recorded before the album's release in June were "Carrie Anne" on 1 May and its B-side, "Signs That Will Never Change", on the following day.

This was The Hollies' first album for their new US label, Epic Records, and like many American issues of British albums, it was remixed using heavy echo and reverb. In addition, three songs were left off the album (with "Carrie Anne" added).

     


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Released in November 1967, "Butterfly" was the The Hollies seventh UK album. It was also the last new Hollies album to feature Graham Nash (until 1983's 'What Goes Around'). This album, like its predecessors 'For Certain Because' and 'Evolution', featured songs written solely by Clarke, Nash, and Hicks. The album was a Nash-led project, and he featured as the lead vocalist more than on any prior album.

None of the songs on the album were selected for single release in the UK. In the US, "Dear Eloise" was issued as a single A-side while "Try It" and "Elevated Observations?" were issued as B-sides of the "Jennifer Eccles" and "Do The Best You Can" singles, respectively.

 

The US version of Butterfly was retitled "Dear Eloise / King Midas in Reverse", given a totally different full-color cover featuring a picture of the group in front of a shop, and released on Epic Records on 27 November 1967. It included their magnificent single "King Midas in Reverse" and the UK 'Evolution' track "Leave Me", while deleting the songs "Pegasus", "Try It" and "Elevated Observations" from the UK Butterfly" LP.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Hollies' Greatest", released shortly before Graham Nash's departure, was The Hollies only number one album in the UK. It intended to include all of their British hit singles with Nash, as well as filling in for the lack of an original LP by the group in 1968. Only 3 of the 14 songs on the album – "Stay", "I Can't Let Go" and "Stop! Stop! Stop!" had previously been released on U.K. albums. It spent seven weeks at the top of the chart in 1968, and 27 weeks in the British LP chart.

 

The version of "Yes I Will" that appears on the stereo version of this album is not the 1965 hit single version, but an earlier and previously unreleased recording from 1964 – the result of an administrative error at EMI. It features a completely different guitar break by Tony Hicks, and a different introduction.

Other songs included : "Bus Stop" /  "We're Through"  /  "Carrie Anne"  /   "Here I Go Again"  /  "King Midas In Reverse"  /  "I'm Alive"  /  "Just One Look"  /  "On a Carousel"  /  "Look Through Any Window"  /  and "Jennifer Eccles"

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Released in May 1969, "Hollies Sing Dylan" was a cover album where the Hollies sing Bob Dylan songs. It was also released in the US as "Words and Music by Bob Dylan" with a different cover but using the same band image and track order, which included "The Mighty Quinn",  "All I Really Wanna Do", "This Wheel's on Fire", and "Just Like a Woman"

 

This album was recorded and released following Graham Nash's departure from the band to join David Crosby and Stephen Stills in December 1968 after early sessions for a follow-up to the psychedelic concept album, Butterfly broke down. Nash became frustrated when the other band members showed opposition to lyrics in his latest compositions. By that time, Nash was the only member of the band using LSD and marijuana and a rift was forming between him and his beer drinking bandmates.

Graham Nash : "I'd written what I thought were some interesting songs at that time — 'Marrakesh Express', 'Right Between the Eyes', 'Lady of the Island' — and the Hollies weren't interested in them. And when I said in the first 'Sleep Song' for instance, 'I'll take off my clothes and I'll lay by your side', they said, 'Hey, you can't bloody sing that. We're not going to sing that filthy stuff.' Saying those things to a stoned musician is ridiculous."

Nash quickly became disillusioned with the direction that the band was moving artistically and especially derided their decision to record an entire album of covers :

Graham Nash : "This happened at the same time they wanted to make an album with Dylan tunes. I thought even that was a sacrilege, because we were doing them like : 'How many roads, yeah, would a . . .' — a Las Vegas type thing, and it was driving me nuts. I couldn't handle it."

It peaked at no. 3 in the UK, their third highest showing for any LP and second-highest charting for one with newly recorded material.

Allan Clarke : "At the time I was pleased with the album but on reflection, I don't think it was a good move for the Hollies. People knocked it, saying, 'How could they ever relate to Dylan?' We thought we'd do it for Hollies fans, but I was really just reading Dylan's words, not singing them. I could have been a lot better."

This was the first album to feature new member Terry Sylvester, who replaced Graham Nash.

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Released in November 1969, "Hollies Sing Hollies" was their ninth studio album released in the UK by Parlophone. Coming 6 months after an entire album of Bob Dylan covers, it was their first album of original compositions since the departure of Graham Nash. It was also the second album by the Hollies to feature Terry Sylvester and the first to feature his compositions, as well as an instrumental by bassist Bernie Calvert.

 

The US version of Hollies Sing Hollies was renamed "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" with a different full cover art, and was released in December 1969 by Epic Records. It included the hit single "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and omitted two tracks from the UK version, "Soldier's Dilemma" and "Marigold: Gloria Swansong"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Released in November 1970, "Confessions of the Mind" was the tenth studio album by the Hollies.

