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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

daf

Alright playmates - we're now into our "August Summer Holiday" in which the Toppermost thread takes it's foot off the gas and cruises at half-speed through the twisting sun-dappled lanes on Cliff's Double Decker for a month, while Una Stubbs snoozes on your shoulder.

Regular stops are scheduled for every other day (1, 3, 5, etc) - so remember to go to the toilet first!

gilbertharding

He's Jools Holland's musician, is what it means. Hootenanny!!


(daf - no place to mention Joe's daughter, the 'Stop!' hitmaker Sam Brown (or her eponymous belt)?)

daf

Joe Brown Sprog Bonus : The Sam Brown Story



QuoteSamantha Brown was born on 7 October 1964, in Stratford, east London, England. She is the daughter of musician Joe Brown and session singer Vicki Brown. Brown's first work in the music industry was in 1978 at the age of 14, when she sang backing vocals on the final studio album by the Small Faces, 78 in the Shade.

Brown signed a recording contract with A&M in 1986. Her most successful song with A&M was "Stop!", released as a single in 1988. She issued an album of the same name that same year. Other singles taken from the album included "Walking Back to Me"  /  "This Feeling"  /  and her cover version of "Can I Get a Witness". The album Stop! has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide

In 1990, Brown's second studio album, April Moon, included two hit singles, "Kissing Gate" and "With a Little Love". She also played the ukulele.

Brown's third studio album, 43 Minutes..., was made around the same time that her mother was dying from breast cancer. A&M, Brown's record label at the time, were not satisfied with the album and wanted some potential hit singles recorded and added to the track listing. Brown, unwilling to compromise and after a protracted legal battle, bought back the master recordings of the album and released them in 1992 on her own label Pod Music, a year after the death of her mother.

Brown provided backing vocals for Pink Floyd on their fourteenth studio album, The Division Bell, released in 1994 and accompanied them on their tour to promote the release. Her involvement was documented on the following year's Pink Floyd release, Pulse, in which she sang backing vocals and was the first lead vocalist on the song "The Great Gig in the Sky".

In 1995, she had a minor chart hit with a duet with fellow singer-songwriter Fish, entitled "Just Good Friends".

In 1997, Brown returned with her fourth studio album Box, released via the independent record label Demon Music Group. Tracks on this album included "Embrace the Darkness", "Whisper" and "I Forgive You" which was co-written with Maria McKee.

In 2000, her fifth studio album ReBoot was released via another independent label, Mud Hut, and the single "In Light of All That's Gone Before".

In 2003, Brown formed the band Homespun with Dave Rotheray, releasing three albums. Brown also released several solo recordings in this period, including an EP, Ukulele and Voice.

In late 2006, she undertook an extensive UK tour as special guest of her father, Joe Brown. The shows also included appearances by her brother, Pete Brown.

In 2007, seven years after her last album, Brown released Of the Moment.  That same year she lost her singing voice, and for as yet unknown reasons has not been able to sing since. In an interview from 2013 she explained that "I can't get vocal cord closure and achieve the proper pitch simultaneously. It feels like there are some muscles that aren't working."

Brown currently runs the International Ukulele Club of Sonning Common, the North London Ukulele Collective and the Provisional wing of the People's Ukulele Brigade (PUB).

QuoteIn the early 90s, Sam Brown took a break from her singing career to travel back in time to invent the The Sam Browne belt - a wide, usually leather belt, supported by a narrower strap passing diagonally over the right shoulder - It is most often a part of a military or police uniform, and worn by tin-pot Little Hitlers.

General Sir Sam Browne was a 19th-century British Indian Army officer who had lost his left arm; this made it difficult for him to draw his sword, because the left hand was typically used to steady the scabbard while the right drew out the sword.

Browne came up with the idea of wearing a second belt which went over his right shoulder to hold the scabbard steady. This would hook into a waist belt with D-rings for attaching accessories. It also securely carried a pistol in a flap-holster on his right hip and included a binocular case with a neck-strap. Other officers began wearing a similar rig and eventually it became part of the standard uniform.

The Sam Browne belt featured prominently in many uniforms used by the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, again in imitation of earlier European uniforms. It was popular with Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazi officials.

The Irish Citizen Army, Irish Volunteers and Irish Republican Army (IRA) made extensive use of Sam Browne belts during the Irish revolutionary period (1916–23). This included women serving with the Irish Citizen Army, among them Constance Markievicz. The folk song "The Broad Black Brimmer" also mentions the Sam Browne belt. They later were used by An Garda Síochána and the National Army.

The Sam Browne belt is largely obsolete in police and security use due to risk of strangulation by potential opponents. It has sometimes been referred to as a Suicide Belt by personnel. It had enjoyed some popularity with civilian police agencies worldwide and was probably most widely worn in this context during the 1940s and 1950s. This use has gradually faded out due to field safety concerns.

During the interwar period, the belt became fashionable among some American and European women. Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady of the United States at the time, openly spoke out against the practice. The belts also became a symbol of civilian authority by "everybody from bus drivers to volunteer schoolboy traffic cops".

Since the 1970s, the use of Sam Browne Belts has increased in popularity within the Queer BDSM Leather subculture.


DrGreggles

QuoteThe album Stop! has sold over two and a half million copies worldwide

That's LOADS!
Well done Sam.

daf

Joe Brown "Th' Wife" Bonus : The Vicki Brown Story



QuoteVictoria Mary Haseman was born on 23 August 1940 in Liverpool, England. She was a member of both The Vernons Girls and The Breakaways

She married Joe Brown and, after leaving the Breakaways, remained a prolific session singer under the name Vicki Brown. The Browns had two children, Sam and Pete Brown; the former a successful singer-songwriter, the latter a record producer.

In 1972, Joe Brown formed Brown's Home Brew, which played rock and roll, country and gospel music and featured his wife in the line-up. She also recorded with her sister, Mary Partington, as The Seashells reaching No. 32 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1972 with "Maybe I Know".

In 1973, Brown recorded a single with Stephanie de Sykes under the name of The Tree People, entitled "It Happened on a Sunday Morning".

By 1975, Brown had appeared in the film, Tommy, billed as 'Nurse #2'. Her public profile heightened after notably providing the female vocal on the 1976 UK no. 1 hit single, "No Charge", by J. J. Barrie.  Brown released her first solo UK album in 1977, "From The Inside"

A prolific session singer, she worked with George Harrison, Jon Lord, Roger Waters, Gary Moore, Willy DeVille, Adam Ant, Steve Marriott, Alvin Lee, Chris Farlowe, Cerrone, Yvonne Keeley and Eric Burdon. Brown's involvement with Pink Floyd over several years, included her participation in Pink Floyd live performances, specifically the Dark Side of the Moon Tour and A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour.

She died of breast cancer on 16 June 1991, in Henley-on-Thames, at the age of 50.

gilbertharding

Thanks, daf poster. Thaf.

