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

[purlieu]

It's obviously Jeff Lynne.

[The Culture Bunker]

Well I looked at the list, and my serious answer is either Little Stevie Winwood or Dusty Springfield. It's not Frank, is it?

It's neither of them either - though actually I'd happily listen to Muff's kid brother than Jones too. Sinatra I've never had much reaction to beyond boredom.

But, no, there's someone (part of a group) who you've either not noticed or don't dig.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Scott Walker, obvs.

[daf]

This might be the third time, it's . . .

190.  The Rolling Stones - The Last Time



From : 14 March – 3 April 1965
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Play With Fire
Bonus 1 : Ed Sullivan Show
Bonus 2 : Live in Ireland

While he was at art school, Charlie Watts had written and illustrated a book he called, Ode To A High Flying Bird, as a tribute to jazz saxophonist Charlie 'Bird' Parker. A children's book, with a narrative of Parker's life ("Soon everybody was digging what Bird blew. . . . His nest was made") along with simple whimsical drawings that illustrated the story.



Charlie : "This guy who published 'Rolling Stones Monthly' saw my book and said 'Ah, there's a few bob in this!'"

The 36 page book was published by Beat Publications, London on 17 January 1965 and cost 7 shillings.

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

On 19 December 1964, The Rolling Stones released their first single in which both sides were written by Jagger and  Richard : "Heart of Stone" (b/w "What a Shame") - which reached #19 in the US and #5 in Australia.

Keith : "In America we were basically known for heavy, slowish kind of ballads. Time Is On My Side, Tell Me, Heart of Stone, that was what we were known for. Strangely enough that was our thing. Every single was a slow song. Who would believe it? You'd think they'd be clamoring for out-and-out rock and roll, but no, it was the fuckin' soul ballads that happened for us in America."

 

In January they played in Belfast, and then in the Republic of Ireland for the first time, with concerts in Dublin and Cork.
 
Keith : "We stopped at an old clothing shop, sort of an army surplus, in a little village on the road to Cork. We went in and this old Irishman grabbed hold of Brian's balls and dragged Brian outside and pointed to the church tower, there's these huge holes in it, and he said, Cromwell's balls did that, now let me see what I'm gonna do to YOUR balls. So Brian got his cock out and pissed all over his old overcoats and everything. We all went haring out of the shop and leapt in the car, and - he was very old, this cat - and suddenly he leapt up across the street and onto the bonnet of the car and started kicking the windscreen with his huge boots."

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

Between 11 and 18 January 1965, at RCA Studios in Los Angeles, California, The Rolling Stones pursue work on songs for their next single - "The Last Time"  and "Play with Fire"


 
Keith : "Play with Fire was made with Phil Spector on tuned-down electric guitar, me on acoustic, Jack Nitzsche on harpsichord, and Mick on tambourine with echo chamber. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning. Everybody fell asleep."

Mick : "Play with Fire sounds amazing - when I heard it last. I mean, it's a very in-your-face kind of sound and very clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing the tambourine, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty... Keith and me (wrote that). I mean, it just came out... it was just kind of rich girls' families - society as you saw it. It's painted in this naive way in these songs... I don't know if it was daring. It just hadn't been done."

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

On 21 January 21, the group arrived in Australia for their first tour down under. Following a press conference in Sydney, Keith Richard, Brian Jones and Andrew Oldham get involved in a boating scuffle with some local youths.



Keith : "In Australia there was an amazing number of birds. In Melbourne, too, in that weird motel, all glass. Bill on the phone to the hall porter, Send me up that one in the pink. Nine in one day he had, no kidding, he just sat all day long in his bedroom looking out the window, and he's right in with the hall porter. No, not that one, the one with the blond hair, not THAT horror. Used to tell him off for sending up uglies. It was in Melbourne we kept calling up the blind DJ and asking for songs like I'm Beginning to See the Light."

In February they perform their first ever concerts in New Zealand - in Christchurch, Invercargill, Dunedin, Auckland and Wellington. Then head back to Australia with gigs in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, and they end their first Australasian tour with their first ever concerts in Singapore, playing at the Badminton Stadium.

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

The band's second UK LP, The Rolling Stones No. 2, was released in January 1965 and reached No. 1 on the charts. The US version, released in February as The Rolling Stones, Now!, reached No. 5.



Although it contains two previously unreleased songs and an alternative version, the US album mostly consists of songs released earlier in the United Kingdom. Mick Jagger and Keith Richard wrote four of the songs on the album, with the balance composed by American rhythm and blues and rock and roll artists.

