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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

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daf


machotrouts

I like this approach – instead of leaving the band and going solo, leaving most of the band and going duo. The original Appleton.

The riff reminds me of the Worms theme tune. Mind you I've heard the Worms theme tune so many times that most things remind me of it. I have had sex to it on at least two separate occasions that I can recall.

daf

More beans, Vicar?, it's . . .

147.  Frank Ifield - Wayward Wind



From : 17 February – 9 March 1963
Weeks : 3
Flip side : I'm Smiling Now

QuoteFrank Ifield had his first UK number-one hit with a cover version of Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer 1941 composition, "I Remember You" in May 1962, which topped the charts for seven weeks. Known for Ifield's falsetto and a slight yodel, it was the second-highest-selling single of that year in the UK, and became the seventh million-selling single.

His next single was a double A-side: "Lovesick Blues" and "She Taught Me How to Yodel" in October 1962. "Lovesick Blues" (made famous by Hank Williams) was treated in an upbeat "Let's Twist Again" style. "She Taught Me How to Yodel" was a virtuoso piece of yodelling with the final verse – entirely yodelling – at double-speed. It also peaked at No. 1 in the UK, No. 2 in Australia, and reached No. 44 in the US Billboard Hot 100.

He had been told by his management not to yodel because it would brand him. Nevertheless, he sang "She Taught Me to Yodel" as an encore for a Royal Variety Performance in November 1962, at the specific request of the Queen Mother for a yodelling song.

His next single, "Wayward Wind", made him the first UK-based artist to reach No. 1 three times in succession on the UK charts. The only previous artist to have done so was Elvis Presley. In Australia it peaked at No. 16.

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

In America The Beatles recording success got off to something of a false start. Their first two US single releases on the Vee-Jay label, Please Please Me and From Me To You and the subsequent album Introducing The Beatles met with little response. By contrast Frank's record successes in Britain were repeated in the USA. Frank's records were released initially on Capitol but his producer Norrie Paramor became none too pleased with their promotion and thought that they would be better off being with a smaller, but more active label. Vee-Jay released the LP Meet Frank Ifield and it was a great success.

The Beatles had travelled in the opposite direction - having left VJ for Capitol Records in the US. Early in 1964, Capitol released Meet The Beatles containing 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and their success was assured. When Vee-Jay realised that they had lost a successful act they quickly made several attempts to maximise the money-making potential of the tracks they still had the rights to. The first of these was released in February 1964 under the title of Jolly What! The Beatles and Frank Ifield On Stage. The most curious aspect of the title was that none of the tracks were live recordings. In fact, it consisted of the four sides that made up The Beatles first two singles and eight of Frank's songs including all his American hits to that date.

The original pressing has a drawing of a chubby English gentleman complete with handlebar moustache, apparently wearing a Beatle wig and the latest in 'fab gear'. The sleeve notes were no less unusual. After announcing that :
"Without question the Beatles and Frank Ifield are the most popular recording stars in Europe", it goes on to say with rather an unusual turn of phrase "... it is with a good deal of pride and pleasure that this COPULATION has been presented".

 

However, just before Vee Jay's publishing rights were about to expire on 10 October 1964 they changed the sleeve cover to a drawing of the Beatles. (This version, titled The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage also listed all four Beatles' tracks on the front cover, but none of the eight contributed by Ifield). Probably less than one hundred copies were pressed, making it one of the rarest Beatles albums. Three sealed stereo copies were discovered in 1976, selling for $600, $900 and $1,800. One of the three was re-sold in 1995 for $22,000.

Until the release of the Beatles' 1973 compilation album, The Beatles '1962-1966' ('The Red Album'), Jolly What! was the only American Beatles album to include "From Me to You".

Quote"The Wayward Wind" was written by Stanley Lebowsky (music) and Herb Newman (lyrics).

In 1956, versions were recorded by Gogi Grant, Tex Ritter, and Jimmy Young, of which Grant's was the biggest seller in the United States and Ritter's in the United Kingdom.

A new recording was made by Frank Ifield, which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in early 1963.

Other Versions include :  Patti Page (1956)  /  "Und es weht der Wind" by Werner Overheidt (1956)  /  Bruce Low (1956)  /  Bob Martin (1956)  /  Shirley Bassey (1956)  /  Gene Vincent with The Blue Caps (1958)  /  Carl Mann (1960)  /  Sam Cooke (1960)  /  The Wilburn Brothers (1960)  /  The Centennials (1961)  /  Pat Boone (1961)  /  Bobby Comstock and The Counts (1961)  /  The Everly Brothers (1961)  /  Patsy Cline (1961)  /  Slim Whitman (1962)  /  Rikki Henderson (1963)  /  Eddy Arnold (1963)  /  Willie Mitchell (1963)  /  The Topsiders (1963)  /  The Browns (1964)  /  Hank Snow (1965)  /  Teresa Brewer (1966)  /  Connie Francis (1967)  /  Frankie Laine (1968)  /  Mary McCaslin (1977)  /  Connie Smith (1978)  /  Crystal Gayle (1978)  /  James Galway (1982)  /  Boxcar Willie (1983)  /  Neil Young With Denise Draper (1985)  /  Anne Murray (1993)  /  Levellers (2008-ish?)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  (Happy Birthday Danny!)The Waterboys (2013)  /  Wallace Berry (2013)  /  Alisha Luymes (2015)  /  Christopher Bird (2016)  /  Stephanie Douglass (2018)   

