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

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183.  The Beatles - I Feel Fine



The Story So Far : The Fourth Album

Sticking to Brian Epstein's formula of 'four singles and two albums a year', another LP was due in time for Christmas, and so just over a month after their third album, "A Hard Days Night" had hit the shops, they were back in the recording studio to record their fourth . . .

Neil Aspinall (road manager) : "No band today would come off a long US tour at the end of September, go into the studio and start a new album, still writing songs, and then go on a UK tour, finish the album in five weeks, still touring, and have the album out in time for Christmas. But that's what the Beatles did at the end of 1964. A lot of it was down to naiveté, thinking that this was the way things were done. If the record company needs another album, you go and make one."

The Beatles recorded the album at EMI Studios in London in between their touring and radio engagements. The songs introduced darker musical moods and more introspective lyrics, with John Lennon adopting an autobiographical perspective in compositions such as "I'm a Loser" and "No Reply". The album also reflected the twin influences of country music and Bob Dylan, whom the Beatles met in New York in August 1964. Partly as a result of the group's hectic schedule, only eight of the tracks are original compositions, with cover versions of songs by artists such as Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard being used to complete the album.

The sessions for Beatles for Sale began at EMI Studios on 11 August, one month after the release of A Hard Day's Night. The majority of the recording sessions took place during a three-week period beginning on 29 September, following the band's return from the US tour. Much of the production was done on "days off" from performances in the UK, and much of the songwriting was completed in the studio.

George : "Our records were progressing. We'd started out like anyone spending their first time in a studio – nervous and naive and looking for success. By this time we'd had loads of hits and were becoming more relaxed with ourselves, and more comfortable in the studio ..."

The band continued to develop their sound through the use of four-track recording, which EMI had introduced in 1963. They were also allowed greater freedom to experiment by the record company and by George Martin, who was gradually relinquishing his position of authority over the Beatles, as their label boss, throughout 1964, and was increasingly open to their non-standard musical ideas including the first use of a fade-in on a pop song, guitar feedback and the band's first use of timpani, African hand drums and chocalho. The recording studio changed its identity from the Beatles' perspective, from a formal workplace into a "workshop" and "laboratory".



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"Baby's In Black" was written in a hotel room while The Beatles were on tour in the summer of 1964. It has been speculated that the song is about Astrid Kirchherr, the German photographer and artist whom The Beatles befriended in Hamburg. She was engaged to the group's first bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain haemorrhage in April 1962.

Paul : "Baby's In Black we did because we like waltz time – we used to do If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody, a cool 3/4 blues thing. And other bands would notice that and say, 'Shit man, you're doing something in 3/4.' So we'd got known for that. And I think also John and I wanted to do something bluesy, a bit darker, more grown-up, rather than just straight pop. It was more 'baby's in black' as in mourning. Our favourite colour was black, as well."

By 1964 Lennon and McCartney had began to write alone, although they continued to help each other complete songs when the need arose. Baby's In Black, however, was a joint effort written, as Lennon remembered in 1980, "together, in the same room".

Paul : "It was very much co-written and we both sang it. Sometimes the harmony that I was writing in sympathy to John's melody would take over and become a stronger melody. Suddenly a piebald rabbit came out of the hat! When people wrote out the music score they would ask, 'Which one is the melody?' because it was so co-written that you could actually take either. We rather liked this one. It was not so much a work job, there was a bit more cred about this one. It's got a good middle."

The first song to be recorded for the new album, it was completed in a single session on 11 August 1964, taking 14 takes to perfect, although only five of those were complete. Lennon and McCartney sang their parts simultaneously into the same microphone, to give a feeling of closeness.

The opening guitar note caused particular problems during the session. After the track was completed, George Harrison taped a number of edit pieces consisting of variations of the note, although none were used.



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"I'm A Loser", written in the summer of 1964, was the first of John Lennon's songs to be directly influenced by Bob Dylan, who's acoustic songwriting and lyrical depth had a profound effect on him, and as a result, he began to explore his own feelings more in song.

John : "That's me in my Dylan period. Part of me suspects I'm a loser and part of me thinks I'm God Almighty. I objected to the word 'clown', because that was always artsy-fartsy, but Dylan had used it so I thought it was all right, and it rhymed with whatever I was doing. "

The Beatles recorded 'I'm A Loser' on 14 August 1964, The recording was straightforward, and took eight takes to get right with no overdubs needed.

Lennon was inspired further by an encounter with the journalist Kenneth Allsop, whom Lennon met in March 1964. Allsop told Lennon that his songs lacked the depth and meaning of his book In His Own Write. He suggested that Lennon try to write more autobiographically, basing his songs on personal experiences rather than generic sentiments of love. The encounter marked a turning point for Lennon, and Allsop's advice played a key part in inspiring him to write In My Life in 1965.

Paul : "Looking back on it I think songs like I'm A Loser and Nowhere Man were John's cries for help. We used to listen to quite a lot of country and western songs and they are all about sadness and 'I lost my truck' so it was quite acceptable to sing 'I'm a loser'. You didn't really think about it at the time, it's only later you think, God! I think it was pretty brave of John."

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"Mr Moonlight", a staple of The Beatles' live act for some years, was written by Roy Lee Johnson. The first known recording was by blues pianist Piano Red, recording as Dr Feelgood and the Interns in 1962.

The Beatles attempted the song twice in the studio in 1964. The first time was on 14 August, when they recorded four takes – the last of these was for a time considered the best. The first broke down almost immediately; take four was complete, and featured a frantic slide guitar solo by George Harrison.

The Beatles re-made the song on 18 October. Again they recorded four takes, the last two of which featured McCartney's somewhat gaudy Hammond organ solo.



Despite a blistering vocal from John Lennon, and an amusing occasional drum "bonk", Mr Moonlight is held by many Beatles fans to be one of their worst recordings.

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"Leave My Kitten Alone", by contrast, was one of The Beatles' finest 'lost' songs. It had been a part of The Beatles' live repertoire during their Hamburg period, although by August 1964 they hadn't performed it for two years.

The song was the group's first complete, full-band song to be discarded since 'How Do You Do It' back in September 1962. The Beatles most likely based their version on Johnny Preston's 1961 single, although it it had originally been recorded by Little Willie John in 1959.

Paul : "That was a Johnny Preston song that we'd rehearsed in Liverpool along with all our Cavern stuff and it was just in our repertoire. It wasn't a big one that we used to do, we'd pull it out of the hat occasionally"

Had the song been released on Beatles For Sale, it would surely have been one of the highlights. Why it was rejected is unclear, although it has been suggested that it was dropped in favour of 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby', in order to give George Harrison a lead vocal.

The group recorded five takes of Leave My Kitten Alone on 14 August 1964. The first was complete, though lacked the vocal forcefulness it needed. Take two broke down, with Lennon saying, "I wish I could do it without playing". He did just that, recording a second complete take – with a searing lead vocal, followed by another false start. The fifth and final attempt was the one marked 'best'. On to take five Lennon overdubbed a second lead vocal and George Harrison double-tracked his lead guitar. Paul McCartney taped a piano part and Ringo Starr added a tambourine.

'Leave My Kitten Alone' was never mixed during The Beatles' career, although a stereo version was made for a single, to be released alongside the unreleased Sessions album, which was prepared by EMI in 1985. This version was subsequently bootlegged, although the other complete attempts remain largely unheard.

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On 23 August 1964 The Beatles' concert at the Hollywood Bowl was recorded by George Martin and engineers from Capitol Records, who hoped to release it as a live album. Capitol had previously wanted to record The Beatles' concert at Carnegie Hall, New York on 12 February 1964, but had been unable to secure permission from the American Federation of Musicians in time.

John : "The Hollywood Bowl was marvellous. It was the one we all enjoyed most, I think, even though it wasn't the largest crowd – because it seemed so important, and everybody was saying things. We got on, and it was a big stage, and it was great. We could be heard in a place like the Hollywood Bowl, even though the crowds was wild: good acoustics."

All 18,700 tickets for the event had sold out four months previously. The Beatles took to the stage at 9.30pm and performed 12 songs: Twist And Shout  /  You Can't Do That  /  All My Loving   /  She Loves You  /  Things We Said Today  /  Roll Over Beethoven  /  Can't Buy Me Love  /  If I Fell  /  I Want To Hold Your Hand  /  Boys  /  A Hard Day's Night  /  and Long Tall Sally.

Ringo : "We played the Hollywood Bowl, the shell around the stage was great. It was the Hollywood Bowl – these were impressive places to me. I fell in love with Hollywood then, and I am still in love with Hollywood – well, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, California. I prefer it to New York."



George Martin was at the venue, working with Capitol Records' producer Voyle Gilmore on the recording. Martin was reluctant to tape the concert, and after mixing the tracks on 27 August Capitol decided the quality of the recording was not suitable for release.

George Martin : "We recorded it on three-track tape, which was standard US format then. You would record the band in stereo on two tracks and keep the voice separated on the third, so that you could bring it up or down in the mix. But at the Hollywood Bowl they didn't use three-track in quite the right way. I didn't have too much say in things because I was a foreigner, but they did some very bizarre mixing. In 1977, when I was asked to make an album from the tapes, I found guitars and voices mixed on the same track. And the recording seemed to concentrate more on the wild screaming of 18,700 kids than on the Beatles on stage."



The 1977 album The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl contained songs from this day and The Beatles' subsequent two concerts at the venue, which took place on 29 and 30 August 1965. From the 1964 concert were taken Things We Said Today, Roll Over Beethoven, Boys, All My Loving, She Loves You and Long Tall Sally.

