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

[Satchmo Distel]

Billy Wyman and The Old Scroters:

"Me and your sister, we're goin' steady
She's only 12 but I think she's ready
She's going to make me some Horlicks
Then it will be fun and frolics
Cos I'm a dirty old bollocks"

[The Culture Bunker]

Though I might be 30 years older
Doesn't mean we can't get along.
And if your mama doesn't understand
She can always go out with my son.

[DrGreggles]

Bookmarked for when they switch off his life support.

[buzby]

Yes, an inexplicable singer. Horrible.

Fucking Cilla.
Horrendous.

Quite. My dad lived a couple of streets down from the Whites and was a few years ahead of her in St. Anthonys. He always described her as a stuck-up cow who was all fur coat and no knickers. Given the stories about her from waiting staff, cabin crew and the like she only got worse as she got older. She always used to go on about her 'mam' too, but was quick to bundle her into an old people's home and only came back to visit her once or twice a year.

As for the song, I'm on Team Warwick. Possibly the most cynical case of exploiting the transatlantic release delay by a UK record company

[daf]

Can Buy Me Victorian Bathing Long-Johns, it's . . .

166.  The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love



From : 29 March – 18 April 1964
Weeks : 3
B-side : You Can't Do That
bonus : How To Play Can't Buy Me Love

The Story So Far : The North American Albums

"Introducing... The Beatles" was the first Beatles album released in the United States. Originally scheduled for a July 1963 release, the LP came out on 10 January 1964, on Vee-Jay Records.

Vee-Jay considered releasing the 'Please Please Me' LP unaltered, as it appeared in the UK. But, in keeping with the American norm of a 12-song album, Vee-Jay chose to omit two of the 14 songs - "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why", and change the album's title to Introducing... The Beatles. 

One other change came when the engineer at Universal in Chicago thought that Paul McCartney's count-in at the start of "I Saw Her Standing There" was extraneous rather than intentionally placed there, so he snipped the "one, two, three" (leaving the "four"). Except for those omissions, the order and contents of the album were untouched, resulting in a US album that bore the closest resemblance to a British Beatles LP until Revolver in 1966.

 

Twist and Shout, the Canadian version of 'Please Please Me' was actually the second Beatles album to be released in Canada by Capitol Records.

The first Canadian release, on 25 November 1963, aside from a slightly amended cover and change of title to "Beatlemania! With the Beatles",  was musically, an exact copy of "With The Beatles" - with no tinkering with the song line up.

On 3 February 1964, Following the Ed Sullivan TV broadcast and ensuing Beatle-madness, Capitol in Canada quickly issued a version of  the Beatles first album. Unlike, the VJ "Introducing The Beatles" LP , "Twist and Shout" contained a full slate of 14 tracks - though there was some tinkering, with "From Me to You" and "She Loves You" replacing "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Misery" - which would be included on the third Canadian album, Long Tall Sally .

"Long Tall Sally" was the final Beatles album to be released exclusively in Canada. Released only in mono on the Capitol Records label in May 1964. After this album, under orders from Capitol president Alan W. Livingston, Beatles' records in Canada would match the group's United States releases.

This album borrows its name—and two tracks—from The Beatles' British EP Long Tall Sally. Canadian fans were slightly shafted by this album - as not only was the number of tracks reduced to 12, but four of them had already been released on "Beatlemania! With the Beatles".

 

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20 January 1964, Meet the Beatles! was the first US Beatles album to be issued by Capitol Records in the US. It topped the popular album chart on 15 February 1964 and remained at number one for eleven weeks (before being replaced by The Beatles Second Capitol Album). The cover featured Robert Freeman's iconic portrait of the Beatles used in the United Kingdom for With the Beatles, with a blue tint added to the original stark black-and-white photograph.

 

The US rights to the Beatles first 14 tracks were held by Vee Jay Records along with a few others. "She Loves You" had been issued in America on the Swan label and also sold poorly. In Britain, Parlophone was already releasing their second Beatles album With the Beatles and had issued several singles which were not included on any UK albums. While the Beatles' first two British albums each contained 14 tracks, in the American market albums were typically limited to 12 tracks and tended to include the current hit single.

The first three tracks on the album include the December 1963 Capitol single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" along with the record's B-sides both in the US, ("I Saw Her Standing There"), and in the UK ("This Boy"). The other nine tracks, with exception of "Till There Was You", were the Beatles original songs from With The Beatles.

The remaining five 'covers' from With the Beatles would appear on Capitol's next Beatles album . . .

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The Beatles' Second Album was the second Capitol Records Beatles album released in the United States. Following its release on 10 April 1964, it replaced 'Meet the Beatles!' at number 1 on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the US.

 

With the massive popularity of 'Meet the Beatles!' through the early part of 1964 and a desire for additional Beatles product, Capitol Records decided to compile a follow-up album as soon as possible.

The album included five of the six cover versions from With the Beatles: "Roll Over Beethoven"  /  "You Really Got a Hold on Me"  /   "Devil in Her Heart"  /   "Money"   /  and "Please Mr. Postman".

Added to these were "Thank You Girl"  /  "She Loves You"  /  "I'll Get You"  /  and three songs yet to be released in the UK - "You Can't Do That" from their as yet unreleased "A Hard Day's Night" LP, and two songs, "Long Tall Sally" and "I Call Your Name" - two months before it's release as part of a 4 track EP in the UK.

Capitol's engineers, headed by record executive Dave Dexter, Jr., added considerable echo and reverb to the stereo mixes of the songs in order to give the album the "atmosphere of a live performance". [unfortunately these have been airbrushed from youtube, but these 'Dexterized' variants are worth tracking down if you can find them, to get a flavour of the authentic sound of the American Beatlemania experience in all it's raw reverberating ear-bleeding lunatic lo-fi glory]

The Capitol album mix of "Thank You Girl" is unique in that it contains three additional harmonica riffs by John Lennon – two during the bridge and one at the end. For the mono version of "I Call Your Name", the cowbell comes in at the very beginning of the song; the stereo version features the cowbell after the beginning of the vocal. George Harrison's opening 12-string guitar phrase is also different between the mono and stereo versions. On "Long Tall Sally", reverb was added to the stereo version. The "dry" mono mix of "Long Tall Sally" is noticeably different from the mono mix with slight echo that was issued in the UK, and is unique to the Second Album. The mono version of "You Can't Do That" is also different from the version on UK A Hard Day's Night LP.

The Story So Far : The Third Album

Having conquered hearts in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, The Beatles set their sights on the world in 1964. They started it with concerts in London and Paris, before making history by conquering America in February, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show before an estimated 73 million viewers.



They followed up their Stateside triumph with a world tour, numerous interviews, television appearances and new recordings, and starred in their debut feature film. And despite their whirlwind schedule of touring and studio sessions, the soundtrack to "A Hard Day's Night" turned out to be one of The Beatles' strongest long-players.

John : "We were different. We were older. We knew each other on all kinds of levels that we didn't when we were teenagers. The early stuff – the Hard Day's Night period, I call it – was the sexual equivalent of the beginning hysteria of a relationship."

The album was recorded over nine non-consecutive days, between January and June 1964. In between the sporadic sessions The Beatles fulfilled their touring and filming commitments, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney writing some of their strongest songs to date.

What's more, The Beatles refused to take the easy option and delve into their Cavern Club-era songbook, selecting some of the numerous cover versions in their repertoire to pad out the original compositions. A Hard Day's Night became their first album to consist solely of original material, and was The Beatles only release to consist solely of songs written by Lennon-McCartney.

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"And I Love Her" was one of Paul McCartney's major contributions to the A Hard Day's Night album. Written in the music room in the basement of the house in Wimpole Street, London, which belonged to Jane Asher's parents

Paul : "It was the first ballad I impressed myself with. It's got nice chords in it, 'Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky...' I like the imagery of the stars and the sky. It was a love song really. The 'And' in the title was an important thing. 'And I Love Her,' it came right out of left field, you were right up to speed the minute you heard it. The title comes in the second verse and it doesn't repeat. You would often go to town on the title, but this was almost an aside, 'Oh... and I love you.' It still holds up and George played really good guitar on it. It worked very well."