 

It was released in the United States as Moving Finger, with a different track sequence and the tracks "Separated" and "I Wanna Shout" replaced with "Marigold: Gloria Swansong" saved from the previous album and the single, "Gasoline Alley Bred". The UK version peaked at number 30 in the charts.
   
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Released in October 1971, "Distant Light" was the last UK album by the band to feature lead vocalist and founding member Allan Clarke (until their 1974 self-titled album). The album spawned two hit singles: the Allan Clarke penned "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress", and the Tony Hicks penned "Long Dark Road", which reached number 26 in the US.

 

Released in November 1972, Romany was the first album not to feature their lead singer Allan Clarke, who had left to embark on a solo career. He was replaced by Swedish singer Mikael Rickfors. The cover of Romany is a rendering of the summer location depicted on Distant Light as a winter scene.

The album only features two songwriting contributions from band members: one song, "Blue in the Morning", was co-written by Tony Hicks, who had been credited as a co-writer on a significant proportion of the bands material since their second album; and another, "Touch", was written by new member Mikael Rickfors.

The US Epic Records version of the album, omitted the track "Lizzy and the Rainman", and has a slightly altered side one track order. Despite a cover of Judee Sill's magnificent "Jesus Was a Crossmaker", the album failed to chart in the UK.

Quote"I Can't Let Go" was co-written by Al Gorgoni and Chip Taylor. Originally recorded by soul singer Evie Sands in 1965.

"I Can't Let Go" was The Hollies' first 1966 single, and their last with original bassist Eric Haydock.



Despite "officially" peaking at #2 in the rotten old Record Retailer chart in the UK, it was Number 1 for two weeks on the cool as fudge NME chart, and a "lucky" Top 42 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US - where it had "I've Got A Way Of My Own" as the flip side.

       

Other Versions include :   "Non ci sarò" by Quelli (1966)  /  The Kitchen Cinq (1967)  /  Linda Ronstadt (1980)  /  Continental Drifters (1995)  /  Chip Taylor (1996)  /  The Dickies (1998)  /  Plainsong (1999)  /  Jeffrey Foskett (2000)  /  Les Fradkin (2006)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Foxes and Fossils (2013) (Love this one!) Megane (2014)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote               

purlieu

Hmm, that went in one ear and out of the other for me. Bit of a non-song.

The Culture Bunker

I like the vocal arrangement a lot, the lead guitar is nice and jangly too. Bonus points for the little stuttering rhythm bit at the end. It's a decent song, without being particularly great, and the Salford lads do a lot to elevate the record beyond that.

Eric Haydock - from that elite category: musicians who share their names with horse racing venues. (Aintree Dunbar, Ascot Walker?)

This track feels like a Beatles/Beach Boys hybrid but it's also already out of date, belonging much more to 1965 than 1966 (a year behind Revolver, Pet Sounds, Aftermath, etc)

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on December 13, 2019, 03:23:42 PM
I like the vocal arrangement a lot, the lead guitar is nice and jangly too. Bonus points for the little stuttering rhythm bit at the end. It's a decent song, without being particularly great, and the Salford lads do a lot to elevate the record beyond that.

My thoughts entirely. They manage to make an okay song sound quite special, but I'm surprised it got to number one.

daf

Yes - it's more archive crap "I can't let go" straight into the bin -

Bonus Hollies Extra! :
Quote                 

The Culture Bunker

Shoddy journalism or Nash being off his box in the "Hollies find complicated disc is easy to perform article" - while Man United did play Chelsea a week afterwards, it was a league game, not the cup.

The hack would have got his two quid, though: Chelsea won 2-0.

daf

Heavy Traffic Ahead, it's . . .

212.  Spencer Davis Group - Somebody Help Me



From : 10 – 23 April 1966
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Stevie's Blues
Bonus : Beat Beat Beat

The Story So Further : 
QuoteAt the end of 1965 the Spencer Davis Group gained their first number one single with "Keep On Running". In April 1966, they followed this with "Somebody Help Me" which also shot straight to the Top.



Sadly, the Hat-trick was not to be, as their next single, "When I Come Home" (b/w "Trampoline") only reached a disappointing #12 in September 1966 - and was subject to some mauling from the pop press :



This single was also was included on their third LP, "Autumn '66" - which was the last to feature the original line-up.



In 1966, the group starred in The Ghost Goes Gear, a British musical comedy film, directed by Hugh Gladwish, and also starring Sheila White and Nicholas Parsons. The plot involved the group in a stay at the childhood home of their manager, a haunted manor house in the English countryside. The film would later be considered a mistake by Winwood. However, I think it sounds absolutely brilliant, so pipe down Winwood!

In November, a medley of "Det war in Schöneberg, im Monat Mai - Mädel ruck ruck ruck an meine grüne Seite", by Siegfried E. Loch, was unleashed on the German market, Davis having studied in West Berlin in the early 1960s.

Also in November, the group released the Top 2 smash, "Gimme Some Loving" (b/w "Blues In F" ) and followed it up with the corking "I'm A Man" (b/w "I Can't Get Enough Of It") - which claimed the coveted #9 position in February 1967.