A car was parked by the stage to whisk The Beatles away at 10pm when the concert ended. For the next two days they stayed at a rented house at 356 St Pierre Road in Brown Canyon, Bel Air.

A 48-second excerpt of Twist And Shout was also included on the hilariously shit rip-off 1964 album The Beatles' Story which was issued on 23 November 1964 by Capitol Records.

Originally, Capitol Records intended to release the group's 1964 performance at the Hollywood Bowl, but due to a lack of advanced live recording and sound enhancement technology and the excessive amount of loud screaming fans on tape the album was shelved. Another plan was to release a two-LP 'Greatest Hits' album for the Christmas market. Four songs were to make their Capitol debut on this album: "A Hard Day's Night," "Misery," "There's a Place," and "From Me to You." The album was compiled, but never issued.

Instead it released a documentary double album featuring interviews, press conferences, snippets of original or orchestral versions of Beatles songs with voice-overs. The easy listening excerpts were created, produced and arranged by Stu Phillips with The Hollyridge Strings originally recorded for the first Capitol Records' Beatles Song Book.

Worthless as a Beatles album, it is actually a fascinating snapshot of 'Beatlemania' as viewed through the distorting lens of American Radio DJs cobbled together with mangled biographical titbits, mixing up sound clips of Paul and George, and memorably describing the group, like Dickensian urchins, as being "poor kids from the slums of Liverpool".

 

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"Every Little Thing" was written mostly by Paul McCartney in August 1964 during The Beatles' first full US tour. He initially hoped it would be the follow-up single to A Hard Day's Night, although this wasn't to be.

Paul : "Every Little Thing, like most of the stuff I did, was my attempt at the next single. I remember playing it for Brian [Epstein] backstage somewhere. He had assembled a few people. It was one of those meetings – 'Oh, we have to do some recordings, who's got what?' and we played a few at Brian. We didn't often check things with Brian, in fact I just remember it in connection with this because I thought it was very catchy. I played it amongst a few songs; it was something I thought was quite good but it became an album filler rather than the great almighty single. It didn't have quite what was required."

A devotional love song, most likely written with Jane Asher in mind, Every Little Thing is as emotionally revealing as any of Lennon's songs on Beatles For Sale. Although the music was less successful, the lyrics are among McCartney's most succinct and tender on the album.

The Beatles began recording Every Little Thing on 29 September 1964. They taped four takes, the last of which was temporarily considered the best.

Paul : "John does the guitar riff for this one, and George is on acoustic. Ringo bashes some timpani drums for the big noises you hear."

They returned to it the following day, recording a further five attempts. Take six was aborted when Paul burped a vocal instead of singing it, take seven was complete but ended in uproarious laughter. And Ringo was having fun with an instrument new to Beatles recordings – timpani. This appeared for the first time on take nine, along with the guitar intro and piano piece.

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"I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", although sung by John Lennon, as it had been composed with Ringo in mind - as he was the Beatles' aficionado of country songs.

Paul : "Ringo had a great style and great delivery. He had a lot of fans, so we liked to write something for him on each album. 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party' is quite a nice little song, co-written by John and I. It sounds more like John than me so 80-20 to him, sitting down doing a job. Certain songs were inspirational and certain songs were work, it didn't mean they were any less fun to write, it was just a craft, and this was a job to order really, which Ringo did a good job on."



Despite McCartney's recollection, Starr didn't sing the song. Why Lennon took the lead instead is uncertain, although he later claimed the song was written from the heart.

John : "That was a very personal one of mine. In the early days I wrote less material than Paul because he was more competent on the guitar than I. He taught me quite a lot of guitar really."

The Beatles recorded 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party' on 29 September 1964. They taped in 19 takes, although just five of those were complete.

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"What You're Doing" was inspired by Paul McCartney's often-stormy relationship with Jane Asher.

There are several notable aspects to the song. The first is the four-bar solo drum pattern which introduces the song, which returns again before the coda. It is possible that this, as in 'Ticket To Ride' and 'Tomorrow Never Knows', was suggested by McCartney.

McCartney deploys an unusual internal rhyming scheme in the verses: 'doing' is paired with 'blue and', and 'running' with 'fun in' – an effect also used on She's A Woman. Additionally, the shouted emphasis of certain words in Lennon and Harrison's backing vocals – which recall those from 'PS I Love You' – add a sense of urgency.

Most notable, however, is the distortion on the guitar backing and solo – an unusual sound at the time. The piano/bass break before the ending also showed The Beatles testing out ideas and establishing recording techniques which they would later use to dazzling effect.

Paul : "What You're Doing was a bit of a filler. I think it was a little more mine than John's, but I don't have a very clear recollection so to be on the safe side I'd put it as 50-50. It doesn't sound like an idea that I remember John offering, so it sounds like a way to get a song started, some of them are just that. 'Hey, what'cha doing?' You sometimes start a song and hope the best bit will arrive by the time you get to the chorus... but sometimes that's all you get, and I suspect this was one of them. Maybe it's a better recording than it is a song, some of them are. Sometimes a good recording would enhance the song."

'What You're Doing' was recorded over three days at Abbey Road. The first session took place on 29 September 1964, at which The Beatles taped seven takes of the rhythm track. They recorded another five attempts the following day. At this stage the instrumental break was an octave higher, and there was a brief pause before the coda.

The song was eventually completed on 26 October; the final song to be finished on the final day's recording for the album. Seven takes were recorded, only three of which were complete. Take 19, the final attempt, was the one used for the album.

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"No Reply" was written by John Lennon for Tommy Quickly, another of Brian Epstein's recording artists.

John : "That's my song. Dick James, the publisher, said, 'That's the first complete song you've written where it resolves itself'. You know, with a complete story. It was my version of Silhouettes: I had that image of walking down the street and seeing her silhouetted in the window and not answering the phone, although I never called a girl on the phone in my life. Because phones weren't part of the English child's life."

'Silhouettes' was a 1957 hit for The Rays, an R&B quartet from New York. The opening lines of the song bear a certain resemblance to No Reply.



Paul : "We wrote No Reply together but from a strong original idea of his. I think he pretty much had that one, but as usual, if he didn't have the third verse and the middle eight, then he'd play it to me pretty much formed, then we would shove a bit in the middle or I'd throw in an idea."

The Beatles taped their demo of No Reply for Tommy Quickly on 3 June 1964, although he never released a version of the song. The demo featured a drummer, although Ringo Starr had been taken ill earlier in the day with tonsillitis. Jimmie Nicol may have played instead; he was certainly at Abbey Road that morning for a tour rehearsal with Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.

This sprightly first version was treated casually by the group, who played around with the lyrics – at one point singing "I saw you walk in your face". It also had a shorter "I saw the light" section.

The Beatles – with Starr – recorded 'No Reply' properly on 30 September 1964, with piano played by George Martin. They perfected it in eight takes. For take five, the group tried repeating the middle section, extending the song from 2'14" to 3'17". However, they dropped this idea in the final version.

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"Eight Days A Week" was written as a potential title song for The Beatles' second film. In the end it became an album track on Beatles For Sale, although Capitol released it as a US single in February 1965.

John : "I think we wrote this when we were trying to write the title song for Help! because there was at one time the thought of calling the film Eight Arms To Hold You."

John Lennon later voiced his dissatisfaction with Eight Days A Week, framing it negatively along with the film.

John : "Help! as a film was like Eight Days A Week as a record for us. A lot of people liked the film, and a lot of people liked that record. But neither was what we wanted – we knew they weren't really us. We weren't ashamed of the film, but close friends knew that the picture and Eight Days weren't our best. They were both a bit manufactured."

Its relegation to the album occurred once John Lennon came up with 'I Feel Fine', the riff of which he toyed with several times during the main recording session for 'Eight Days A Week'.

John : "Eight Days A Week was the running title for Help! before they came up with Help. It was Paul's effort at getting a single for the movie. That luckily turned to Help! which I wrote, bam! bam!, like that and got the single. Eight Days A Week was never a good song. We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song. It was his initial effort, but I think we both worked on it. I'm not sure. But it was lousy anyway"

Paul : "I remember writing that with John, at his place in Weybridge, from something said by the chauffeur who drove me out there. John had moved out of London. to the suburbs. I usually drove myself there, but the chauffeur drove me out that day and I said, 'How've you been?' – 'Oh, working hard,' he said, 'working eight days a week.' I had never heard anyone use that expression, so when I arrived at John's house I said, 'Hey, this fella just said, "eight days a week".' John said, 'Right – "Ooh I need your love, babe..." and we wrote it.

We were always quick to write. We would write on the spot. I would show up, looking for some sort of inspiration; I'd either get it there, with John, or I'd hear someone say something. John and I were always looking for titles. Once you've got a good title, if someone says, 'What's your new song?' and you have a title that interests people, you are halfway there. Of course, the song has to be good. If you've called it I Am On My Way To A Party With You, Babe, they might say, 'OK...' But if you've called it Eight Days A Week, they say, 'Oh yes, that's good!'"

Initially recorded on 6 October 1964 with a harmonised vocal introduction, 'Eight Days A Week' went through a series of changes before the band settled on the final arrangement. The Beatles added a succession of overdubs and edits to take six; these were numbered takes 7-13. Two further edit pieces, for the song's beginning and ending, were recorded on 18 October, although the first of these was never used.

'Eight Days A Week' was the first pop song to feature a faded-in introduction. This was completed during a mixing session on 27 October.

Although 'Eight Days A Week' was a huge hit in America, The Beatles evidently didn't rate the song highly, for they never played it live – although they did mime to it during an appearance on the television programme Thank Your Lucky Stars.  The US single was released on 15 February 1965, with 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party' on the B-side. It entered the top 40 on 27 February, and remained at number one for a fortnight. Altogether the single spent nine weeks in the top 40.

