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

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

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

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

Incredible song, amazing vocals, fantastic production. All the glowing adjectives.

[gilbertharding]

Incredible song, amazing vocals, fantastic production.

Obviously. And yet...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

You don't like it?

[daf]

Did Tom Cruise and the Other One sing You've Lost That Loving Feeling in that bar in Top Gun?

Thanks for the tip-off!

Shame 'The Other One' won't feature in this thread

Keep your p. d. on that :

the Righteous Brothers would not appear in music charts except for re-releases of older songs

- - - > we WILL get another Righteous Brothers #1 in 1990 . . . and yes, it IS 'that' one! < - - - - spoiler

[gilbertharding]

You don't like it?

I'm afraid not. It just leaves me cold. Don't worry though - I have no plans* to somehow eliminate all trace of the song or The Righteous Brothers from human memory.


* I have plans, but I don't know how I'd fulfill them.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Well I'm very pleased to hear that.

I know what you mean, though, I feel the same way about certain classic songs: this is obviously good, it's not offensive, but I just don't feel it.

[gilbertharding]

Thanks for the tip-off!

Keep your p. d. on that :
- - - > we WILL get another Righteous Brothers #1 in 1990 . . . and yes, it IS 'that' one! < - - - - spoiler

I see! I'll look forward to it.

I've got a zinger I'm dying to use around about then: ---spoiler> With a nominative indeterminism shared by members of ZZ Top, the only member of Right Said Fred with hair was actually called Ken Bald. < - - - - spoiler

You can look forward to that some time around next June.

[Satchmo Distel]

 

Cilla Black then reportedly cabled her congratulations to the Righteous Brothers on their number one.

This seems out of character for her. She was more likely to be calling them a pair of cunts.

I think 'Unchained Melody' is a better record but they are both genius.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

This seems out of character for her. She was more likely to be calling them a pair of cunts.

LORRA LORRA FUCK OFF. SHITEOUS BROTHERS MORE LIKE. TWATS. BLINDER DATA! LOVE, CILLA.

If they did receive a congratulatory telegram from Cilla, it was probably dictated by the diplomatic Brian Epstein.

[Gulftastic]

The bit in the middle where it goes 'dum dumdum dumdum dumdum dum' always sounds like it's going to go into 'Summer Loving'.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The bit in the middle where it goes 'dum dumdum dumdum dumdum dum' always sounds like it's going to go into 'Summer Loving'.

Summer Loving is based on that bit. An homage.

[kalowski]

I think Elvis was at the height of his powers when he sang You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling. His version is incredible and I may even prefer it to the Righteous Brothers...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I think Elvis was at the height of his powers when he sang You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling. His version is incredible and I may even prefer it to the Righteous Brothers...

Elvis was definitely at the height of his Kingly powers in the late '60s and early '70s. Something like a phenomenon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7R5xxDy3QU

[purlieu]

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

Posted this one when the really fucking naff version from the '50s made number one a few months ago. It's obviously great. That said, I won't hear anything against the Righteous Brothers version, which is a tremendous song.

This one I'm not taken with. Decent vocals, nice echoey production, but the song does nothing for me at all.

Top comment on the YouTube link:

This is how this art was intended to be experienced. Mono.

That's one of the narrowest descriptions of the broad range of experiences art can provide that I've ever come across.

[machotrouts]

Every time I read the phrase "blue-eyed soul" my balls shoot all the way back up my body and clog up my ear canals as a defence mechanism to prevent me from hearing whatever American Idol shit is about to ensue. These threads have led me to reassess one or two Boring Dusty Old Classics, making me concede well maybe they were onto something I suppose about songs I never liked, but the Righteous Brothers? You've Retained That Borin' Feelin'. I don't mind the Spector grandiosity and the verses threaten to go somewhere nice, but then it gets to the chorus and starts spewing and spittling apostrophes all about the place. Gross.

