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

[buzby]

Also, I'm surprised to see virtually no discussion anywhere online about the clear similarities between this song, 'Football Crazy' and the Match Of The Day theme tune.

Buzby...?

The Match Of The Day theme by Barry Stoller was clearly 'inspired by' Fitba'/Football Crazy, written around 1885 by James Curran. However, he carked it way back in 1900 and by the 60s the song would have been considered 'traditional' so Stoller was free to nick it, add a few extra notes into the melody and put his name on it.

More relevant to Donegan's 'Dustman', the Scottish folk duo of Robin Hall And Jimmy MacGregor had released a cover of Football Crazy as a single in 1959 on the London'based folk/blues label Collector Records, which I'm sure Lonnie would have been aware of.

In August 1960 the single was picked up by Decca for wide release after they performed it on one of their regular appreances on the BBC's 'Tonight' programme.

MacGregor had likely picked it up from Ewan MacColl (he had been a member of MacColl's band), who recorded a version of it in 1956 on his 'Scots Street Songs' album. However, before Hall & MacGregor's version was picked up by Decca, HMV put out a rival cover by Joe Gordon And His Folk Four in April 1960:


'Dustman' is credited as 'New words & new music by L. Donegan & P. Buchanan', which is tacitly admitting that it's built on a 'trad' song (but not saying explicity which one it was):

[Captain Z]

Fascinating, thanks for the info.

[daf]

This tenacious box of retrospection, its . . .

100.  Anthony Newley - Do You Mind



From : 24 – 30 April 1960
Weeks : 1
Flip side : Girls Were Made To Love And Kiss

Newley's singles continued to perform well in the charts during 1960, including : 'If She Should Come To You' (#4)  /  'Strawberry Fair' (#3)  /  'And The Heavens Cried' (#6)

Following his 1961 #12 hit - 'Pop Goes The Weasel', his fortunes began to wane with 'What Kind Of A Fool Am I' only reaching #36. His next single 'D-Darling' in January 1962, saw a slight revival by reaching #26, but his next single - 'That Noise' - proved to be his final chart entry, reaching #34 in July 1962.

In 1963, Newley had a hit comedy album called Fool Britannia!, the result of improvisational satires of the British Profumo scandal of the time by a team of Newley, his then wife Joan Collins, and Peter Sellers. It peaked at number 10 in the UK Albums Chart in October 1963.

His later non-charting singles included : 'There's No Such Thing As Love' (1963)  /  'The Father Of Girls' (1963)  / and a tribute to the recently assassinated President John F Kennedy, 'Tribute' (1964)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In 1966 he recorded the song 'Moogies Bloogies' with Radiophonic Workshop pioneer Delia Derbyshire



as she later recalled :
Anthony Newley told his label that he wanted to do something electronic. So they got on to me. So I produced this bloopy track and he loved it so much he double-tracked his voice and he used my little tune. The winking knees in the rain, and their mini-skirts. I'd done it as a lovely little innocent love song, because he said to me that the only songs are, "I love you, I love you" or songs saying "you've gone, you've gone."

I'd written this beautiful little innocent tune, all sensitive love and innocence, and he made it into a dirty old raincoat song. But he was really chuffed! Joan and Jackie Collins dropped him off in a limousine at my lovely little flat above a flower shop, and he said "If you can write songs like this, I'll get you out of this place"! It was only a single-track demo tape. So he rang up his record company saying "We want to move to a multi-track studio". Unfortunately the boss of the record company was on holiday, and by the time he returned Anthony Newley had gone to America with Joan Collins, so it was never released.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

He wrote several musicals with Leslie Bricusse, including 'Stop the World – I Want to Get Off' in 1961, in which he also performed, earning a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, and 'The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd' in 1965. When he collaborated with Bricusse the two men referred to themselves as the team of "Brickman and Newburg", with "Newburg" concentrating mainly on the music and "Brickman" on the lyrics. Ian Fraser often devised their arrangements.

In 1969 he performed in the autobiographical, Fellini-esque and X-rated 'Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?', which he also directed and co-wrote with Herman Raucher.