The liner notes on initial pressings contained producer Andrew Loog Oldham's advice to the record buying public, which was quickly temporarily removed from some subsequent pressings:

This is THE STONES new disc within. Cast deep in your pockets for the loot to buy this disc of groovies and fancy words. If you don't have the bread, see that blind man knock him on the head, steal his wallet and low and behold you have the loot, if you put in the boot, good, another one sold!

The US (Now!) and UK (No. 2) albums share the following songs :
"Down Home Girl"  /  "You Can't Catch Me" /  "Down the Road Apiece"  /  "Off the Hook"  /  "Pain in My Heart" / plus "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" (a longer alternate version is on the UK album)

"Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin')" and "Surprise, Surprise" made their debuts on the US album, and recent singles "Little Red Rooster" and "Heart of Stone" and it's flip-side were also included.

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

On 18 March, following a gig in Romford, Ian Stewart was driving the Stones in Mick Jagger's new black Daimler up the A118 in to central London. 'Stu' turned the car into Francis service station where, according to the attendant, 41-year old Charles Keeley, "a shaggy-haired monster" wearing dark glasses alighted to enquire, "where can we have a leak here?"

Apparently struck by the phrase, Mr Keeley asked the Stones to move on. The forecourt wrangling then became noticeably bitter. Mick allegedly remarked, "We piss anywhere, maaaan!" a line that was taken up by Keith and Brian, who repeated it in 'a kind of chant', it was later said in court. Bill Wyman took the opportunity to relieve himself against a nearby wall.

A small crowd began to gather, and some of them yelled encouragement to Bill, while Keeley himself yelled the opposite, as Brian jumped up and down pulling his patented "Nanker" facial contortion. An honourable exception to the growing furore was Charlie, who remained seated in the car, apparently reading the evening newspaper.

After a bit, a dramatically bearded young man, referred to as 'Goatboy' wandered over to politely ask for autographs. Bill then asked what the fuck he was meant to sign it with. Brian jumped up and down again, pulling the corners of his eyes down, while simultaneously sticking his little fingers up his nostrils. This went on until Bill returned to the car, which then accelerated away, one occupant - believed to be Keith Richards - making "a parting gesture with two fingers."

Jagger, Jones and Wyman were subsequently arrested and four months later fined £5 each at West Ham magistrates court for "insulting behaviour". Keith Richard was called as a witness - he testified that he saw "nothing happen" at the service station.

Keith : "The funniest thing happened. One night coming back from a gig in North London, Bill Wyman, who has this prodigious bladder, decided he wanted to have a pee. So we told the driver to stop. The car is full up with people and a few other people say, Yeah, I could get into that. Let's take a pee. So we leap out and we had chosen a gas station that looked closed but it wasn't. There we are, up against the wall, spraying away. And suddenly this guy steps out. And a cop flashes his torch on Bill's cock and says, All right. What you up to then? And that was it. The next day it was all in the papers. Bill was accused and Brian was accused of insulting language. Because what they did them for was not peeing but for trespassing.

The thing with Bill is - and this is one of the best kept secrets in the Rolling Stones - that he has probably got one of the biggest bladders in human existence. When that guy gets out of a car to take a pee you know you aren't going to move for 15 minutes. I mean it's not the first time it happened to him. To my knowledge, Bill has never done one in under 5 minutes."

   

Bill : "It was a perfect concert, a fitting end to a very strong tour. We were all in a great mood. At 11.10, with excellent police security, we rushed straight off stage, jumped into a car before the fans could leave the theatre and headed back to town. Twenty minutes later, I needed to use the toilet, so we pulled into the Francis Service Station in East London. I asked the attendant if I could use the toilet. He said 'There isn't a toilet.' I replied 'This is a big garage, and there are service bays and showrooms, so there must be one.' He said, 'There isn't, so get off my forecourt.'

Absolutely bursting to go, I returned to the car, where I explained what had happened. Mick took my hand and said 'Come on Bill, we'll find you a toilet.' Then Mick, myself, Joey Page and Brian returned to the attendant and asked him once more if we could use the toilet. He started screaming at us, 'Get off my forecourt! get off my forecourt!'. Brian suddenly started dancing around pulling a 'Nanker' face and singing 'Get off my foreskin!' The attendant once more told us to leave. We walked across the forecourt into the adjoining side road, went about ten yards up this road and proceeded to pee against the wall. We returned through the forecourt, yelled a few insults at the attendant, got back into the car and continued our journey."