As a hangover from the beginning of these threads that only linked to 4 or 5 songs at a time, I still listen to everything in these posts (everything available on Spotify, anyway). I think I've got to start reconsidering that. I've got several hours worth of covers of a song I don't like queued right now, and I'm mostly just trying to ignore them while going about my normal internet business. It changes pornography I can tell you. Just watched a man vigorously bouncing up and down on a dildo sync up quite beautifully with the Floyd Cramer rendition.

[daf]

Konked out, it's . . .

187.  The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You



From : 14 – 20 February 1965
Weeks : 1
B-side : Come On Now
Bonus 1 : TV Performance
Bonus 2 : NME Awards
Bonus 3 : The Kinks at home

After the release of their first number one, "You Really Got Me", the group recorded most of the tracks for their debut LP, simply titled Kinks. Consisting largely of covers including two from Chuck Berry : "Beautiful Delilah" and "Too Much Monkey Business"; two shockers forced on them from bald obsessed producer Shell Talmy : "Bald Headed Woman" and "I've Been Driving on Bald Mountain"; plus the Ray Davis originals : "So Mystifying", "Just Can't Go to Sleep", "I Took My Baby Home", "Revenge", and "Stop Your Sobbing" - which later became a hit for The Pretenders.

The album was released on 2 October 1964, and reached number four on the UK chart.

 

The group's fourth single, "All Day and All of the Night", another Ray Davies hard rock tune, was released three weeks later, reaching number two in the United Kingdom, and number seven in the United States. Jimmy Page may have appeared on the single's b-side, "I Gotta Move", which gives credits as : "possibly Jimmy Page acoustic 12 string guitar, else Ray Davies".

Dave Davies : "I liked the guitar sound on 'All Day And All Of The Night', the second single we had. When they tried to develop amplifiers that had pre-gain and all, I thought it wasn't quite right, and I struggled with the sound for a while. I never liked Marshalls, because they sounded like everybody else. Then in the mid '70s I started using Peavey, and people said, "Nobody uses Peavey - country and western bands use them". I used to blow them up every night. I used two Peavey Maces together, and it was brilliant."

Like their previous hit "You Really Got Me", the song relies on a simple sliding power chord riff, although this song's riff is slightly more complicated, incorporating a B Flat after the chords F and G. Otherwise, the recordings are similar in beat and structure, with similar background vocals, progressions, and guitar solos. Similarities between 'All Day And All Of The Night' and The Doors' 1968 song, "Hello, I Love You" have been noted :

Ray Davies : "My publisher wanted to sue. I was unwilling to do that. I think they cut a deal somewhere, but I don't know the details."

Dave Davies : "That one is the most irritating of all of all of them ... I did a show where I played "All Day and All of the Night" and stuck in a piece of 'Hello, I Love You.' There was some response, there were a few smiles. But I've never understood why nobody's ever said anything about it. You can't say anything about the Doors. You're not allowed to."

Following their next single, and second number one, "Tired of Waiting for You" in February 1965, the group embarked on their first tour of Australia and New Zealand, with Manfred Mann and The Honeycombs. An intensive performing schedule saw them headline other package tours throughout the year with acts such as the Yardbirds and Mickey Finn.

Dave Davies : "There were only a few bands that had this sorta really rough-sounding, what we used to call 'R&B' style in the Sixties. There were the Yardbirds, there was us, there was the Pretty Things, as well."



Tensions began to emerge within the band, expressed in incidents such as the on-stage fight between Avory and Dave Davies at The Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales, on 19 May. After finishing the first song, "You Really Got Me", Davies insulted Avory and kicked over his drum set. Avory responded by hitting Davies with his hi-hat stand, rendering him unconscious, before fleeing from the scene, fearing that he had killed his bandmate. Davies was taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, where he received 16 stitches to his head. To placate the police, Avory later claimed that it was part of a new act in which the band members would hurl their instruments at each other.

"Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy" (b/w "Who'll Be The Next In Line") was their next single - reaching #17 in March 1965. This was followed by "Set Me Free" (b/w "I Need You") a Top 9 hit in June 1965.