 
 

Both these singles were produced by Jimmy Miller and sold over one million copies. These tracks proved to be their two best-known successes, especially in the US where they had signed to United Artists.

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In April 1967, Steve Winwood left to form Traffic and his brother, Muff, moved into the music industry as A&R man at Island Records.

 

Steve Winwood met drummer Jim Capaldi, guitarist Dave Mason, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Wood when they jammed together at The Elbow Room, a club in Aston, Birmingham. After Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in April 1967, the quartet formed Traffic. Soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) to write and rehearse new music. This allowed them to escape the city and develop their music.

 

Early in Traffic's formation, Winwood and Capaldi formed a songwriting partnership, with Winwood writing music to match Capaldi's lyrics. This partnership was the source of most of Traffic's material, including their first single "Paper Sun" (b/w "Giving To You") which reached the Top 5 in June 1967. This was followed by the Dave Mason penned "Hole In My Shoe" (b/w "Smiling Phases") which just missed out on the Top spot in September 1967.

 

As was standard practice in the UK, neither single appeared on their first album "Mr Fantasy" released in December 1967, though both were included on the US version, retitled "Heaven Is in Your Mind".



After the Winwoods' departures, the Spencer Davis Group regrouped with the addition of guitarist Phil Sawyer  and keyboardist/vocalist Eddie Hardin.

The new line-up released the psychedelic single, "Time Seller" (b/w "Don't Want You No More") in July 1967, but failed to climb higher than the #30 "anchor position" in August 1967.

   
 

In a joint venture, the soundtrack to the film "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" featured both the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The Spencer Davis Group provided most of the music, including "Taking Out Time", "Every Little Thing", "Looking Back", and "Possession" and made a cameo appearance in the film at a church fete.

The title track "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" was written and performed by Traffic, and released as a single (b/w "Coloured Rain"), climbed to #8 in December 1967.

Traffic also had two other songs on the soundtrack album "Am I What I Was or Was I What I Am" and a version of "Utterly Simple" that is different from the recording used on the album Mr Fantasy.



Spencer Davis Group's next single, "Mr. Second Class" (b/w "Sanity Inspector") received heavy airplay on Radio Caroline (at that time one of the two remaining pirate radio ships off the British coast), but only made the #35 "barnacle position" in January 1968. By the time they released the album "With Their New Face On" in 1968, Ray Fenwick had replaced Phil Sawyer.

 

The singles "After Tea" (b/w "Moonshine") - released in March 1968, and "Short Change" (b/w "Picture Of Heaven") - in December followed, by which time, Eddie Hardin and Pete York had left to form the duo Hardin & York. They were replaced by future Elton John Band member Dee Murray on bass and Dave Hynes on drums. Nigel Olsson replaced Hynes, and this lineup produced the album Funky in 1969 - only released in the USA on Date Records - before splintering.

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In 1968, While still in Traffic, Winwood was brought in by Jimi Hendrix to play organ for "Voodoo Chile" on the Electric Ladyland album.

 

Traffic's final hit, "No Face, No Name And No Number" (b/w "Roamin' Thru' The Gloamin' With 40,000 Headmen") only made it to #40 in March 1968. Two singles followed - "Feeling Alright?" (b/w "Withering Tree") in September, and "Medicated Goo" (b/w "Shanghai Noodle Factory") in December 1968.

   

In 1969, Steve Winwood formed the supergroup Blind Faith with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Ric Grech. Their first and only album, featured songs by Winwood : "Had to Cry Today", "Can't Find My Way Home" and "Sea of Joy", plus "Presence of the Lord" from Clapton and "Do What You Like" from Ginger Baker.

Released in August 1969, the album caused controversy due to the cover - which featured a topless young girl holding a "spaceship". The cover art was created by photographer Bob Seidemann, a friend and former flatmate of Eric Clapton.

Bob Seidemann : "I could not get my hands on the image until out of the mist a concept began to emerge. To symbolize the achievement of human creativity and its expression through technology a spaceship was the material object. To carry this new spore into the universe, innocence would be the ideal bearer, a young girl, a girl as young as Shakespeare's Juliet. The spaceship would be the fruit of the tree of knowledge and the girl, the fruit of the tree of life. The spaceship could be made by Mick Milligan, a jeweller at the Royal College of Art. The girl was another matter. If she were too old it would be cheesecake, too young and it would be nothing. The beginning of the transition from girl to woman, that is what I was after. That temporal point, that singular flare of radiant innocence. Where is that girl?"

Seidemann wrote that he approached a girl reported to be 14 years old on the London Underground about modelling for the cover, and eventually met with her parents, but that she proved too old for the effect he wanted. Instead, the model he used was her younger sister Mariora Goschen, who was reported to be 11 years old. Mariora initially requested a horse as a fee but was instead paid £40.

Mariora Goschen : "The nudity didn't bother me. I hardly noticed I had breasts. Life was far too hectic. I was mad about animals and much taken up with family and friends. But now, when people tell me they can remember what they were doing when they first saw the cover, and the effect it had on them, I'm thrilled to bits. By the way, I'm still waiting for Eric Clapton to ring me about the horse."
   