 

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"She's A Woman" was written primarily by Paul McCartney, the bluesy She's A Woman was first released as the b-side of the I Feel Fine single.

Paul : "I have a recollection of walking round St John's Wood with that in my mind so I might have written it at home and finished it up on the way to the studio, finally polished it in the studio, maybe just taken John aside for a second and checked with him, 'What d'you think?' 'Like it.' 'Good. Let's do it!'"

Played on the off-beat, Lennon's choppy guitar chords drive the song, although McCartney's roaming bass and soulful vocals make it a strong team effort. George Harrison did not perform on the rhythm track, but overdubbed his lead guitar part in the evening of 8 October 1964.

Paul : "John did a very good thing: instead of playing through it and putting like a watercolour wash over it all with his guitar he just stabbed on the off-beats. Ringo would play the snare and John did it with the guitar, which was good, it left a lot of space for the rest of the stuff."

She's A Woman was perhaps the first Beatles song to contain a drugs reference. The Beatles had been introduced to cannabis by Bob Dylan on 28 August 1964. "Turn me on when I get lonely" was supposedly Lennon's line; he later said he was pleased it wasn't picked up by the censors.

John : "That's Paul with some contribution from me on lines, probably. We put in the words 'turns me on'. We were so excited to say 'turn me on' – you know, about marijuana and all that, using it as an expression."

The Beatles also performed the song live for the BBC's Top Gear radio programme. It was recorded on 17 November at London's Playhouse Theatre and first broadcast on the 26th. Prior to the performance, Lennon told host Brian Matthew how they'd had "about one verse and had to finish it rather quickly" in the studio.

She's A Woman was recorded in seven takes on 8 October 1964, in a session lasting from 3.30-5.30pm. The sixth take was the best, and became the basis for further overdubs. These were added during a second session, from 7-10pm. McCartney overdubbed piano and vocals, Harrison added lead guitar, and Starr recorded the sound of a chocalho, a cylindrical metal shaker.

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"Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. It was first recorded in the same year by Little Willie Littlefield that same year, under the title KC Lovin'. Under its correct title, it was popularised by Wilbert Harrison in 1959, after which a number of cover versions followed.

Among these was Little Richard's version. When performing the song live, it usually became part of a medley with his own song "Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!", which was first released in 1958 as the b-side to 'Good Golly Miss Molly'.

The Beatles saw Little Richard perform the medley in concert, and adopted it for their own set in 1962. They performed twice with him in England in October that year, and became friends with him during a two-week stint at Hamburg's Star-Club in November.



Paul : "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing; it's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it. You have to actually go outside yourself. It's a funny little trick and when you find it, it's very interesting."

Despite having mostly dropped the medley from their live set by 1963, The Beatles revived it when their first American tour arrived at the Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on 17 September 1964. It was rapturously received by the crowd, leading the group to consider recording it in the studio. This they did a month later, when a shortage of original material for their fourth album led to The Beatles reviving a number of old songs.

One of The Beatles' most thrilling rock 'n' roll performances, 'Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey' was recorded in just one take during a mammoth session on 18 October 1964.

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"I Feel Fine" was a riff-driven, blues-based number. It was written by John Lennon, possibly during the 6 October 1964 recording session for Eight Days A Week.

John : "George and I play the same bit on guitar together – that's the bit that'll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say. I suppose it has a bit of a country and western feel about it, but then so have a lot of our songs. The middle eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it's a typical Beatles bit."

George : "The guitar riff was actually influenced by a record called Watch Your Step by Bobby Parker. But all riffs in that tempo have a similar sound. John played it, and all I did was play it as well, and it became the double-tracked sound."

The Beatles had originally intended for 'Eight Days A Week' to be their next single, but the plan was shelved once they had completed 'I Feel Fine'.

Paul : "The song itself was more John's than mine. We sat down and co-wrote it with John's original idea. John sang it, I'm on harmonies and the drumming is basically what we used to think of as What'd I Say drumming. There was a style of drumming on What'd I Say which is a sort of Latin R&B that Ray Charles's drummer Milt Turner played on the original record and we used to love it. One of the big clinching factors about Ringo as the drummer in the band was that he could really play that so well."

The Beatles recorded the song on 18 October 1964, in a nine-hour session that also saw them complete 'Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!', 'Mr Moonlight', 'I'll Follow The Sun', 'Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby' and 'Rock And Roll Music'. They also taped edit pieces for the intro and ending of 'Eight Days A Week'.

'I Feel Fine' was completed in nine takes. The first eight were of the rhythm track only, and the final take was an overdub of the vocals. John Lennon played an acoustic Gibson guitar on the recording, although it was amplified to give the impression of an electric guitar. George Harrison used an electric Gretsch Tennessean. It was the first Beatles song to have the backing track recorded before the vocals, as John Lennon had trouble singing and playing at the same time.



The distinctive opening note was the result of a low A note plucked by Paul McCartney on bass, while Lennon's guitar pickups were directed towards his amplifier. It was one of the very first instances of feedback being used on a record, and demonstrated the increased confidence of The Beatles as recording artists.

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"I'll Follow The Sun" was one of Lennon and McCartney's earliest songs, written in 1959 at McCartney's family home in Allerton, Liverpool.

Paul : "I wrote that in my front parlour in Forthlin Road. I was about 16. I'll Follow The Sun was one of those very early ones. I seem to remember writing it just after I'd had the flu and I had that cigarette – I smoked when I was 16 – the cigarette that's the 'cotton wool' one. You don't smoke while you're ill but after you get better you have a cigarette and it's terrible, it tastes like cotton wool, horrible. I remember standing in the parlour, with my guitar, looking out through the lace curtains of the window, and writing that one."

A rough home recording of the song exists on bootleg, believed to date from spring 1960. Lasting 1'49", it was performed by McCartney, Lennon and Harrison on acoustic guitars, with Stuart Sutcliffe on bass, without the delicate arrangement of the final version.

McCartney told Peter Hodgson, from whom he bought the tape in 1995, that it was recorded in the bathroom of his home during a school holiday in April 1960. Intriguingly, it featured different lyrics and music, plus a brief guitar break by Harrison, in place of the section which eventually began 'And now the time has come, and so my love I must go'. The lyrics are hard to decipher, but appear to be: Well don't leave me alone, my dear / I'll hurry, and call on me my sweet

While never a core part of The Beatles' live repertoire, Pete Best recalled 'I'll Follow The Sun' being played on a piano by McCartney between sets at Hamburg's Kaiserkeller.

Paul : "It wouldn't have been considered good enough [to be performed by the group]. I wouldn't have put it up. As I said before, we had this R&B image in Liverpool, a rock 'n' roll, R&B, hardish image with the leather. So I think that songs like I'll Follow The Sun, ballads like that, got pushed back to later."

The song was revived during the hurried sessions for Beatles For Sale at the end of 1964, when the group were struggling to find enough songs to fill the album. It was first released in the US on the Beatles '65 collection.

John : "That's Paul again. Can't you tell? I mean, 'Tomorrow may rain so I'll follow the sun.' That's another early McCartney. You know, written almost before The Beatles, I think. He had a lot of stuff..."



On 18 October 1964 The Beatles recorded 'I'll Follow The Sun' in eight takes. The final version was the only one to feature electric guitar; previous attempts all contained an acoustic guitar break.

Paul : "On the record we got Ringo to tap his knees. We were thinking in terms of singles and the next one had to always be different. We didn't want to fall into the Supremes trap where they all sounded rather similar, so to that end, we were always keen on having varied instrumentation. Ringo couldn't keep changing his drum kit, but he could change his snare, tap a cardboard box or slap his knees."

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"Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" was written and originally recorded by Carl Perkins in 1957, and sung by George Harrison as the final track on the new album recorded in a single take on 18 October 1964.

The Beatles recorded two other Perkins songs for EMI – 'Honey Don't' and 'Matchbox', both sung by Ringo Starr, though George Harrison was arguably the group's biggest Perkins fan. His early guitar solos deployed many of the same licks, and he had sung 'Your True Love' and 'Glad All Over' during gigs. Additionally, during The Beatles' first tour of Scotland in 1960, as the backing band for Johnny Gentle, they all decided to adopt pseudonyms. George became briefly known as Carl Harrison, after his idol.

George : "For this album we rehearsed only the new ones. Songs like Honey Don't and Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby, we'd played live so often that we only had to get a sound on them and do them."



The recording contained a large amount of echo on Harrison's vocals, which were double tracked to make them sound even fuller. For this, Abbey Road's engineers used a technique called 'STEED': single tape echo and echo delay.

The Beatles inserted a short pause between the lines in the first verse, an arrangement borrowed from Perkins' original recording of Blue Suede Shoes. The false ending, meanwhile, appears to have been the group's own invention.

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

"Rock And Roll Music", written by Chuck Berry, was staple of The Beatles' live repertoire between 1959 and 1966. Owing to their familiarity with the song, it took The Beatles just one take to record on 18 October 1964.

The basic track was recorded with drums and bass on track one, two guitars on the second, and Lennon's vocals on track three. Afterwards Lennon, McCartney and George Martin all overdubbed a piano part on a Steinway together.

Despite it's slightly desperate barrel-scraping origins, the end result features one of John Lennon's great vocal performances, and a thrilling rendition by the group as a whole.

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

"Words Of Love" was written and recorded by Buddy Holly in 1957, Surprisingly, it was the only of his songs to be recorded by The Beatles.