Brian : "We've always had a wild image. We built ourselves on the fact. Groups like the Hollies envy our image a little. The garage incident was grossly exaggerated. The kids in court were amused by an incident blown up out of all perspective. It may do us some harm, but I doubt it. There's always America."

Charlie : "I kept out of trouble. I was asleep in the back of the car, man."

"The Last Time" was the band's first UK single written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, and recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California in January 1965. Phil Spector, whose "Wall of Sound" approach can be heard on the recording, assisted with the production.

Released on 26 February 1965, it was the band's third UK number one on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top in March and early April 1965. It was released on 13 March in the UK, and reached #9 on the Billboard charts.

Although "The Last Time" is credited to Jagger/Richard, the song's refrain is very close to "This May Be the Last Time", a 1958 song by The Staple Singers. Though The Rolling Stones' version contains a main melody and a distinctive guitar riff that were both absent in the Staple Singers' version.

Keith : "We came up with 'The Last Time', which was basically re-adapting a traditional gospel song that had been sung by the Staple Singers, but luckily the song itself goes back into the mists of time."

In an August 1965 issue of Beat Instrumental, Keith Richard - in reply to a question about 'who plays the prominent figure on The Stones releases?' - said "I played it on Satisfaction, Brian played it on The Last Time. It all depends who thinks it up." Live footage confirms that the rhythm chords and guitar solo were played by Keith Richard, while the song's distinctive hook was played by Brian Jones, suggesting that Jones may have composed that riff.

Keith : "The Last Time was important, I guess, to Mick and myself because the previous songs we'd written, we'd given to Andrew (Oldham) and we'd done dubs and sold them off to somebody else, you know, to do. So, I mean, that kind of... is a reason why we ended up with The Last Time because the Beatles didn't have another good one and we'd rifled (laughs) everybody else's repertoire. I guess we were just getting about into good enough to be able to resort... to write for ourselves, you know, and to believe we could do it. I think The Last Time was the first one we actually managed to write with a BEAT, the first non-puerile song. It had a strong Staple Singers influence in that it came out of an old gospel song that we revamped and reworked."



In 1967, after the imprisonment of Jagger and Richards on drugs charges, The Who recorded "The Last Time" and "Under My Thumb" as a single. The intention was to help Jagger and Richards make bail, but by the time the single was made available, they had been released. The songs were rush recorded and the record appeared in shops in only one week. As John Entwistle was away on his honeymoon he authorised the Who to do the record without him and bass parts were overdubbed by Pete Townshend. The UK-only release reached number 44 on the UK Singles Chart.

In 1997, former Rolling Stones business manager, and notorious bastard, Allen Klein, whose company ABKCO Records owns the rights to all Rolling Stones material from the 1960s, sued English rock band The Verve for using a sample of the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of "The Last Time" in their hit song "Bitter Sweet Symphony". The Verve had obtained a licence to use the sample, but Klein successfully argued that the band used more than the licence covered. The Verve were required to relinquish 100% of their royalties from their hit song to ABKCO and the songwriting credit was changed to Jagger/Richards/Ashcroft. This led to Andrew Loog Oldham, who owns the copyright on the orchestral rendition that was sampled, also suing the Verve - which was rich, considering David Whitaker was the person who wrote the actual arrangement!

In May 2019, Ashcroft announced that the Stones had handed over their copyrights on the song to him . . . which was nice!

 

Other Versions include :  Billy Strange (1965)   /  "Jo riittää!" by Carola & The Boys (1965)  /  "Elle m'attend" by Ronnie Bird (1965)  /  "Ich frag' dich noch einmal" by The Black Stars (1965)  /  The Challengers (1966)  /  The Pupils (1966)  /  Dada (1970)  /  Lulu (1981)  /  Dwight Yoakam (1997)  /  Jimmy Nail (2001)  /  Billy Bragg (2006)  /  Danny McEvoy (2011)  /  MonaLisa Twins (2014)  /  Amy Slattery (2015)  /  Giovedì8bit (2015)  /  a rolling robot (2016)  / Colin Tribe (2019)

On This Day  :