 

The image, titled "Blind Faith" by Seidemann, became the inspiration for the name of the band itself, which had been unnamed when the artwork was commissioned. According to Seidemann: "It was Eric who elected to not print the name of the band on the cover. The name was instead printed on the wrapper, when the wrapper came off, so did the type."

In the US, Atco Records, gave the original design the skunk-eye and swiftly replaced it with a cover based on elements from a flyer for the band's Hyde Park concert of 7 June 1969 in London.

The band was short-lived, owing to Clapton's greater interest in Blind Faith's opening act Delaney & Bonnie & Friends; Clapton left the band at the tour's end. However, Baker, Winwood and Grech stayed together to form Ginger Baker's Air Force, releasing the single "Man Of Constant Sorrow" in April 1970.

The line-up consisted of 3/4 of Blind Faith (without Clapton, who was replaced by Denny Laine), 2/3 of Traffic (Winwood and Chris Wood, minus Capaldi) plus musicians who interacted with Baker in his early days.

Graham Bond took over on organ and vocals when Steve Winwood left "The Airforce" to begin work on a new solo album, tentatively titled Mad Shadows. Calling in Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi to help with session work, the solo project turned into Traffic's comeback album John Barleycorn Must Die in 1970.

 

The Spencer Davis Group reunited in 1973 with Davis, Fenwick, Hardin and York, and newcomer Charlie McCracken on bass. The group released the singles "Catch You On The Rebop" in March "Mr Operator" in June, and "Livin' In A Back Street" in October 1973 - plus the albums Gluggo (1973) and Living in a Back Street (1974) before once again disbanding.

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Steve Winwood released his self-titled first solo album in 1977. This was followed by his 1980 LP Arc of a Diver, which included his first minor solo hit, "While You See a Chance" - which reached #45 in January 1981.

 

His next single, "Valerie", from the album 'Talking Back to the Night', only reached #51 in October 1982, but a few years later it would be remixed for his "Chronicles" best of compilation album, and this version reached #19 in the UK in September 1987.

In 1986 he moved to New York. There he enlisted the help of a coterie of stars to record Back in the High Life in the US, and the album was a hit. He topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "Higher Love," (#13 in the UK) and earned two Grammy Awards: for Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

In 1994, Capaldi and Winwood reunited Traffic for a new album, Far From Home, and a tour, including a performance at Woodstock '94 Festival.

In 2003, Winwood released a new studio album, About Time on his new record label, Wincraft Music.

2004 saw his 1982 song "Valerie" used by Eric Prydz in a song called "Call on Me." Mainly thanks to the one-handed "workout video", it spent five weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles chart. Winwood heard an early version of Prydz's remix and liked it so much, he not only gave permission to use the song, he re-recorded the samples for Prydz to use.

The Single :
Quote"Somebody Help Me" was written by Jackie Edwards. It became a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart for the Spencer Davis Group for two weeks in April 1966.



Jackie Edwards had also written their previous number one single, "Keep On Running", and also recorded his own version of "Somebody Help Me" in 1966.



The Everly Brothers also released a version on their album Two Yanks in England, released in mid 1966.

Other Versions includeTomcats (1966)  /  "La linea verde" by The Bushmen (1966)  /  The Litter (1967)  /  The Square Set (1967)  /  Doc Holliday (1981)  /  Zero Nine (1982)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (2013)

On This Day  :
Quote10 April : Evelyn Waugh, British writer, dies at 62
11 April : Lisa Stansfield, pop singer, born Lisa Jane Stansfield in Manchester, Lancashire
12 April : First B-52 bombing on North Vietnam
13 April : Time magazine cover story is 'London: The Swinging City'
15 April : The Rolling Stones release "Aftermath" LP in the UK
15 April : Sam Fox, Page 3 pop singer, born Samantha Karen Fox  in Mile End, London
16 April : Actor and comedian Michael Palin marries Helen Gibbins
21 April : Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie visits Kingston, Jamaica
21 April : The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.
21 April : Ian Brady and Myra Hindley go on trial at Chester Crown Court, for the murders of 3 children

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote                       

The Culture Bunker

It's a bit of a duff copy of 'Keep On Running', obviously, but I don't mind it too much. It has the good grace to not hang about too much and you have to laugh at the opening line of 'when I was just a little boy of seventeen' being sung by Steve Winwood, aged, erm, seventeen.

I've never been too taken with Traffic, Blind Faith or Winwood's solo work ('Can't Find My Way Home' is a fine song, an exception) - always got the feeling Stevie lad wasted that gift of a voice a bit. His 80s yuppie rock in particular makes my ears want to remove themselves from my head. His brother did approve the signing of the Psychedelic Furs to CBS, though, so cheers for that.

(Further fun Muff fact: in the 80s he wound up as a director at Watford FC)

gilbertharding

I spent a good ten minutes trying to find exactly what mid-50s General Motors vehicle the Blind Faith girl got her hood ornament from.

I thought at first it was a '53 Chevrolet, but it's not quite right.

gilbertharding

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on December 13, 2019, 09:10:21 PM
Eric Haydock - from that elite category: musicians who share their names with horse racing venues. (Aintree Dunbar, Ascot Walker?)