On This Day :
Quote19 February : Seal, singer, born Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel in Paddington, London
19 February : USSR informs JFK it is withdrawing several thousand troops from Cuba
20 February : Ian Brown, (Stone Roses), born in Warrington, Cheshire
21 February : Ranking Roger, (The Beat), born Roger Charlery in Birmingham
23 February : Luciano Pavarotti makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera in "La Traviata"
23 February : Rob Collins, (The Charlatans), born in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire
5 March : Patsy Cline, country singer, dies in a plane crash at 30

The Culture Bunker

It's often a bit strange, somehow, when you see musicians from what appears to be very different eras born within days of each other - Ranking Roger and Rob Collins, in this case. In my younger days, I used to take solace from the likes of Collins, who didn't "make it" until their late 20s... now that I'm 38, I'm not sure there's many examples to pin any lingering hopes on.

famethrowa

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on August 19, 2019, 02:18:55 PM
It's often a bit strange, somehow, when you see musicians from what appears to be very different eras born within days of each other - Ranking Roger and Rob Collins, in this case

The strangest one is Sir Cliff being younger than Lennon. Impossible, I say!

purlieu

Three weeks at number one, that. And people complain about the charts these days!

It's like a Geoff Love Big Western Theme, but not as good. The drums are flown in.


DrGreggles


Staggering fact about the choices made by Capitol's Dave Dexter:

QuoteBut then, months later when he has to choose between Frank Ifield's "I'm Confession" and the Beatles "She Loves You" he chooses Ifield.

http://www.beatlelinks.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2051

However, Dexter had earlier turned down Ifield's "I Remember You" because he hated harmonicas being used on pop records, so the Ifield song became a massive US hit for Vee Jay.

EMI eventually stopped licencing singles to Vee Jay because it failed to pay royalties on time. That's why 'She Loves You' ended up on Swan.



daf


machotrouts

Not enough yodelling in this one. The Queen Mother was right to demand more yodelling. Good taste for a Nazi! Thinking of becoming racist! Who the FUCK are the Beatles.

daf

"Where are we going, fellas?"
To the Top, Johnny!
"And where's that, fellas?" 
To the Toppermost of the Poppermost, Johnny!, it's . . .

147b. (NME 147.) The Beatles - Please Please Me
          + (MM 95.) The Beatles - Please Please Me
     


From :  NME 22 February - 7 March 1963 (2)
From :  MM 2 - 15 March 1963 (2)
Weeks : 3
B-side : Ask Me Why
bonus : Live

The Story So Far : The Quarrymen
QuoteJohn Winston Lennon was born on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital, to Julia (née Stanley) and Alfred Lennon.

Alfred was a merchant seaman of Irish descent who was often away from home but sent regular pay cheques to 9 Newcastle Road, Liverpool, where Lennon lived with his mother; the cheques stopped when he went absent without leave in February 1944. When he eventually came home six months later, he offered to look after the family, but Julia, by then pregnant with another man's child, rejected the idea. After her sister Mimi complained to Liverpool's Social Services twice, Julia gave her custody of Lennon.

In July 1946, Lennon's father visited her and took his son to Blackpool, secretly intending to emigrate to New Zealand with him. Julia followed them – with her partner at the time, Bobby Dykins – and after a heated argument, his father forced the five-year-old to choose between them. In one account of this incident, Lennon twice chose his father, but as his mother walked away, he began to cry and followed her. According to author Mark Lewisohn, however, Lennon's parents agreed that Julia should take him and give him a home. A witness who was there that day, Billy Hall, has said that the dramatic portrayal of a young John Lennon being forced to make a decision between his parents is inaccurate.

Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence, Lennon lived at Mendips, 251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton, with Aunt Mimi and her husband George Toogood Smith, who had no children of their own. His aunt purchased volumes of short stories for him, and his uncle, a dairyman at his family's farm, bought him a mouth organ and engaged him in solving crossword puzzles. Julia visited Mendips on a regular basis, and when John was 11 years old, he often visited her at 1 Blomfield Road, Liverpool, where she taught him the banjo.



In 1956, Julia bought John his first guitar. The instrument was an inexpensive Gallotone Champion acoustic for which she lent her son five pounds and ten shillings on the condition that the guitar be delivered to her own house and not Mimi's, knowing well that her sister was not supportive of her son's musical aspirations. Mimi was sceptical of his claim that he would be famous one day, and she hoped that he would grow bored with music, often telling him, "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it."

Lennon failed his O-level examinations and was accepted into the Liverpool College of Art after his aunt and headmaster intervened. At the college, he started wearing Teddy Boy clothes and was threatened with expulsion for his behaviour.

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

Inspired by the Skiffle craze, Lennon and Quarry Bank High School friend Eric Griffiths decided to form a group in November 1956.  As Griffiths already knew how to play the banjo, Lennon's mother showed them how to tune the top four strings of their guitars to the same notes as a banjo, and taught them the chords of D, C, and D7, and how to play "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino.

They practised at Lennon's aunt's house (Mendips) at 251 Menlove Avenue where Lennon lived, or at Griffiths' house in Halewood Drive. They learned how to play "Rock Island Line", "Pick a Bale of Cotton", and later "That's All Right" and "Mean Woman Blues".

This initial line-up consisted of Lennon and Griffiths on guitars, Pete Shotton on washboard, and school friend Bill Smith on tea chest bass. The group, initially called the Blackjacks, quickly changed their name to The Quarrymen. Both Lennon and Shotton have been credited with coining the name Quarrymen after a line in their school's song: 'Quarrymen, old before our birth. Straining each muscle and sinew.'