Seriously - Stop! is a great tune and she sings it really well. It was especially refreshing to hear in 1988, when it stood out by sounding new and modern - ironically, because it was also retro, somehow.

I had no idea she'd hung up the old larynx - it's a shame. In my mind, she's on telly every New Year's Eve, belting out the backing vox next to Gilson Lavis and Ruby Turner and the rest of the boys.

daf

Joe Brown Sprog Bonus 2 : The Pete Brown Story



QuoteThe son of top sixties guitarist Joe and his vocalist wife Vicki, Pete is the younger brother of multi-platinum singer-songwriter Sam Brown.

Pete has been engineering from the age of 12, professionally since he was 16, and has worked with many acts including George Harrison, Sade, Nick Lowe, Dusty Springfield, Edwin Starr, Courtney Pine, Status Quo, The Specials, Jerry Dammers, Everything but The Girl, Yellow , Swing Out Sister & Black.

As a record producer, some of the artists Pete has worked with are The Mighty Lemon Drops, The Soup Dragons, The Violet Hour, Big Country, Joe Brown and Sam Brown.

"It was a bit odd how I fell into engineering and production," Pete recalled. "When I was sixteen I wanted to be a performer, like Sam was at that age. But she was far more advanced musically than I was. I had always been quite handy technically. As a kid I was constantly making headsets out of old telephones, taking things apart, rewiring stuff. My dad was quick to spot and nurture that ability. Not least because he saw the opportunity to use me to do technical work for his band and in his studio rather than pay someone else to do it."

"Soon after I left school that practical experience led to me being offered a job as an apprentice engineer at London's Powerplant Studio – then one of the top recording studios in the country. So I was trained in engineering from a very young age by the best in the business. It was a great start for me! And I was able to work my way quite quickly from engineering to producing records."

"The first chief engineer I worked with was Mike Pela and he taught me a lot. He and I worked with Sade. Producer Robin Miller also impressed me with his total control of the music. He made me appreciate that the musical arrangement is critical. If that isn't right it's no use making stuff loud or trying to rebalance and equalise. Again, a very important lesson."

"Then I worked with Colin Fairley who was at the other end of the spectrum. He recorded many major names including Elvis Costello. His focus was more on atmosphere...getting a big racket going, as he would say. And there was Mike Hedges who was different again. He showed me how to be radical and sculpt the tones in a recording. He and I worked with Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, Marc Almond and so many more. Mike was a perfectionist technically. and whenever you hear one of his records on the radio the quality really stands out."

"Some of the artists have been inspirational too. Nick Lowe is a particular favourite to work with. Nick has been a big influence on me."

Pete also recorded with George Harrison :
"George was one of my dad's closest friends. He was best man when dad remarried after my mum died. But this time George was trying to get hold of me. So dad passed me the phone and that familiar Liverpool voice just said, 'Pete, can you come and give me a hand in my studio? My regular engineer can't make it and I need to record some songs. Can you come here now and help me?'

"So, I got a taxi down to George's place in Henley and by about midnight I was trying to sort out the various switches and controls in the Friar Park Studio. Which wasn't easy as I'd never been in there before and it was all rather old-school kit – though very sophisticated and impressive. It was quite a challenge! There were just the two of us. George went off to make me a coffee, and by the time he was back I'd more or less cracked it! We worked through the night together using the drum machine and with me playing bass. We laid down three demo tracks."

"I emerged into the dawn about 5.30 a.m., and George suggested I borrow one of his collection of exotic cars to drive home in. Tempting - but I took a cab, not wanting to risk damaging a classic car. And I just kept thinking, 'I have worked with a Beatle!' Even now, it is great to know I did that. Though I do wish I could have done more with him."

Looking back over his whole career, did Pete ever make any bad decisions?

"Yes, there was one really bad one. Just before I was due to go on a world tour as Musical Director for Sam when 'Stop' was a huge hit for her, Nick Lowe - who I'd already worked with quite a bit - asked me to go to America to join him and John Hiatt with Jim Keltner plus Ry Cooder to be their recording engineer. I'd made the commitment to my sister so I didn't go - and I would never break any commitment I'd made to anybody. But that could have really boosted my producing career, and I am a huge fan of Ry Cooder and would have loved to work with him - still would."

"Probably some of my most magic moments performing were touring with Sam," Pete recalled. "When she was on form, she was amazing. She is one of the very few people I have ever worked with whose performance can make you stop in your tracks with her sheer power - even when you were playing in her band. I'd sometimes think when I was out on stage, 'Blimey, I can't believe I'm accompanying her.' It was so powerful and overwhelming. She has such a stage presence. Some of the gigs I did with Sam just blew me away!

"There have been some other great career moments though. Like playing with Mark Knopfler at the Albert Hall in 2008, and doing backing vocals for Dave Gilmour for a very special show. Plus I loved it when Dave Edmunds did a tour with my dad – he's such a great force on stage."


Pete still tours regularly with his dad, Joe, and acts as musical director for him and his band. A while ago Pete finally stepped into the limelight to release his own album. Fittingly it was called 'Not Before Time'.

daf

What'd He Play, it's . . .

138.  Ray Charles - I Can't Stop Loving You



From :  8 – 21 July 1962
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Born To Lose

QuoteRay Charles Robinson was born on 23 September 1930 in Albany, Georgia, and raised in Greenville, Florida.

His musical curiosity was sparked at Wylie Pitman's Red Wing Cafe, at the age of three, when Pitman played boogie woogie on an old upright piano; Pitman subsequently taught Charles how to play the piano. Pitman would also care for Ray's younger brother George, to take some of the burden off their mother. George drowned in his mother's laundry tub when he was four years old.

Charles started to lose his sight at the age of four or five, and was blind by the age of seven, apparently as a result of glaucoma. Despite his initial protest, Charles attended school at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine from 1937 to 1945.

Charles further developed his musical talent at school and was taught to play the classical piano music of J.S. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. His teacher, Mrs. Lawrence, taught him how to use braille music. On Fridays, the South Campus Literary Society held assemblies at which Charles would play piano and sing popular songs. It was here he established "RC Robinson and the Shop Boys" and sang his own arrangement of "Jingle Bell Boogie".

Ray Charles' mother died in the Spring of 1944, when Ray was 14. Her death came as a shock to him; he later said that the deaths of his brother and mother were "the two great tragedies" of his life.

Charles returned to school after the funeral but was expelled in October for playing a prank on his teacher. After leaving school, Charles moved to Jacksonville with Charles Wayne Powell a couple who had been friends with his late mother. He played the piano for bands at the Ritz Theatre in LaVilla for over a year, earning $4 a night.

At age 16, Charles moved to Orlando, where he lived in borderline poverty and went without food for days. Charles eventually started to write arrangements for a pop music band, and in the summer of 1947 he unsuccessfully auditioned to play piano for Lucky Millinder and his sixteen-piece band, and later that year as a pianist for Charles Brantley's Honeydippers in Tampa.