Miles Huntingdon.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

I know it's been said a billion times before, but that Blind Faith album cover - "different times" doesn't even begin to excuse how they thought that was acceptable.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Anyway. This is a catchy little tune, but I guess it reached the top on the back of Spencer Davis and his Group being the hot new ticket in town. They were a funky white soul group, no doubt about that, but it's not a particularly outstanding record.

The Culture Bunker

They did go back to the Jimmy Edwards well, I think at the end of their time with the Winwood brothers on board, with 'Back Into My Life Again', which I rate a bit higher than 'Somebody Help Me'.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on December 16, 2019, 02:40:04 PM
I've never been too taken with Traffic, Blind Faith or Winwood's solo work ('Can't Find My Way Home' is a fine song, an exception) - always got the feeling Stevie lad wasted that gift of a voice a bit. His 80s yuppie rock in particular makes my ears want to remove themselves from my head.

I don't think amazing singers like Winwood, Marriott and Joe Cocker really knew what to do with their gifts. They all fizzled out quite quickly.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 16, 2019, 03:43:12 PM
I don't think amazing singers like Winwood, Marriott and Joe Cocker really knew what to do with their gifts. They all fizzled out quite quickly.
Winwood hit his commercial peak some 20 years after his last UK #1, so I guess he worked something out, as much I find it without any artistic merit. Though I suspect appearing in 'Blues Brothers 2000' may rank as his (and many others) all-time low point.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Cocker had his greatest post-imperial phase chart success in the '80s too. They presumably slept soundly at night, the massive talent-betraying sell-outs. See also: Stewart, Rod.

purlieu

Not much of a song really. Winwood's great as ever, and this has inspired me to dig out my Traffic albums again to play this evening, so that's something. Mr. Fantasy is one of my favourites from 1967.

daf

I can't believe it's taken this long for a single to peak at #30, so I can finally unleash DLT's memorable phrase "Anchor Position" (i.e at the bottom of the charts).

(He was referring to the Top of the Pops Top 30 at the time, but I wonder if it might have been a bit of old Pirate Radio patter that stuck in his head - from when they used the NME TOP 30 for their charts?)

kalowski

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on December 16, 2019, 03:30:22 PM
I know it's been said a billion times before, but that Blind Faith album cover - "different times" doesn't even begin to excuse how they thought that was acceptable.
God, no, but The Scorpions pretty much repeated the feat with Virgin Killer.

daf

Featuring Gladys Thong on B.V.'s, it's . . .

213.  Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me



From : 24 – 30 April 1966
Weeks : 1
Flip side : Every Ounce Of Strength
Bonus 1 : The Dusty Springfield Show
Bonus 2 : NME Poll Winners Concert 1966

The Story So Far : 
QuoteDusty Springfield was born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien on 16 April 1939 in West Hampstead, London. Springfield's father, who had been raised in British India, worked as a tax accountant and consultant. Her mother came from an Irish family, originally from Tralee, County Kerry. She was given the nickname "Dusty" for playing football with boys in the street, and was described as a tomboy.

Growing up, she listened to a wide range of music, including George Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Glenn Miller, and was a fan of the vocalists Peggy Lee and Jo Stafford.

After leaving school, Springfield sang with her brother Tom in local folk clubs. In 1957 the pair worked together at holiday camps. The following year Springfield responded to an advertisement in The Stage to join The Lana Sisters. She had changed her name to Shan, and "cut her hair, lost the glasses, experimented with makeup, fashion" to become one of the 'sisters'. As a member of the trio, Springfield developed skills in harmonising and microphone technique and played at live shows in the UK and at United States Air Force bases in continental Europe.

In 1960, Springfield left The Lana Sisters and formed a pop-folk trio, The Springfields, with her brother Tom Springfield and Reshad Feild - later replaced by Mike Hurst in 1962. The trio took the stage names of Dusty, Tom, and Tim Springfield. Intending to make an authentic US album, the group travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, to record 'Folk Songs from the Hills'.

Their first single, "Dear John" was released in May 1961, this was followed by their first hit "Breakaway" - which climbed to #31 in the UK charts in September 1961. Their third single, "Bambino" reached #16 in November 1961.

 

In January 1962, they released the chart-dodging single "Goodnight Irene", followed by "Silver Threads And Golden Needles" in April, and "Swahili Papa" in August 1962. The band was voted the "Top British Vocal Group" in the New Musical Express poll in 1961 and 1962.

Their next single, the Tom Springfield composition, "Island Of Dreams" got them back in the charts - sailing straight into the Top 5 in December 1962. "Say I Won't Be There" - another #5 hit followed in April 1963, and they ended their chart run, as it had begun, with a palindromic #31 hit, "Come On Home" in July 1963.