Smith's tenure in the band was extremely short, and was replaced in quick succession by Nigel Walley, Ivan Vaughan, and Len Garry throughout late 1956 and early 1957. Also during this period, drummer Colin Hanton and banjo player Rod Davis joined the group. This group of Lennon, Griffiths, Shotton, Garry, Hanton, and Davis formed the first stable line-up of the group.

The group first rehearsed in Shotton's house on Vale Road, but because of the noise, his mother told them to use the corrugated air-raid shelter in the back garden. The band also often visited Lennon's mother at 1 Blomfield Road, listening to her collection of rock and roll records by Elvis, Shirly and Lee's "Let the Good Times Roll", and Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula" which they added to their repertoire. After his tenure on tea-chest bass, Walley became the group's manager. He managed to secure the group several paid engagements throughout the spring of 1957, including one at The Cavern Club. A Jazz club at the time, The Cavern didn't allow Rock & Roll, but tolerated skiffle as it was considered an offshoot of Jazz.

On 6 July 1957, The Quarrymen played at the St. Peter's Church Rose Queen garden fête in Woolton. At 4:15, they played on a permanent stage in the field behind the church, before a display by the City of Liverpool Police Dogs. They were playing "Come Go with Me" when Paul McCartney arrived, and in the Scout hut after the set, Ivan Vaughan introduced McCartney to Lennon, who chatted for a few minutes before the band set up in the church hall for their performance at that evening's "Grand Dance". McCartney demonstrated how he tuned his guitar and then sang Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock",  "Be-Bop-A-Lula", and a medley of Little Richard songs.



Vaughan and McCartney left before the evening show which started at 8 o'clock. Bob Molyneux, a young schoolmate from Quarry Bank, recorded part of the performance, which included versions of Lonnie Donegan's "Puttin' on the Style" and Elvis' "Baby Let's Play House".

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

James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary Patricia (née Mohin), had qualified to practise as a nurse. His father, James ("Jim") McCartney, was absent from his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer firefighter during World War II.

McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton. In 1953, with only three others out of ninety examinees, he passed the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute, a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school. In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his suburban home in Speke. The two quickly became friends; McCartney later admitted: "I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger."

On 31 October 1956, when McCartney was 14, his mother died.

Paul : "My mum dying when I was fourteen was the big shock in my teenage years. She died of cancer, I learnt later. I didn't know then why she had died."

"My mum wanted us to speak properly and aspired to speak the Queen's English. One of my most guilty feelings is about picking her up once on how she spoke. She pronounced 'ask' with a long 'a' sound. And I said, 'Oh – "aarsk"! That's "ask", mum,' and I really took the piss out of her. When she died, I remember thinking, 'You arsehole, why did you do that? Why did you have to put your mum down?' I think I've just about got over it now, doctor."

"My mother's death broke my dad up. That was the worst thing for me, hearing my dad cry. I'd never heard him cry before. It was a terrible blow to the family. You grow up real quick, because you never expect to hear your parents crying. You expect to see women crying, or kids in the playground, or even yourself crying – and you can explain all that. But when it's your dad, then you know something's really wrong and it shakes your faith in everything. But I was determined not to let it affect me. I carried on. I learnt to put a shell around me at that age. There was none of this sitting at home crying – that would be recommended now, but not then."


McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons. However, McCartney preferred to learn by ear.

McCartney received a nickel-plated trumpet from his father for his fourteenth birthday, but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg, McCartney traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith (model 17) acoustic guitar, since he wanted to be able to sing while playing. He found it difficult to play guitar right-handed, but after noticing a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert and realising that Whitman played left-handed, he reversed the order of the strings.

McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on the Zenith, and composed another early tune that would become "When I'm Sixty-Four" on the piano. American rhythm and blues influenced him, and Little Richard was his schoolboy idol; "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public, at a Butlin's Filey holiday camp talent competition.

At the age of fifteen on 6 July 1957, McCartney met John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton.

Two weeks later, Shotton encountered McCartney cycling through Woolton, and conveyed Lennon's casual invitation for him to join the Quarrymen. When McCartney returned from holiday, he began rehearsing with the Quarrymen, playing songs such as "Bye Bye Love" and "All Shook Up", which Lennon and the group had been trying to learn, without success.

McCartney made his debut with the band on 18 October 1957 at a Conservative Club social held at the New Clubmoor Hall in the Norris Green section of Liverpool. To the irritation of the other group members, McCartney endlessly practised the lead guitar intro to "Raunchy".



During this period, the group almost entirely excised skiffle from their repertoire, focusing on covers of songs by rock and roll singers. Around this time, Lennon and McCartney both started writing songs influenced by Buddy Holly including Lennon's "Hello Little Girl". Both were impressed with each other's efforts, and decided to start writing together.

The group needed a lead guitarist to accommodate their new rock-focused repertoire, so McCartney recommended his school friend George.

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

George Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool on 25 February 1943. He was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargrove Harrison and Louise (née French). Harold was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the White Star Line, and Louise was a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent.

According to future squeeze Patti Boyd, Harrison's mother was particularly supportive: "All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognized that nothing made George quite as happy as making music."

Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby, Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt and Hoagy Carmichael; by the 1950s, Carl Perkins and Lonnie Donegan were significant influences. In early 1956 he heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" playing from a nearby house, and the song piqued his interest in rock and roll.

He often sat at the back of the class drawing guitars in his schoolbooks, and later commented, "I was totally into guitars." Harrison cited Slim Whitman as another early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on television. Guitars were definitely coming in."