John : "And I Love Her is Paul again. I consider it his first Yesterday. You know, the big ballad in A Hard Day's Night. The middle eight, I helped with that."

Paul : "I'm not sure if John worked on that at all... The middle eight is mine. I would say that John probably helped with the middle eight, but he can't say 'It's mine'. I wrote this on my own. I can actually see Margaret Asher's upstairs drawing room. I remember playing it there, not writing it necessarily."

The Beatles began recording the song on 25 February 1964. They recorded two takes that day, with a full electric line-up, but it was evidently not the sound they were after. They returned to it the next day, recording 16 takes and changing the song's arrangement as they went along. They weren't happy with the results, however, and it was completed on 27 February in just two takes.

[Music Publisher] Dick James : "They were laying down the tracks and doing the melody lines of the song And I Love Her. It was a very simple song and quite repetitive. George Martin and I looked at each other and the same thought sparked off in both of our minds. It was proving to be, although plain and a warm and sympathetic song, just too repetitive, with the same phrase of repeating. George Martin told the boys, 'Both Dick and I feel that the song is just lacking the middle. It's too repetitive, and it needs something to break it up.' I think it was John who shouted, 'OK, let's have a tea break', and John and Paul went to the piano and, while Mal Evans was getting tea and some sandwiches, the boys worked at the piano. Within half an hour they wrote, there before our very eyes, a very constructive middle to a very commercial song. Although we know it isn't long, it's only a four bar middle, nevertheless it was just the right ingredients to break up the over repetitive effect of the original melody."

 

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"I Should Have Known Better" was written by John Lennon, in January 1964, and shows the emerging influence of Bob Dylan upon Lennon's writing. George Harrison had acquired a copy of The Freewheelin' in Paris that month, which the group greatly admired.

The Beatles began recording I Should Have Known Better on 25 February 1964, recording three takes. At this stage the song was quite different to the final version, containing a Dylanesque harmonica solo and ending on a lead guitar line.

The Beatles returned to the song the next day, recording 18 takes. Again there were many aborted attempts, and the final version was take nine. Lennon double-tracked his lead vocals and overdubbed his harmonica part to complete the song. The final version, including these additions, was take 22.

Lennon played a Gibson Jumbo J-160E electro acoustic guitar. Harrison, meanwhile, used his new Rickenbacker 360/12 Deluxe 12-string, which quickly became a trademark sound on the A Hard Day's Night album.

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"Tell Me Why", one of the more uptempo rockers on the A Hard Day's Night album, was next to be recorded on 27 February 1964 in Studio Two of EMI Recording Studios, St John's Wood. It took the group eight takes to perfect.

John : "They needed another upbeat song and I just knocked it off. It was like a black-New-York-girl-group song."

Although Lennon dismissed 'Tell Me Why' as a throwaway, Paul McCartney later suggested the song, along with others written for 'A Hard Day's Night', was partly autobiographical.

Paul : "I think a lot of these songs like Tell Me Why may have been based in real experiences or affairs John was having or arguments with Cynthia or whatever, but it never occurred to us until later to put that slant on it all."

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"If I Fell" was next to be tackled that day - a ballad mostly written by John Lennon.

John : "That's my first attempt to write a ballad proper. That was the precursor to In My Life. It has the same chord sequence as In My Life: D and B minor and E minor, those kinds of things. And it's semi-autobiographical, but not consciously. It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads, silly love songs, way back when."

Paul : "People tend to forget that John wrote some pretty nice ballads. People tend to think of him as an acerbic wit and aggressive and abrasive, but he did have a very warm side to him really which he didn't like to show too much in case he got rejected. We wrote If I Fell together but with the emphasis on John because he sang it. It was a nice harmony number, very much a ballad."

Among McCartney's contributions was the introduction, featuring a musical motif that appears nowhere else in the song.

Paul : "I was a big fan of the preamble in my early days, which you find in lots of '50s songs. A first verse that goes: 'I was living in Kentucky when I did, did, did and I dud-dud-dud, and then I said...' [breathes in deeply]... then you break into the bit of the song you want everyone to know. One song I wrote a little after Please Please Me was my best attempt at a preamble: If I Fell. [Sings] 'If I fell in love with you, would you promise to be truuue...' Then after the line, 'just holding hands', the song properly gets going. [Raises voice] That's it, everyone!"



Recorded in 15 takes on 27 February 1964, the song's acoustic introduction – which is not repeated elsewhere in the song, musically or lyrically – made its first appearance on take 11. The two-part harmony vocals was sung by Lennon and McCartney into a single microphone. Lennon took the low harmony, allowing McCartney to dominate the verses.

The song became a part of The Beatles' live repertoire in 1964. As the only ballad performed by the group at the time, it often suffered for their inability to hear themselves above the screams of Beatlemaniacs. The live versions were typically faster than the studio recording. Bootleg recordings also often show Lennon and McCartney vainly attempting to suppress laughter while singing the song – occasionally it was jokingly introduced as 'If I Fell Over'.

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"I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" was written by Lennon and McCartney as George Harrison's vocal spot on the A Hard Day's Night album.

Paul : "We Wrote I'm Happy Just To Dance With You for George in the film. It was a bit of a formula song. We knew that in E if you went to an A flat minor, you could always make a song with those chords; that change pretty much always excited you. This is one of these. Certainly 'Do You Want To Know A Secret' was. This one anyway was a straight co-written song for George. We wouldn't have actually wanted to sing it because it was a bit... The ones that pandered to the fans in truth were our least favourite songs but they were good. They were good for the time. The nice thing about it was to actually pull a song off on a slim little premise like that. A simple little idea. It was songwriting practice."

It was recorded on 1 March 1964 - The Beatles' first session on a Sunday. They completed three songs in three hours. "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" was the first to be recorded that day, and took four takes to get right.

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"Long Tall Sally" was the second song to be recorded on the on 1 March 1964 Sunday session, which lasted from 10am to 1.30pm. A McCartney-led romp through Little Richard's rock 'n' roll classic, it was recorded in a single take - having played it so often live, they simply had no need to record it twice. The song featured two guitar solos, the first played by John Lennon and the second by George Harrison.

John : "Little Richard was one of the all-time greats. The first time I heard him a friend of mine had been to Holland and brought back a 78 with Long Tall Sally on one side, and Slippin' And Slidin' on the other. It blew our heads – we'd never heard anybody sing like that in our lives and all those saxes playing like crazy."

The group had played with Little Richard in England and Hamburg during the early 1960s, and McCartney was especially proud of his ability to mimic his hero's vocal delivery.

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"I Call Your Name" the final song to be taped on 1 March, was the only Lennon-McCartney original on the Long Tall Sally EP. It was likely held off the A Hard Day's Night album due to the similar use of cowbell in 'You Can't Do That'.

It was given first to Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, another Brian Epstein-managed act, who released it as the b-side to their single Bad To Me, another Lennon-McCartney song, in July 1963.

John : "That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group. I just had it around. It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my first attempts at a song."

Why the group decided to resurrect the song almost a year after Billy J Kramer had recorded it is unknown, but John Lennon captured by the studio microphones before take one, asking: "Do you think it's a bit much doing Billy J's intro and solo? 'Cause it's our song anyroad, innit?"

The Beatles recorded the song in seven takes. Another Lennon vocal and cowbell by Starr was added to the last of these, and the ska section was later edited in from take five. The song features George Harrison playing the Rickenbacker 12 string guitar, offering the distinctive sound of the famous guitar to the world for the first time.

Due to the song being considered for inclusion in the Beatles' 1964 debut film 'A Hard Day's Night', a rush mono mix for United Artists was attempted on 3 March 1964, but would be ultimately scrapped.

The following day, a new mono mix was made for the US Capitol Records release The Beatles' Second Album, while a stereo mix edited from two separate takes would be performed on 10 March 1964 and was also rushed to the US for the stereo version of the album. The edit uses an alternate take of the opening guitar riff and the opening line sung by Lennon.