Dusty left the band after their final concert in October 1963. After the Springfields disbanded, Tom continued songwriting and producing for other artists, including Australian folk-pop group The Seekers, and also wrote additional tracks for Dusty and released his own solo material.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In November 1963, Dusty released her first solo single, the superb "I Only Want to Be with You" which was co-written and arranged by Ivor Raymonde. It was produced by Johnny Franz in a manner similar to Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound," in the style of girl groups that Springfield admired. It rose to #4 on the UK charts, and peaked on the US Billboard chart at #12. On 1 January 1964 it was one of the songs played on the first edition of Top of the Pops, and went on to sell over one million copies.

 

On 17 April 1964 Dusty issued her debut album 'A Girl Called Dusty' which included mostly remakes of her favourite songs. Among the tracks were "Mama Said", "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes",  and "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa". The album reached No. 6 in the UK in May 1964.

 

Her 1964 UK singles included  "Stay Awhile" - #13 in February, "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself"- #3 in July, and "Losing You" - #9 in October 1964. The B-side of "Stay Awhile" featured a Dusty-penned track, "Somethin' Special":

Dusty : "I don't really see myself as a songwriter. I don't really like writing ... I just don't get any good ideas and the ones I do get are pinched from other records. The only reason I write is for the money – oh mercenary creature!"

In December 1964, Dusty's tour of South Africa with her group The Echoes was controversially terminated, and she was deported, after they performed for an integrated audience at a theatre near Cape Town, which was against the then government's segregation policy.

 

During 1965, she released three more UK Top 40 hits : "Your Hurtin' Kinda Love" - #37 in February; "In the Middle of Nowhere" - #8 in July; and the Carole King-penned "Some of Your Lovin'" - which was also a #8 hit in September 1965.

 

However, none of these singles were included on her next UK album, "Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty", released in October 1965, and recorded with The Echoes. The album featured songs by Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley and Randy Newman, and a cover of the traditional Mexican song, "La Bamba".

 

In January 1965 Springfield took part in the Italian Song Festival in San Remo, and reached a semi-final with "Tu che ne sai?", but failed to qualify for the final. During the competition, she heard the song "Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te)" performed by one of its composers Pino Donaggio.  Dusty's English version, "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" was released in March 1966 and reached No. 1 in April 1966 the UK, and No. 4 in the US.

   

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Springfield introduced the Motown sound to a wider UK audience, both with her covers of Motown songs, and by facilitating the first UK TV appearance for The Temptations, The Supremes, The Miracles, and Stevie Wonder on a special edition of the Ready Steady Go! show – called The Sound of Motown.

 

In 1966 Springfield released three more singles : "Little By Little" a #17 hit in February, and two dramatic ballads – one written by Carole King: "Goin' Back" (#10 in July), and "All I See Is You" a UK #9 in September.

   

In August and September 1966, she hosted Dusty, a six-part music and talk show on the BBC. The second season of Dusty - which featured her rendition of "Get Ready" and her current single, "I'll Try Anything", which reached #13 in March 1967 - attracted a healthy audience, but did not keep up with changes in pop music. The comparatively progressive album Where Am I Going?, released in October 1967, attempted to redress this by containing a "jazzy", orchestrated version of "Sunny" and Jacques Brel's "If You Go Away".

Her next single, "Give Me Time", stalled at #24 in May. The single would probably have charted much higher had they flipped the sides - as the B-side featured one of the all-time classic Bacharach-David compositions, "The Look of Love" - recorded for the James Bond parody film 'Casino Royale'.

 

Dusty's ITV series 'It Must Be Dusty' was broadcast in May and June 1968. Episode six featured a duet performance of "Mockingbird" with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and followed that with a Top 4 hit with "I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten" in July 1968.

Despite her chart success, her performing career was limited to the UK touring circuit of working men's clubs, hotels and cabarets. Hoping to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility, Springfield signed with Atlantic Records in the US.

The "Memphis sessions" at the American Sound Studio were produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, and Arif Mardin; with the back-up vocal band Sweet Inspirations; and the instrumental band Memphis Cats, led by guitarist Reggie Young and bass guitarist Tommy Cogbill. At first, Springfield felt anxious as she had never worked with just a rhythm track and it was her first time with outside producers. Wexler felt she had a "gigantic inferiority complex" and due to her pursuit of perfection, her vocals were re-recorded later in New York.

The album 'Dusty in Memphis', which included "Just a Little Lovin'", "Breakfast in Bed" and "I Can't Make It Alone", received excellent reviews on its initial releases both in the UK and US. Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone magazine wrote: "most of the songs ... have a great deal of depth while presenting extremely direct and simple statements about love ... Dusty sings around her material, creating music that's evocative rather than overwhelming ... Dusty is not searching – she just shows up, and she, and we, are better for it".

 

In November 1968 the lead single from the album, "Son of a Preacher Man", was issued. It reached #9 in the UK, #10 in the US and earned Springfield a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1970.

During September and October 1969 Dusty hosted her third and final BBC musical variety series, 'Decidedly Dusty' (co-hosted by Valentine Dyall). The only surviving footage consists of domestic audio recordings, as all eight episodes were later wiped from the BBC archives by short-sighted penny-pinching idiots.