Although Harold Harrison was apprehensive about his son's interest in pursuing a music career, in 1956 he bought George a Dutch Egmond flat top acoustic guitar, and one of his father's friends taught Harrison how to play "Whispering", "Sweet Sue" and "Dinah", and, inspired by Donegan's music, Harrison formed a skiffle group called the Rebels with his brother Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly. On the bus to school, Harrison met Paul McCartney, who also attended the Liverpool Institute, and the pair bonded over their shared love of music.

In March 1958, he auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band. McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental "Raunchy". He began socialising with the group, filling in on guitar as needed, and then became accepted as a member.



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

Percy Phillips operated a studio called Phillips' Sound Recording Services at 38 Kensington, Liverpool, between the kitchen and a front room that served as an electrical goods shop. The Quarrymen booked a recording session on 12 July 1958 - They first recorded the McCartney original, "In Spite of All the Danger", followed by Buddy Holly's "That'll Be the Day". When the recording was finished, Phillips handed the group a fragile 78rpm record, which was passed around the band for one week each, or lent out to friends.

Soon after the recording session, Hanton had a fight with the rest of the group and quit. Lowe too lost contact with the group after leaving Liverpool Institute, leaving the Quarrymen as just a trio of guitarists: Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison.

On 15 July 1958, Lennon's mother was struck and killed by a car while she was walking home after visiting Mendips (Aunt Mimi's house), dealing him a devastating emotional blow.

Nigel Walley (John's friend) : "I went to call for John that evening but his Aunt Mimi told me he was out. Mimi was at the gate with John's mum, who was about to leave. We stood chatting and John's mum said 'Well, you have the privilege of escorting me to the bus stop!' I said 'That will do me fine. I'll be happy to do that.'
We walked down Menlove Avenue and I turned off to go up Vale Road, where I lived. I must have been about 15 yards up the road when I heard a car skidding. I turned round to see John's mum going through the air. I rushed over but she had been killed instantly."


Lennon's loss became a point of connection with McCartney, whose mother, Mary, had died when he was 14.

Paul : "That became a very big bond between John and me, because he lost his mum early on, too. We both had this emotional turmoil which we had to deal with and, being teenagers, we had to deal with it very quickly. We both understood that something had happened that you couldn't talk about – but we could laugh about it, because each of us had gone through it. It wasn't OK for anyone else. We could both laugh at death – but only on the surface. John went through hell, but young people don't show grief – they'd rather not. Occasionally, once or twice in later years, it would hit in. We'd be sitting around and we'd have a cry together; not often, but it was good."

The group remained mostly inactive throughout the summer, as Lennon took up a job in a restaurant at the Liverpool Airport. McCartney and Harrison, meanwhile, went on holiday hitchhiking in Wales, playing with a local skiffle group called the Vikings.

In the autumn of 1958, the group had a chance to audition for Carroll Levis. For the 'Star Search' audition, the group changed their name to Johnny and the Moondogs. The group performed Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" to positive reception, but were unable to stay until the end of the competition to receive the results. As they were leaving, Lennon saw a cutaway electric guitar by the stage door, picked it up and walked off with it, later saying that the trip "wasn't a total loss."

Following their Star Search audition, Johnny and the Moondogs changed their name to the bloody awful 'Japage 3' (combining letters from each of the member's names: John, Paul, and George), but bookings for the group dried up, and Harrison began a stint as rhythm guitarist in the Les Stewart Quartet. By May, Japage 3 was defunct, although Lennon and McCartney continued to write songs together.



In the summer of 1959, Mona Best decided to open a club in her cellar, and offered the Les Stewart Quartet a residency if they would help convert the cellar. Harrison and Ken Brown were fired from the Quartet for missing a show. Needing a band for the club, Harrison recruited Lennon and McCartney, and they returned to calling themselves the Quarrymen. After helping Best finish converting the cellar, the new four guitarist line-up of the Quarrymen (Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Brown) opened the Casbah Coffee Club on 29 August 1959.

In January, Brown grew ill and was unable to play the show. Best, however, insisted that the Quarrymen still pay Brown, but Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison refused; the incident resulted in the loss of their residency at the Casbah and Brown's departure from the group. Shortly after, however, Lennon convinced fellow art school student Stuart Sutcliffe to purchase a bass guitar and join the group.

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

Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was born on 23 June 1940 at the Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh, Scotland, and after his family moved to England, he was brought up at 37 Aigburth Drive in Liverpool. He attended Park View Primary School, Huyton (1946–1951), and Prescot Grammar School from 4 September 1951 to 1956.

During his first year at the Liverpool College of Art, Sutcliffe worked as a bin man on the Liverpool Corporation's waste collection trucks. John Lennon was introduced to Sutcliffe by Bill Harry, a mutual friend, when all three were studying at the Liverpool College of Art. According to Lennon, Sutcliffe had a "marvellous art portfolio" and was a very talented painter who was one of the "stars" of the school. He helped Lennon to improve his artistic skills, and with others, worked with him when Lennon had to submit work for exams.

Sutcliffe shared a flat at 9 Percy Street, Liverpool, before being evicted and moving to Hillary Mansions at 3 Gambier Terrace, opposite the new Anglican cathedral in the rundown area of Liverpool 8, with bare lightbulbs and a mattress on the floor in the corner. Lennon moved in with Sutcliffe in early 1960. Sutcliffe and his flatmates painted the rooms yellow and black, which their landlady did not appreciate. On another occasion the tenants, needing to keep warm, burned the flat's furniture.