The final UK mono mix was performed on 4 June 1964, intended for the A Hard Day's Night LP, again scrapped but ultimately appearing on the Long Tall Sally EP released on 19 June 1964.

 

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"A Hard Day's Night" was recorded on 16 April, taking nine takes to perfect, and completed the number of songs needed for the film soundtrack.

The title had been coined by Ringo Starr, and first appeared in John Lennon's short story Sad Michael in his first book In His Own Write. When film director Richard Lester announced it would be the title of The Beatles' first film, Lennon took up the challenge to write the theme song.

Paul : "When we knew we were writing for something like an album John would write a few in his spare moments, like this batch here. He'd bring them in, we'd check 'em. I'd write a couple and we'd throw 'em at each other, and then there would be a couple that were more co-written. But you just had a certain amount of time. You knew when the recording date was and so a week or two before then we'd get into it."

During the recording of , Lennon and McCartney doubletracked their vocals throughout including the chorus. Lennon sings the lead vocal on the verses and Paul sings lead on the middle eight. During the chorus McCartney handles the high harmony and Lennon the low harmony.

Take 7 reveals that the lyrics were still not set with Lennon singing "you make me feel all right" and McCartney and Harrison still unsteady with their respective lines, ending with Lennon chiding them with the line "I heard a funny chord".

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A TV Special - 'Around The Beatles', was taped on 28 April by Associated Redifusion, and shown on the ITV network on 6 May 1964.  The Beatles performed a set consisting of "Twist and Shout"  /  "Roll Over Beethoven"  /  "I Wanna Be Your Man"  /  "Long Tall Sally"  /  "Boys"   /  a medley of  "Love Me Do - Please Please Me - From Me to You - She Loves You - I Want to Hold Your Hand"  /  "Can't Buy Me Love"  /  and "Shout" - the only time the group recorded the song. (The music had been pre-recorded at London's IBC Studios on 19 April 1964, and The Beatles played along to this playback during the 28 April studio recording).

The show featured other performers as well -  including Long John Baldry  /  P.J. Proby /  The Vernons Girls  /  Cilla Black  /  Sounds Incorporated  /  and Millie.

The show opens on an image of the Globe Theatre, with Ringo Starr unfurling a flag with the legend "Around the Beatles". The studio setting is arranged as a theatre in the round, echoing the seating arrangement of the Globe. The opening act is a humorous rendition of the "play within a play", Pyramus and Thisbe from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Paul McCartney as Pyramus, John Lennon as his lover Thisbe, George Harrison as Moonshine, and Starr as Lion.

 

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With filming now completed, The Beatles, following a short holiday, returned to the studio to record the 'non-soundtrack' side of their third album. "Matchbox", a cover of this Carl Perkins hit from 1956, was based on Match Box Blues, a 12-bar blues recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1927, was first to be recorded.

Carl Perkins was on tour in Britain in 1964, and on 1 June he was visiting Abbey Road when The Beatles recorded his song. There are rumours he played the low guitar riff that opens the song. It took The Beatles five takes to perfect. Ringo played drums and sang simultaneously, and later double-tracked his vocals.

It was intended to be Ringo's feature on the album, but was later deemed surplus to requirements and so it appeared on the Long Tall Sally EP.

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Originally intended for the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack, "I'll Cry Instead" was replaced by Can't By Me Love at the request of director Richard Lester.

John : "I wrote that for 'A Hard Day's Night', but Dick Lester didn't even want it. He resurrected Can't Buy Me Love for that sequence instead. I like the middle eight to that song, though – that's about all I can say about it."

His wife Cynthia later described such songs as reflecting "the frustration he felt at that time. He was the idol of millions, but the freedom and fun of the early days had gone."

It was was recorded on 1 June 1964, in afternoon session. The Beatles recorded the song in two parts, Section A and Section B, which were edited together on 4 June. The first part took six takes, the second just two.

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Another song destined for the Long Tall Sally EP, "Slow Down" was a cover version of Larry Williams' 1958 song, and had been a part of The Beatles' live repertoire between 1960 and 1962.

The song was taped swiftly in six takes in the afternoon of 1 June 1964. The rhythm track of take three was the best, and onto this was overdubbed a double-tracked Lennon vocals.

Three days later George Martin added a piano part. None of the performers appear to have taken it too seriously, with vocal fluffs (most noticeably during the line "But now you've got a boyfriend down the street"), a somewhat workmanlike guitar solo and generally sloppy playing.

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"I'll Be Back" was written mostly by John Lennon, and was a reworking of the chords to Del Shannon's 1961 hit Runaway.

I'll Be Back is a curious composition, containing no chorus but two bridges. Furthermore, its switches between A major and A minor in the introduction and ending leaving a sense of unfinished business.

John : "A nice tune, though the middle is a bit tatty."

Recorded on 1 June 1964, I'll Be Back took The Beatles 16 takes to get right. The first nine were the rhythm track, and the final seven were the double tracked and harmony vocals, plus an acoustic guitar overdub. The Beatles tried different arrangements in the studio, including a waltz, and one featuring an electric guitar, before settling on the final version.

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The first song on side two of A Hard Day's Night, "Any Time At All", written by John Lennon, and recorded during the final session for the album, was in an unfinished state when John Lennon brought it to the studio on the afternoon of 2 June 1964.

John : "An effort at writing It Won't Be Long – same ilk: C to A minor, C to A minor – with me shouting.

The Beatles initially recorded seven takes of the rhythm track, plus vocals by Lennon. That evening they recorded four further takes. Onto the last of these, take 11, they overdubbed piano, guitar and vocals. It was first mixed for mono on 4 June, but this was discarded and new mono and stereo mixes were made on 22 June.

'Any Time At All's last-minute composition meant that The Beatles never got around to writing lyrics for the middle eight. McCartney suggested a set of piano chords, to which they intended to add lyrics but failed to write any. The deadline for the album's final mixes meant it went on release in its unintended state.

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It is believed that The Beatles may have intended to record a 14th song for 'A Hard Day's Night' on 3 June 1964. However, Ringo Starr was taken ill with tonsillitis and pharyngitis during a photo session that morning, leading to a swift change of plans.

In his place, the group drafted in replacement drummer Jimmie Nicol for a rehearsal at Abbey Road ahead of their imminent world tour. The rehearsal took place between 2.30 and 5.30pm, replacing a pre-booked recording session.



After Nicol had left the studio that evening, The Beatles recorded demos of "You Know What To Do", "No Reply", and "It's For You", the latter given to Cilla Black.

It is not known whether any of these songs were intended to feature on 'A Hard Day's Night'. However, The Beatles' failure to record a final song for the album meant that it was released, unusually, with 13 tracks.

As was typical in the early 1960s, The Beatles didn't attend mixing or editing sessions for the album. George Martin worked on the recordings in the group's absence, on one occasion adding a piano part to You Can't Do That while The Beatles were on holiday.

On 22 June, The Beatles third album, 'A Hard Day's Night', was finally completed, and released in mono and stereo in the United Kingdom on 10 July - four days after the film had it's premiere in the UK.

 

'Beatlemania' Novelty Records : 2 - March - April 1964

In March 1964, the American public were still basking in the golden glow of the Beatles first visit to their shores, and, following their departure, more tribute records were rushed out to cash in on the Fab Four shaped hole.

Three ex-squad members from our old friends, The Vernon Girls - (Barbara Kay, Betty Prescott, and Lynn Cornell - the wife of 'Love Me Do' drummer Andy White) - reached #39 in the US charts as The Carefrees with We Love You Beatles on London Records. Over in Germany, Gerd Böttcher released Nur keine Beatle Frisur - which was a tribute and salute to their hairy scouse heads.