In his early career, he modeled himself on Nat King Cole. His first four recordings—"Wondering and Wondering", "Walking and Talking", "Why Did You Go?" and "I Found My Baby There"—were allegedly made in Tampa, although some discographies claim he recorded them in Miami in 1951 or Los Angeles in 1952.

He decided to leave Florida for a large city, and followed his friend Gossie McKee to Seattle, Washington, in March 1948. Here he met and befriended a 15-year-old Quincy Jones. He started playing the one-to-five A.M. shift at the Rocking Chair with his band McSon Trio. In April 1949, he recorded "Confession Blues", which became his first national hit, soaring to the second spot on the Billboard R&B chart.

After signing with Swing Time Records, he recorded two more R&B hits under the name Ray Charles: "Baby, Let Me Hold Your Hand" (1951), which reached number five, and "Kissa Me Baby" (1952), which reached number eight. Swing Time folded the following year, and Ahmet Ertegün signed him to Atlantic for $2,500. His first recording session for Atlantic ("The Midnight Hour" / "Roll with My Baby") took place in September 1952, although his last Swing Time release ("Misery in My Heart" / "The Snow Is Falling") would not appear until February 1953.

In 1953, "Mess Around" became his first small hit for Atlantic; during the next year he had hits with "It Should've Been Me" and "Don't You Know". Late in 1954, Charles recorded "I've Got a Woman". In 1955, he had hits with "This Little Girl of Mine" and "A Fool for You".

Charles reached the pinnacle of his success at Atlantic with the release of "What'd I Say", which combined gospel, jazz, blues and Latin music. Charles said he wrote it spontaneously while he was performing in clubs with his band. Despite some radio stations banning the song because of its sexually suggestive lyrics, the song became his first top ten pop record.

His contract with Atlantic contract expired in 1959, and signed with ABC-Paramount in November 1959 with a $50,000 annual advance, higher royalties than before and eventual ownership of his master tapes. With "Georgia on My Mind", his first hit single for ABC-Paramount, Charles received national acclaim and four Grammy Awards, and reached #24 in the UK in December 1960. "Hit the Road Jack" was his next chart entry in the UK - peaking at #24 in October 1961.

In 1962, Charles's version of the Don Gibson song "I Can't Stop Loving You" topped the Pop chart for five weeks, stayed at number 1 on the R&B chart for ten weeks, and gave him his only number-one record in the UK, and founded his record label, Tangerine, which ABC-Paramount promoted and distributed. The follow up "You Don't Know Me" reached #9 in the UK in September, and had a UK #13 hit with "Your Cheatin' Heart" in December 1962.

The UK success continued in 1963 with "Don't Set Me Free" (#37)  /   "Take These Chains from My Heart" (#5)  /  "No One" (#35)  /  and "Busted"  (#21)

His chart success began to slide when "No One to Cry To" only managed a #38 position in September 1964, followed by "Makin' Whoopee" at #42 in January 1965.

But chart positions were the least of his problems, as later that year he was arrested for a third time for possession of heroin. He agreed to go to rehab to avoid jail time and eventually kicked his habit at a clinic in Los Angeles. After spending a year on parole, Charles reappeared in the charts in 1966 "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Let's Go Get Stoned", which became his first number-one R&B hit in several years.

His cover version of "Crying Time", originally recorded by country singer Buck Owens, reached number 6 on the US pop chart (UK #50 in February 1966). "Together Again" reached #48 in the UK in April 1966.

In the Summer of1967, he had a top-twenty hit with another ballad, "Here We Go Again" (UK #38), and a UK #44 with "Yesterday" in December of that year. His final UK chart hit was another Beatles song - "Eleanor Rigby" which cracked the Top 40 at #36 in August 1968.

Charles's renewed chart success, however, proved to be short lived, and by the 1970s his music was rarely played on radio stations. In 1974, Charles left ABC Records and recorded several albums on his own label, Crossover Records. A 1975 recording of Stevie Wonder's hit "Living for the City" later helped Charles win another Grammy.

In April 1979, his version of "Georgia on My Mind" was proclaimed the state song of Georgia, and an emotional Charles performed the song on the floor of the state legislature. Although he had notably supported the American Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s, Charles was criticized for performing at the Sun City resort in South Africa in 1981, during an international boycott protesting that country's apartheid policy. He later defended his choice of performing there after insisting that the audience of black and white fans would integrate while he was there.

In 1983, Charles signed a contract with Columbia, and recorded a string of country albums duetting with singers such as George Jones, Chet Atkins, B. J. Thomas, Mickey Gilley, Hank Williams, Jr., Dee Dee Bridgewater, and his longtime friend Willie Nelson, with whom he recorded "Seven Spanish Angels".

In 1985, Charles participated in the famous musical recording and video "We Are the World", a charity single recorded by the supergroup United Support of Artists (USA) for Africa.

In 2003, Charles had successful hip replacement surgery and was planning to go back on tour, until he began suffering from other ailments. He died at his home in Beverly Hills, California of complications resulting from acute liver disease, on June 10, 2004, at the age of 73.


Quote"I Can't Stop Loving You" was written and composed by country singer, Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 30, 1957. It was released in 1958 as the B-side of "Oh, Lonesome Me", becoming a double-sided country hit single. At the time of Gibson's death in 2003, the song had been recorded by more than 700 artists.

Gibson wrote both "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Oh, Lonesome Me" on June 7, 1957, in Knoxville, Tennessee :
"I sat down to write a lost love ballad." said Gibson in a 1975 interview, "After writing several lines to the song, I looked back and saw the line 'I can't stop loving you.' I said, 'That would be a good title,' so I went ahead and rewrote it in its present form."

The song was covered by Ray Charles in 1962, featured on Charles' 'Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music' album, and released as a single. Charles' version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962, for five weeks, and No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in July 1962, staying for two weeks.

The Ray Charles version is noted for his saying the words before the last five lines of the song on the final chorus: "Sing the Song, Children". Choral backing was provided by The Randy Van Horne Singers.