 

Following a Summer tour of the United States, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the group to appear in concerts there for the next four years, effectively cutting off the Kinks from the main market for rock music at the height of the British Invasion. Although neither the Kinks nor the union gave a specific reason for the ban, at the time it was widely attributed to their rowdy on-stage behaviour. It has been reported that an incident when the band were taping Dick Clark's TV show 'Where The Action Is' in 1965 led to the ban.

Ray Davies recalls in his autobiography : "Some guy who said he worked for the TV company walked up and accused us of being late. Then he started making anti-British comments. Things like "Just because the Beatles did it, every mop-topped, spotty-faced limey juvenile thinks he can come over here and make a career for himself." following which, a punch was thrown and the AFM banned them.

A stopover in Bombay, India, during the band's Australian and Asian tour had led Davies to write the song "See My Friends", released as a single (b/w "Never Met A Girl Like You Before") at the end of July, and reaching #10 in August 1965.

 

This was an early example of crossover music, and one of the first pop songs of the period to display the direct influence of traditional music from the Indian Subcontinent. Davies had written "See My Friends" with a raga feel after hearing the early morning chants of local fishermen. Pete Townshend of the Who was particularly affected by the song: "'See My Friends' was the next time I pricked up my ears and thought, 'God, he's done it again. He's invented something new.' It was a European sound rather than an Eastern sound but with a strong, legitimate Eastern influence which had its roots in European folk music."

In a widely quoted statement by Barry Fantoni, 1960s celebrity and friend of the Kinks, the Beatles and the Who, he recalled that it was also an influence on The Beatles: "I remember it vividly and still think it's a remarkable pop song. I was with the Beatles the evening that they actually sat around listening to it on a gramophone, saying 'You know this guitar thing sounds like a sitar. We must get one of those.'" Though it was a #10 hit in the UK, the song's radical departure from popular music conventions proved unpopular with the band's American following - tanking at a shocking number 111 in the US.

Recording began promptly on the group's next album, Kinda Kinks, starting the day after their return from the Asian tour. The LP was completed and released within two weeks. 10 of whose 12 songs were Ray Davies originals, including : "Look for Me Baby",   "Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight", "You Shouldn't Be Sad", plus the Ray and Dave co-composition "Got My Feet on the Ground",

   

According to Ray Davies, the band was not completely satisfied with the final cuts, but pressure from the record company meant that no time was available to correct flaws in the mix : "A bit more care should have been taken with it. I think Shel Talmy went too far in trying to keep in the rough edges. Some of the double tracking on that is appalling. It had better songs on it than the first album, but it wasn't executed in the right way. It was just far too rushed."

A significant stylistic shift in the Kinks' music became evident in late 1965, with the appearance of "A Well Respected Man" included on the Kwyet Kinks EP, along with "Wait Till The Summer Comes Along",  "Such A Shame" and "Don't You Fret".

 

The next single, "Till The End Of The Day", backed with the classic "Where Have All The Good Times Gone", reached #8 in December 1965. Yet another step forward, both songs were included on their third album The Kink Kontroversy - which alluded to their notorious reputation the band had developed over the previous year.

 

With session man Nicky Hopkins making his first appearance with the group on keyboards, these recordings exemplified the development of Davies' songwriting style, from hard-driving rock numbers toward songs rich in social commentary, observation and idiosyncratic character study, all with a uniquely English flavour.

In the mid-1960s fashion in Britain was becoming increasingly daring and outrageous, driven by the youth-oriented culture of 'Swinging London'. Boutiques such as Biba, designers like Mary Quant, and the television personalities like Cathy McGowan who popularised them became celebrated as much as the entertainers who wore their mod clothes. Fashion trends changed rapidly, and the Carnaby Street shops did a brisk business from those trying to avoid seeming out of step with the latest craze

The Kinks next single, "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", satirised this swinging scene and was inspired by a fight he had with a fashion designer at a party:

Ray Davies : "I got pissed off with him always going on about fashion. I was just saying you don't have to be anything; you decide what you want to be and you just walk down the street and if you're good the world will change as you walk past. I just wanted it to be the individual who created his own fashion. ... It was a terrible brawl. I kicked him, and I kicked his girlfriend up the arse."