   

Also released in March 1964 :

Little Cheryl - Yeh Yeh We Love 'Em All
The Bon Bons - What's Wrong With Ringo
The Angels - Little Beatle Boy
The Patty Cakes - I Understand Them
Bonnie Brooks - Bring Back My Beatles To Me
Gigi Parker and the Lonelies - Beatles, Please Come Back
Annie and The Orphans - My Girls Been Bitten By The Beatle Bug
The Standells - Peppermint Beatle
Bobby Wilding - I Want To Be A Beatle
Gene Cornish & The Unbeetables - I Wanna Be A Beetle
The Scramblers - The Beatle Walk
The Exterminators - The Beetle Bomb
The Bulldogs - John, Paul, George & Ringo 
The Bagels - Want to Hold Your Hair / Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah –
The Weekends - Ringo –
The Starlettes - Ringo
Vito and the Salutations - Liverpool Bound
The Livers - Beatle Time

By April, Ringo was emerging as America's favourite Beatle, with tributes from Darlene Terri - Ringo Ringo, The Rainbows - My Ringo, and The Whippets - Go, Go, Go With Ringo –

Aside from Ringo, hair was still a hot topic, with The Twiliters - My Beatle Haircut, Gaby & Petra with Mein Boyfriend hat nen Beatle Haarschnitt, and another German duo, Nicki & Hero with Wie die Beatles trägt mein Bobby seine Haare

 

"Can't Buy Me Love" was written by Paul McCartney, while the group were in Paris for a 19-date residency at the city's Olympia Theatre.  The Beatles stayed at the five star George V hotel and had an upright piano moved into one of their suites to enable them to work on songs for their forthcoming début film. The song was written under the pressure of the success achieved by "I Want to Hold Your Hand" which had just reached number one in America.

Paul : "Can't Buy Me Love is my attempt to write a bluesy mode. The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won't buy me what I really want. It was a very hooky song. Ella Fitzgerald later did a version of it which I was very honoured by."

John : "That's Paul's completely. Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know. I always considered it his song."

Paul : "Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggest that Can't Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far."

 

Can't Buy Me Love was mostly recorded on 29 January 1964 at EMI's Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris. It was completed in just four takes following the recording of Sie Liebt Dich and Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand, which finished ahead of schedule. Producer George Martin suggested some improvements to the song during preliminary rehearsals  -

George Martin : "I thought that we really needed a tag for the song's ending, and a tag for the beginning; a kind of intro. So I took the first two lines of the chorus and changed the ending, and said 'Let's just have these lines, and by altering the second phrase we can get back into the verse pretty quickly'. And they said, 'That's not a bad idea, we'll do it that way'."

The first two takes of Can't Buy Me Love, were recorded in the bluesy style in which the song was originally conceived. Paul McCartney taped a guide vocal which was later replaced at Abbey Road. John Lennon and George Harrison's backing vocals, in which they sang "Ooh, satisfied", "Ooh, just can't buy" in response to McCartney's lead lines, were swiftly discarded. McCartney's final vocal was overdubbed at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, on 25 February. Also re-recorded on this day at EMI Studios was George Harrison's modified guitar solo, although his original solo can still just be heard in the background.

George : "I once read something that tries to analyse Can't Buy Me Love, talking about the double-track guitar – mine – and saying that it's not very good because you can hear the original one. What happened was that we recorded first in Paris and re-recorded in England. Obviously they'd tried to overdub it, but in those days they only had two tracks, so you can hear the version we put on in London, and in the background you can hear a quieter one."

The mono mix also included a hi-hat overdub recorded by studio engineer Norman Smith. This was done on 10 March 1964, while The Beatles were filming A Hard Day's Night.

Geoff Emerick : "It had the same level of excitement as previous Beatles singles and was quickly slated to be an A-side, but first there was a technical problem to be overcome, discovered when the tape was brought back and played at our studios. Perhaps because it had been spooled incorrectly, the tape had a ripple in it, resulting in the intermittent loss of treble on Ringo's hi-hat cymbal. There was tremendous time pressure to get the track mixed and delivered to the pressing plant, and due to touring commitments the Beatles themselves were unavailable, so George [Martin] and Norman took it upon themselves to make a little adjustment.  As I eagerly headed into the engineer's seat for the first time, Norman headed down into the studio to overdub a hastily set-up hi-hat onto a few bars of the song while I recorded him, simultaneously doing a two-track to two-track dub. Thanks to Norman's considerable skills as a drummer, the repair was made quickly and seamlessly."

Can't Buy Me Love featured twice in the A Hard Day's Night film. The first was a scene in which they escape from the television studio to fool around in a field; the other involved the group running to and from a police station, with law officers in hot pursuit.

George Martin : "It was the first film for which I wrote the score, and I had the benefit of having a director who was a musician. We recorded the songs for the film just as we would ordinary recordings, and Dick [Lester] used a lot of songs we'd already recorded. Can't Buy Me Love, for example, which was used twice in the picture."

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

Issued in the USA slightly earlier than in Britain, it sold over two million copies in its first week, and was awarded a gold disc on the day of release, 16 March 1964. The Beatles also held the entire top five on the Hot 100, the next positions being filled by "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me", respectively. No other act has held the top five spots simultaneously.

 

By reaching number 1, on 4 April 1964, it also gave the Beatles three consecutive US chart-topping singles in a row, ("I Want to Hold Your Hand" replaced by  "She Loves You" replaced by "Can't Buy Me Love"). The three songs spent a combined total of 14 consecutive weeks at number 1.

By the time Can't Buy Me Love was released, The Beatles were a bona fide worldwide phenomenon. The song topped the charts of almost every country in which it was released. In Britain it had advance orders of over one million, and became the group's fourth UK number one single.

Other Versions include :   Ella Fitzgerald (1964)  /  The Chipmunks (1964)  /  Johnny Rivers (1964)  /  The Supremes (1964)  /  George Martin and His Orchestra (1964)  /  Santo & Johnny (1964)  /  "En voi ostaa rakkauttasi" by Eddy & The Lightnings (1964)  /  Tommy Scott and The Boys (1964)  /  Billy Lee Riley (1964)  /  "Je ne peux l'acheter" by Les Lionceaux (1964)  /  Thierry Vincent (1964)  /  "Nicht eine Mark" by Didi and His ABC-Boys (1964)  /  The Hollyridge Strings (1964)  /  Keely Smith (1964)  /  Brenda Lee (1965)  /    Peter Sellers (1965)  /  Dave "Baby" Cortez (1965)  /  Eva Pilarová (1966)  /  The Band of Irish Guards (1966)  /  Chet Atkins (1966)  /  Count Basie (1966)  /  Helmut Zacharias (1966) (Cor! check out the swinging organ on this - pure Radio Tip-Top!) /  Cathy Berberian (1967)  /  Günter Noris (1969)  /  The Torero Band (1969)  /  Korda György (1970)  /  Ena Baga (1970)  /  Pickwick's Top of The Poppers (1971)  /  Rob Agerbeek (1973)  /  Flintlock (1976)  /  Stanley Turrentine (1980)  /  The King's Singers (1980)  (The Fotherington Thomas Five!)  /  The Punkles (1998)  /  Michael Bublé (2005)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Tahta Menezes (2010)  /  Ringo Ska (2011)  /  Adam Rafferty (2012)  (. . . nice!) /  Anna Carmela (2013)  /  The Koalas (20153)  /  Satoshi Gogo (2014)  ( . . Jaaaazz!)  /  The Covers (2015)  /  The Sunny Cowgirls (2016)  /  The Funkles (2017)  /  Sarah Cellobat Chaffee String Quartet (2017)  /  Ruth Anna (2018)  /  Scary Pockets (2018)  /  a fab robot (2019)

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

"You Can't Do That" was written by John Lennon. The song was originally intended to be The Beatles' sixth UK single, until McCartney came up with Can't Buy Me Love, and became the B-side instead.

 

Lennon's autobiographical lyrics show the jealousy and possessiveness he felt towards women at the time. The music, meanwhile, was based around blues changes and US soul and R&B.

John : "That's me doing Wilson Pickett. You know, a cowbell going four in the bar, and the chord going chatoong!"

You Can't Do That was recorded on 25 February 1964. The Beatles also started And I Love Her and I Should Have Known Better on the same day, although they failed to finish them during the session. Completed in nine takes, only four of which were complete, it featured George Harrison's first prominent use of his new Rickenbacker 12 string guitar, given to him while in New York for The Ed Sullivan Show. The instrument gave the song its distinctive chiming sound, heard most prominently in the intro and ending.