Other Versions include : Kitty Wells (1958)  /  Tommy Zang (1960)  /  Roy Orbison (1960)  /  Warren Smith (1961)  /  Rex Allen (1961)  /  Hank Locklin (1962)  /  Herbert Hunter (1962)  /  Paul Rich (1962)  /  Bobby Vinton (1962)  /  Connie Francis (1962)  /  Bobby Rydell (1962)  /  Rick Nelson (1962)  /  "Odotan sua sittenkin" by Eino Grön (1962)  /  "C'était plus fort que tout" by Sacha Distel (1962)  /  "Non finirò d'amarti" by John Foster (1962)  /  George Maharis (1962)  /  Sue Thompson (1962)  /  Paul Anka (1963)  /  The Ventures (1963)  /  Boots Randolph (1963)  /  Johnny Tillotson (1963)  /  The Mills Brothers (1963)  /  Billy Preston (1963)  /  Billy Vaughn (1963)  /  Count Basie (1963)  /  Floyd Cramer (1964)  /  Eydie Gorme (1964)  /  Peggy Lee (1964)  /  Faron Young (1964)  /  Frank Sinatra (1964)  /  Chet Atkins and Hank Snow (1964)  /  Bobby Goldsboro (1964)  /  The Three Suns (1964)  /  Slim Whitman (1964)  /  Nancy Wilson (1964)  /  Byron Lee & The Dragonaires (1964)  /  Jim Reeves (1965 )  /  Duke Ellington (1965)  /  Tina Turner (1965)  /  Andy Williams (1965)  /  Gene Pitney (1965)  /  Dinah Shore (1965)  /  Tennessee Ernie Ford (1966)  /  Bettye Swann (1967)  /  "Jag ger dej kärleken" by Gunnar Wiklund (1967)  /  Tom Jones (1967)  /  Long John Baldry (1968)  /  Jerry Lee Lewis (1969)  /  Elvis Presley (1969)  /  Kay Starr & Count Basie (1969)  /  Mantovani (1971)  /  Conway Twitty (1972)  /  Solomon Burke (1972)  / Timi Yuro (1981)  /  Millie Jackson (1981)  /  Orion (1981)  /  Tony Christie (1983)  /  Acker Bilk (1983)  /  Engeldink Humperbert (1987)  /  Roger Whittaker (1990)  /  Van Morrison (1991)  /  Foster & Allen (1993)  /  Kylie Minogue, John Farnham, Ray Charles (1997)  /  Bonnie Langford (1999)  /  Eilert Pilarm (2003)  /  Russell Watson (2008)  / Danny McEvoy (2011)  /   petrhamsacz (2012)  /  Madeleine Peyroux (2013)  /  Bryan Adams (2014)  /  Renato Salazar (2014)  /  a robot (2016)  /  an Elvis robot (2017)  /  Dave Monk (2017)  /  Ian Dietrich (2019)  /  Roman Nicolaev (2019)

On This Day :
Quote10 July : Telstar, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, launched
11 July : Pauline McLynn, actress, born in Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland
11 July : 1st transatlantic TV transmission via satellite (Telstar I)
11 July : Cosmonaut Micolaev set then record longest space flight - 4 days
12 July : Rolling Stones 1st performance (Marquee Club, London)
14 July : Borehole for Mont Blanc tunnel finished
15 July : 49th Tour de France; Defending champion Jacques Anquetil of France claims his 3rd Tour victory
20 July : Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 13th Symphony

Gulftastic


machotrouts

I think even without the Fringe this wouldn't have been possible to post about in a 24-hour commentary window. 123 links! Elvis wishes.

Sadly the only thing I can take from the song is, I hate it. Unbelievable that this could have been recorded anywhere near the 1960s. That revoltingly prim backing choir sounds right out of a Vera Lynn song. "The Randy Van Horne singers" indeed. I bet they don't even find that funny.

Another one of Jimmy Savile's Desert Island Discs. I guess my tastes diverge from his more often than not.

On the bright side, Hit the Road Jack pops the fuck off Jack. You wouldn't catch me moaning about the backing vocals on that. It just basically is backing vocals, isn't it. And it bangs.

(I thought this was the first #1 not available on Spotify, but no, I Can't Stop Loving You by Ray Charles just happens to be the 17th top result on Spotify for the search term "ray charles i can't stop loving you". Get the impression it's not supposed to be on Spotify and obscure compilations have smuggled it under the radar.)

purlieu


daf

Unforgettable, that's what he is, it's . . .

139.  Frank Ifield - I Remember You



From : 22 July – 8 September 1962
Weeks : 7
Flip side : I Listen To My Heart

QuoteFrancis Edward Ifield was born in the nude at the age of 0 on 30 November 1937 in Coundon, Warwickshire, England, as one of seven sons to Australian parents Richard Joseph Ifield and Hannah Muriel Ifield. His parents had travelled to England in 1936, where his father was an inventor and engineer who created the Ifield fuel pump, for Lucas Industries, which was used in jet aircraft.

The Ifield family returned to Australia in January 1948 aboard the Orion. They lived near Dural, north-west of Sydney. It was a rural district and he listened to hillbilly music while milking the family's cow. He was given a guitar in 1949 by his grandmother and was self-taught; he also taught himself to yodel, by imitating country stars, including Hank Snow.

The family moved to Beecroft, a Sydney suburb. At the age of 13 he performed his version of Bill Showmet's "Did You See My Daddy Over There?" and appeared on local radio station 2GB's talent quest, Amateur Hour. This track was issued as his first single, in 1953, by Regal Zonophone Records.

His third single was a cover version of "Abdul Abulbul Amir" released in September 1954, which was backed by his own composition, "A Mother's Faith". In 1956 he hosted, Campfire Favourites, a weekly 'Western' programme on local TV station, TCN-9. From that year to late 1957 he recorded six singles with a backing group, Dick Carr Buckaroos, including "Yellow Roses"  /  "Troubled Heart"  /  "Maybe I'll Cry Over You"  /  "Gold Digger Blues"  /  "Molly Darling"  /  and "Yerranderie"

In 1957 he recorded a track, "Whiplash", which was used as the theme song for the British/Australian TV series of the same title from September 1960 to mid-1961. He toured the North Island of New Zealand in early 1959, where his single, "Guardian Angel", reached No. 1 on local radio charts.

In 1959, he recorded some more Rock & Roll flavoured songs with with Billy Artman's Sextet, including : "Chip Off The Old Block"  /  "Sad Am I"  /  "Since You Went Away"  and the two top 30 hits : "True" (September, No. 26) and "Teenage Baby" (November, No. 23).

He returned to the United Kingdom in November 1959, and in January 1960 Frank Ifield's first UK single, "Lucky Devil", reached No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart. But his next six singles were less successful, including  :  "Happy-Go-Lucky Me"  (May 1960)  /  "Gotta Get A Date" (#44 - Aug 1960)  /   "That's The Way It Goes" (Jan 1961)  /  "Life's A Holiday" (May 1961)  /  "Your Time Will Come" (Nov 1961)  /  and "Alone Too Long" (Mar 1962)

In May 1962, he had his first UK number-one hit with "I Remember You", which topped the charts for seven weeks.

Quote"I Remember You" was written by Victor Schertzinger (music) and Johnny Mercer (words), and first released by Jimmy Dorsey in December 1941.

The song was one of several introduced in the film The Fleet's In (1942), sung in the film by Dorothy Lamour.

Australian singer Frank Ifield recorded the song in a yodeling country-music style on 27 May 1962, and his version went to number one for seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart. Known for Ifield's falsetto and a slight yodel, it was the second-highest-selling single of that year in the UK, selling 1.1 million copies. It also reached number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 on the Australian charts.