The band attempted recording the song a number of times, playing with the arrangement, lyric diction, and guitar sounds. Davies was never totally satisfied with the released version, and was angered that the song's production and release were rushed by the band's managers and Pye Records. Specifically, he attempted the opening multiple times.

Pete Quaife : "That guitar clanging at the beginning, we did it over and over, changed guitars, tried it with a piano. Ray was after a sound and he didn't get it. When he realized he wasn't getting it, he took the tape, rolled it across the floor and set fire to it. The next day we started again and he settled for that. But I know he wasn't happy with the final result."

 

The single, backed with the superb "Sittin' On My Sofa", reached number four on the UK Singles Chart, and topped the charts in The Netherlands and New Zealand. In the US, however, it barely managed to crack the Top Forty, peaking at #36. The lyrics won Davies an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting in 1966. Despite its commercial success, the song actually began to trigger some of the identity crises that would later plague Davies' personal life.

Ray Davies : "With 'A Dedicated Follower of Fashion' such a hit, people started coming up to me on the street and singing the chorus in my face: 'Oh yes he is, oh yes he is,' as if to say that I knew who I was. Unfortunately, my inner and somewhat distorted sense of reality told me that this was not who I wanted to be: I didn't know who I was."

"Tired of Waiting for You" was written by Ray Davies for The Kinks. The song was released as a single on 15 January 1965 in the UK and on 17 February 1965 in the USA, and appeared on their second studio album Kinda Kinks.

According to Ray, the music for "Tired of Waiting for You" was written on the train to the recording studio and the words were written at a coffee shop during a break in the session. The track was a leftover from the sessions of the band's debut album, Kinks.

During the recording sessions for the song, the band felt that the guitar sound evident on their previous two singles was missing. Although the band was concerned that the guitar would ruin the reflective track, the band felt that it added more to the song.

Dave Davies : "The recording went well but there was something missing and it was my raunchy guitar sound. Ray and I were worried that putting that heavy-sounding guitar on top of a ponderous song might ruin it. Luckily it enhanced the recording, giving it a more cutting, emotional edge. In my opinion 'Tired Of Waiting' was the perfect Pop record."



The song was recorded late August 1964 at Pye Studios (No. 2), London, with additional guitar overdub at IBC Studios, London on 29 December 1964. The B-side "Come On Now" was recorded 22 or 23 December 1964 at Pye Studios.

It reached No. 1 on the UK Record Retailer, NME and Melody Maker charts, becoming the band's second UK chart-topper since "You Really Got Me." The single also reached No. 6 on the US.

Other Versions include :   The Typhoons (1965)  /  The Challengers (1965)  /  The Rayders (1965)  /  Billy Strange (1965)  /  The Larry Page Orchestra (1965)  /  Stu Phillips (1965)  /  "Ma vie à t'attendre" by Frank Alamo (1965)  /  "Sei felice" by Equipe 84 (1965)  /  "Cansat D'esperarte" by Els Corbs (1965)  /  The Meklight Sisters & The White Comets (1966)  /  The Apostles (1968)  /   Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood   /  The Flock (1969)  /  Suzi Quatro (1978)  /  Leinemann (1978)  /  Forcefield II (1988)  /  Little Angels (1993)  /  Green Day (1994)  /  Dwight Yoakam (1997)  /  Curtis Stigers (2003)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  Bill Frisell (2014)  /  a kinky robot (2015)  /  Ronnie Spector (2016)  /   David Snell (2019)

On This Day  :

15 February : Nat King Cole, jazz pianist and singer, dies of cancer at 49
15 February : John Lennon passes his driving test
15 February : Red Maple Leaf Flag becomes the official flag of Canada
16 February : "Baker Street" opens at Broadway Theater NYC
16 February : Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors
17 February : US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures
18 February : The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom
18 February : Dr. Dre, rapper and record producer, born Andre Romelle Young in Compton, California

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

   

[Cardenio I]

Love the Kinks. This song bores me shitless.