One of the song's main strengths is in McCartney's and Harrison's answering harmony vocals. The rough-and-ready guitar solo, meanwhile, was performed by Lennon – the first such occurrence on a Beatles release.

John : "I'd find it a drag to play rhythm all the time, so I always work myself out something interesting to play. The best example I can think of is like I did on You Can't Do That. There really isn't a lead guitarist and a rhythm guitarist on that, because I feel the rhythm guitarist role sounds too thin for records. Anyway it drove me potty to play chunk-chunk rhythm all the time. I never play anything as lead guitarist that George couldn't do better. But I like playing lead sometimes, so I do it."

The Beatles were filmed miming to "You Can't Do That" as part of the final concert sequence in the A Hard Day's Night film. The filming took place on 31 March 1964 at the Scala Theatre in London, but was not used. It was, however, broadcast on The Ed Sullivan Show on 24 May.

The Beatles also performed the song at the New Musical Express Pollwinners' Concert on 26 April, and for the ITV network TV show Blackpool Night Out on 19 July.

Other Versions include : The Jaybirds (1964)  /  The Standells (1964)  /  The Supremes (1964)  /  Nancy Sitt (1966)  /  Harry Nilsson (1967)  /  "Noin et tehdä saa" by Petri & Pettersson Brass (1971)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Love, Robot  (2014)  /  Amy Slattery (2015)  /  The MonaLisa Twins (2016)  /  a robot (2018)

On This Day :

30 March : Tracy Chapman, singer/songwriter, born in Cleveland, Ohio
1 April : John Lennon is reunited with his father Freddie after 17 years
2 April : USSR launches Zond 1 - destination Venus
3 April : The Beatles hold the top 6 spots on Sydney Australia record charts
4 April : "Anyone Can Whistle" opens at Majestic Theater NYC
8 April : Unmanned Gemini 1 launched
10 April : Reni, (Stone Roses), born Alan John Wren in Manchester
11 April : "Anyone Can Whistle" closes after 9 performances
16 April : 9 men sentenced 25-30 years for Britain's 1963 "Great Train Robbery"
17 April : "High Spirits" opens at Alvin Theater NYC
18 April : "Foxy" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 72 performances

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

           

[Cardenio I]

What a fucking song. Still exciting 55 year on, still makes my inner teenage girl scream.

"Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggest that Can't Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That's going too far."

Lovely bit of accidental Partridge from Paul there.

[sevendaughters]

not quite The Bachelors is it

[Satchmo Distel]

Notes:

1) I think the two George Harrison guitar tracks not quite blending smoothly actually makes it more exciting

2) The Supremes album 'A Bit Of Liverpool' includes covers of tracks that were done by The Animals, Dave Clark 5 and Tremeloes; distinctly not Liverpool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bit_of_Liverpool

3) Johnnie Spence's arrangement for Ella Fitzgerald is pretty good and probably features Tubby Hayes, who sat in with them when they backed Ella live in 1965. The drums are great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ymTwboFgT0

[kalowski]

The first two takes of Can't Buy Me Love, were recorded in the bluesy style in which the song was originally conceived. Paul McCartney taped a guide vocal which was later replaced at Abbey Road. John Lennon and George Harrison's backing vocals, in which they sang "Ooh, satisfied", "Ooh, just can't buy" in response to McCartney's lead lines, were swiftly discarded. McCartney's final vocal was overdubbed at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, on 25 February. Also re-recorded on this day at EMI Studios was George Harrison's modified guitar solo, although his original solo can still just be heard in the background.

I love this outtake.

[daf]

Oops - I somehow missed a link for that.

(now fixed - plus an extra one I found that highlighted the backing vocals).

[Satchmo Distel]

There must be enough outtakes to fill a bonus CD of A Hard Day's Night album material - plus enough live recordings to include a live disc sequenced to match the album - to give us maybe a deluxe edition in 2024.

[machotrouts]

I remember this being the song that was playing on the radio when, as a teenager, I broke a radiator dressed as Siouxsie Sioux (me not the radiator) at a fancy dress party hosted by my uncle who was in full blackface as Mr T.

The Beatles don't figure very prominently in my life so I hope you enjoyed that one Beatles memory I have.

[Satchmo Distel]

my uncle who was in full blackface as Mr T.

Your uncle is Justin Trudeau?

[daf]

Please, lock them away, it's . . .

167.  Peter and Gordon - A World Without Love



From : 19 April – 2 May 1964
Weeks : 2
Flip side : If I Were You
bonus : TV Performance

Peter was born Peter Asher on 22 June 1944 at the Central Middlesex Hospital. His father was a consultant in blood and mental diseases, as well as being a broadcaster. Peter's mother was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. One of her pupils there was George Martin. He is the brother of Clare Asher, a radio actress and school inspector, and Jane Asher, a ginger actress and cake inspector.



When he was eight years old, he began working as a child actor, and appeared in the film The Planter's Wife, and the stage play Isn't Life Wonderful. At the age of ten, Peter played the central juvenile part in the 1954 film version of Isn't Life Wonderful, along stars Cecil Parker and Donald Wolfitt. In 1955 he played the youngest brother, "Johnny", in Escapade, based on Roger MacDougall's play. The film starred John Mills and Alastair Sim. He also appeared in the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood.

Gordon, was born Gordon Trueman Riviere Waller on 4 June 1945 in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of a prominent surgeon. The family later moved to Middlesex, when Gordon was a child, where he gained entrance to Westminster School. While attending Westminster School, he met fellow student Peter Asher, and they began playing and singing together as a duo in coffee bars. In 1962, they began working formally as Peter and Gordon.

Peter : "Our voices are quite different, Gordon's and mine, but we tried singing together experimentally and we found that we could achieve this very nice harmony."

Their first hit was the 1964 Paul McCartney song "A World Without Love". Peter's sister Jane was, in the mid-1960s, the girlfriend of Paul McCartney. Through this connection, Asher and Waller were given unrecorded McCartney songs to perform, including  "Nobody I Know" - #10 in June 1964  /  and  "I Don't Want To See You Again" -  which, although it failed to chart in the UK, became #16 hit in the US in September 1964.



Also a UK flop - "I Go to Pieces" in November 1964, went Top 9 in the US in December 1964. It was written by Del Shannon and given to Peter and Gordon after the two acts toured together. This was facilitated by Del Shannon's manager Irving Micahnik, of Embee and Bigtop records. Irving Micahnik and Harry Balk discovered Del Shannon and they signed away their rights to "I Go to Pieces" hoping to lure Peter and Gordon to their Detroit label; unfortunately all they did was lose the royalties they would have earned from the song.

1965 began brightly back in Blighty with Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways" - hitting the all-important Top 2 spot in April. Another cover, The Teddybears' "To Know You Is to Love You", was a UK #5 hit in June. Their last single of 1965, "Baby I'm Yours" - reached #19 in October 1965.

For their fourth Paul penned platter, "Woman", McCartney decided to don a false beard - and go under the pseudonym Bernard Webb - to see whether he could have a hit song without his name attached.  Bernard was duly delighted when the song reached #14 in the US, but a disappointing #28 in the UK in March 1966 meant that the results of the experiment were declared inconclusive.



Their follow-up single - the spangly "To Show I Love You" did even worse in June - unjustly missing the chart altogether, but they managed to trot back into the hit parade for one final time with "Lady Godiva" - which claimed the coveted Top 16 position in September 1966.

The release of 'Lady Godiva', which allegedly offended the mayor of Coventry, was accompanied by a well-orchestrated publicity campaign. No doubt the mayor's objection to its lyrics did the song far more good than harm.

Radio Caroline DJ, Steve Young : "I remember having a pint with Gordon and Peter in a pub somewhere in London. Both of them were very down-to-earth and Gordon was definitely the 'lighter' of the two. Then, of course I introduced them at the Wimbledon Palais where they performed Lady Godiva while a young 'exotic dancer' rode around the dance floor on a white horse – not an event you'd quickly forget!"

 

Further flop singles included : "Knight in Rusty Armour" (b/w "The Flower Lady") in November 1966  /   "Sunday for Tea" (b/w "Start Trying Someone Else") in February 1967  /  "The Jokers" (b/w "Red, Cream And Velvet") in May 1967  /  "I Feel Like Going Out" (b/w "The Quest for the Holy Grail") in April 1968  /  "You've Had Better Times" (b/w "Sipping My Wine") in July 1968, and their final single was "I Can Remember" released in May 1969.

After Peter and Gordon disbanded in 1968, Asher took charge of the A&R department at the Beatles' Apple Records label, where he signed a then-unknown James Taylor and agreed to produce the singer-songwriter's debut solo album. The album was not a success, but Peter was so convinced that Taylor held great potential that he resigned his post at Apple to move to the United States and work as Taylor's manager.

James Taylor : "I convinced my parents to get me a plane ticket to London in 1968.  I called my friend Danny Kortchmar - Kootch, as we used to call him and still do - he was a key person in my life in terms of connecting with a lot of people. And he had toured a year with Peter Asher - of Peter & Gordon - during the British invasion.

So I took my demo to see Peter Asher. And as luck would have it, Peter had just signed on as A&R director for Apple, The  Beatles' brand-new label, and it was his job to find people for the label. He heard my demo and arranged an audition with Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Paul said to Peter, 'This is great. You feel like producing a record?' And Peter said, Sure, I'll produce it.'

Peter was a key person. Peter was my manager - and is my dear friend - and we learned how to produce together. And that was my big break. It was a remarkable dream come true. It really was."



Gordon attempted a solo career with little success, releasing one record, "...and Gordon". On this album Waller used a New York-based group White Cloud, featuring Teddy Wender on keyboards. He also appeared in a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as Pharaoh in 1971, a performance that he reprised on the LP.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, while Peter continued his career as a recording executive in California - where he managed and produced Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor, and producing albums for J. D. Souther, Andrew Gold and Bonnie Raitt - Gordon worked as a photocopier salesman in Leicester whilst living in Everdon, Northamptonshire. . . . it's a shit business!

In February 1995, Peter was named Senior Vice-President, Sony Music Entertainment. At the beginning of 2002, he left Sony and returned full-time to the management of artists' careers as co-President of Sanctuary Artist Management.

Gordon returned to recording in 2002 as part of the 'He's a Rebel: The Gene Pitney Story Retold' project produced by Gary Pig Gold.  In August 2005, Peter and Gordon reunited onstage for the first time in more than 30 years, as part of two tribute concerts for Mike Smith of The Dave Clark Five in New York City, and played further concerts together in 2006.

In 2007, Gordon released a solo album 'Plays the Beatles', featuring a new recording of "Woman".

On 19 July 2008, Peter and Gordon performed together at The Cannery Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also on the bill that night were Chad & Jeremy. Both duos sang the final concert song ("Bye Bye Love") together for only the second time.

On the evening of 16 July 2009, Gordon went into cardiac arrest , and died aged 64 of a heart attack early in the morning of 17 July 2009 at Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut.

As of 2018, Peter tours alongside Jeremy Clyde of Chad and Jeremy in a new duo entitled Peter and Jeremy, where they perform hits from both of their respective catalogues.

"A World Without Love" was written by Paul McCartney when he was 16. When he moved into the London home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher in 1963, sharing a room with her brother Peter Asher, Asher asked him if he could use the song after Asher and Gordon Waller had signed a recording contract as Peter and Gordon.

Paul : "The funny first line always used to please John. 'Please lock me away –' 'Yes, okay.' End of song."

John : "I think that was resurrected from the past. ... I think he had that whole song before the Beatles. ... That has the line 'Please lock me away' that we always used to crack up at."

McCartney did not think the song was good enough for The Beatles. As such, the song was never recorded by the group, and the only known recording of the song by any member of the Beatles is the brief original demo of the song performed by McCartney, which is now in the possession of Peter Asher.

The song was recorded by Peter and Gordon and released as their first single in February 1964. It was included on the duo's debut album in the UK, and in the US on an album of the same name.  The B-side was "If I Were You", was written by Peter and Gordon - Ker-chingg!!



The song topped the charts in the United Kingdom, United States, Ireland and New Zealand. It was a No. 2 in Australia, and No. 8 in Norway.

Before giving the song to Peter and Gordon, McCartney offered it to Billy J. Kramer, who rejected it, the daft ha'p'orth! The song was one of the seven number 1s written by Lennon-McCartney that charted in the US in 1964, an all-time songwriting record for most songs to top the US charts in a calendar year.



Other Versions include :   Bobby Rydell (1964)  /  Teresa Brewer (1964)  /  The Supremes (1964)  /  Del Shannon (1964)  /  Terry Black (1964)  /  Keely Smith (1964)  /  Anita Bryant (1964)  /  The Johnny Mann Singers (1964)  /  Marty Gold and His Orchestra (1964)  /  "Maailma ilman rakkautta" by The Esquires (1964)  /  "Un monde sans amour" by Sheila (1964)   /  André Vasseur (1964)  /  Les Baronets (1964)  /  "Un mundo sin amor" by Los Mustang (1964)  /  Bobby Goldsboro (1965)  /  Joy Marshall (1965)  /  Patty Duke (1965)  /  Peter Posa (1965)  /  "Un mundo sin amor" by Sandro y los de Fuego (1965)  /  Gitte & The Band (1969)  /  Cyril Stapleton (1969)  /  Del Davis (1973)   /   Teddie Palmer (1976)  /  Those Helicopters (1979)  /  Shanes (1980)  /  "Maailma ilman rakkautta" by Kari Kuuva (1980)  /  Gerry & The Pacemakers (1982)  /  Bryn Yemm (1989)  /  World Party (1992)  /  The Beatnix (1998)  /  The Mavericks (1999)  /  Brian May's Melbourne Sound Orchestra (2009)  /  oldwhtman (2011)  /  Stevie Riks (2012)  /  Grethel Bonilla (2012)  /  The Electric Starfish (2012)  /  Random Waves feat. Fiia McGann (2013)  /  Seiichi Teramoto (2013)  /  Dave Monk (2014)  /  Delarosa Duo (2015)  /  a robot (2016)  /  MonaLisa Twins (2017)  /  Phil McGarrick (2018)  /  Danny McEvoy (2019)

On This Day :

20 April : Andy Serkis, acto, born in Ruislip Manor, Middlesex
25 April : Hank Azaria, Simpsons voice actor (Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum), born in Queens, New York City
25 April : Andy Bell, (Erasure), born in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

         

[Cardenio I]

Why is Macy Gray listed as the sole "associated act" on their wikipedia page? Is this a particularly obscure bit of wiki vandalism?

EDIT: Songs aight I suppose, but it is just a bit of a wet All My Loving isn't it?

[sevendaughters]

the song is slight but those mid-tempo breezers with a reasonably sparse arrangement will generally do it for me. had never heard of this before. one thumb up (McCartney's)

[purlieu]

Can't Buy Me Love is probably one of my less favourite early Beatles songs, no complaints though, good song.
A World Without Love went in one ear and out of the other.

[daf]

I'm frustrated that I can't link to the specific MONO versions - due to The Beatles refusing to upload them, and blocking anyone else on youtube who does.

All the Beatles singles up to 1969 were the unique mono mixes ONLY - and people should be able to hear the proper versions that the kids went nuts to in the 60s - not these wimpy stereo afterthoughts!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Jane Asher, though. Phwoaarsher?

[Satchmo Distel]

Pattie Boyd even moreso.

[machotrouts]

McCartney did not think the song was good enough for The Beatles.

Correct. Next!

[famethrowa]

Pattie Boyd even moreso.

I mean she seems nice an all, but the muse for 2 (or more) of the most famous classic rock songs ever? Her?

[Satchmo Distel]

Going back to 'She Loves You', there is a very detailed analysis in Episode 16 of this podcast:

https://toppodcast.com/podcast_feeds/the-beatles-naked/

[daf]

They Went That-a Way!, it's . . .

168.  Searchers - Don't Throw Your Love Away

 

From : 3 – 16 May 1964
Weeks : 2
Flip side : I Pretend I'm With You
bonus : Live at the 1964 NME Awards

In May 1964, Don't Throw Your Love Away, became The Searchers third and final chart topper. Around this time Bassist Tony Jackson was unhappy with the band's move away from rock and roll to a softer, more melodic sound and felt that he was not getting appropriate attention. He left the group, amid some acrimony, while The Searchers  "Some Day We're Gonna Love Again" was climbing to #11 in the charts in July 1964,  and immediately moved to London and put together a new band.

His place in The Searchers was filled by a pal they knew from their Hamburg days, Frank Allen from Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers.

Tony Jackson was then signed to Pye as a solo act and, backed by The Vibrations, which had an organ-based sound instead of the Searchers' guitar based one. They issued a few singles of which the first, "Bye Bye Baby" (b/w "Watch Your Step"), charted in the UK in 1964. He also re-cut "Love Potion No. 9" but it failed to chart.

 

Frank Allen's debut single with The Searchers was a cover of Jackie de Shannon's "When You Walk in the Room", which shot to #3 in the UK in September 1964 - suggesting all was well for the revised Tony-less lineup.

Later UK chart hits followed with "What Have They Done To The Rain" - #13 in December 1964  /   "Goodbye My Love" - a rather experimental single for the time, with long harmonised passages, that reached #4 in May 1965  /  "He's Got No Love" - #12 in July 1965  /   "When I Get Home" - #35 in October 1965  /  then the folk-flavoured "Take Me For What I'm Worth", written by P.F. Sloan, which was their final Top 20 hit in December 1965.

Meanwhile things weren't working out chart-wise for Tony and The Vibrations, and in 1965 they changed their name to The Tony Jackson Group. Sadly the name change failed improve their fortunes, and with no further chart success, Pye dropped them. The band then signed to CBS, but with no hit singles, and few bookings in the UK, they toured southern Europe until even that withered. Disillusioned and out of options, Jackson left the music business.

A second Searcher departed the fold in April 1966 - Chris Curtis's choice of Bobby Darin's "When I Get Home", despite a strong band performance, was a relative chart failure by their standards. This to an extent undermined Curtis's position in the band, and some internal disagreements resurfaced over musical policy and direction that had been evident earlier when Tony Jackson had left, and in April 1966, after the Australian tour, Chris Curtis, who had songwriting ambitions, left the band, and was replaced by the Keith Moon-influenced John Blunt. This was a major blow, as Curtis had been chief songwriter, song selector, and key high harmony voice, as well as a figurehead member and the main PR man.

Shortly after leaving the band in June 1966, he released the possibly autobiographical single "Aggravation" (b/w "Have I Done Something Wrong?"



In 1967, Chris Curtis formed a new band called Roundabout with keyboard player Jon Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Although Curtis's involvement in the project was short-lived, Roundabout evolved into Deep Purple the following year.

In 1966, budding entrepreneur Tony Edwards was working in London's West End for Alice Edwards Holdings Ltd, his family's clothing company. He'd turned his hand to the pop scene after coming across a singer-turned-model named Ayshea . . .

Tony Edwards : "I was not particularly happy in the rag trade,' recalls Edwards. 'I was trying to get Ayshea onto Ready Steady Go and became friendly with Vicki Wickham [RSG's editor/producer]. She came to dinner one evening with Chris Curtis in tow. I was quite in awe of him. In my eyes Chris was a John Lennon character with great flights of imagination and fancy. A year later, from out of the blue, Chris rang me from Liverpool. He said I'd like you to be my manager. I'll teach you everything. Brian Epstein's dead, you can be the next Brian Epstein.' That hooked me."

At the time Curtis was planning his return to pop, Jon Lord was also pondering his future. He had recently left jazzy west London R&B outfit The Artwoods, a band formed around Art Wood, brother of future-Face and Rolling Stone, Ron. Despite being a live draw and having released an album in 1966, The Artwoods were going nowhere. An attention-seeking name change to St Valentine's Massacre, matched by a new gangster-suited image, hadn't clicked with record buyers - except in Denmark. "I'd pushed the boundaries of The Artwoods as far as I could go," says Lord. "I was sticking Bach and Tchaikovsky into my organ solos and I think it rather frightened them."

While future band member Jon Lord was marking time with The Flowerpot Men, Chris Curtis had decided how his new band was going to proceed . . .

Jon Lord : "He said, 'I've got this concept.' As it was the summer of ¹67, concepts sounded wonderful. It was to be three people as the core. The third person was a bass player, who I never met. I don't know if he existed. We would engage other people as we felt like it. They would jump on and off the roundabout. But I left that party in a new band, Roundabout. A few weeks later Curtis was living in my flat, I don't know how it happened. There were limousines picking him up, I was tremendously impressed. He told me that he had met a businessman who was really interested in putting up 'the bread, man'."

That businessman being Tony Edwards . . .

Tony Edwards : "The invoice from the hire company for the Daimler would end up on my desk the next day. I couldn't really cope with that, but I had a great rapport with Jon Lord, here was somebody sensible, somebody I could communicate with on my level, my very square level."

It was soon clear that Curtis was on a very different level to everyone else around him . . .

Jon Lord : "I came back from being up north for a few days with The Flowerpot Men, and my entire flat was covered in silver paper. The tables, chairs, the toilet, the toilet seat. The lightbulbs, which blew every time you turned them on. Windows, everything. Chris came out of the loo and said, 'hey man, what do you think? New concept.' I knew he'd lost it. I was quite naïve, I knew what acid was, but I didn't know what it did. A few days later, he suddenly wasn't there."

Chris Curtis left the music industry and joined the Inland Revenue in 1969. In the mid 1970s he made some demos with Bernard Whitty, a Liverpool producer, to whom he had been introduced by one of his colleagues at the Inland Revenue. Alan Willey was an accountant who played guitar semi professionally. He asked Curtis to join his band, Western Union, but Curtis started drinking heavily and was asked to leave. Ultimately, however, nothing came of the demos.

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

As musical styles evolved, The Searchers did attempt to move with the times, recording covers of songs by The Rolling Stones "Take It Or Leave it" (#31 in April 1966) and The Hollies "Have You Ever Loved Somebody", which was their final chart entry - just scraping in at #48 in October 1966.

 

After Curtis' departure Frank Allen handled the high harmonies, and new drummer John Blunt boosted them musically. The next single was a version of Tim Wilde's "Popcorn, Double Feature" - a irresistable slice of Mod Psychedelia that was an unjustified flop in January 1967. They followed this with "Western Union" in April, and after "Secondhand Dealer" bombed in November 1967, they left Pye, and signed with Liberty, releasing two singles : "Umbrella Man" in  November 1968, and "Kinky Kathy Abernathy" in July 1969.

Although their UK chart days were over, they did score a minor US hit in 1971 with "Desdemona". A contract with RCA Victor's UK wing resulted in an album of re-recorded hits titled Second Take (1972).  Despite recording new material, including covers of Neil Sedaka's "Solitaire" and the Bee Gees' "Spicks And Specks", much of their new work was not issued at the time, and RCA later dropped the group.

The group continued to tour through the 1970s, playing both the expected old hits as well as contemporary songs such as a powering extended live version of Neil Young's "Southern Man". They were rewarded in 1979 when Sire Records signed them to a multi-record deal.

Two albums were released: The Searchers and Play for Today. Both records garnered critical acclaim and featured some original tracks, as well as covers of songs such as Alex Chilton's power-pop classic "September Gurls" and John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night".

A Sire single, "Hearts In Her Eyes", written by Will Birch and John Wicks of The Records, and successfully updating their distinctive 12-string guitars/vocal harmonies sound, picked up some radio airplay, and with more promotion might have charted.



In 1981, the band signed to PRT Records (formerly Pye, their original label) and began recording an album. But only one single, "I Don't Want To Be The One" backed with "Hollywood", ended up being released. They promoted this with a UK Television appearance on "The Leo Sayer Show".