Other Versions include :  Harry James (1942)  /  Jo Stafford (1944)  /  Charlie Parker (1954)  /  Chet Baker (1955)  /  Ted Heath (1956)  /  Doris Day (1956)  /  Jeri Southern (1956)  /   The Four Freshmen (1956)  /  Anne Shelton (1957)  /  Tony Perkins (1958)  /  Dinah Washington (1959)  /  Ella Fitzgerald (1959)  /  Peggy Lee (1960)  /  Nat King Cole (1961)  /  André Previn (1961)  /  Joni James (1961)  /  Coleman Hawkins (1962)  /  Bobby Vinton (1962)  /    The Beatles (1962)  /  Sarah Vaughan (1962)  /  "Vous souvenez-vous" by  Bob Asklöf (1963)  /  Julie London (1963)  /  Eydie Gorme (1963)  /  Chet Atkins (1964)  /  Slim Whitman (1966)  /  Helen O'Connell (1970)  /  The Lettermen (1975)  /  Glen Campbell (1987)  /  Björk (1993)  /  Kenny Rogers (1994)  /  George Michael (1999)  /  Diana Krall (2001)  /  Tony Bennett (2004)  /  Art Garfunkel (2007)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Jim Donaldson (2013)  /  D.B. (2017)  /  Dave Monk (2017)  / Jaaaazz . . . John Pisano and Bruce Forman (2017)  / . . . Nice! zakk jones (2017)  /  jean-claude jacquemin (2018)

On This Day :
Quote22 July : Steve Albini, musician/producer, born in Pasadena, California
27 July : Martin Luther King Jr. jailed in Albany, Georgia
28 July : Rachel Sweet, singer, born in Akron, Ohio
5 August : Goodbye Norma Jean - Marilyn Monroe, American actress, found dead of a drug overdose at 36
9 August : Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss novelist, dies at 85
10 August : USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
10 August : Dan Donovan, (Big Audio Dynamite / Dreadzone), born, er . .  somewhere in England? . . . probably? (thanks for nothin' useless Wikipedia!)
16 August : Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best to become the actual "best drummer in the Beatles" (yes he is, Jasper Carrott, you lazy comedy slag!)
22 August :  Failed assassination attempt on French president Charles de Gaulle
27 August : Mariner 2 launched to Venus; flyby mission
31 August : Trinidad & Tobago gain independence from Britain
1 September : Earth's population hits 3 billion
1 September : 12,000 die in an earthquake in western Iran
3 September : he, he goings - e. e. cummings, lower case American poet, dies at 67
8 September : Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 'Evening Star'

Captain Z

Not very memorable. A relief that we're still in the era of the 2-minute song, although I think that begins to change soon.

Not that soon. Look at Beatles song lengths

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_(Beatles_album)

All much better songs than this shit, obviously, which must be a war nostalgia cover.

daf

That link is bust ^ (the final bracket's missing when you click it)


daf

Having now found a list of all the Melody Maker number ones, I've decided to bung those in as well as the NME chart toppers - as both seem equally valid, and throw up roughly the same amount of unique corkers and stinkers between them. *

QuoteRecord Retailer was a trade paper that began compiling a record chart in March 1960. Although prior to 1969 there was no official singles chart, Record Retailer is considered by The Official Charts Company to be the canonical source from 10 March 1960 until 15 February 1969 when Retailer and the BBC jointly commissioned the BMRB to compile the charts.

The choice to use Record Retailer as the canonical source for the 1960s has been contentious because NME had the biggest circulation of periodicals in the decade and was more widely followed. One source explains that the reason for using the Record Retailer chart for the 1960s was that it was "the only chart to have as many as 50 positions for almost the entire decade".

The sample size of Record Retailer in the early 1960s was around 30 stores whereas NME and Melody Maker were sampling over 100 stores. In 1969, the first BMRB chart was compiled using postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops.

QuoteMelody Maker compiled its own chart from 1956 until 1988 which was used by many national newspapers. It was the third periodical to compile a chart and rivaled existing compilers NME and Record Mirror. Melody Maker's chart, like NME's, was based on a telephone poll of record stores.

Melody Maker compiled a Top 20 for its first chart using figures from 19 shops on 7 April 1956. During the 1950s, sample sizes ranged from around 14–33 shops and on 30 July 1960 the phoning of record shops was supplemented with postal returns; the first chart to use this method sampled 38 stores from 110 returns.

In its 9 February 1963 edition, Melody Maker disclosed that it received chart returns from 245 retailers and that its chart was audited by auditors supplied by Middlesex County Council.

More chart info here

(For easy identification, the NME number ones continue in brown, while Melody Maker ('MM') info will be highlighted in green.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (though it's also striking how often the NME and MM charts will agree on a "correct" number one that is missed out on the stuffy old Record Retailer chart)

purlieu


McChesney Duntz

The only thing I know, or care to know on the evidence, about Frank Ifield is from the early-Beatlemania-era rip-off LP with, I believe, two Fabs tracks and eight Ifields, with the magnificently terrible title JOLLY WHAT!. Not a UK release, I think it's fair to presume.

EDIT: I stand corrected - four Beatles tunes to Frank's eight (the four that tiny little Vee-Jay Records briefly held the rights to Stateside), with a completely erroneous "On Stage" suffix and a glorious (yet apropos) liner-notes typo, as related here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_What!

kalowski

It makes me think of the Bonzo's "Craig Torso Show"

I dismember you
You're the one who taught me to unscrew
My leg, just a moment ago

machotrouts

Absolutely no complaints here. It's a great song, and no great song can't be improved by contriving a yodel out of it. What a lovely mad thing to do with your voice. It's like a retro autotune effect.

daf

Wanna take it out, stick it in his ear, it's . . .

140.  Elvis Presley - She's Not You



From : 9 – 29 September 1962
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello

The Story So Far :
QuoteWhile the film soundtracks comprised the majority of his recorded output in the Sixties, he also released a few "proper" studio albums, and following the 1960 Gospel album, His Hand in Mine, he released his sixth studio album (and 13th overall), Something for Everybody in June 1961.

Presley entered the familiar Studio B in Nashville on March 12, 1961 and recorded eleven of the tracks for this album in one twelve-hour session, in addition to the single "I Feel So Bad". The single was initially scheduled to be the twelfth track for the album, but as Presley chose it to accompany the title track to the film 'Wild in the Country' as the promotional 45 for the film, it was left off the album and a track that had appeared in the 'Wild in the Country' film (but not released on record), "I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell", recorded in November 1960, became the final track for the album instead.

Other songs included :  "Give Me the Right"  /   "Sentimental Me"  /  "I'm Comin' Home"  /  "In Your Arms"  /  "Put the Blame On Me"  /  "Judy"  /  and "I Want You With Me"

 

Pot Luck with Elvis - his seventh studio album (15th overall), released in June 1962 after the wildly successful Blue Hawaii soundtrack album. Recording sessions took place on March 22, 1961, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, and on June 25 and October 15, 1961, and March 18 and March 19, 1962, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Top LP's chart.