[gilbertharding]

Surprisingly violent time, the mid-60s...

16 stitches after being lamped with a high-hat, a 'punch thrown' resulting in being banned from the USA, kicking the arse of a fashion designer's girlfriend at a party... calm down lads. Fucking hell.

Meanwhile, the Nancy 'n' Lee version of So Tired sounds like the dictionary definition of ennui. So tired...

[Cardenio I]

What is a kinky robot?

[daf]

[Satchmo Distel]

Summer Loving is based on that bit. An homage.

aka Summer Nights from 'Grease'?

'Unchained Melody' only reaching #14 is another of the moments when you realize the charts were often taking the piss.

The way that 'You've Lost Your Loving Feeling' rises in intensity into 'Baby, baby...' at 2.35 is amazing. You think the soong is already in full throttle then it suddenly finds yet another gear when most songs would be petering out or just repeating themselves.

https://youtu.be/xEkB-VQviLI?t=153

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Love the Kinks. This song bores me shitless.

It's not one of their best. A nice enough '60s beat ballad, but The Kinks were generally above that sort of thing. In terms of songcraft and production it's obviously miles above the nice but dull pap churned out by yer Pacemakers and so on, it has more edge, the arrangement is more dynamic, but it feels a bit like Ray churning out a commercial pop song to order: "Yeah, I can write one of these. Easy."

That may sound a bit harsh, but this is the idiosyncratic songwriting genius Ray Davies we're talking about. If it had been released by The Searchers or someone like that, I'm sure I'd judge it more favourably. 

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

aka Summer Nights from 'Grease'?

That's the chap.

The way that 'You've Lost Your Loving Feeling' rises in intensity into 'Baby, baby...' at 2.35 is amazing. You think the soong is already in full throttle then it suddenly finds yet another gear when most songs would be petering out or just repeating themselves.

https://youtu.be/xEkB-VQviLI?t=153

The genius of Spector in a monophonic nutshell. Also, Hatfield's screaming falsetto is something else, he sounds like he's having the mother of all nervous breakdowns. An extraordinary piece of music.

[gilbertharding]

It's not one of their best. A nice enough '60s beat ballad, but The Kinks were generally above that sort of thing. In terms of songcraft and production it's obviously miles above the nice but dull pap churned out by yer Pacemakers and so on, it has more edge, the arrangement is more dynamic, but it feels a bit like Ray churning out a commercial pop song to order: "Yeah, I can write one of these. Easy."

That may sound a bit harsh, but this is the idiosyncratic songwriting genius Ray Davies we're talking about. If it had been released by The Searchers or someone like that, I'm sure I'd judge it more favourably.

I had a listen to Village Green the other evening, for the first time in ages. It struck me how simple it all sounded - considering my youthful objection to it was based on what I thought was its 'sophistication' (bleargh).

The instrumentation, and arrangements were interesting, and the lyrics fantastic - but the chords, melodies and everything was a lot closer to early Kinks than I'd ever really noticed before. Interesting...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Surprisingly violent time, the mid-60s...

16 stitches after being lamped with a high-hat, a 'punch thrown' resulting in being banned from the USA, kicking the arse of a fashion designer's girlfriend at a party... calm down lads. Fucking hell.

The Kinks were such a strange band. Their early sound was incredibly aggressive, so I suppose it stands to reason that they'd turn out to be a bunch of violent maniacs, but they were also very camp, fey and sensitive. An explosive combination of opposing character traits.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I had a listen to Village Green the other evening, for the first time in ages. It struck me how simple it all sounded - considering my youthful objection to it was based on what I thought was its 'sophistication' (bleargh).

