Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 15 August 15

From Cilla Black and Roy Orbison to The Goodies and The Monkees - discover the stories behind the songs in this week's playlist...

How Do You Do It - Gerry & The Pacemakers (1963)

The first of three consecutive number one hit for Gerry And The Pacemakers in the UK was written by Mitch Murray and produced by George Martin. The record remained at number one for three weeks until it was knocked off by ‘From Me To You’ By The Beatles.

The Dum Dum Ditty - The Goodies (1965)

After achieving huge success with The Shangri-Las, producer George ‘Shadow’ Morton had problems finding his next successful act although he came very close with girl group The Bunnies, changing their name to The Goodies for their one and only single for the Blue Cat label, ‘The Dum Dum Ditty’ written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart but when it failed to chart nationally due to lack of promotion, Morton went ahead and re-recorded it with..yes, The Shangri-Las for an album.

Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright - The Fairies (1964)

The group were formed in Colchester in Essex in 1963 as Dane Stephens and The Deep Beats later evolving into The Fairies who signed to Decca in 1964 releasing their first single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’. They made newspaper headlines when members of the group were arrested for up a statue. In 1965 they moved to HMV and recorded ‘Get Yourself Home’ written by their road manager Johnnie Dee that had been turned down by The Pretty Things. Previously Dee’s song ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’ had been rejected by The Fairies and became a hit for The Pretty Things.

Oh Well (Pt 1) - Fleetwood Mac (1969)

Written by Peter Green as one of his final contributions to the band with the full album version running for just over nine minutes but for the single, their record label, Reprise, issued it with Part One as the ‘A’ side and Part two, with a completely different sound was on the ‘B’. Mick Fleetwood was convinced it was a waste of time releasing it as a single and bet Green that the record would be a complete flop.

Mouses - Jim Dale (1969)

Apart from his acting and singing career, Jim Dale never lost his penchant for writing songs achieving one of his biggest successes in the sixties co-writing the title song to the movie, ‘Georgy Girl’ with Tom Springfield that became a top three hit for The Seekers. In 1969 he released an album of all his own compositions entitled “Meet Jim Dale” that included his own version of that Seekers hit and Des O’ Connor’s ‘Dick-A-Dum-Dum’ along with eleven other originals one of which was this novelty item called ‘Mouses’.

In Dreams - Roy Orbison (1963)

A song Roy wrote alone without either of his regular composing partners, Joe Melson or Bill Dees. ‘In Dreams’ was released as a single at the beginning of 1963, it also became the title track to his album that followed later in the year that contained another of his successes, ‘Blue Bayou’. ‘In Dreams’ remained in the charts in the UK for five months while Orbison toured with The Beatles. In 1987, director David Lynch used the song provocatively in his dark thriller ‘Blue Velvet’, helping to revive Orbison's career.

Groovy Little Suzie - Bo-Pete (1964)

The chances are you’ve never heard of Bo Pete but you’ve almost certainly heard of Harry Nilsson so we can declare that they are the one and the same person. ‘Groovy Little Suzie’ is a prime example of what Nilsson was up to in his pre-fame years. He recorded the song towards the end of 1963 but took a year to get released under the name of Bo Pete after being placed along with a few other tracks on the independent Crusader label in the states. The song had been written by the label’s owner, John Marascalco for Little Richard who did in fact finally record it but neither versions saw any chart action but both went on to bigger and better things.

Surround Yourself With Sorrow - Cilla Black (1969)

Written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, this became Cilla’s fifteenth consecutive top forty hit. Cilla had just completed work on her fourth studio album when the single was climbing the charts so it was decided to name it ‘Surround Yourself With Cilla’ and was her first LP to be recorded and released in stereo only. Cilla also cut a language version of the song for the Italian market under the title of ‘Quando Si Spezza Un Grande Amoure’.

Give Him A Great Big Kiss - The Shangri-Las (1964)

The song was written and produced by George ‘Shadow’ Morton, as was their two previous hits, ‘Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand)’ and ‘Leader Of The Pack’ with all three making the American top twenty. Unfortunately this third hit failed to cross over into the UK despite huge support from the media. The group began as a four piece and included identical twins Marge and Mary-Ann Ganser and sisters Mary and Betty Weiss and had already recorded under the name of The Bon Bons.

Last Train To Clarkesville - The Monkees (1966)

This was their first American hit but when first released in the UK made little or no impression on the record buying public. Once their TV series had begun airing, their record label issued ‘I’m A Believer’ that went to number one and the fans began buying ‘Last Train To Clarkesville’, on the back of it. Written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart after they’d heard ‘Paperback Writer’ and mistakenly thought they heard The Beatles singing something about a train. After realising their mistake, they decided to write a song around a train anyway.