After a farewell performance in London in December 1985 Mike Pender left the group to form a new band and now tours as Mike Pender's Searchers. McNally and Allan, following Pender's departure, recruited former First Class vocalist Spencer James as his replacement.

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

Following his departure from the music biz, Tony Jackson took a variety of jobs including Spanish night club manager, entertainments representative, furniture salesman, disc jockey and golf club manager. In the 1980s he tried to establish a Searchers revival band, but was unable to compete effectively with the other two that already existed.

In 1991, Tony Jackson and the Vibrations reformed, but the resuscitation of his career was short-lived, however, although he did appear four times with Mike Pender's Searchers between 1992 and 1995. That ended in 1996 when he was convicted of threatening a woman with an air pistol after an argument over a phone booth, and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. Tony Jackson died on 18 August 2003 in a Nottingham hospital, he was 63.

After retirement from the Inland Revenue, Chris Curtis was active in his parish church of Holy Rosary in Sefton, Liverpool, where he sang folk music and rock and roll to attract younger worshippers. He also sang frequently with a karaoke machine at Cooper's Emporium and the Old Roan pub near the home he shared with his mother when the Searchers first started. He died at home on 28 February 2005 at the age of 63.

In 2018, The Searchers announced that the band would be retiring, and they ended their farewell tour on 31 March 2019.

"Don't Throw Your Love Away" was written by Billy Jackson and Jimmy Wisner. Originally released in 1963 by The Orlons.

The song was covered by The Searchers and released in April 1964. The Searchers' version went to No. 1 on the UK and the Irish Singles Chart, #4 in Denmark, and #16 in the US charts in July 1966.

   

Other Versions include :   The Typhoons (1964)  /    The King Creoles (1964)  /  "Älä hylkää rakkautta" by Kari & The Islanders (1964)  /  The Five Comets (1964)  /  "C'est arrivé comme ça" by Michèle Torr (1964)  /  Vic Laurens (1964)  /   Len Barry (1965)  /  Teddy Robin & The Playboys (1968)  /  "Älä hylkää rakkautta" by Gulliver (1978)  /  Cisse Häkkinen (1979)  /  "Älä hylkää rakkautta" by Jarkko Sarjanen (1980)  / Fabienne Delsol (2007)  /  Elvis Costello & Amsterdam (2008)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Dave Monk (2017)  /  a robot (2017)

On This Day  :

6 May : Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr Sloan" premieres in London
8 May : Dave Rowntree, (Blur), born David Alexander De Horne Rowntree in Colchester, Essex
12 May : Italian Manlio Brosio chosen as secretary-general of NATO
11 May : Scouse Snookerist John Parrott, born in Liverpool
15 May : US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
16 May : USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

       

[sevendaughters]

think Tone probably left because of the material. a tough 2.17 for me.

[purlieu]

Eh

[jamiefairlie]

I mean she seems nice an all, but the muse for 2 (or more) of the most famous classic rock songs ever? Her?

I can totally see it, she's got that '60s it girl' look off to perfection. She stands out even in that train scene from Hard Day's Night, which is where her and George met I believe.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Yeah, Patti Boyd is stunningly beautiful. Any opinion to the contrary is sheer insanity.

Anyway, The Searchers. It's a nice little tune, innit? Wistful folk rock with strong harmonies and a vaguely Eastern guitar line in the bridge. All good.

[machotrouts]

Is this some sort of vague finger-waggy slut-shaming thing. I'll throw my love wherever the fuck I like Searchers fucking watch me. Gonna cum in my own sweet ass and you're gonna watch you fucking cungs

Correct. Next!

This seemed more authoritative before I remembered you don't post on weekends. Next! [2 AND A HALF DAYS PASS]

[Satchmo Distel]

Co-composer Jimmy Wisner had a classical adaptation banned by the Beeb, under the policy discussed earlier in the thread:

Born James J. Wisner, 8 December 1931, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pianist, arranger, producer, songwriter. Jimmy "The Whiz" Wisner was trained as a classical pianist. By 1959, he was a Temple University psychology graduate and had formed the Jimmy Wisner Trio, composed of himself on piano, Chick Kinney on drums and Ace Tsome on bass. They were playing local clubs in Philadelphia and had accompanied Mel Torme, Carmen McRae, Dakota Staton and the Hi-Lo's. Their first album, "Blues For Harvey", was released on Felsted Records in 1961. In that same year, Wisner recorded "Asia Minor", which merged a melody from Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor (hence the title) with a rock 'n' roll beat, on a cheap up-right piano to give the record a honky tonk flavour. He adopted the pseudonym Kokomo, fearing that making a rock 'n' roll disc would tarnish his reputation as a well-respected jazz musician. After being turned down by 10 or 11 labels, Wisner set up his own label, Future Records, with record distributor Harry Chipetz and the record's engineer, Amel Corset, for the release of "Asia Minor". Soon it started selling so well that they couldn't handle the distribution and it was picked up by Felsted. "Asia Minor" climbed to # 8 on the pop charts in April 1961 ; in the UK it went to # 35, in spite of being banned by the BBC. Three more Kokomo singles were released on Felsted (the best of these being "Like Teen"), as well as an LP, but nothing ever again charted.

Still, "Asia Minor" launched Wisner's career in pop music as a composer of film and television scores, as a session musician and as an arranger/producer. Among the countless artists he has worked with are Freddy Cannon (Wisner is the organ grinder on "Palisades Park"), Neil Sedaka, Len Barry, Miriam Makeba, Judy Collins, Paul Evans, Tony Bennett, Carly Simon, Al Kooper, Iggy Pop, Barbra Streisand, Tommy James and ... Brigitte Bardot. As a songwriter, his greatest success is "Don't Throw Your Love Away", which went to # 1 in the UK in 1964 in the version by the Searchers. "Somewhere" by the Tymes went Top 20 in 1963. Wisner has had over 250 of his compositions recorded. For some time he was also the head of A&R for Columbia Records in New York.

Though it never was a hit here, "Asia Minor" is very well-known in Holland, as it was the tune of deejay Joost de Draayer for almost two decades, first on the pirate station Radio Veronica (which existed from 1960 until 1974) and then on public radio. De Draayer (real name Willem van Kooten) has done more than anyone else to modernize (read: Americanize) Dutch pop radio.

http://www.rockabilly.nl/references/messages/jimmy_wisner.htm

Following the success of "Asia Minor", Wisner launched a successful career as a songwriter, producer, and composer for film and television. With Billy Jackson, a frequent songwriting collaborator,[5][6] he wrote "Don't Throw Your Love Away", a #1 UK hit for the Searchers in 1964, as well as the Tymes' "Somewhere", written with Norma Mendoza,[7] which went Top 20 in the UK. As a producer and arranger Wisner worked with Bobby Rydell ("The Joker", by Newley-Bricusse from Roar of the Greasepaint) as well as numerous others including Freddy Cannon, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Vinton, Herbie Mann, Len Barry ("1 - 2 - 3"[8]), Miriam Makeba, Judy Collins, Paul Evans, Spanky and Our Gang, Tony Bennett, the Cowsills, Carly Simon, Al Kooper, Iggy Pop, Barbra Streisand, Tommy James, Brigitte Bardot, and Roberto Carlos as well as Randy & the Rainbows. He also headed Columbia Records' A&R department from 1968 to 1969, where he recorded Donna Marie, who went on to perform with the Archies.[9]Wisner died on March 13, 2018, at age 86.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Wisner

Co-composer Billy Jackson

Billy Jackson
Real Name:
William Edward Jackson III
Profile:
American rhythm&blues singer, soul/disco producer, songwriter from Philadelphia, PA. Worked with The Tymes and for Cameo Parkway Records. Mostly known for penning "Midnight Stroll", "Don't Throw Your Love Away" among others. Often associated to Jimmy Wisner.
Died April 23, 2016

https://www.discogs.com/artist/255077-Billy-Jackson

Taylor co-produced (with Mike Chapman) the 1975 No. 1 'Ms. Grace' by The Tymes.