The instrumentation, and arrangements were interesting, and the lyrics fantastic - but the chords, melodies and everything was a lot closer to early Kinks than I'd ever really noticed before. Interesting...

The melodies are a bit more 'sophisticated', aren't they? They generally move around a lot more than '64 and '65 Kinks. You're right, though, musically speaking the songs on that album aren't complicated at all. Anyone who can play a bit of guitar and/or piano wouldn't have a problem working them out.

That's why he was so bloody brilliant, he could write technically simple songs garnished with amazing melodies and lyrics.

This is a devastatingly sad lyric, but he matches it to a jaunty tune and arrangement. That just makes the song sound sadder, it's desperately trying to put a brave face on things. It encapsulates the utter futility of nostalgia and life in general.

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

People take pictures of the Summer,
Just in case someone thought they had missed it,
Just to prove that it really existed

Fathers take pictures of the mothers,
And the sisters take pictures of brothers,
Just to show that they love one another

You can't picture love that you took from me,
When we were young and the world was free
Pictures of things as they used to be,
Don't show me no more, please

People take pictures of each other,
Just to prove that they really existed,
Just to prove that they really existed

People take pictures of each other,
And the moment could last them forever,
Of the time when they mattered to someone

Picture of me when I was just three,
Sat with my Ma by the old oak tree
How I love things as they used to be,
Don't show me no more, please

Anyway, I digress...

[Cardenio I]

It's not one of their best. A nice enough '60s beat ballad, but The Kinks were generally above that sort of thing. In terms of songcraft and production it's obviously miles above the nice but dull pap churned out by yer Pacemakers and so on, it has more edge, the arrangement is more dynamic, but it feels a bit like Ray churning out a commercial pop song to order: "Yeah, I can write one of these. Easy."

That may sound a bit harsh, but this is the idiosyncratic songwriting genius Ray Davies we're talking about. If it had been released by The Searchers or someone like that, I'm sure I'd judge it more favourably.

Yeah, and if it was by most other acts we've seen clogging up the charts I'd say it was perfectly fine, decent even. But it's the Kinks and I grade on a curve, so I'm getting out my big red BORED SHITLESS stamp.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Dave Davies : "That one is the most irritating of all of all of them ... I did a show where I played 'All Day and All of the Night' and stuck in a piece of 'Hello, I Love You.' There was some response, there were a few smiles. But I've never understood why nobody's ever said anything about it. You can't say anything about The Doors. You're not allowed to."

Quite an odd quote from Dave, there. Everyone knows that Hello, I Love You is a blatant copy of All Day and All of the Night, the chords and chorus hook are practically identical. As Ray stated in the quote included in daf's blurb, The Kinks and The Doors reached an out-of-court settlement. The similarities were noted immediately.

I can only assume that Dave was quoted prior to the critical backlash against The Doors. They were considered unimpeachably cool until Oliver Stone's ridiculous film came out in the early '90s. Ever since then, the standard line - which I don't agree with - is that they were a risible load of pretentious old toot. You can say what you bloody well like about The Doors these days.

[Satchmo Distel]

Village Green was released on the same day as The White Album

[gilbertharding]

The melodies are a bit more 'sophisticated', aren't they? They generally move around a lot more than '64 and '65 Kinks. You're right, though, musically speaking the songs on that album aren't complicated at all. Anyone who can play a bit of guitar and/or piano wouldn't have a problem working them out.

That's why he was so bloody brilliant, he could write technically simple songs garnished with amazing melodies and lyrics.

You're right. But I wasn't just listening with fresh ears, I had put the disc on with a degree of self-consciousness because my brother was round. I'd fallen into a familiar trap of trying to impress him with 'pop music' (we'd just finished the second disc of Abbey Road outtakes) - he's a classical musician who stretches to like the Beatles, but only the late stuff.

Listening to Village Green, I suddenly realised how 'basic' it was.

Anyway - People Take Pictures of Each Other is as fantastic as you say. Hard to pick a favourite, but Last of the Old Fashioned Trains is good too.