The Beatles' name was partly inspired by Holly's backing group, The Crickets. All four members were keen Holly fans, and a number of Buddy Holly's songs had been performed live by The Beatles from their earliest days. These included 'That'll Be The Day', 'Peggy Sue', 'Everyday', 'It's So Easy', 'Maybe Baby', 'Think It Over', 'Raining In My Heart', and 'Crying, Waiting, Hoping'.

Paul : "Buddy Holly was completely different; he was out of Nashville, so that introduced us to the country music scene. I still like Buddy's vocal style. And his writing. One of the main things about The Beatles is that we started out writing our own material. People these days take it for granted that you do, but nobody used to then. John and I started to write because of Buddy Holly. It was like, 'Wow! He writes and is a musician'."

The group had performed Words Of Love between 1958 and 1962, with Lennon and Harrison singing. For the Beatles For Sale recording, however, Lennon and McCartney shared vocal duties.

'Words Of Love' was the final song recorded on 18 October 1964, during which they recorded seven songs in nine hours in a rush to finish the album. The Beatles recorded the song in two takes, along with a vocal overdub. Ringo Starr played a suitcase along with his drums, in homage to Jerry Allison's performance on Holly's Everyday.

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

"Honey Don't" was written by Carl Perkins and originally the B-side of Perkins' single Blue Suede Shoes, released on 1 January 1956.

The song had been a part of The Beatles' live set since 1962, when it had been sung by John Lennon - as can be heard on a version recorded for Pop Go The Beatles on 3 September 1963. At this late stage they must have realised that Ringo didn't have a song on the album, so it was quickly resurrected with Ringo as the lead vocalist.



Ringo : "We all knew Honey Don't; it was one of those songs that every band in Liverpool played. I used to love country music and country rock. I'd had my own show with Rory Storm, when I would do five or six numbers. So singing and performing wasn't new to me; it was a case of finding vehicles for me with The Beatles. That's why we did it on Beatles For Sale. It was comfortable. And I was finally getting one track on a record: my little featured spot."

'Honey Don't' was recorded during the final session for 'Beatles For Sale' on 26 October 1964, partway through the band's four-week tour of the UK. the group recorded five takes, the last of which was the best. The band participated in several mixing and editing sessions before completing the project on 4 November.

'Beatles for Sale', their fourth studio album, marked a departure from the upbeat tone that had characterised the Beatles' previous work, partly due to the band's exhaustion after a series of tours that had established them as a worldwide phenomenon in 1964.

George Martin : "They were rather war weary during 'Beatles for Sale'. One must remember that they'd been battered like mad throughout 1964, and much of 1963. Success is a wonderful thing but it is very, very tiring."

 

The downbeat mood of 'Beatles for Sale' was reflected in the album cover, which shows the unsmiling, weary-looking Beatles in an autumn scene in London's Hyde Park. The cover photograph was taken by Robert Freeman, who recalled that the concept was briefly discussed with Brian Epstein and the Beatles beforehand, namely that he produce a colour image of the group shot at "an outside location towards sunset".

On a wintry day at the end of 1964 Robert Freeman took the four to London's Hyde Park, near the Albert memorial. The guys didn't have to dress up. They wore their usual black outfits, white shirts and black shawls. Because it was already seven p.m. and getting dark fast, it all had to happen quick. The photographs for the front and the back cover were taken within an hour and a half. For the front cover, an assistant held up a branch with some leaves, which resulted in some colored spots on the picture.



For the back cover - the favorite Beatles picture of Freeman – he climbed in a tree to take a photograph from there, with a background of autumn leaves.



The cover carried no band logo or artist credit, and the album title was rendered in minuscule type compared with standard LP artwork of the time.

'Beatles for Sale' was presented in a gatefold sleeve – a rare design feature for a contemporary pop LP and the first of the Beatles' UK releases to be packaged in this way. For the inside of the gatefold, two black-and-white pictures were chosen to reflect the highlights of their busy year : the American tour, and their first film.

The first photo shows the Beatles in concert at the Coliseum in Washington DC, on 11 February, 1964. The second photo was taken in the Twickenham Film Studios Viewing Theatre, where they watched the 'rushes' of A Hard Day's Night with the director, Richard Lester. They posed before a photo montage of celebrities, including film stars Victor Mature, Jayne Mansfield and Ian Carmichael, all of whom the Beatles had met during 1964.



The sleeve notes for 'Beatles for Sale' were written by Derek Taylor, who, until a recent falling out with Epstein, had been the band's press officer throughout their rise to international stardom. In his text, Taylor focused on what the Beatles phenomenon would mean to people of the future :

There's priceless history between these covers. When, in a generation or so, a radioactive, cigar-smoking child, picnicking on Saturn, asks you what the Beatle affair was all about, don't try to explain all about the long hair and the screams! Just play them a few tracks from this album and he'll probably understand. The kids of AD 2000 will draw from the music much the same sense of well being and warmth as we do today.

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

'Beatles for Sale' was released in the United Kingdom on EMI's Parlophone label on 4 December 1964.  On 12 December, it began a 46-week run in the charts, and a week later displaced 'A Hard Day's Night' from the top position.  After seven weeks at number 1, the album's time at the top seemed over, but 'Beatles for Sale' made a comeback on 27 February 1965, by dethroning 'The Rolling Stones No. 2' by the Rolling Stones and returning to the top spot for a week. After being again displaced by The Rolling Stones No. 2, Beatles for Sale would overtake it for a second time on 1 May, remaining there for another three weeks. It was finally displaced by Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan's first "electric" album.

The album received favourable reviews in the UK musical press. Writing in the NME, Derek Johnson said that it was "worth every penny asked", adding: "It's rip-roaring, infectious stuff, with the accent on beat throughout."

Chris Welch of Melody Maker found the music honest and inventive, and predicted: "Beatles For Sale is going to sell, sell, sell. It is easily up to standard and will knock out pop fans, rock fans, R&B and Beatles fans ..."

In the US, eight of the album's fourteen tracks appeared on Capitol Records' concurrent release, Beatles '65, issued in North America only : "No Reply", "I'm a Loser", "Baby's in Black", "Rock and Roll Music", "I'll Follow the Sun", "Mr. Moonlight", "Honey Don't" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". In turn, it added the track "I'll Be Back" from the British release of 'A Hard Day's Night' and the single "I Feel Fine" and its b-side "She's a Woman" - these latter two songs were issued in "duophonic" stereo and included added reverb by Capitol Records' executive Dave Dexter, Jr. to cover up the use of the mono mixes sent from England.

One of the songs omitted from the US version of the album, "Eight Days a Week", became the Beatles' seventh number one in the US when issued as a single there in February 1965. 'Beatles '65' was released eleven days after 'Beatles for Sale' and became the fastest-selling album of the year in the United States, jumping from number 98 straight to number 1, the biggest jump to the top position in the history of the Billboard album charts up to that time. It remained at number 1 for nine straight weeks from 9 January 1965, becoming the top selling non-soundtrack LP in the US for 1965.

     

The omitted songs : "Eight Days a Week", "Words of Love", "Every Little Thing", "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party", "What You're Doing" and the "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" medley, were issued later on Beatles VI, confusingly the Beatles' seventh Capitol Records release in the United States and Canada (including The Beatles' Story). The title on the record label erroneously reads 'Beatles IV'

Released on 14 June 1965, as well as the remaining six 'Beatles for Sale' songs, the album includes "Yes It Is" (the B-side to "Ticket to Ride"), which was given a "duophonic" stereo remix from the original mono track, with additional echo and reverb, two tracks from the forthcoming UK release of Help!: "You Like Me Too Much" and "Tell Me What You See", and two tracks were recorded specifically for this album : "Bad Boy" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", both covers of Larry Williams songs, marking perhaps the only time that the Beatles recorded material especially for North America. "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" was soon included on the British release of the Help! album, but "Bad Boy" was not released in the UK until the 1966 A Collection of Beatles Oldies.

 

< - - - - - -  ( had to split this post in two - 'part 1' is on the previous page )

[gilbertharding]

Absolutely LOVE Beatles for Sale. Got it for my 11th Birthday, and knew even then I wouldn't be taking my infant son to Saturn for a picnic and a cigar.

If there's such a thing as an under-rated Beatles song, it's Every Little Thing. Beautiful. The yearning quality of the chorus gave me a real feeling of what actual loss might feel like (this was very soon after John Lennon was killed).

[purlieu]

Nice song.

[grassbath]

'I Feel Fine' is a funny entry in the early Beatles smash singles - it's a very muscular example of their *sound* of the time, with the jangly riff, driving rhythm section, gritty Lennon vocal and absolutely soaring stacked harmonies, and strikes me as a bit of a jump forward production-wise. But lyrically, as a *song*, it's pretty anodyne, especially considering Lennon was turning out the likes of 'No Reply' around the same time.

'She's A Woman' is killer (despite the cringeworthy opening couplet). As Maureen Cleave wrote at the time, 'how does such a great dirty voice come out of a face like that?'

[kalowski]

I love I Feel Fine. The riff is magical, and different enough to Watch Your Step for me. Ringo is on fire and I love the little guitar solo too.

[machotrouts]

I don't

[machotrouts]

like it.

[machotrouts]

Sorry, that post was too big so I had to split it in two.

[Johnboy]

I Feel Fine is a masterpiece, it really hops out of the Oldies but Goldies album.

The Fabs' singles not on albums parallel career is truly a pop wonder

Love this thread, daf.

[Satchmo Distel]

I think the lyrics are quite daring in the way he ends lines with "you know" and "she says so", which a conventional lyricist of the time would probably have avoided. The key change to "I'm so glad" is also great but I also find the phrase "my little girl" a little jarring, and of course today it would be dodgy.

[daf]

Hey there, Georgie Boy, it's . . .