After talking to Sutcliffe one night at the Casbah Coffee Club (owned by Pete Best's mother, Mona Best), Lennon and McCartney persuaded Sutcliffe to buy a Höfner President 500/5 model bass guitar on hire-purchase from Frank Hessey's Music Shop.

In May 1960, Sutcliffe joined Lennon, McCartney, and George Harrison. Sutcliffe's fingers would often blister during long rehearsals, as he had never practised long enough for his fingers to become calloused, even though he had previously played acoustic guitar. He started acting as a booking agent for the group, and they often used his Gambier Terrace flat as a rehearsal room.

In early 1960, the Quarrymen returned to Phillips' Sound Recording Services to record Lennon's new original song "One After 909", although this recording does not survive. Around the same time, the three made a rehearsal tape at McCartney's home. Harrison was absent, and the tape features several jams and original songs, including "You'll Be Mine", "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and the McCartney instrumental "Cayenne".

The four disliked the Quarrymen name, and went through several others during this period, including Los Paranoias. Eventually Sutcliffe suggested a new name based on Buddy Holly's band 'The Crickets' : "The Beatals".

They used this name until May 1960 , when they became 'The Silver Beetles', before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the 'Silver Beatles', which was finally shortened to The Beatles.

QuoteOn October 1962, The Beatles released their debut single : "Love Me Do", backed by "P.S. I Love You".

Primarily written by McCartney in 1958–1959 while truant from school at age 16. John Lennon contributed the middle eight (or "bridge").

John : Love Me Do is Paul's song. He wrote it when he was a teenager. Let me think. I might have helped on the middle eight, but I couldn't swear to it. I do know he had the song around, in Hamburg, even, way, way before we were songwriters.

Paul : "'Love Me Do' was completely co-written ... It was just Lennon and McCartney sitting down without either of us having a particularly original idea. We loved doing it, it was a very interesting thing to try and learn to do, to become songwriters. I think why we eventually got so strong was we wrote so much through our formative period. 'Love Me Do' was our first hit, which ironically is one of the two songs that we control, because when we first signed to EMI they had a music publishing company called Ardmore and Beechwood which took the two songs, 'Love Me Do' and 'P.S. I Love You', and in doing a deal somewhere along the way we were able to get them back."

Although The Beatles started out by performing cover versions, as Lennon and McCartney grew as songwriters they began introducing their own compositions into their live shows.

John : "Introducing our own numbers started round Liverpool and Hamburg. Love Me Do, one of the first ones we wrote, Paul started when he must have been about 15. It was the first one we dared to do of our own. This was quite a traumatic thing because we were doing such great numbers of other people's, of Ray Charles and Little Richard and all of them. It was quite hard to come in singing Love Me Do. We thought our numbers were a bit wet. But we gradually broke that down and decided to try them."

Ringo : "For me that was more important than anything else. That first piece of plastic. You can't believe how great that was. It was so wonderful. We were on a record!"

Paul : "In Hamburg we clicked. At the Cavern we clicked. But if you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with Love Me Do. That was the one. It gave us somewhere to go."



"Love Me Do" was recorded by the Beatles on three different occasions with three different drummers at EMI Studios at 3 Abbey Road in London :
- 6 June 1962 : The Beatles audition for George Martin with Pete Best on drums.
- 4 September 1962 with Ringo Starr on drums.
- 11 September 1962 with session drummer Andy White on drums, and Ringo Starr on tambourine.

On 4 September 1962, The Beatles (with new drummer Ringo Starr)  arrived at EMI Studios early in the afternoon, and began rehearsing six songs including : "Please Please Me", "Love Me Do" and a song originally composed for Adam Faith by Mitch Murray called "How Do You Do It?" which George Martin was insisting, in the apparent absence of any stronger original material, would be the group's first single.

Martin came very close to issuing "How Do You Do It?" as the Beatles' first single before settling instead on "Love Me Do", but it needed to be re-recorded with a different drummer as he was unhappy with the 4 September drum sound.

Ron Richards, placed in charge of the 11 September re-recording session in George Martin's absence, booked Andy White whom he had used in the past. Starr was expecting to play, and was very disappointed to be dropped for only his second Beatles recording session

Ringo : "On my first visit in September we just ran through some tracks for George Martin. We even did 'Please Please Me'. I remember that, because while we were recording it I was playing the bass drum with a maraca in one hand and a tambourine in the other. I think it's because of that that George Martin used Andy White, the 'professional', when we went down a week later to record Love Me Do. The guy was previously booked, anyway, because of Pete Best. George didn't want to take any more chances and I was caught in the middle. I was devastated that George Martin had his doubts about me. I came down ready to roll and heard, 'We've got a professional drummer.' He has apologised several times since, has old George, but it was devastating—I hated the bugger for years; I still don't let him off the hook!"

Paul : "George [Martin] got his way and Ringo didn't drum on the first single. He only played tambourine. I don't think Ringo ever got over that. He had to go back up to Liverpool and everyone asked, 'How did it go in the Smoke?' We'd say, 'B-side's good,' but Ringo couldn't admit to liking the A-side, not being on it"

Early pressings of the single (issued with a red Parlophone label) are the 4 September version—minus tambourine—with Starr playing drums. But later pressings of the single (on a black Parlophone label), and the version used for the Please Please Me album, are the 11 September re-record with Andy White on drums and Starr on tambourine.

Released on 5 October 1962, it peaked at #17 in the UK charts.

QuoteThe follow-up, Please Please Me, was originally written by John Lennon at his Aunt Mimi's house in Menlove Avenue, Liverpool, as a slow, bluesy song in the style of Roy Orbison. Producer George Martin persuaded The Beatles to rearrange the song, which duly became their first number one single.