To coincide with the series, she released the single, "Am I The Same Girl" (b/w "Earthbound Gypsy") - spun on the press release rather optimistically as her "latest and greatest", the public clearly had other ideas, as it failed to break into the Top 40 - stalling at #43 in September 1969.

In January 1970 her second album on Atlantic Records, 'A Brand New Me' (re-titled as 'From Dusty... With Love' in the UK), was released, featuring tracks written and produced by Gamble and Huff, including "Lost", "Let's Get Together Soon" and "Let's Talk It Over". The album only sold moderately, and Springfield was unhappy with both her management and record company.

 

In September 1970, the single "How Can I Be Sure" (b/w "Spooky") climbed to #36 in the UK charts - it would be the last time she would trouble the charts for several years.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

From the mid-1960s, Springfield would use the pseudonym "Gladys Thong" when recording backing vocals for other artists including Madeline Bell, Kiki Dee and Anne Murray. In 1971, she sang back up vocals with her friend Madeline Bell on two tracks on Elton John's hit album, Tumbleweed Connection - "Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun" and "My Father's Gun".

In early 1971 she recorded some songs with producer Jeff Barry, which were intended for her third Atlantic album. Two singles from the planned album, "I Believe In You" (b/w "Someone Who Cares"), and "Haunted" (b/w "Nothing Is Forever") were released in the U.S. in late 1971, but failed to chart.

Due to poor response from the two singles, and a rumoured falling out with Atlantic executives, Springfield's contract with the company was not renewed, and the planned album was shelved. In 2015, the songs intended for her third Atlantic album, including "You've Got a Friend", "I'll Be Faithful", and "Have A Good Life Baby" were released as the album "Faithfull".

In 1972, Springfield signed a contract with ABC Dunhill Records and 'Cameo' was issued in February 1973 to respectable reviews, though poor sales.

In 1973, Springfield recorded the theme song for the TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man, which was used for two of its film-length episodes.

In the late 1970s Springfield released two albums on United Artists Records - 1978's 'It Begins Again', which peaked in the UK top 50, and 1979's 'Living Without Your Love' which didn't.

 

In London, she recorded two singles with David Mackay for her UK label, Mercury (formerly Philips). The first was the disco-influenced "Baby Blue", co-written by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes which reached #61 in the UK in October 1979. The second, "Your Love Still Brings Me to My Knees", released in January 1980, was Springfield's final single for Mercury Records; she had been with them for nearly 20 years.

She signed a US deal with 20th Century Records, which resulted in the single "It Goes Like It Goes", a cover of the Oscar-winning song from the film, Norma Rae.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Springfield became involved in several romantic relationships with women in Canada and the US that were not kept secret from the gay and lesbian community.

Dusty : "Many other people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times that I've almost learned to accept it ... I know I'm perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy. More and more people feel that way and I don't see why I shouldn't."

She tried to revive her career by returning to the UK and signing to Peter Stringfellow's Hippodrome Records label. The resulting single, "Sometimes Like Butterflies" despite an appearance on Terry Wogan's TV chat show, Wogan, curled up and died at #83 in August 1985.

 

In 1987, she accepted an invitation from the Pet Shop Boys to duet with their lead singer, Neil Tennant, on the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?". She appeared on the promotional video, and the single rose to #2 on both the US and UK charts.

Making the most of her second wind, she sang lead vocals on the Richard Carpenter song "Something in Your Eyes", recorded for his album, 'Time', and recorded a duet with B. J. Thomas, "As Long as We Got Each Other", which was used as the opening theme for the US sitcom 'Growing Pains'.

In 1988 Dusty returned to the studio with the Pet Shop Boys, who produced her recording of their song "Nothing Has Been Proved", commissioned for the soundtrack of the 1989 drama film, Scandal. Released as a single, it gave Springfield her fifteenth UK Top 20 hit - peaking at #16 in February 1989.

 

In November its follow-up, the upbeat "In Private", also written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys, peaked at #14. In 1990, her two recent hit singles were included on her Top 20 album Reputation. The writing and production credits for half the album, went to Pet Shop Boys, while the album's other producers included Dan Hartman.

Following the release of a couple of singles taken from the album - "Reputation" (#38 in May 1990), and "Arrested By You" (#70 in November 1990) - she recorded a duet, "Heart and Soul", with her former 1960s professional rival and friend Cilla Black - which stiffed at #75 in October 1993.

Springfield's next album, provisionally titled Dusty in Nashville, was started in 1993 with producer Tom Shapiro, but was issued as A Very Fine Love in June 1995. Though originally intended by Shapiro as a country music album, the track selection by Springfield pushed the album in a more pop direction.

In January 1994, while recording the album in Nashville, Tennessee, Springfield felt ill. When she returned to England a few months later, her physicians diagnosed breast cancer. She received months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and the cancer was in remission.

The last studio track Springfield recorded was George and Ira Gershwin's song "Someone to Watch Over Me" – in London in 1995 for an insurance company TV ad. Her final live performance was on The Christmas with Michael Ball special in December 1995.

By mid-1996, the cancer had returned and in spite of vigorous treatments, she died in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire on 2 March 1999.