In 1971, he recorded the poetry album "Anthony Newley Tells the Ultimate Love Story For You", and co-wrote the songs (with Bricusse) for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, based on the children's book by Roald Dahl - including "Pure Imagination", and "The Candy Man", which became a hit for Sammy Davis Jr. in 1972.   

In 1975 he appeared as Quilp in 'Mister Quilp' (based on Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop), for which he composed some songs, including 'Love Has the Longest Memory of All'.

Newley died on 14 April 1999, in Jensen Beach, Florida, from renal cancer at the age of 67 in the arms of his companion, the designer Gina Fratini. At the time of his death he had been working on a musical of Shakespeare's Richard III.

"Do You Mind" was written by Lionel Bart for the 1960 British comedy drama film 'Let's Get Married' starring Newley as a medical student who is thrown out of his university, and ends up working in a laundry with Bernie Winters. The film features Newley singing the song "Do You Mind", and the single first charted on the UK Charts on 30 March 1960 where it went to #1.

Other Versions include : Rikki Henderson (1960)  /  Andy Williams (1960)  /   Sandie Shaw (1965)  /   Engelbert Humperdinck with Rene Froger (2007)

On This Day :

24 April : Paula Yates, TV presenter, born in Colwyn Bay, Wales
26 April : Roger Taylor, (Duran Duran), born in Birmingham, England
28 April : Ian Rankin, writer (Rebus), born in Cardenden, Fife, Scotland
28 April : "Christine" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 12 performances

[purlieu]

Not much of a way to celebrate the 100th number one, is it? I think I prefer the early '50s schlock to the twee stuff we've been getting recently. Like rock & roll on laudanum.

[daf]

As has been said, we're not really in the sixties proper yet - I think it roughly breaks down as :

1960 - 1962 - Fifties leftovers (aka 'The Sifties')
1963 - 1964 - Beat Groups
1965 - 1966 - Swinging Sixties
1967 - 1968 - Toytown Psychedelia
1969 - Waking up in a squat with a tramp having a piss in the corner

[gilbertharding]

'Dustman' is credited as 'New words & new music by L. Donegan & P. Buchanan', which is tacitly admitting that it's built on a 'trad' song (but not saying explicity which one it was):

I can't remember if it was here I read it, or on a recent BBC4 documentary about skiffle, but Lonnie Donegan was a more brazen thief of other people's (notionally Trad Arr. - but Leadbelly was barely cold) songs than Page and Plant.

[daf]

Cumberland Gap also got the 'new words and new music' flim-flam credit  :

"Cumberland Gap" is an Appalachian folk song that likely dates to the latter half of the 19th century and was first recorded in 1924.

The earliest known recording of "Cumberland Gap" was a 1924 instrumental version by Tennessee fiddler Ambrose G. "Uncle Am" Stuart (1853–1926). The first singing and solo banjo version was recorded by Land Norris in August, 1924 by Okeh Records. Then, in September 1924, fiddle-and-guitar duo Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett recorded the song, and would re-record the song again in 1926 with their band, the Skillet Lickers.

In the mid-1940s, Woody Guthrie recorded a version of "Cumberland Gap" for Moe Asch's Folkways label, containing the chorus, "Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Gap/Seventeen miles to the Cumberland Gap" and a stanza referring to the gap's distance from Middlesboro, Kentucky.

Folk musician and folk music scholar Pete Seeger released a version somewhat similar to Guthrie's in 1954. Donegan's 1957 skiffle version, which reached No. 1 on the charts in the United Kingdom, also resembled Guthrie's Folkways version, although his chorus uses "fifteen miles" rather than "seventeen miles."

and in my notes for his second number 1 :

"Gamblin' Man" was written by Woody Guthrie (spuriously credited to "Guthrie/Donnegan" - presumably for adding the crucial washboard!)

[gilbertharding]

Blimey:He even stole Woody's 'sex face':
 

[Johnboy]

Luke Haines played that Newley/Derbyshire Moogies Boogies single last year on his radio show

It wasn't great which he acknowledged after playing it.

Lonnie Donegan looks like Billy Bragg - what are the chances?

[purlieu]

As has been said, we're not really in the sixties proper yet - I think it roughly breaks down as :

1960 - 1962 - Fifties leftovers (aka 'The Sifties')

Roll on 'Apache'.