The album is dominated by the songwriting team of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. The tracks "Kiss Me Quick" and "Suspicion" would be pulled off for a Top 40 single almost two years later in April 1964, following a hit cover version of the latter song by Terry Stafford. The rest of the tracks originated from regular Presley contributors such as Don Robertson, Otis Blackwell, and Paul Evans, with Blackwell's "(Such an) Easy Question" also being used as a single release in June 1965.

"That's Someone You Never Forget", with concept and title by Presley, was written in conjunction with Red West and possibly in memory of Elvis' deceased mother, Gladys Presley. The song "Steppin' Out of Line" is an unused track from the sessions for Blue Hawaii.

Other songs included : "Gonna Get Back Home Somehow"  /   "Night Rider"  /  and  "Fountain of Love"

Although 'Pot Luck' easily made the top ten on the album chart, it was vastly outsold by the soundtrack albums 'G.I. Blues' and 'Blue Hawaii', a pattern that would continue to hold for Presley through the mid-1960s. The soundtracks had the advantage of the films as a promotional tool and Colonel Tom Parker went against standard practice in the American record industry by refusing to include hit singles on albums, which would have likely increased sales.

The Story So Further - The 1964 Films :
QuoteOn Sunday, October 13, 1963, Elvis and the film crew traveled to the Big Bear resort in the San Bernadino Mountains of California for location shooting on Elvis' fourteenth film - Kissin' Cousins. Elvis' accommodations were at the Cedar Lake Lodge. Location shooting began on the Monday the 14th and continued until Wednesday November 6, 1963 when the crew returned to the MGM studio in Hollywood.

In this film Elvis played the dual role of look-alike cousins: Josh Morgan, a dark-haired air force officer, and Jodie Tatum, a blond mountain man. When he visits the Tatums, Josh runs into his blond-haired double as well as two beautiful country cousins, Azalea and Selena who both vie for Josh's affections. Josh eventually chooses Azalea but not before pairing off Selena with his best friend. In the meantime, Jodie takes up with Midge, a beautiful but fiery WAG played by Cynthia Pepper.

It was then that his future wife Priscilla Beaulieu, who lived at his home, Graceland, in Memphis first got to be at the studio during the production of one of Elvis' movies. Her visit was cut short when a few days later Ann-Margret, whom Elvis had dated and who was his co-star in the then yet to be released 'Viva Las Vegas' shot earlier that year, was quoted from London saying that she was in love with Elvis

Filming finished and Elvis was released after stills were shot on November 14, 1963. Only a week later Elvis and Ann-Margret would be watching the TV reports of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy at his Bel Air home.

'Kissin' Cousins' opened nationwide on Friday March 6, 1964. It reached #11 on the 'Variety' National Box Office Survey and was ranked #26 for the year. Some theater owners passed out candy kisses to patrons while other had charity sponsored 'kissing booths' in the lobby.

Kissin' Cousins, produced by Sam Katzman, is consistently singled out as Elvis' worst film. Katzman had a notorious reputation for churning out low-budget films on short schedules. Estimates on how long it took to shoot Kissin' Cousins vary from source to source, but all claim it was less than three weeks. The film was budgeted at $800,000, compared with the $4 million budget of Blue Hawaii. To help control expenses, the songs were written in assembly-line fashion. Katzman decided that since the film had a 'country' theme, the songs should be recorded in Nashville rather than Hollywood, where all Elvis' previous soundtrack albums had been recorded.

Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "With the flavor of 'Fun in Acapulco'—and that it was—fairly fresh, Elvis Presley's movie status takes a nosedive in his latest, 'Kissin' Cousins' ... Sam Katzman's production is tired, strained and familiar stuff, even with double-barreled Presley."

Variety wrote, "This new Elvis Presley concoction is a pretty dreary effort, one that certainly won't replenish the popularity of Sir Swivel. Presley needs — and merits — more substantial material than this if his career is to continue to flourish as in the past." One of the review's primary criticisms was "the business of bursting into song out of context in the middle of a scene. This used to be reasonably acceptable to audiences, but now it is beginning to evolve into an anachronism."

Margaret Harford in the Los Angeles Times called the film "a frisky mixture of 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' and 'Li'l Abner.' You get your money's worth before monotony sets in as it does in nearly all the Presley pictures."

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Presley films of only two or three years back set high standards of humour, characterisation and pictorial attractiveness. With its tired hillbilly jokes, dance routines reminiscent of Li'l Abner, over-acting and straggling plot, this is a poor successor to comedies like Follow That Dream. The effort into presenting Presley in two roles in the same shot, and even fighting 'himself', seems strangely wasted, so little importance does the similarity of Josh and Jodie have in the story."


 

Recording sessions for 'Kissin' Cousins' soundtrack album took place at RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 26 and 27, and September 29 and 30, 1963.

Since the sessions for Viva Las Vegas had gone way over budget, released after but completed before Kissin' Cousins, Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker determined for fiscal prudence to have the songs recorded at Studio B, away from Hollywood and its distractions, and its platoon of available on-call musicians. Demand for songs to fill long-playing soundtrack albums, by now a regularity as the EP single was becoming less and less a viable sales item, strained the resources of the stable of Presley songwriters, with five songs alone originating from the team of Giant, Baum and Kaye.

Ten soundtrack songs were recorded by Presley with members of the Nashville A-Team during two evening sessions in September, with two distinct versions by different songwriters of the title track, one (titled "Kissin' Cousins") recorded in Presley's normal voice and the other (titled "Kissin' Cousins (No. 2)") with a mock-hillbilly twang.

The first version of "Kissin' Cousins" would be issued as a single in February 1964, with "It Hurts Me" on the B-side. "Anyone (Could Fall In Love With You)", included in the album, was omitted from the film. "Pappy, Won't You Please Come Home", performed by Glenda Farrell, is included in the film but omitted from the album.

As had happened with soundtrack of Fun in Acapulco, two additional tracks, "Echoes of Love" and "(It's a) Long Lonely Highway" by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were taken from the aborted "lost" album sessions of May 1963, and added here to bring the running order up to twelve tracks.

Other songs included :  "There's Gold in the Mountains"  /  "Catchin' On Fast"  /  "One Boy, Two Little Girls"  /  "Barefoot Ballad"  / and "Once Is Enough"

The album peaked at number six on the Billboard Top LP's chart.

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

Elvis Presley's fifteenth movie, 'Viva Las Vegas' was filmed July 15 - September 11, 1963. Though filmed before Kissin Cousins, it opened three months after it - on June 17, 1964.