Springfield's funeral service was attended by hundreds of fans and people from the music business, including Elvis Costello, Lulu and Pet Shop Boys. It was a Catholic funeral, which took place at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Henley-on-Thames, where Springfield had lived during her last years. A marker dedicated to her memory was placed in the church graveyard. Springfield was cremated and some of her ashes were buried at Henley, while the rest were scattered by her brother, Tom Springfield, at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland.

Elton John : "I'm biased but I just think she was the greatest white singer there ever has been ... every song she sang, she claimed as her own."

The Single :
Quote"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" was originally written in 1965 as the Italian song, '"Io che non vivo (senza te)". The song was was introduced at the 15th edition of the Sanremo Festival by Pino Donaggio — who had co-written the song with Vito Pallavicini — and his team partner Jody Miller. The song reached the final at Sanremo and, as recorded by Pino Donaggio, reached No. 1 in Italy in March 1965.

Dusty Springfield's version, released on 25 March 1966 in the UK, hit No.1 in the UK and No.4 in the US. It proved so popular in the US that Springfield's 1965 album 'Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty' was released there with a slightly different track listing, and titled after the hit single.



Dusty Springfield, who participated at the 1965 Sanremo Festival, was in the audience when Donaggio and Miller performed "Io che non vivo (senza te)". She obtained an acetate recording of Donaggio's song, but allowed a year to go by before actively pursuing the idea of recording an English version.

On 9 March 1966, Springfield had an instrumental track of Donaggio's composition recorded at Philips Studio Marble Arch. The session personnel included guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and drummer Bobby Graham. Springfield still lacked an English lyric to record, but Springfield's friend Vicki Wickham, the producer of Ready Steady Go!, wrote the required English lyric with her friend Simon Napier-Bell, manager of the Yardbirds.

According to Napier-Bell, he and Wickham were dining out when she mentioned to him that Springfield hoped to get an English lyric for Donaggio's song, and the two light-heartedly took up the challenge of writing the lyric themselves.

Simon Napier-Bell : "We went back to [Wickham]'s flat and started working on it. We wanted to go to a trendy disco so we had about an hour to write it. We wrote the chorus and then we wrote the verse in a taxi to wherever we were going."

Neither Wickham or Napier-Bell understood the original Italian lyrics. According to Wickham they attempted to write their own lyric for an anti-love song to be called "I Don't Love You", but when that original idea proved unproductive, it was initially adjusted to "You Don't Love Me", then to "You Don't Have to Love Me", and finalised as "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", to fit the song's melody. Springfield recorded her vocal the next day. Unhappy with the acoustics in the recording booth she eventually moved into a stairwell to record.

Simon Napier-Bell : "There, standing on the staircase at Philips studio, singing into the stairwell, Dusty gave her greatest ever performance – perfection from first breath to last, as great as anything by Aretha Franklin or Sinatra or Pavarotti. Great singers can take mundane lyrics and fill them with their own meaning. This can help a listener's own ill-defined feelings come clearly into focus. Vicki [Wickham] and I had thought our lyric was about avoiding emotional commitment. Dusty stood it on its head and made it a passionate lament of loneliness and love."

 

Other Versions include :  "Jamais je ne vivrai sans toi" by Richard Anthony (1965)  /  Vikki Carr (1966)  /  Carla Thomas (1966)  /  Jackie De Shannon (1966)  /  The Miracles (1966)  /  Brenda Lee (1966)  / Margaret Whiting (1966)  /  Cher (1966)  /  Eddie Fisher (1967)  /  The Lennon Sisters (1967)  /  Matt Monro (1967)  /  Vic Damone (1967)  /  Kiki Dee (1970)  /  Elvis Presley (1970)  /  Guys 'n' Dolls (1976)  /  Donny & Marie (1978)  /  Tracy Huang (1980)  /  Tanya Tucker (1981)  /  Helen Reddy (1981)  /  The Shadows (1983)  /  Michael Ball (1992)  /  Tom Jones (1997)  /  Mel Tormé (1997)  /  Taylor Dayne (1998)  / John Holt (1998)  /  John Barrowman (2008)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)

On This Day  :
Quote27 April : Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 2nd Cello Concert
29 April : Phil Tufnell, cricketer, born Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell in Barnet, London
30 April : Anton LaVey founds the Church of Satan in San Francisco, California
30 April : Regular hovercraft service begins over the English Channel.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :
Quote                       

purlieu


Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Yep, a magnificent mountain of melodrama. Pure intensity from start to finish.

Fucking voice on that lovely lady.

sevendaughters

great song. something about Dusty's songs, sounded almost like she had a bit of autonomy, there's hardly any filler or fluff, even good artists of the time seemed to flirt with claptrap because the industry was a bit more immature.

The Culture Bunker

Guess I'm the odd man out again by not having much love for this. I appreciate the vocal talent, but the song doesn't click for me the way 'Son of a Preacher Man', 'Breakfast in Bed' or 'Spooky' do. I'm not even sure why... just somehow doesn't hit the heartstrings in the way it does for others. Can only assume I appreciate her music when it has a bit more groove to it.