[machotrouts]

Sounds like Cliff Richard doing the Pink Panther theme. "Do You Mind?" I mean not "Cumberland Gap". Not my fault you're all talking about that now. It's "Do You Mind?" day.

Flip side : Girls Were Made To Love And Kiss

Nightmare Babysitter Pop

[Satchmo Distel]

Donegan's hit is the first No. 1 recorded in a live concert and the only one ever recorded in Doncaster AFAIK.

Cutting edge to music hall in three years is some decline.

[daf]

Here they come, its . . .

101.  The Everly Brothers - Cathy's Clown



From : 1 May – 18 June 1960
Weeks : 7
Flip side : Always It's You
bonus : TV Appearance

Following their first UK number One - 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' - in June 1958, The Everly Brothers had further chart success with 'Devoted To You'  /  'Bird Dog'   /  and 'Problems', and released their second album - 'Songs Our Daddy Taught Us' on on Cadence Records, consisting of  traditional music, such as  'Down in the Willow Garden'  and  'Barbara Allen'.

In 1959, the UK chart entries continued with, 'Take A Message To Mary' (#20) /  '('Til) I Kissed You'  (#2) / and 'Let It Be Me' (#13).

After three years on Cadence, the Everlys signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1960, where they recorded for 10 years. Their first Warner Bros. single, "Cathy's Clown",  became their second UK number one.

"Cathy's Clown" was written and recorded by The Everly Brothers. The musicians included the Everlys on guitars, Floyd Cramer on piano, Floyd Chance on bass and Buddy Harman on drums. The distinctive drum sound was achieved by recording the drums with a tape loop, making it sound as if there were two drummers.

"Cathy's Clown" was The Everly Brothers' first single for Warner Bros., after they had recorded for Archie Bleyer's Cadence label for three years. Spending five weeks at number one on the US charts, and seven weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in May and June 1960, it sold eight million copies worldwide, becoming the Everly Brothers' biggest-selling single.

In November 2018, a judge ruled that Don was the sole writer of "Cathy's Clown", as Phil had relinquished his rights sometime before June 1980. Acuff-Rose Music, which owned the song publishing, and BMI removed Phil's name from all the royalty statements.

"Cathy's Clown" was inspired by Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite :
"Musically, I loved his Grand Canyon Suite at that point," Don told writer Andrew Sandoval, "and I wanted to do something that sounded like it."

Other Versions Include :  The Blue Diamonds (1960)  /  Pat Boone (1961)  /  The Shanes (1964)  /  Tages (1965) /  The Tarney - Spencer Band (1979)  /  Tricia Johns (1981)  /  Neil Sedaka with Dara Sedaka (1983)  /  Reba McEntire (1989)  /  Dee Dee Ramone (2000)  /  The Chapin Sisters (2013)  /  Jake Bugg (2014)  /  The Firebirds (2015)  /  the roboty brothers (2019)

On This Day :

6 May : John Flansburgh, (They Might Be Giants), born in Lincoln, Massachusetts
6 May : Princess Margaret marries Antony Armstrong-Jones (later Lord Snowdon) at Westminster Abbey
7 May : "Christine" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 12 performances
7 May : "Flower Drum Song" closes at St James Theater NYC after 602 performances
7 May : "From A to Z" closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 21 performances
7 May : Leonid Brezhnev replaces Kliment Voroshilov as President of USSR
10 May : Bono, (U2), born Paul David Hewson in Dublin, Ireland
11 May : Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires
14 May : Flanders and Swann revue "At the Drop of a Hat" closes at John Golden NYC after 216 performances
19 May : Alan Freed & eight other DJs accused of taking radio payola
19 May : Yazz, (& The Plastic Population), born Yasmin Evans in Shepherd's Bush, London
23 May : "Finian's Rainbow" opens at 46th St Theater NYC (and closes after 12 performances)
1 June : Simon Gallup, (The Cure), born in Duxhurst, Surrey
2 June : Tony Hadley, (Spandau Ballet), born Anthony Patrick Hadley in Islington, London
4 June : Bradley Walsh, TV presenter /actor, born in Watford, Hertfordshire
8 June : Mick Hucknall, (Simply Red), born in Manchester
16 June : "Psycho", directed by Alfred Hitchcock, opens with a "no late admission" policy.
18 June : "Destry Rides Again" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 472 performances

[Inspector Norse]

101.  The Everly Brothers - Cathy's Clown

Wonderful song of course, but I've always wondered about these Youtube videos of people putting the needle on the record and filming it playing. Are there people who get the horn from watching it go round and round?