Elvis was not restricted to working only for Hal Wallis and Paramount, since the contract he signed with them was not an exclusive one. Elvis also worked for other producers at other studios, including MGM, United Artists, and Allied Artists. Interestingly, the producers from these other studios tended to follow the musical comedy formula that Wallis had developed for Elvis, and occasionally even improving on it. Though Viva Las Vegas follows the familiar formula of the 'Presley travelogue', the inclusion of dynamic Ann-Margret made it a cut above the rest. Shot predominantly in Las Vegas, the film made effective use of such locations as the Flamingo and Tropicana hotels and the drag strip at Henderson, Nevada.

George Sidney was the director and the screenplay was written by Academy Award nominated writer Sally Benson, who also wrote such movies as 'Meet me In St. Louis', The Singing Nun' and 'Anna and the King of Siam'.

In perhaps his best musical comedy, Elvis Presley was finally teamed with a co-star whose singing and dancing matched the intensity of his own performing style. As Rusty Martin, dynamic Ann-Margret perfectly complemented Elvis' character of Lucky Jackson - a race-car driver whose car desperately needs a new engine, who arrives in Las Vegas, and the two stars forge a romance against the backdrop of the Vegas Grand Prix.

George Sidney later said "that was one of those cases where we had no script and we had a commitment. Originally it was something about an Arabian or something... But we turned it around and we wrote the script in about eleven days... We changed the whole thing and decided to do it in Las Vegas."

Viva Las Vegas is perhaps best remembered for the romance between Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. The romance was played out on the front pages of the newspapers with such sensational headlines as 'It Looks Like Romance for Elvis and Ann-Margret' and 'Elvis Wins Love of Ann-Margret'  after the two were noticed attending restaurants and nightclubs together in Las Vegas.

The romance between these two high-profile stars did not survive the production of the film. Rumors abound as to what split them up, ranging from Elvis' relationship with Priscilla Beaulieu to Ann-Margret' hasty confession to the press that she and Elvis were engaged. Though the relationship did not work out in the long term, Elvis and Ann-Margret remained friends for the rest of his life.

Some critics in 1964 were lukewarm about Viva Las Vegas, such as The New York Times, who wrote: "Viva Las Vegas, the new Elvis Presley vehicle, is about as pleasant and unimportant as a banana split."

Variety magazine stated in its review: "Beyond several flashy musical numbers, a glamorous locale, and one electrifying auto race sequence, the production is a pretty trite and 'heavyhanded' affair".

Critical reaction notwithstanding, Viva Las Vegas has become one of Elvis Presley's most popular and iconic films.

 

Recording sessions for 'Viva Las Vegas' took place on July 9, 10 and 11, 1963, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. By then, film and soundtrack obligations were starting to back up on each other, and six weeks after the aborted "lost album" sessions of May 1963, the stable of Presley songwriters was required to come up with another dozen songs for yet another new picture. Song quality took a back seat to the need for quantity, and Presley's filming schedule made it difficult for song publishers to live up to obligations. Memphis Mafia pal Red West had written a "Ray Charles-styled" number, but so little good material had surfaced that an extra session was scheduled on August 30 for an emergency Ray Charles song.

Fifteen songs were recorded of which nine were used in the film. The idea of a full-length soundtrack long-playing album was not considered, which attracted much criticism from various accounts, including Elvis, but only six were issued on disc - two on a single, and four on an EP, consisting of  :
"If You Think I Don't Need You"  /  "I Need Somebody to Lean On"  /  "C'mon Everybody"  /  and "Today, Tomorrow and Forever"

The songs "Night Life", "Do the Vega" (neither of which were used in the film) and a medley "The Yellow Rose of Texas/The Eyes of Texas" were released on 'Elvis Sings Flaming Star' in 1969, while "Santa Lucia" was placed on Elvis for Everyone in 1965. "The Lady Loves Me", and the duets between Presley and Ann-Margret "You're the Boss" and "Today, Tomorrow and Forever", along with Ann-Margret's solo numbers, would wait until later retrospectives to appear on record.

Two songs were released as a single on April 28 - a cover of the Ray Charles rhythm and blues classic from 1959, "What'd I Say", with the film title song "Viva Las Vegas" by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman on the b-side. The strength of both sides caused it to split the difference on the chart, with "What'd I Say" peaking at disappointing #21 and "Viva Las Vegas" faring even worse at #29.

Released by RCA Victor in May 1964 to coincide with the film's premiere, during Beatlemania and the beginning of the British invasion, the soundtrack EP only made #92 in the US, the lowest-charting release of Presley's career to this point. Given that it was a dying format, and the disappointing chart performance of Viva Las Vegas, the company would only issue two more for the remainder of Presley's career.

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

For authenticity in Elvis' sixteenth film, 'Roustabout', a real carnival was employed and set up on land near Thousand Oaks, California.

The film was first announced in May of 1961, but production was delayed until March of 1964. In the time between there were changes. Among them were: that the working title went from 'Right This Way Folks' to 'Roustabout', and that the actress chosen to play opposite Elvis from Mae West to Barbara Stanwyck - Elvis Presley was in awe of his co-star, and worked hard to live up to her professional standards.

Elvis stars as Charlie Rogers, a drifter with a chip on his shoulder who lands a job as a roustabout, or handyman, with a down-and-out carnival operated by strong-willed Maggie Morgan, played by Stanwyck. When Charlie breaks into song on the midway one day, throngs of young people flock to hear him sing.

Having at one time been a carnival worker, the idea for a picture with a carnival background had been that of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' manager. However, Colonel was adamant that the movie 'not cheapen carnival life....that this was a wholesome way of life in which the participants had a legitimate pride'.

Principal photography for 'Roustabout' started on March 20, 1964. On that day an article appeared in a Las Vegas newspaper that would hurt and haunt Elvis for the rest of his life. 'Would you believe that Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole owe part of their current success to Elvis Presley?' was the title of the piece that went on to say, 'These two brilliant Shakespearean-trained actors, winning worldwide acclaim for their performances in 'Becket' might not have had the opportunity to star in the picture, were it not for Sir Swivel Hips'. Quoting producer Hal Wallis, the article indicated that it was the profits from the commercially successful, light-hearted Elvis movies that made it possible for Wallis to fund the production of more 'artistic pictures'. The article was picked up by the news services and printed throughout the country. For Elvis it confirmed his fears that he was never going to be taken seriously as an actor.

'Roustabout' opened on November 11, 1964. As part of the promotion for the film, a special copy of the title song was sent to the theaters. Instructions to play one side with the song and an announcer saying 'coming soon' before the release of the film and then, after the release of the film, play the other side with song and the announcer saying 'now playing'. The idea was to inspire ticket sales in much the same manner as Elvis' character Charlie Rogers did in the film. Today, these promotional singles are sought-after collectibles.

The New York Times writer Howard Thompson complained about "little in the way of dramatic substance" and that the movie wasn't "nearly so trim a package as Fun in Acapulco or Viva Las Vegas," but noted that Elvis was "perfectly cast and surprisingly convincing in his role."

John L. Scott of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a trite, cliche-ridden story that has been thrown together to showcase Elvis Presley and his vocalizing. It serves its purpose well, and probably will prove a box office bonanza for producer Hal Wallis."