18 March : Farouk I, last King of Egypt (1936-52), dies at 45
18 March : "Do I Hear a Waltz?" opens at 46th St Theater NYC
18 March : Rolling Stones take a piss against a garage wall
18 March : Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space
20 March : 10th Eurovision Song Contest held in Naples, Italy. France Gall of Luxembourg wins singing "Poupee de cire, poupee de son" (written by Serge Gainsbourg)
20 March : Wales misses out on a 4th Grand Slam after losing to France, 22-13 at Stade Colombes, Paris despite winning the Five Nations Rugby Championship
21 March : US Ranger 9 launched; takes 5,814 pictures before lunar impact
22 March : Nicolae Ceausescu is elected General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party
23 March : Marti Pellow, (Wet, Wet, Wet), born Mark McLachlan in Clydebank, Scotland
23 March : Gemini 3 launched, 1st US 2-man space flight (Grissom & Young)
27 March : 119th Grand National : Tommy Smith becomes first American jockey to win GN aboard US trained and owned horse, Jay Trump at 100/6

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! :

       

[gilbertharding]

Scott Walker, obvs.

Well, obviously - I'm afraid I was trying to guess 'best Singer' - because although I love Scott, I think of him as more of a 'vocal stylist' than a singer. What's the difference? I'm not sure...

[Cardenio I]

Scott Walker, obvs.

Ah. Not the best showcase of his vocal talents though, that recording. The vocals on his late 60s solo stuff are utterly gorgeous, mind.


Not really into The Last Time. The Stones don't do an awful lot for me for another couple of years, and this is definitely them in their songwriting infancy.

[gilbertharding]

(Early one today - got a dentists appointment)

This might be the third time, it's . . .

That Charlie Watts book was reprinted in about 1990 and put in a box with a cd of Charlie's Parker tribute.

I bought a copy as a present for my brother. According to the internet that's about £40 worth now (£100 if signed).

[The Culture Bunker]

Scott Walker, obvs.

I know he's a big favourite with a lot of people, but I'm not one of them. Good voice, but he's a long way short of the man I was thinking about.

[Cardenio I]

Chris Farlowe?

[gilbertharding]

I know he's a big favourite with a lot of people, but I'm not one of them. Good voice, but he's a long way short of the man I was thinking about.

Levi Stubbs. It can't be Chris Farlowe or Steve Marriott, can it?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Last Time is the first proper Stones single. It's loud, uptempo and sneery, a big clanging ball of post-adolescent negativity. Plus it has a memorable electric guitar riff, which is what everyone came to expect from the band.

I love the way Mick's vocals steadily rise in intensity throughout the song, to the point where he's just screaming at the end. He makes Tom Jones sound like a cuddly old pussycat.

[The Culture Bunker]

Levi Stubbs. It can't be Chris Farlowe or Steve Marriott, can it?

Glad you finally got there. I was about to drop clues that another #1 hit singer wrote a song with this guy's name in the title. 

[purlieu]

Catchy enough riff, but I still don't like The Rolling Stones.

[grassbath]

Just another reminder of how boring I find the Stones, their early stuff especially.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Catchy enough riff, but I still don't like The Rolling Stones.

If you quite like their catchy riffs, then you'll probably quite like their upcoming Number One smashes. They won't convert you, as the Stones are obviously not for you, but Captain Keef sure could write an earworm riff (I know Brian probably wrote the Last Time riff).

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Just another reminder of how boring I find the Stones, their early stuff especially.

Subjective taste is a fascinating thing, innit? That, to me, is quite an exciting record, but you find it boring. We're all wired differently.

[purlieu]

If you quite like their catchy riffs

Ah, I didn't say I liked it, I just said it was catchy. I can appreciate that people would have enjoyed it.

I quite like Aftermath, Between the Buttons and Satanic Majesties, but that's as far as I go with them.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ah, I didn't say I liked it, I just said it was catchy. I can appreciate that people would have enjoyed it.

I did say "quite" like, to be fair. I wasn't suggesting that you thought it was anything more than okay at most.

I quite like Aftermath, Between the Buttons and Satanic Majesties, but that's as far as I go with them.

That's my favourite Stones period too, I always preferred them as a pop group as opposed to a bluesy rock band. I love pretty much everything they did in the '60s and '70s, to varying degrees, but pop-rock Stones is ultimately where it's at for me.

[kalowski]

Has anyone ever had a better voice than Tom Jones in his prime? Good lord.

Dear lord, yes. Apart from Elvis, Lennon, Marvin, Smokey, Stevie and Otis, I'd say Curtis, Jackie Wilson, Darryl Banks and Sam Cooke.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Dear lord, yes. Apart from Elvis, Lennon, Marvin, Smokey, Stevie and Otis, I'd say Curtis, Jackie Wilson, Darryl Banks and Sam Cooke.