184.  Georgie Fame and The Blue Flames - Yeh Yeh



From : 10 – 23 January 1965
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Preach and Teach
Bonus : TV Performance

Georgie Fame was born Clive Powell on 26 June 1943 in Leigh, Lancashire. He took piano lessons from the age of seven and on leaving Leigh Central County Secondary School at 15 he worked for a brief period in a cotton weaving mill and played piano for a band called the Dominoes in the evenings. After taking part in a singing contest at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Pwllheli, North Wales, he was offered a job there by the band leader, early British rock and roll star Rory Blackwell.

Colin Green and Clive Powell worked together in 'Colin Green's Beat Boys', who had backed Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran during UK tours. At sixteen years of age, Powell went to London and, on the recommendation of Lionel Bart, entered into a management agreement with Larry Parnes.

In 1961 piano player Clive Powell, drummer Red Reece, bassist Tex Makins and Green were hired by Larry Parnes to back Billy Fury as the Blue Flames. Larry Parnes, who had given new stage names to artists such as Marty Wilde and Billy Fury, had decided that 'Clive Powell' wasn't quite cutting it - and suggested changing it to "Georgie Fame". Fame later recalled that Parnes had given him an ultimatum over his forced change of name: "It was very much against my will but he said, 'If you don't use my name, I won't use you in the show'".



When the backing band got the sack at the end of 1961, Alan "Earl" Watson fronted The Blue Flames, playing tenor saxophone and singing. In May 1962 the group was augmented by Ghanaian percussionist Neeomi "Speedy" Acquaye and Green left the group. Green was replaced by Joe Moretti and in turn was later replaced by John McLaughlin. During that time Rod "Boots" Slade had taken over as bass player while Makins toured with Johnny Hallyday.

Saxophonist Mick Eve joined the group during 1962 and eventually the line up was completed by Johnny Marshall. McLaughlin departed in April 1963 when he joined The Graham Bond Organisation, leaving the group without a guitarist for 18 months and during this period Rik Gunnell took over the management of the band. Fame took over as the lead vocalist, and band were re-billed as "Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames".



Fame was influenced by jazz, blues, and the musicians Mose Allison and Willie Mabon. He was one of the first white musicians to be influenced by ska after hearing it in cafés in Jamaica and Ladbroke Grove in England. He recalled The Flamingo Club was "full of American GIs who came in from their bases for the weekend" who played for him the song "Green Onions" by Booker T. & the M.G.'s. "I had been playing piano up to that point but I bought a Hammond organ the next day."

In 1963 the band recorded its debut album, Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo. Produced by Ian Samwell and engineered by Glyn Johns, the album was released in place of a planned single by EMI Columbia, but he album failed to enter the UK chart.



In January 1964, Ronan O'Rahilly failed to get Fame's first record, "Do The Dog" played by the BBC. After it was rejected by Radio Luxembourg, he announced he would start his own radio station to promote the record. The station became the offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline. In April 1964 he released "Do-Re-Mi" (b/w/ "Green Onions"), which like his first single, failed to trouble the charts.

In May 1964 he released a 4 track EP, the title of which - 'Rhythm And Blue-Beat' referenced his ska influences  (Ska was commonly called 'blue-beat' at the time): "Madness"  /  "Tom Hark Goes Blue Beat"  /  "Humpty Dumpty"  /  "One Whole Year, Baby"



In July he released another flop single : "I'm In Love With You" (b/w "Bend A Little"), and that same month, Peter Coe replaced Marshall and was soon joined by baritone saxophonist Glenn Hughes and trumpet player Eddie "Tan-Tan" Thornton who had previously appeared occasionally with them. In October, Colin Green rejoined the group.

Reece became ill in 1964 and was replaced by Tommy Frost. Jimmie Nicol spent a brief period as drummer, then left to replace Ringo Starr for 13 days on a Beatles tour. Phil Seamen and Micky Waller sat in for Nicol until Bill Eyden became the band's full-time drummer in September 1964. In October 1964 the album Fame at Last reached No.15 in the U.K. album chart.



In December 1964, the band's next single, a cover of a Latin soul tune - "Yeh, Yeh" - was released as a single in the UK. finally getting them some chart action - it reached No.1 on the U.K. Singles Chart in January 1965.

"Yeh Yeh" was written as an instrumental by Rodgers Grant and Pat Patrick, and first recorded by Mongo Santamaría on his 1963 album 'Watermelon Man'.

Lyrics were written for it shortly thereafter by Jon Hendricks of the vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. This version of the song was taken to the top of the UK Singles Chart in January 1965 by Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, breaking The Beatles' five-week hold on the number one spot with "I Feel Fine". A month later, a slightly edited version (removing the saxophone solo break) appeared on the US Billboard pop singles chart and peaked at #21. Like many other pop performers of the time, he recorded a German language version specially for our teutonic cousins.

 

Other Versions include :  Ray Pilgrim (1964)  /  "Alors salut!" by Claude François (1964)  /  Orquesta Marfer (1965)  /  Dave "Baby" Cortez (1965)  /  Franck Pourcel (1965)  /  The Swifters (1965)  /  Gerald Wilson Orchestra (1966)  /  The 3 Sounds (1966)  /  Mark Wirtz (1966)  /  The Alan Tew Orchestra (1967)  /  Lasse Mårtenson (1969)  /  Matt Bianco (1985)  /  Mari Wilson (1991)  /  They Might Be Giants (2001)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Hugh Laurie (2013)  /  Diana Krall + Georgie Fame (2015)  /  Skeewiff Remix (2018)

On This Day  :

10 January : Nathan Moore, (Brother Beyond), born Nathan Marcellus Moore in Stamford Hill, London
12 January : Mark Moore, (S'Express), born in London
13 January : Bill Bailey, musical comedian (Taunton), born Mark Robert Bailey in Bath, Somerset
14 January : Jemma Redgrave, actress, born Jemima Rebecca Redgrave in London
14 January : Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, TV cook, born Hugh Christopher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall in Hampstead, London
15 January : Soviet underground nuclear test creates the atomic Lake Chagan, in Kazakhstan
15 January : Derek B, British rapper , born Derek Boland in Hammersmith, London
15 January : James Nesbitt, Irish actor, born William James Nesbitt in Ballymena, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
16 January : "Oh What a Lovely War" closes at Broadhurst NYC after 125 performances
21 January : Jam Master Jay, (Run DMC), born Jason William Mizell in Brooklyn, New York
22 January : DJ Jazzy Jeff, rapper, born Jeffrey Allen Townes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
22 January : Steven Adler, drummer (Guns & Roses), born Michael Coletti in Cleveland, Ohio

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

           

[purlieu]

There's a bit of power in the chorus, but the verses feel very twee coming straight after 'I Feel Fine'.

[Satchmo Distel]

You could view this as a 'world music' No. 1. Mongo Santamaria, from whom Fame took this track, was a big influence on The Skatalites, so you could also connect this to 'My Boy Lollipop', ska single by Millie that reached No. 2 on 27 May 1964.

The B-side 'Preach and Teach' rips off Miles Davis's 'All Blues'. Compare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_I7H9ASfRI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-488UORrfJ0

[daf]

I always liked this one that Danny Baker used to play this on his show - Vinyl

No idea when it's from (as it's impossible to google!) - mid 90s?

[Satchmo Distel]

1993 https://www.discogs.com/release/11840109

[daf]

Cor - nice one!

(removes mental tight shoes)

Track 10 is improbably called 'Will Carling' (!)

[Satchmo Distel]

And here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0QGC8T6gMc

Story behind the song here: https://tinyurl.com/yy6t757e

[kalowski]

Bob Downe!
https://youtu.be/0Ec7F5HUetE

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Bob Downe!
https://youtu.be/0Ec7F5HUetE

Exactly, that's who I think of whenever I hear this song. It belongs to Bob.

[DrGreggles]

Bob Downe!
https://youtu.be/0Ec7F5HUetE

I recently bought the Doug Anthony All Stars 'DAAS Kapital' series and was delighted to see him turn up in that too.

[machotrouts]

My first memory of hearing 'Yeh Yeh' is as performed by filler X Factor contestant Scott Bruton. In a supposition that was both fairly dumb and fairly perceptive, I wondered "why have they made up lyrics for him to sing along to what is clearly supposed to be an instrumental"?

It was week 1, and the theme was #1 hits. There's a lot of missed opportunities when you consider the range of options we've heard in just these threads – nobody on the show has ever sung 'Hoots Mon!', for a start. The X Factor songbook often struggles to adapt even to such a broad theme – on a #1 hits week of a later series, long past the point they'd stopped caring, they wheeled out Beyoncé's 'Listen' for its billionth airing, a song that had been #1 absolutely nowhere in the world. Like the producers were so monomaniacally preoccupied with that song, it didn't even cross their mind that it might not have been an actual hit single with any crossover beyond its target demographic of honking competition applicants.

Anyway, clearly fobbed off with a crap song choice to usher him out swiftly, Bruton ended up breaking down in tears after the judges slagged him off, propelling him almost to the top of the vote, behind only pop titan Eoghan Quigg. Bruton was ultimately eliminated week 3 after losing a sing-off to Daniel "Dead Wife" Evans, and it was probably the right choice. I think that was the sing-off where Louis Walsh was so overcome with emotion he had to bite his finger to hold it together. It was a big year for crying in general, but then aren't they all.

Not sure what Ronan O'Rahilly heard in 'Do the Dog' that he had to create a whole pirate radio station about it. "The public MUST hear this muffled bestiality anthem!" Nah you're alright mate. Think I've submitted O'Rahilly to Cook'd and Bomb'd deadpool threads a few times – he's had dementia since at least 2013. (Or possibly the 1960s, going by what Wikipedia lists as his secondary claim to fame: "the man who convinced George Lazenby to give up the role of British Agent James Bond after only one film.")

Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton of the Blue Flames is also a person of deadpooling interest – in the top 13 oldest eligible candidates for my #1s-themed team, aged 87 this year. Still touring and trumpeting with the decades-his-junior band "Kitty, Daisy & Lewis", whose sound Wikipedia describes as "They have opened for Coldplay, Razorlight, Stereophonics, Richard Hawley, and others."

[daf]

Denny Laine is in my ears and in my eyes, it's . . .

185.  Moody Blues - Go Now!



From : 24 – 30 January 1965
Weeks : 1
Flip side : It's Easy Child
Bonus 1 : Top of The Pops
Bonus 2 : NME Awards
Bonus 3 : Hullabaloo

The Moody Blues formed in 1964 in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, Warwickshire. Ray Thomas, a young John Lodge and Mike Pinder had been members of El Riot & the Rebels. They disbanded when Lodge, the youngest member, went to technical college and Pinder joined the army. Pinder then rejoined Thomas to form The Krew Cats.

Back from a disappointing spell in the Hamburg region a few months later, the pair recruited guitarist/vocalist Denny Laine and band manager-turned-drummer Graeme Edge. They recruited bassist Clint Warwick, and the five appeared as the Moody Blues for the first time in Birmingham in 1964.



The name developed from a hoped-for sponsorship from the Mitchells & Butlers Brewery which failed to materialise, the band calling themselves both "The M Bs" and "The M B Five". In an interview it was revealed that the band was named "Moody Blues" because Mike Pinder was interested in how music changes people's moods and due to the fact that the band was playing blues at the time, and it was also a subtle reference to the Duke Ellington song "Mood Indigo".

The band soon signed to London-based management company, Ringpiece 'Ridgepride', formed by Alex Murray who had been in the A&R division of Decca Records, which then leased their recordings to Decca. They released a single, "Steal Your Heart Away", that year which failed to chart. They also appeared on the cult TV programme Ready Steady Go! singing the uptempo 'B' side "Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose your Mind)". But it was their second single, "Go Now", released later that year, that launched their career. The single became a number 1 hit in Britain and in the United States, where it reached No. 10.

   

Their debut album The Magnificent Moodies, produced by Denny Cordell with a strong Merseybeat/R&B flavour, was released on Decca in mono only in 1965. It contained the hit single together with one side of classic R&B covers, and a second side with four Laine-Pinder originals.

Alex Wharton left the management firm, and the group released a series of relatively unsuccessful singles. They enjoyed a minor British hit with a cover of "I Don't Want To Go on Without You", reaching #33 in February 1965, while the Pinder-Laine original "From the Bottom of My Heart (I Love You)" produced by Denny Cordell was issued as a UK single and did a little better, reaching #22 in May 1965. But then "Everyday", another Pinder-Laine song, stalled at #44 in October 1965.

The group was still in demand for live gigs, though, and they had chart success in the US and in Europe during those months when "Bye Bye Bird" was lifted from their album in December 1965 and became a Top 3 hit in France.

In June 1966, Clint Warwick retired from the group and the music business. He was briefly replaced by Rod Clark, but in early October, Denny Laine also departed from the group, and Decca released "Boulevard de la Madeleine" as the Moody Blues seemed to be disintegrating. Clark left and joined The Rockin' Berries.



A final 'Mark One' Moody Blues single, Pinder-Laine's "Life's Not Life", was scheduled for release in January 1967 even though Laine couldn't perform it live because the group had relaunched themselves without him a few months earlier.

The group re-formed in November 1966. The new members were John Lodge, their bassist from El Riot who was now finished with his education, and Justin Hayward, formerly of The Wilde Three. Hayward was recommended to Pinder by Eric Burdon of the Animals and was endorsed by famed UK singer Marty Wilde, the leader of the Wilde Three.

After financial misfortune and a confrontation with an audience member, the band soon realised that their style of American blues covers and novelty tunes was not working, and decided to perform primarily their own material. Justin Hayward's "Fly Me High" and Mike Pinder's older-styled "Really Haven't Got the Time" became the 'Mark Two' Moodies first single, released in May 1967. These picked up both radio airplay and favourable reviews, but failed to chart in the UK.

Their new style, featuring the symphonic sounds of Pinder's mellotron, was introduced on Pinder's song "Love And Beauty" which was issued as a single in September 1967. This too was not a UK hit, but further established their new identity. Ray Thomas's flute became a far more featured instrument from this point onwards as they started incorporating distinct psychedelic influences, which was later developed in a concept album revolving around an archetypal day in the life of everyman.

The Moody Blues' contract with Decca Records was set to expire and they owed the label several thousand pounds in advances. They were offered a deal to make a rock and roll version of Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony to promote the company's new Deramic Stereo Sound audio format in return for which the group would be forgiven their debt. The group were unable to complete the project, which was abandoned. However, they managed to convince Peter Knight, who had been assigned to arrange and conduct the orchestral interludes, to collaborate on a recording that used the band's original material instead.

Released in November 1967, Days of Future Passed peaked at number 27 on the British LP chart. Five years later it reached number 3 on the Billboard chart in the US. The LP was a song cycle or concept album that takes place over the course of a single day. The album drew inspiration in production and arrangement from the pioneering use of the classical instrumentation by the Beatles, to whom Pinder had introduced the mellotron that year. 

 

The album, plus the two featured singles, "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon", took time to find an audience - "Nights in White Satin" made only #19 in the UK in early 1968, and "Tuesday Afternoon" didn't chart at all. However, "Nights in White Satin" subsequently made #9 in the UK and #2 in the US on re-issue in December 1972, and is now regarded as the Moody Blues signature song.

The 1968 follow-up LP, In Search of the Lost Chord included "Legend of a Mind", a song written by Ray Thomas in tribute to LSD guru Timothy Leary which encompassed a flute solo performed by Thomas – four members of the group had taken LSD together at the start of 1967.  Justin Hayward began playing sitar and incorporating it into Moody Blues music having been inspired by George Harrison. Hayward's "Voices in the Sky" charted as a single in the UK (#27 in August 1968), as did Lodge's "Ride My See-Saw" which reached #42 in December 1968.

 

On 1969's On the Threshold of a Dream, Hayward, Edge and Pinder share the opening narration on Edge's "In The Beginning", leading into Hayward's "Lovely To See You". His "Never Comes the Day" was issued as a UK single, but made no impact on the charts.

The band's music continued to become more complex and symphonic, with heavy amounts of reverberation on the vocal tracks, resulting in 1969's To Our Children's Children's Children – a concept album inspired by the first moon landing. The opening track "Higher and Higher" saw Pinder simulate a rocket blast-off on keyboards, then narrate Edge's lyrics. Thomas' "Floating" and "Eternity Road" stood out, as did Hayward's "Gypsy" and a rare Pinder-Lodge collaboration "Out and In". The album closed with "Watching and Waiting" which was issued as a single on their own newly created Threshold label, but again failed to chart.

In 1970, the group lost some of their full-blown orchestral sound for A Question of Balance (1970) having decided to record an album that could be played in concert. Hayward's "Question" (in a different version) was issued as a single, reaching #2 in the UK. Another standout track from the album, Pinder's "Melancholy Man" became a number 1 single in France.

 

The band returned to their signature orchestral sound for their next two albums : Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) – from which Hayward's "The Story in Your Eyes" was taken as a top #23 single – and Seventh Sojourn (1972), which reached No. 1 in the US. Two singles were lifted from Seventh Sojourn : Lodge's songs "Isn't Life Strange?" (UK #13 in May 1972) and "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)" (UK #36 in February 1973).

In the spring of 1974, after completing a vast world tour that culminated with a tour of Asia, the group took an extended break. In 1975 Hayward and Lodge released a duo album, Blue Jays and a UK single, "Blue Guitar", which climbed to #8 in October 1975. Though credited to Hayward and Lodge, it was actually just Hayward with 10cc backing him.

In 1977, following several solo albums by pretty much every member of the group, the group made a decision to record together again, with their record company Decca urging a reunion album. The sessions were marked with tension, schism, rancour and chaos : first there was a fire at the studios they were using, then after quickly relocating to Pinder's home studio, a landslide following torrential rains effectively marooned them, inevitably causing tensions to rise (with Pinder then dropping out before completion).

By the spring of 1978 Octave was ready for release. The album sold well and produced the hits "Steppin' in a Slide Zone", (US #39) written by Lodge and "Driftwood", (US #59) written by Hayward. A group performance of Hayward's "Had to Fall in Love" was featured on the "Kenny Everett Show". Around this time, Justin Hayward enjoyed a Top 5 solo hit with the song "Forever Autumn" from Jeff Wayne and The Jeff Wayne Band's Musical Version of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne.

 

By 1980 they were ready to record again, and when released in 1981, Long Distance Voyager was a colossal success, reaching No. 1 in the US, and going Top 5 in the UK. The album yielded two hits, "The Voice", (US #15) written by Hayward, and "Gemini Dream", (US #12) written by Hayward and Lodge. John Lodge's "Talking out of Turn" also charted in the US, reaching #65. By now, the mellotron had long been set aside as their primary keyboard instrument on their studio albums and the band embraced a more modern, less symphonic approach.

In 1983, The Present was less successful than its predecessor, though it spawned a UK Top 35 hit with "Blue World", and a US Top 40 hit in "Sitting at the Wheel" (which totally tanked at #91 in the UK).