[purlieu]

Vinyl is the only authentic way to listen to music, didn't you know? Especially vinyl through YouTube. As the first commenter says, the mp3 stream embedded in the video sounds like a magnetic cartridge!

[daf]

Looks like a real cheapo set-up (and what a warp on the disc!), but this one sounded the best to me (mono balls rule!!)

I included this stereo version as an alternative in the notes - doesn't quite have the same magic for me.

[Satchmo Distel]

Why did Phil sign away his rights to this song?

[machotrouts]

Don't recognise this at all, which isn't normally worthy of note, but I'm surprised it outsold All I Have to Do Is Dream. Quite loud in comparison, isn't it? Plaintive wailing and marching drums. Couldn't send a baby off to sleep with this. You could only use this to wake or insult and undermine a baby.

the roboty brothers (2019)

Pleased that this looks set to become a recurring thread character.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's sort of the beginning of '60s pop, really. Still rooted in the late '50s but with added clanging guitars. A pair of young shit-kickers from Liverpool are listening and thinking, "We could do something like this, la."

At that particular moment in time they are wrong, they will not learn how to do anything as good as this until 1963. There was no way for them to realise this in 1960 as they weren't Doctor Who.

[daf]

He's sure fine looking man, he's something else, its . . .

102.  Eddie Cochran - Three Steps To Heaven



From : 19 June – 2 July 1960
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Cut Across Shorty

Ray Edward Cochran was born October 3, 1938, in Albert Lea, Minnesota, to Alice and Frank R. Cochran.  He took music lessons in school but quit the band to play drums, and began learning guitar, playing country and other music he heard on the radio.

Cochran's family moved to Bell Gardens, California, in 1952. He dropped out of Bell Gardens High School in his first year to become a professional musician. During a show, he met Hank Cochran, a songwriter. Although they were not related, they recorded as 'The Cochran Brothers' and began performing together. Eddie Cochran also worked as a session musician and began writing songs, making a demo with Jerry Capehart, his future manager.

In July 1956, Eddie Cochran's first "solo artist" single was released by Crest Records, "Skinny Jim", now regarded as a rock-and-roll and rockabilly classic.

Cochran appeared in the 1956 musical comedy film 'The Girl Can't Help It' performing the song "Twenty Flight Rock". In 1957 Cochran starred in his second film, 'Untamed Youth', and he had yet another hit, "Sittin' in the Balcony".

In the Summer of 1957 Liberty Records issued Cochran's only studio album released during his lifetime, Singin' to My Baby.

In 1958, Cochran seemed to find his stride in the famous teenage anthem "Summertime Blues" (co-written with Jerry Capehart). With this song, his first UK chart hit - reeaching #18, Cochran was established as one of the most important influences on rock and roll in the 1950s, both lyrically and musically.

He had further chart success in 1959 in the UK with : 'C'mon Everybody' (#6)  / 'Somethin' Else' (#22)  / 'Hallelujah, I Love Her So' (#22) 

In early 1959, two of Cochran's friends, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, along with the Big Bopper, were killed in a plane crash while on tour. Cochran's friends and family later said that he was badly shaken by their deaths, and he developed a morbid premonition that he also would die young. It was shortly after their deaths that he recorded a song (written by disc jockey Tommy Dee) in tribute to them, "Three Stars". He was anxious to give up life on the road and spend his time in the studio making music, thereby reducing the chance of suffering a similar fatal accident while touring. Financial responsibilities, however, required that he continue to perform live, and that led to his acceptance of an offer to tour the United Kingdom in 1960.

On Saturday, April 16, 1960, at about 11.50 p.m., while on tour in the United Kingdom, 21-year-old Cochran was involved in a traffic accident in a taxi travelling through Chippenham, Wiltshire, on the A4. The speeding taxi blew a tire, the driver lost control, and the vehicle crashed into a lamppost on Rowden Hill. No other car was involved. Cochran was taken to St Martin's Hospital, in Bath, where he died of severe head injuries at 4:10 p.m. the following day. Cochran's body was flown home, and buried on April 25, 1960, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.

Sharon Sheeley, tour manager Pat Thompkins, and singer Gene Vincent survived the crash, Vincent sustaining lasting injuries to an already permanently damaged leg that would shorten his career and affect him for the rest of his life. The taxi driver, George Martin (not related to producer George Martin), was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50, and disqualified from driving for 15 years.

In May, 'Three Steps To Heaven' became a UK number one, and was included on his second album - which was originally issued as '12 of His Biggest Hits' in April 1960 by Liberty Records, but after Cochran's death on April 17 it was retitled and reissued as 'The Eddie Cochran Memorial Album' with the same catalogue number, and has remained so titled ever since.

A few further singles were issued between 1960 and 1961 - 'Sweetie Pie' (#38)  /  'Lonely' (#41)  /  'Weekend' (#15)  /  and 'Jeannie, Jeannie, Jeannie' (#31) , with a posthumous album, 'My Way', released in 1964.

"Three Steps to Heaven" was co-written by Eddie Cochran and his brother Bob Cochran, and released in 1960. The record, featuring Buddy Holly's Crickets on instruments, became a posthumous UK number-one hit for Cochran following his death in a car accident in April 1960. In the US it did not reach the Billboard Hot 100 - the cloth-eared fools!

Dave Bowie used the guitar chord riff in his 1971 song "Queen Bitch" on his album Hunky Dory.

In 1963 Heinz released his actually pretty decent tribute "Just Like Eddie" - produced and engineered by Joe Meek (of course!), and featuring future Deep Purple member Ritchie Blackmore on guitar.

Other Versions include : Rikki Henderson (1960) /  Eddy Mitchell as 'J'irai au paradis' (1964)  /  The Streaplers (1965)  / Dee Jay and The Runaways (1965)  / John Spencer (1974)  /  Showaddywaddy (1975)  /  Top of the Pops LP ( 1975)  /  Peter Orloff as 'Drei Stufen' (1976)  / Jussi & The Boys as 'Et Voi Sä Estää' (1976)  /  Peter Orloff Sound Orchester (1976)  /  Ricky Norton (1997)  /  Benny Scott (1977)  /  På Slaget 12 feat. Basix  (2002)  /  Daniel O'Donnell (2004)  /  P.J. Proby (2010)  / a rockin' robot (2016)

On This Day :

20 June : John Taylor, (Duran Duran), born in Solihull, Warwickshire
25 June : British Somaliland (now Somalia) gains independence from Britain
26 June : Italian Somaliland declares independence from Italian administration
27 June : Harry Pollitt, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain dies at 69
30 June : Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) declares independence from Belgium
1 July : Evelyn "Champagne" King, disco singer, born in The Bronx, New York
2 July : "Once Upon a Mattress" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 460 performances

[Satchmo Distel]

The Showaddywaddy cover wasn't bad.

[OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead]

The Majestics version FTW.

[daf]

Couldn't find a link for that one, was it in 'Tutti Frutti'?

Added in some more versions - including out first appearance from a Pickwick Top of the Pops LP *

 
volume 45 - May 1975

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (thanks to Showaddywaddy's cover)

[purlieu]

Hmm, enjoyed that a bit more than a lot of the recent ones.

[machotrouts]

If you expect to become a young rock and roll tragedy, always have the foresight to record something about the afterlife that will be imbued with posthumous irony if you get fucked up in a taxi accident. Cark it to the top. Would have worked better if he'd been shagged to death, or "girl" in the lyrics had been "lamppost", but take what you can get.

Death suitability aside, I don't like much else about it. Twee and inane. Bit of welly in the guitar, but lose that and you're basically left with a Dean Martin song.

Always found it very unsatisfying when a song makes a numbered list out of only three things. Thinking specifically of 'New Rules' and 'How to Be a Heartbreaker' off the top of my head. Why even bother numbering them? What, you can't keep up with three discrete elements? "Ooh, is this step 2 or 3, I lost count"? Come on. Not even enough for an Only Connect sequence.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's sort of the beginning of '60s pop, really. Still rooted in the late '50s but with added clanging guitars. A pair of young shit-kickers from Liverpool are listening and thinking, "We could do something like this, la."

At that particular moment in time they are wrong, they will not learn how to do anything as good as this until 1963. There was no way for them to realise this in 1960 as they weren't Doctor Who.

McCartney played Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock" for Lennon when they first met in 1957 but it was probably even ropier than the version they rehearsed in January 1969.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO7PVODMm6Q

[gilbertharding]

It's an old saw from Rock lore - if I might do the honours:

On duty the night Eddie Cochrane crashed was a young Police Constable who took the chance to strum a few chords on Eddies guitar after it was retrieved from the scene. That young man's name? Why, it was only the soon to be Hold Tight! hitmaker David Deedozymickantitch.

[daf]

On the third stroke, it will be . . .

103.  Jimmy Jones - Good Timin'



From : 3 – 23 July 1960
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Too Long Will Be Too Late
bonus : TV Appearance

James Jones was born on 2 June, 1937 in Birmingham, Alabama at the age of 0.

His first job in the entertainment industry was as a tap dancer. He joined a doo-wop group named the Berliners in 1954. They later changed their name to Sparks of Rhythm. In 1955 Jones co-wrote "Handy Man", which was recorded by the Sparks of Rhythm in 1956 (after Jones left the group).

After recording with other groups, Jones went solo and, in 1959, teamed up with Otis Blackwell who reworked "Handy Man" which Jones recorded on the MGM subsidiary Cub Records. When the flute player did not show up for the session, Blackwell famously whistled on the recording.

The new solo version of "Handy Man", released in 1959, gave Jones his first US and UK hit single. It went to No. 2 on the US singles chart in 1960, and peaked at No. 3 in the UK. A few months later in 1960, Jones' recording of "Good Timin'" climbed to No. 1 in the UK and No. 3 in the US. Both "Handy Man" and "Good Timin'" were million sellers, earning Jones two gold discs.

Jones' subsequent career was low key, although it included three more UK chart entries in the following twelve months, including : 'I Just Go For You' (#35)  /  'Ready For Love' (#46)  /  and  'I Told You So' (#33).

His later non-charting singles in the UK included :  'I Say Love' (1961)  /  'Mr. Music Man' (1962)  /  'You're Much Too Young' (1962)  / and  'Walkin' (1965)

Latterly Jones enjoyed a revival of interest in Britain, owing to his popularity on the British Northern soul circui. His 1967 single '39-21-46 Shape' being a favourite on the sprung dancefloors. “Jimmy was a fabulous sensation over in Britain,” said his wife Mattie Jones. “They loved him in Britain. He was hot.”

Jones released Grandma's Rock & Roll Party in the 1990s on CD. It included new versions of "Handy Man" and "Good Timin'".

He died in Aberdeen, North Carolina, on 2 August 2012, aged 75.

"Good Timin'" was  written by Fred Tobias and Clint Ballard Jr., and performed by Jimmy Jones.

The song extrapolates the historical encounters between David and Goliath and between Columbus and Isabella as reason enough for a boy to meet a girl.

Other Versions include : Kyu Sakamoto (1960)  /  Gert Lengstrand (1979)  /  Australian band Ol' 55 (1980)  / and the inevitable Showaddywaddy (1981)

On This Day :

6 July : Aneurin Bevan, NHS founding politician, died at the age of 62
11 July : "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is first published by J. B. Lippincott & Co.
11 July : Caroline Quentin, actress, born in Reigate, Surrey
12 July : USSR's Sputnik 5 launched with two dogs - 'Belka' and 'Strelka', 40 mice, two rats and a variety of plants
13 July : Ian Hislop, Private Eye satirist, born in Swansea, Wales
17 July : Dawn Upshaw, American soprano, born in Nashville, Tennessee
20 July : USSR recovers Sputnik 5, including all the plants and animals safely, and, a year later, Strelka had a litter of puppies (. . . ahhh!)

[gilbertharding]

Has the dye from his jumper run, or has he got some kind of jaundice?

[daf]

Looks like that one might have been left in the sun for a few years.

Here's the same photo as used on an EP sleeve where he's looking a bit healthier :