John 1963 : "We'd had a top 30 entry with 'Love Me Do' and we really thought we were on top of the world. Then came 'Please Please Me' – and WHAM! We tried to make it as simple as possible. Some of the stuff we've written in the past has been a bit way-out, but we aimed this one straight at the hit parade."

John 1980 : "Please Please Me is my song completely. It was my attempt at writing a Roy Orbison song, would you believe it? I wrote it in the bedroom in my house at Menlove Avenue, which was my auntie's place... I remember the day and the pink coverlet on the bed and I heard Roy Orbison doing Only The Lonely or something. That's where that came from. And also I was always intrigued by the words of 'Please, lend me your little ears to my pleas' – a Bing Crosby song. I was always intrigued by the double use of the word 'please'. So it was a combination of Bing Crosby and Roy Orbison."

John 1963 : "We almost abandoned it as the b-side of Love Me Do. We changed our minds only because we were so tired the night we did Love Me Do. We'd been going over it a few times and when we came to the question of the flipside, we intended using Please Please Me. Our recording manager, George Martin, thought our arrangement was fussy, so we tried to make it simpler. We were getting very tired, though, and we just couldn't seem to get it right. We are conscientious about our work and we don't like to rush things."

Please Please Me was first brought to The Beatles' 4 September 1962 session, in which they worked on Love Me Do. They played Please Please Me during a studio rehearsal overseen by EMI's Ron Richards, but didn't formally record it.

Ringo : "On my first visit in September we just ran through some tracks for George Martin. We even did Please Please Me. I remember that, because while we were recording it I was playing the bass drum with a maraca in one hand and a tambourine in the other."

George Martin : "At that stage Please Please Me was a very dreary song. It was like a Roy Orbison number, very slow, bluesy vocals. It was obvious to me that it badly needed pepping up. I told them to bring it in next time and we'd have another go at it."

Although The Beatles attempted to record "Please Please Me" on 11 September, with Andy White on drums, George Martin saw room for improvement and opted not to release it as the B-side to The Beatles' debut single.

On 26 November The Beatles recorded a remake of Please Please Me. It was complete in 18 takes, which included Lennon's overdubbed harmonica.

Paul : "We sang it and George Martin said, 'Can we change the tempo?' We said, 'What's that?' He said, 'Make it a bit faster. Let me try it.' And he did. We thought, 'Oh, that's all right, yes.' Actually, we were a bit embarrassed that he had found a better tempo than we had."

Three mixes were made of the song, two in mono and another in stereo. The mono mixes were different on the single and album releases, with extra echo audible on the album.

The stereo mix was an edit of takes 16, 17 and 18, and contains a vocal error in the final verse, causing Lennon to sing "come on" with a slight laugh. The mix also has a slightly different guitar line by Harrison prior to the final verse.

At the end of the session George Martin addressed the group over the studio' talkback system. "Congratulations, gentlemen," he told them, "You've just made your first number one."



The new single was released in the UK on January 11, 1963, during one of the worst winters in British history and on January 12 most of the population were snowed-in at home watching the Beatles perform the song on the Saturday night TV show, 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'. 

The national exposure of the song, as well as the unusual appearance and hair style of the group, brought the band a lot of attention and they were booked by promoter Arthur Howes for a series of national tours. The first tour was as a support band to Helen Shapiro in February, then Tommy Roe and Chris Montez in March, Roy Orbison in May and, during breaks in the touring schedule, the Beatles performed the song on a number of BBC national radio programs.

All of the factors, along with extensive press coverage, propelled the single to the top of the most of the British charts and the Beatles, much to their embarrassment, were moved to the top of the bill on the Tommy Roe and Roy Orbison.

It reached No. 1 on the NME chart on February 22, as well as Melody Maker where it was Number 1 the week after, staying for two weeks (making 3 weeks at the top in total). As it only reached #2 on the rubbish old 'Record Retailer' chart - (later declared by pen-pushing lickspittles as the only chart that counted on spurious crackpot "it's the only one with a Top 50" grounds) - it is no longer considered to be The Beatles first #1.

Capitol Records, EMI's United States label, was offered the right to release "Please Please Me" in the US, but turned it down.  "Please Please Me" was then offered to Atlantic, which also rejected it. Finally, Vee-Jay was offered the right to issue "Please Please Me" in the States, and chose to do so. It was released by Vee-Jay on February 7, 1963, exactly one year before the Beatles' first visit as a band to America.

In the wake of the rush-release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the United States, Vee-Jay reissued "Please Please Me" on or about January 3, 1964 with "From Me To You" on the B-side (as Del Shannon's version had been a minor hit in 1963).

This time "Please Please Me" was a massive hit, eventually peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending March 14, 1964, behind "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You". It was one of the songs that compromised the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 of April 4, when the Beatles held all top five spots.

Other Versions include : Bee Gees (1963)  /  The Typhoons (1963)  /  The Kestrels (1963)  /  The Bell Boys (1963)  /  "Tu perds ton temps" by Petula Clark (1963)  /  Fausto Leali e i suoi Novelty (1963)   /  The Crickets (1964)  /   The Mustang (1964)  /  Santo & Johnny (1964)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1964)  /  Buddy Morrow and His Orchestra (1964)  /   Sonny Curtis (1964)  /  George Martin and His Orchestra (1964)  /  The Chipmunks (1964)  /  "Oprosti što sam opet tu" by Bijele Strijele (1964)  /  Los Mustang (1964)  /  Los Sirex (1964)  /  Bob Leaper (1964)  /  The Boll Weevils (1964)  /  Keely Smith (1964)  /  Billy Lee Riley (1964)  /  Tommy Scott and The Boys (1964)  /  I Meteors (1964)  /  Joshua Rifkin (1965)  /  Peter Posa (1965)  /  Mary Wells (1965)  /  The Score (1966)  /  The London Jazz Four (1967)  /  The Torero Band (1969)  /  Pickwick Top of the Poppers (1974)  /  David Cassidy (1974)  /  The Limit (1978)  /  The Flamin' Groovies (1979)  /  Barnes & Barnes (1980)  /  "Por favor compláceme" by Los Buitres (1989)  /  Dr. Fink & The Mystery Band (1992)  /  Henning Stærk (1998)  /  The Punkles (1998)  /  Ruth's Hat (2000)  /  Matt Dusk (2004)  /  The Angel Whispers (2008)  /  Laurence Juber (2010)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Bill Frisell (2011)  /  Blondie (2011)  /  Ben Powell Sketchbook (2011)  /  David Lanz (2012)  / Rebelution (2014)  /   Fred Sokolow (2015)  /  A Cappella Trudbol (2016)  /  The Witness (2017)  /  David Mansfield (2017)  /   Amy Slattery (2017)  /  a fab robot (2017)  /  Jeffrey Foskett (2018)  /  MonaLisa Twins (2018)  / 

Extra! Extra! Read all about it :
Quote


purlieu


purlieu


Didn't know George was only 12 at this point.

Good though, innit? Maybe not quite as profound a kick up the arse as the start of rock'n'roll - and far from my favourite early Beatles song - but it's really bloody fresh after most of what we've had for a few weeks now. The '60s are finally here!

daf

Fun Fact : That pic is actually from the 4 September 1962 'Love Me Do' rehearsals * - taken by New Record Mirror Freelance Photographer Dezo Hoffman. George is in profile to hide a shiner on his left eye picked up after a recent fight at The Cavern Club.

Top Tip : in the "Extra! Extra!" section - click on the magazine cover to read all about the new beat craze!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (They didn't take any photos during the Please Please Me (single) session, but I imagine the set up was more or less the same).

This is a good podcast on how their early singles were produced. PPM had a separate track for the harmonica, which had not been part of the original arrangement in September.

https://www.producingthebeatles.com/new-episodes/2018/11/19/006-not-so-simple-from-me-to-you-and-other-early-singles

Anthology 1 version recorded 11.9.62, the original arrangement already speeded up. The slow 4.9.62 version has been lost

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aREpyGhjo1E



daf

Gonna Ring Rang-a Dong For a Holiday, it's . . .

148.  Cliff Richard and The Shadows - Summer Holiday



From : 10 – 23 March 1963 (2)
        + 31 March – 6 April 1963 (1)
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Dancing Shoes
bonus : film / stereo version

QuoteSummer Holiday is a British CinemaScope and Technicolor musical film featuring singer Cliff Richard. The film was directed by Peter Yates (his debut), produced by Kenneth Harper, and shot in Greece. Herbert Ross choreographed the musical numbers.

The original screenplay was written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass. The cast includes Lauri Peters, Melvyn Hayes, Teddy Green, Jeremy Bulloch, The lovely Una Stubbs, Pamela Hart, Jacqueline Daryl, Lionel Murton, Madge Ryan, David Kossoff, Nicholas Phipps, Ron Moody and The Shadows.

In April 1962 Associated British Picture Corporation of Elstree bought three used RT model double decker buses (RT2305, RT2366, and RT4326) from London Transport.  It was the standard red London bus during the 1950s and continued to outnumber the better known Routemaster throughout the 1960s. They were all converted to look like RT1881 (with a fake registration number: WLB991) so they could be used for filming different segments.

     

The story concerns Don (Cliff) and his friends (Hayes, Green and Bulloch) who are bus mechanics at the huge London Transport bus overhaul works in Aldenham, Hertfordshire. During a miserably wet British summer lunch break, Don arrives, having persuaded London Transport to lend him and his friends an AEC Regent III RT double-decker bus (and not a later AEC Routemaster as often quoted). This they convert into a holiday caravan, which they drive across continental Europe, intending to reach the South of France. However, their eventual destination is Athens, Greece. On the way, they are joined by a trio of young women (The lovely Una Stubbs, Hart and Daryl) and a runaway singer (Lauri Peters), who initially pretends to be male, pursued by her mother and agent . . . with HILLARIOUS consequences!!

The opening ten-minutes was filmed at the Aldenham Works, Elstree where Cliff's character and friends are mechanics at the main bus servicing depot for London Transport who come up with the idea of converting an old RT bus into a mobile home. They enlist the help of their workmates in a musical segment that uses the track 'Seven Days to a Holiday'. The scenes were shot at the works in 1962 during its annual summer shutdown. Filming included large parts of the works as well as numerous actual employees as extras.

The film's producers felt that female lead in the film, Lauri Peters, was not a strong enough singer after several test recording sessions and all of her parts, both in the film and on the soundtrack album were dubbed by session vocalist Grazina Frame. Frame had overdubbed female singing voices in Cliff Richard's earlier film The Young Ones.

Cliff Richard, Melvyn Hayes and the Shadows were recalled to Elstree some weeks after completion of shooting to record Bachelor Boy. This was because the distributors felt the film was too short.

The film was the second most popular movie at the British box office in 1963, after From Russia with Love (and beating 'Tom Jones' and 'The Great Escape' into 3rd and 4th place), and Cliff was voted by exhibitors as the most popular star at the British box office for 1963. Though a big hit in the UK, it flopped in the US, where it was released two days after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

 

Summer Holiday, is a soundtrack album by Cliff Richard and The Shadows to the film of the same name. It is their second film soundtrack album and Richard's eighth album overall. The album topped the UK Albums Chart for 14 weeks. Three singles from the album were released, beginning with the double A-side single, "The Next Time" and "Bachelor Boy", followed by "Summer Holiday" and lastly "Foot Tapper" (by the Shadows). All three topped the UK Singles Chart.

A "special edition" double-album (limited to 80 copies) was given to the cast and crew of the movie and has since become very collectible, with an original selling for £498 in 2010. This was the first recording of the Elstree Extra Range (e.e.r.) Sound with the next being the similar release for 'Wonderful Life', which was a run of 150 copies.

 

Disc 1 contained Sides 1 & 3 coupled together, while disc 2 featured "Side 2", and "Side 4" was left blank. *

On each of the 3 playable sides, there is the wording 'With Best Wishes To' then a blank space for the recipient's name to be entered. The labels state 'e.e.r.' logo around the rim with further details including notice of 'Special Recording Limited To 80 Copies - Not For Sale'.

Other songs featured on the album were :
"Let Us Take You for a Ride"  /  "Les Girls"   /  "Round and Round"   /  "Stranger in Town"  /  "A Swingin' Affair"  /  "Really Waltzing"   /  and "Big News"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* having side 1 & 3 on one disc of a double album was a feature of automatic changer record players to allow continuous play (after side 1 and 2, you flip the stack and side 3 and 4 will play one after the other)

Quote"Summer Holiday" was written by rhythm guitarist Bruce Welch and drummer Brian Bennett.

It was released as the second single from the film in February 1963. It went to number one in the UK Singles Chart for a total of three weeks.

The track is one of Richard's best known titles and it remains a staple of his live shows. It was one of six hits Richard performed at his spontaneous gig at the 1996 Wimbledon Championships when rain stopped the tennis.

The melody of the song is used in the chorus of the 1986 rap tune "Holiday Rap", by the Dutch duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven.

Other Versions include : Mike Redway (1963)  /  Jimmy Griffin (1963)  /  "Quand revient l'été" by Dalida (1963)  /  Ferry Davis (1963)  /  The Blue Diamonds (1986)  /   "Kesämenot" by Eero ja Jussi & The Boys (1991)  /  Fat Slags (1992)  /  Hank Marvin (1995)  /  Simon Davies (2007)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Lasse Johansen (2012)  /  Teresa (2016)  /  David Snell (2018)  /  Vladan Zivancevic (2018)  /  Per Storaker (2019)  /  a robot (2019)  / 

On This Day :
Quote11 March : Alex Kingston, actress, born in Epsom, Surrey
13 March : Hindemith & Wilder's opera "Long Christmas Dinner" premieres in NYC
17 March : Eruptions of Mount Agung on Bali, kills 1,900
18 March : "Tovarich" opens at Broadway Theater NYC
20 March : David Thewlis, actor, born in Blackpool, Lancashire
22 March : The Beatles release 1st album, "Please Please Me"
23 March : 8th Eurovision Song Contest - Grethe and Jorgen Ingmann for Denmark win singing "Dansevise" in London
2 April : Explorer 17 attains Earth orbit (It would eventually fall back to earth after 1,325 days on November 24, 1966.)
2 April : USSR launches Luna 4 - it would miss the Moon by 8,500 km
4 April : David Gavurin, (The Sundays), born . . . somewhere on planet Earth.
4 April : Graham Norton, TV presenter, born Graham William Walker in Clondalkin, Dublin

purlieu



kalowski

Drove all the way to Greece in that bus with those girls and didn't try and fuck them.

daf

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on August 23, 2019, 03:07:45 PM
+ 31 March – 16 April 1963 (1)?

Oops! Quite right - it should be the 6th.

(thanks for spotting it - always handy to have an extra pair of eyes on the job!)

DrGreggles

Quote from: kalowski on August 23, 2019, 03:11:34 PM
Drove all the way to Greece in that bus with those girls and didn't try and fuck them.

Just played nudey prod games.

kalowski


I think The Shadows kept making good records a lot longer than Cliff did. I just listened to all their 1963 chart singles and felt they were really fresh; nowhere near as safe and MOR as they became later.

purlieu

I think I've posted these before, but The Shadows had a run of really good - if not especially successful - singles in the mid-to-late '60s, like A Place in the Sun, Maroc 7, The Warlord and Stingray (how many other '60s singles used the bass guitar as lead instrument?)

I have a certain nostalgia for their '70s and '80s stuff that I enjoyed as a kid, but they were definitely just a MOR instrumental covers band at that point; until they first broke up in 1968 they managed to put out a range of strong tracks though.

machotrouts

Having a much harder time getting mad at Cliff Richard singles than I anticipated in these threads. They're so breezy. How can you get angry at a nice cool breeze. Batting a higher average than Elvis honestly.

sevendaughters

didn't feel the Beatles really got going until 1964, Please Please Me is just a noise to me.

'She Loves You' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' are amazing songs and productions, with incredible energy for the time and there's no slacking in either production. I'd also add 'Twist and Shout'  from the first album, recorded on Feb 11, 1963, so only 6 weeks into the year.

I'd agree that Please Please Me and From Me To You are more your standard fare and that The Shadows singles of 1963 probably stand up better than they do.