In 1986 they enjoyed renewed success with their album The Other Side of Life and in particular with the track "Your Wildest Dreams" – a US Top 10 hit, but the overall tone had noticeably become lightweight and commercialised.

Their next album, Sur La Mer, spawned their final chart entry in the UK singles chart - "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" -  which reached #52 UK in June 1988. Their sound took on an ever-increasingly synthetic and technical quality as they began using modern sequencers, samplers and drum machines.

More albums and tours followed until, the end of 2002, founding member Ray Thomas retired from the group, reducing the Moody Blues to the trio of John Lodge, Graeme Edge and Justin Hayward.



Original vocalist and flautist Ray Thomas died on 4 January 2018, at the age of 76, just a few months before the band were due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Go Now" was composed by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett. The song was first recorded by Larry Banks's former wife, Bessie Banks. A 1962 demo recording by Bessie of the song was heard by songwriters and record producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who re-recorded it in late 1963, with arrangement by Gary Sherman and backing vocals from Dee Dee Warwick and Cissy Houston. The single was first released in early 1964 on their Tiger label, and reached #40 on the Cashbox R&B singles chart.

Bessie Banks : "I remember 1963 Kennedy was assassinated; it was announced over the radio. At the time, I was rehearsing in the office of Leiber and Stoller. We called it a day. Everyone was in tears. "Come back next week and we will be ready to record 'Go Now'"; and we did so. I was happy and excited that maybe this time I'll make it. 'Go Now' was released in January 1964, and right away it was chosen Pick Hit of the Week on W.I.N.S. Radio. That means your record is played for seven days. Four days went by, I was so thrilled. On day five, when I heard the first line, I thought it was me, but all of a sudden, I realized it wasn't. At the end of the song it was announced, "The Moody Blues singing 'Go Now'." I was too out-done. This was the time of the English Invasion and the end of Bessie Banks' career, so I thought. America's DJs had stopped promoting American artists."

 

Banks' recollections are questionable, because her single was released in the US in January 1964, and The Moody Blues' version was not released until November 1964 in the UK and January 1965 in the US. When Denny Laine first heard Bessie Banks's version, he immediately told the rest of the band that they needed to record the song.

The 'Moodies' cover version reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in late January 1965, and No. 10 in the US in mid-February 1965.



Other Versions include :   The Jaybirds (1965)  /  Billy Preston (1965)  /  "Va t'en va t'en" by Dick Rivers (1965)  /  "Ora puoi tornare" by Equipe 84 (1965)  /  Cher (1968)  /  Marian Love (1971)  /  Frijid Pink (1972)  /  David Cassidy (1972)  /  Claire Hamill (1974)  /  Wings (1976)  /  Gloria Jones (1976)  /  The Features (1980)  /  Sal Solo (1985)  /  Anita (1986)  /  Tin Machine (1992)  /  Ozzy Osbourne (2005)  /  Lulu (2005)  /  Simply Red (2008)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Colin Tribe (2017)

On This Day  :

24 January : Winston Churchill, (Prime Minister of Britain 1940-45 / 51-55) dies at 90
27 January : Alan Cumming, Scottish actor born in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland
28 January : The Who make their 1st appearance on British TV
29 January : Jack Hylton, (British Dance Band leader), dies at 72
30 January : State funeral of Winston Churchill at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

       

[sevendaughters]

not a massive fan of any on this page without finding major fault with any. 'I Feel Fine' is nice songwriting but a bit ordinary by their standards and I think the lyrics are a bit pro forma for them. The other two are utterly solid songs that don't move me.

[purlieu]

'Go Now' is a beast of a song. Not tremendously fond of the other Moody Blues v1 songs, but the really blunt fadeout is the only thing I can find to fault with this.

[kalowski]

Denny Laine is in my ears and in my eyes, it's . . .

[machotrouts]

This song did a great job of killing Winston Churchill, you've got to give it that. Absolutely bodied the old cunt.

It is weirdly abrupt for a fade-out, isn't it? Isn't the whole point of a fade-out that it shouldn't be weirdly abrupt? Has an "interrupted by breaking news" vibe about it. Maybe it's the Churchill thing.

Good song otherwise. Bit weird that the Moody Blues had their only #1 like a decade before anyone remembers them existing with a song that sounds nothing like the Moody Blues. This is basically juvenilia that got carried away with itself.

More fun deadpooling information: Ray Thomas was a unique hit for my 2018 Derby Dead Pool team. No other players saw that coming. He was very ill for a long time and then he died. Only I could possibly have foreseen this. mystic machotrouts

[daf]

Did you check behind the sofa?, it's . . .

186.  The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'



From : 31 January – 13 February 1965
Weeks : 2
Flip side : There's A Woman
Bonus : TV Performance

The Righteous Brothers were born William Thomas Medley on September 19, 1940 in Santa Ana, California; and Robert Lee Hatfield on 10 August 1940 in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to separate parents. Bobby Hatfield was originally in a group from Anaheim called The Variations, and Bill Medley in a group from Santa Ana called The Paramours.



Barry Rillera, a member of Medley's band who was also in Hatfield's group, suggested that they go see each other's show and perform together. Later, after a member of Paramours left in 1962, Hatfield and Medley joined forces and formed a new Paramours, which included Johnny Wimber. They started performing at a club called John's Black Derby in Santa Ana, and were signed to a small record label Moonglow in 1962. They released a single "There She Goes (She's Walking Away)" in December 1962. However, the Paramours did not have much success and soon broke up, leaving Hatfield and Medley to perform as a duo in 1963.



According to Medley, they then adopted the name "The Righteous Brothers" for the duo because black Marines from the El Toro Marine base started calling them "righteous brothers". At the end of a performance, a black U.S. Marine in the audience would shout, "That was righteous, brothers!", and would greet them with "Hey righteous brothers, how you doin'?" on meeting them.

The Righteous Brothers released three albums and 12 singles with Moonglow, but only two were moderate hits – "Little Latin Lupe Lu" and "My Babe" from their first album Right Now!.

In August and September 1964, they opened for The Beatles in their first U.S. tour. However, they left before the tour finished as they were asked to appear on a new television show called Shindig!, also because they felt unappreciated by the audience who demanded to hear The Beatles while they were performing.



In 1964, music producer Phil Spector came across the Righteous Brothers when they performed in a show at the Cow Palace in Daly City, where one of Spector's acts, The Ronettes, was also appearing. Spector was impressed enough to arrange a deal with Moonglow in early October 1964 allowing him to record and release songs by the Righteous Brothers in the US, Canada and UK under his own label, Philles Records. The Righteous Brothers would be his first white vocal group for the label, but they had a black vocal style, termed "blue-eyed soul", that suited Spector.



Spector commissioned Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil to write a song for them, which turned out to be "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". The song, released in late 1964, became their first major hit single and reached No. 1 in February 1965. The record is often cited as one of the finest expressions of Spector's Wall of Sound production techniques.

The Righteous Brothers had several other hit singles with Philles Records in 1965, including "Just Once in My Life" and "Unchained Melody" - a #14 hit in the UK. "Unchained Melody" was produced by Medley, and was originally intended only as an album track, and Spector had asked him to produce the albums so Spector could spend time and money on producing singles. Later copies of the original 45 release spuriously credited Spector as producer when it became a hit - what a rotter!

In 1965, they had a couple of guest appearances in the films A Swingin' Summer and Beach Ball. They also became the first rock and roll act to play the Strip in Las Vegas (at The Sands).

"Unchained Melody" and the next single "Ebb Tide" (UK #48 in January 1966), were both songs Bobby Hatfield had performed with his first group, The Variations. According to Medley, the early singles that featured Medley's vocal strongly caused some friction between the duo, and the Hatfield solos in later singles restored some balance between the two.

The duo's relationship with Spector ended in some acrimony; in 1966 they signed with Verve/MGM Records, leading to a lawsuit from Spector, which MGM settled with a $600,000 payment to Spector. Their next release, "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration", was a Phil Spector sound-alike song. The song was first written by Mann and Weil after the success of "Lovin' Feelin'" but not completed, and they finished the song following a request by Medley after the Righteous Brothers moved to Verve. Medley then produced the completed song, and was able to fully simulate the Spector style of production and achieve a similar sound to that of "Lovin' Feelin'". It quickly became their second #1 U.S. hit, staying at the top for three weeks, and reached the Top 15 in the UK in April 1966.

 

After a few more US Top 40 hits including "He" and "Go Ahead And Cry", their popularity began to decline.  In the UK, "The White Cliffs of Dover", narrowly missed out on a UK Top 20 spot in November 1966. "Island in the Sun" was their last original song to chart in the UK - reaching #24 in December 1966.

The duo split up in February 1968, a breakup that would last for more than six years, when Medley left to pursue a solo career. Medley recorded a few solo recordings on several labels, while Hatfield teamed up with singer Jimmy Walker (from The Knickerbockers) using the Righteous Brothers name on the MGM label.

Medley first recorded "I Can't Make It Alone" written by Carole King in April 1968, but the song failed to make much of an impact. The following single, "Brown Eyed Woman" written by Mann and Weil did better, but following the flops "Peace Brother Peace"(November 1968), "This Is A Love Song" (March 1969), and "Someone Is Standing Outside", it was clear that neither he nor Hatfield was able to match their previous chart success.

 

In 1969, Hatfield appeared in a TV movie, 'The Ballad of Andy Crocker', and also recorded "Only You". Hatfield and Jimmy Walker recorded an album, Re-Birth, as "The Righteous Brothers" before disbanding in 1971. He released a solo album, Messin' In Muscle Shoals in 1971.