Plus Aretha, Dusty, Macca, Etta James, Jerry Butler, Sam Moore, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Art Garfunkel, Roy Orbison, Carl Wilson and Micky Dolenz.

I've nothing against Jones The Voice, the guy can sing, but he's never been what you'd call a nuanced interpreter of popular song. He's a showboating belter, the male equivalent of Shirley Bassey. Nowt wrong with that, who doesn't enjoy a bit of full-throated melodrama? But he was never a great singer in the sense that those other folk we've mentioned were.

[grassbath]

Urgh, fine, if it pleases you I will backpedal and concede that Tom Jones is not the best singer to ever have lived.

The tenor of his voice I just find very impressive and thrilling to listen to - an extremely powerful physical instrument. I would rate many of the above-mentioned singers above him, I was just caught up in 'It's Not Unusual' and felt like chucking a bit of hyperbole around.

[grassbath]

Subjective taste is a fascinating thing, innit? That, to me, is quite an exciting record, but you find it boring. We're all wired differently.

At least we can agree unambiguously on Nilsson Sings Newman.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's Wolfman Jack Lite, isn't it? Well... whoever Wolfman Jack was ripping off...

There was an Emperor Rosko Chartmusic edition a while back. He was spectacularly ill suited to television - gibbering.

https://chartmusiccouk.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/chart-music-6-april-10th-1975-woody-looks-like-edward-heath/#comments

Ta, I've just started listening to that episode again. Is there a better podcast than Chart Music? No. There isn't.

I've spent the last couple of years in a state of almost entirely housebound depression, but whenever I hear Al's "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY-UP, you pop-crazed youngsters!!!" I feel all cheered up and happy, like. Another epic episode of CM is about to unfold. Lovely.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Urgh, fine, if it pleases you I will backpedal and concede that Tom Jones is not the best singer to ever have lived.

The tenor of his voice I just find very impressive and thrilling to listen to - an extremely powerful physical instrument. I would rate many of the above-mentioned singers above him, I was just caught up in 'It's Not Unusual' and felt like chucking a bit of hyperbole around.

Sorry, grassbath, I wasn't having a go. You're entirely correct, of course, Tom Jones singing It's Not Unusual is a tremendous sound to behold.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

At least we can agree unambiguously on Nilsson Sings Newman.

Indeed. Such a beautiful album.

[gilbertharding]

I did say "quite" like, to be fair. I wasn't suggesting that you thought it was anything more than okay at most.

That's my favourite Stones period too, I always preferred them as a pop group as opposed to a bluesy rock band. I love pretty much everything they did in the '60s and '70s, to varying degrees, but pop-rock Stones is ultimately where it's at for me.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the Stones were a bloody good R&B covers band for the first three albums. I mean, their versions of Route 66, Down the Road Apiece, all the Chuck Berry songs were pretty much perfect - in some cases definitive. The more modern stuff they cover on Out of Our Heads, likewise.

All the albums after this (until Let it Bleed) when they started doing their own songs I think are weak at best (verging on the horrible). There are some great songs during this period. Some really fucking great songs. But never anything like an album's worth.

Carry on!

[machotrouts]

Don't find this catchy at all. Just listened to it on a loop for ages trying to plough it into my head and I've now stopped listening to it and I don't remember anything about it except that it had a screamy bit at the end, which I liked, and that it sounded like a Rolling Stones song, which I didn't. This thread has RUINED my 'On Repeat' Spotify playlist by the way.

I've looked it up and am surprised to note 'Bitter Sweet Symphony' was never a #1. The string bit in that is very catchy indeed. I once saw a performance of it that didn't include the strings and that wasn't catchy at all.

'Play with Fire' by Hilary Duff is also very catchy. Not related. Just has the same title as 'Play with Fire'. Hope this all clears up what is and isn't catchy.

[The Culture Bunker]

I've never been much of a Stones fan (got 'Hot Rocks' and that's it) - 'The Last Time' is OK, I guess. I like the guitar sound, but I've rarely been able to take Jagger seriously. But they'll have some #1 hits later on that I do rate.

[Satchmo Distel]

All their No. 1s are good IMHO except the misogynistic 'Honky Tonk Women', which prefigured 'Brown Sugar' (which mercifully stalled at 2, despite Blackburn's TOTP prediction that it would go top).

[gilbertharding]

lol at singling out a particular Rolling Stones song for misogynistic content.

Don't listen to the words, for goodness sake!