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Presley vehicles have sadly deteriorated since the days of Follow That Dream, and this amiable but uninspiring piece does nothing to halt the process, despite curiosity value provided by Barbra Stanwyck, back with Paramount for the first time in ten years."

 

Recording sessions took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California, on March 2 and 3, and April 29, 1964 for 'Roustabout' - his ninth soundtrack album. The album would be Presley's final soundtrack to reach number one and his last number one album until 1973's 'Aloha From Hawaii: Via Satellite'.

On March 3, Elvis recorded the originally commissioned version of the title song for the film "Roustabout"  by longtime Presley collaborators Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, but it was rejected by movie producer Hal Wallis, the lunatic, and a weedy rinky-dink song (with the same title) - "Roustabout" - written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye was featured in it's place. Elvis recorded his vocals for that second song on April 29, 1964 after the principal photography was shot, but who cares about that, let's get back to the original version!

An off hand remark from songwriter Winfield Scott to a journalist in New Jersey in 2003, started the ball rolling on discovering this lost track. An acetate of Elvis' long-thought-lost Blackwell/Scott song was found in Winfield Scott's basement and RCA first released it as a bonus track on the 2003 Elvis 2nd To None album. "It's very gratifying for me to finally have this song be released," said Winfield Scott. "I hope that it brings Elvis fans as much joy as it did for me and Otis when we originally wrote it. Enjoy!"

Re-titled 'I'm a Roustabout' to differentiate it from the one used in the movie, it turned out to be an ABSOLUTE FLIPPIN' CORKER!!, and one of the best things he ever recorded!

Eleven songs were recorded for the twenty-minute soundtrack LP, including :  "Little Egypt"  /   "Hard Knocks"  /  "It's a Wonderful World"  /  "One Track Heart"  /  and "Wheels on My Heels"

Quote"She's Not You" was written by Doc Pomus in collaboration with Leiber and Stoller, and recorded on March 19, 1962.

It reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No. 1 in the UK, where it stayed for three weeks. It was also the first song on the new Irish Charts to reach number one on October 5, 1962.

Other recordings include : Les Carle (1962)  / "Du schaust mich an" by Gerd Böttcher (1962)  /   George Killebrew (1962)  /  "Softicemaskinen" by Bamses Venner (1976)  /  Jack Jersey (1979)  /  "Lada tel Hønefoss" by Vazelina Bilopphøggers (1986)  /  Peter Hofmann (1992)  /  Micke Muster (1993)  /  Ty Tender (1995)  /  Eilert Pilarm (1996)  /  Willie Logan (1996)  /  The Graceland Choir (2001)  /  Aaron Sutcliffe (2002)  /  Little Gerhard (2002)  /  Pete Anderson (2004)  /  Christer Sjögren (2005)  / Svenne Hedlund (2010)  /  The ever reliable Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Chris Isaak (2011)  /  Merrill Osmond (2012)  /  kirbyscovers (2013)  /  The 69 Cats with Wanda Jackson (2014)  /  George Possley (2014)  /  Clive Aspinall (2016)  /  jean-claude jacquemin (2017)

On This Day :
Quote11 September : Beatles record "Love Me Do" & "PS I Love You" with Andy "still not even the best drummer in The Beatles" White on drums
18 September : USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
24 September : Jack Dee, comedian, born in Bromley, Kent
26 September : Tracey Thorn, (Everything But The Girl), born in Brookmans Park, Hatfield, Hertfordshire
29 September : US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
29 September : Launch of Alouette 1, 1st Canadian satellite (on US Delta rocket)
29 September : "My Fair Lady" closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 2,715 performances

purlieu


Daf, according to a post in the UKMix thread you link to, Record Retailer was the only chart that used Woolworths sales data and this made its No. 1s trend more to MOR. See for example the failure of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields to make No. 1.

daf

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on August 05, 2019, 05:14:44 PM
See for example the failure of Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields to make No. 1.

Cards on the table here, the REAL reason I've added the Melody Maker Number Ones to my already unwieldy backpack of Pinnacle Pop, is simply so I can include the Strawberry Fields / Penny Lane single.

I think it's increasingly clear that the Record Retailer chart, with its survey of 30 shops, was a bit of a dodgy pop barometer, but why wasn't "SF/PL"  a number 1 in the cool as fudge NME chart? . . . Well, it turns out, there's a possible explanation for that :
Quotethe NME originally had a curious practice of splitting some double 'A' sides into two separate entries. For example, Elvis' 'Rock-a-Hula Baby' / 'Can't Help Falling In Love' was the number one for a month in other charts but only achieved two separate top ten entries (at number 2 and number 3) in NME's chart.
https://www.sixtiescity.net/60trivia/60charts.htm

So they effectively gave half the total sales to Penny Lane and the other half to Strawberry Fields - counting each as separate songs, meaning they ended up occupying a ridiculous "joint number 2" slot! *

The good old Melody Maker chart didn't do this - counting the Double A-sides, sensibly, as just "all one record" - and, as a result, was a proper UK number one for 3 glorious psychedelic weeks in March 1967!

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* They'd had two double A-side number ones previously in 1965 and 1966 - (Day Tripper/We Can Work it Out & Eleanor Rigby/ Yellow Submarine) - but they didn't have to compete with an Engelbert-sized competition at the time - which is probably the tipping factor here)

My source shows the NME listing it as a Double A but initially not only behind Engelbert but also Petula fucking Clark, which was on its way down

https://www.skidmore.edu/~gthompso/britrock/NME/nme6702.html

https://www.skidmore.edu/~gthompso/britrock/NME/nme6703.html

Did the public have a collective brainfart* or was PL/SFF just too radical for most singles buyers except those in the cool MM sampled shops? Perhaps also it's too big a leap from Yellow Submarine, which softened the impact of Eleanor Rigby?

*Remember this was before Radio 1 so in some ways the #1 slot was being held hostage by the 1967 equivalent of Radio 2 tastes.

Elvis is asking from beyond the grave for write ups for 64a and 106a MM only #1s from the above link

There are also some that only made #1 on MM and Record Mirror in the 50s. However the NME was king chart then so is reliable.

daf

Corwumph! There goes my lazy afternoon of skinny-dipping with Una Stubbs!

Think I'll add the 1950's MM number ones to the end of the 50's thread, and I'll pop the rest in here -

Stay tuned! . . .

OK - here's the link to the first one : 64b (MM 18.) "Elvis Presley - Party" in the 1950s thread.

daf

Actually . . .

I think I'll put ALL the extra Melody Maker No.1s we've missed on the end of the 1950's thread (including the 1960s ones), so they'll be all together in one fluff-covered boiled sweetie 'optional extra' lump, rather than having them in here muddling up the timeline.

I'll just post a link to them in this thread when they're ready - and any chat about them can go in the 1950s thread.