According to Medley, he was performing three shows a night in Las Vegas, but finding it too much of a strain on his voice singing solo, and under advice he sought out Hatfield to reform The Righteous Brothers; Hatfield at this point was broke and living alone in a small apartment.

In 1974, Medley and Hatfield announced their reunion at an appearance on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. They signed with Haven Records, and within a few weeks of reforming, they recorded Alan O'Day's "Rock and Roll Heaven", a paean to several deceased rock singers which became a hit, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Several more minor hits on Haven followed, including "Give It To The People" in August 1974  /  "Dream On" in November 1974  / "Never Say I Love You" in April 1975  / and "Young Blood" in June 1975. After 1975, however, the Righteous Brothers would not appear in music charts except for re-releases of older songs and compilation albums, some of which were re-recordings of earlier works.

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin''" was written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. It was first recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1964, produced by Phil Spector.

Taking a cue from "Baby I Need Your Loving" by The Four Tops that was then rising in the charts, Mann and Weil decided to write a ballad. Mann wrote the melody first, and came up with the opening line "You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips", influenced by a line from the song "I Love How You Love Me" that was co-written by Mann - "I love how your eyes close whenever you kiss me".

Mann and Weil wrote the first two verses quickly, including the chorus line "you've lost that lovin' feelin'". When Spector joined in with the writing, he added "gone, gone, gone, whoa, whoa, whoa" to the end of the chorus, which Weil disliked. The line "you've lost that lovin' feelin'" was originally only intended to be a dummy line that would be replaced later, but Spector liked it and decided to keep it. Mann and Weil had problems writing the bridge and the ending, and asked Spector for help. Spector experimented on the piano with a "Hang On Sloopy" riff that they would then use to build on for the bridge.

Weil recalled that, "after Phil, Barry and I finished writing it, we took it over to the Righteous Brothers. Bill Medley, who has the low voice, seemed to like the song." However, Medley initially felt that the song did not suit their more up-tempo rhythm and blues style, and Mann and Spector had sung the song in a higher key: "And we just thought, 'Wow, what a good song for The Everly Brothers.' But it didn't seem right for us." The song was originally written in the higher key of F. But to accommodate Medley's baritone voice the key was gradually lowered, eventually down to C♯, which, together with slowing the song down, changed the "whole vibe of the song" according to Medley.

Bobby Hatfield reportedly expressed his annoyance to Spector when he learned that Bill Medley would start the first verse alone and that he had to wait until the chorus before joining Medley's vocals. Prior to this they would have been given equal prominence in a song. When Hatfield asked Spector just what he was supposed to do during Medley's solo, Spector replied: "You can go directly to the bank!"



The song would become one of the foremost examples of Spector's "Wall of Sound" technique. It features the studio musicians The Wrecking Crew, included for this recording were Don Randi on piano, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Carol Kaye and Ray Pohlman on bass, Steve Douglas on sax, plus Barney Kessel on guitar and Earl Palmer on drums.

According to sound engineer Larry Levine, they started recording four acoustic guitars, when that was ready, they added the pianos, of which there were three, followed by three basses, the horns (two trumpets, two trombones, and three saxophones), then finally the drums. The vocals by Hatfield and Medley were then recorded and the strings overdubbed. The background singers were mainly the vocal group The Blossoms, also joining in the song's crescendo was a young Cher. Reverb was applied in the recording, and more was added on the lead vocals during the mix.

Even with his interest in the song, Medley had his doubts because of its length that was then unusually long for a pop song. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he recalled, "We had no idea if it would be a hit. It was too slow, too long, and right in the middle of The Beatles and the British Invasion." The song ran for nearly four minutes when released. This was too long by contemporary AM radio standards. Spector however refused to cut it shorter. Following a suggestion by Larry Levine, Spector had "3:05" printed on the label, instead of the track's actual running time of 3:45. He also added a false ending which made the recording more dramatic, and would also trick radio deejays into thinking it was a shorter song.



The production of the single cost Spector around $35,000, then a considerable amount. Spector himself was deeply concerned about the reception to a song that was unusual for its time, worrying that his vision would not be understood. He later said: "I didn't sleep for a week when that record came out. I was so sick, I got a s*****c colon; I had an ulcer."

Andrew "Loog" Oldham, who was then the manager of The Rolling Stones and a fan and friend of Spector, chanced upon Spector listening to a test pressing of the song. Oldham later wrote, "The room was filled with this amazing sound, I had no idea what it was, but it was the most incredible thing I'd ever heard." He added, "I'd never heard a recorded track so emotionally giving or empowering." Later, when Scouse Foghorn Cilla Black recorded a rival version of the same song and it was racing up the charts ahead of The Righteous Brothers' version in Britain, Oldham was appalled, and took it upon himself to run an ad in Melody Maker :



However, when it was first presented on the BBC television panel show Juke Box Jury in January 1965 upon its release in the UK, it was voted a miss by all four panelists, with one questioning if it was played at the right speed, and Sam Costa, a DJ on the BBC Light Programme, said that the record was a dirge, adding, "I wouldn't even play it in my toilet.". However, despite the initial reservations, the song would become a highly popular song on radio.

The original Righteous Brothers version was a critical and commercial success on its release, becoming a number-one hit single in both the United States and the United Kingdom in February 1965. It was the fifth best selling song of 1965 in the US.

Both Cilla Black's and the Righteous Brothers versions of the song debuted on the UK chart in the same week in January 1965, with Black debuting higher at number 28. According to Tony Hall of Decca Records who was responsible for promoting the Righteous Brothers record in the UK, Black's version was preferred by BBC radio. Hall therefore requested that Spector send the Righteous Brothers over to Britain to promote the song so it might have a chance on the chart. They spent a week promoting the song and performed for television shows in Manchester and Birmingham.

In its fourth week, Black's version began its descent, dropping to number five, while the Righteous Brothers climbed to number one. Cilla Black then reportedly cabled her congratulations to the Righteous Brothers on their number one.

 

Other Versions include :   Nancy Wilson (1965)  /  The Lettermen (1965)  /  Ian & The Zodiacs (1965)  /  Unit Four Plus Two (1965)  /  Trea Dobbs (1965)  /  Floyd Cramer (1965)  /  Stu Phillips (1965)  /  Billy Preston (1965)  /  "J'ai perdu mon amour" by Eddy Mitchell (1965)  /  "Hab' ich dein Herz verloren" by The Continental Brothers (1965)  /  Joan Baez (1966)   /  Johnny Rivers (1966)  /  Pat Boone (1966)  /  Pozo Seco Singers (1966)  /  Long John Baldry (1966)  /  The Boogie Kings (1966)  /  Freda Payne (1966)  /  Fontella Bass (1966)  /  King Curtis (1966)  /  Boots Randolph (1966)  /  "Ma c'è un momento del giorno" by The Rokes (1966)  /  Gene Pitney (1967)  /  Anita Harris (1967)  /  Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood (1968)  /  Gladys Knight & The Pips (1968)  /  The Doodletown Pipers (1968)  /  The Keith Mansfield Orchestra (1968)  /  Dionne Warwick (1969)  /  The Blossoms (1969)  /  Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (1969)  /  Norrie Paramor (1969)  /  Tom Jones (1970)  /  Elvis Presley (1970)  /  Bill Medley & Sammy Davis Jr (1970)  /  Les Humphries Singers (1970)  /  Roger Whittaker (1971)  /  Barry Mann (1971)  /  Delaney & Bonnie (1971)  /  The Osmonds (1972)  /  Tony Christie (1972)  /  Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway (1972)  /  Telly Savalas (1974)  /  Beach Boys (1976)  /  Johnny Winter & Edgar Winter (1976)  /  Martha Reeves (1976)  /  Acker Bilk (1976)  /  Creme D'Cocoa (1978)  /  Paris Connection (1978)  /  Kenny Rogers & Dottie West (1979)  /  The Human League (1979)  /  Loo Rolls (1980)  /  Vicky Leandros (1981)  /  Timi Yuro (1981)  /  The Flying Pickets (1982)  /  A Neater Dobson (1986)  /  Tom Cruise (1986)  /  David Hasselhoff (1987)  /  Neil Diamond with Dolly Parton (1993)  /  Paul Shane (1996) [thanks to sevendaughters for the tip-off!]  /  Glen Campbell (1999)  /  Erasure (2003)  /  Barry Manilow (2006)  /  Danny McEvoy (2010)  /  Darius Rucker with Daryl Hall (2015)  /  Gabriel Deutsch (2018)

On This Day  :

1 February : Sherilyn Fenn, actress (Twin Peaks), born in Detroit, Michigan
2 February : Joe Orton's "Loot" premieres in Brighton
3 February : Orbiting Solar Observatory 2 launches into Earth orbit
6 February : "Kelly", one of the biggest flops on Broadway, opens & closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC
7 February : George Harrison's tonsils removed
7 February : US begins regular bombing & strafing of North Vietnam
8 February : President Johnson deploys 1st US combat troops to South Vietnam, with 3500 marines sent to protect key US airbase near Da Nang
11 February : Ringo Starr marries Maureen Cox ("thanks Mo!")

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

     

[sevendaughters]

absolutely ruined by Paul Shane, can't hear the original with a straight face

[DrGreggles]

absolutely ruined by Paul Shane, can't hear the original with a straight face

"Baby bay-BEH!"

[gilbertharding]

Was going to offer Robson and Jerome for the cover version section - but they did The Other One (Unchained Melody)... which tells you what I think of these bloody awful interchangeable ballads.

Did Tom Cruise and Old Matey sing You've Lost That Loving Feeling in that bar in Top Gun?

*googles*

Yes. They did.

Shame 'The Other One' won't feature in this thread - because this is for me the definitive version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqqNsyHajb0