Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 3 January 15
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield
The song originated in Italy as 'Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te)' translated as 'I Who Can’t Live (Without You)' and was written by Pino Donaggio and Vito Pallavicini. Dusty heard Donnaggio perform it himself at the 1965 San Remo Festival and requested a copy. Dusty passed it onto Vicki Wickham and Simon Napier-Bell requesting them to come up with an English lyric, resulting in her only number one hit. The song proved so popular in America, that her album, 'Everything’s Coming Up Dusty' was released there with a revised track listing to include the hit. Elvis Presley’s version reached number nine in 1971 and Guys And Dolls revived it again in 1976 reaching number five.
Soul Sister, Brown Sugar - Sam & Dave
Both Sam and Dave began their singing in church, Sam Moore in the gospel choir of his father’s church in Miami and Dave Prater in church in Georgia. They met in Miami, teamed up and began singing soul together for many years. Their nicknames included "Double Dynamite", "The Sultans of Sweat", and "The Dynamic Duo" for their sweaty, gritty, gospel-infused performances, Sam & Dave were considered one of the greatest live acts of the sixties
Town Without Pity - Gene Pitney
This was the title song from the movie starring Kirk Douglas and became Gene Pitney’s second UK top forty hit written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington winning the first ever Golden Globe award for 'Best Original Song' and was also nominated for an Oscar for 'Best Song' resulting in Pitney becoming the first pop star to perform at the awards ceremony in 1962. Sadly this was also the song he closed his final show at Cardiff’s St David’s Hall in April 2006 before his death.
Time Alone Will Tell - Malcolm Roberts
Roberts began his career in entertainment as an actor appearing in 'Coronation Street' and in the sixties played the part of Tony in the West End production of 'West Side Story'. In 1967 he was signed to RCA Records where this his first single, 'Time Alone Will Tell' became a minor hit reaching number forty-nine on our charts and was originally an Italian song, 'Non Pensare Me' by Alberto Testa and Eros Sciorilli with English lyrics added later by Norman Newell.
Tell Me When - The Applejacks
The group hailed from Solihull in Warwickshire and began life as a skiffle group could The Crestas. As they progressed and their line-up swelled, in 1961 they changed names to Jaguars playing mostly instrumentals in the style of The Shadows and The Tornados. By mid 1962, instrumentals were on the wane so they enlisted vocalist Al Jackson and became The Applejacks. Signed to Decca in 1964, they went into the studios and recorded a song called 'Baby Jane' but this was duly scrapped in favour of 'Tell Me When', that became the group’s debut release and biggest hit written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens.
For more information about the life and career of The Applejacks, click here.
When You're Young And In Love - The Marvelettes
Considering they achieved twenty-three American Hot 100 hits, it’s quite surprising that this was the only single by The Marvelettes to chart in the UK. Their US number one, 'Please Mr Postman' failed to impress the British record buying public. 'When You’re Young And In Love' was also a strange choice of song for a Motown act as it was composed by Van McCoy, a non Motown writer and was a cover of a Ruby and The Romantics track and was one of the last singles to be released with original member Gladys Horton on the record.
Tokyo Melody - Helmut Zacharias & His Orchestra
In his homeland of Germany, Helmut Zacharias was a huge star in the world of easy listening music, he was a top jazz violinist selling millions of albums during his career as a bandleader. In 1964, The BBC selected his composition, 'Tokyo Melody' as the theme tune for their coverage of that year’s Olympic Games resulting in the record selling something in excess of twelve million copies around the world.
You Got Soul - Johnny Nash
Johnny Nash was born John Lester Nash, Jr in Houston, Texas and is of African-American descent and one of the first non-Jamaican singers to record reggae music in Kingston, Jamaica where he had several hits in the sixties. Whilst over there, he met up with the struggling Bob Marley & The Wailers and financed their early recording sessions, none of which were successful but Nash himself later recorded several of Marley’s songs. 'You Got Soul' was Johnny’s own composition and second UK top ten hit.
Rock Me In The Cradle of Love - Dee Dee Sharp
Born Dione LaRue in Philadelphia, she began working as a backing vocalist for the American Cameo label in 1961 before they decided to offer her a solo recording contract the following year resulting in five top ten US hits the first of which being a duet with Chubby Checker on 'Slow Twistin'’, although she originally went un-credited on the label. In 1967 she married song writer and producer Kenny Gamble after which she began recording as Dee Dee Sharp-Gamble until the couple parted company in 1980. 'Rock Me In The Cradle Of Love' although one of her best known songs only reached number forty-three in The States.
Love Is All Around - The Troggs
In a press interview Presley claimed that he had just returned from a long trip to America to the smell of Sunday lunch cooking in his home, the TV was on and The Joy Strings a Salvation Army band that had two top forty hits in 1964 were on a programme performing a song called 'Love That’s All Around'. He went to switch them off but suddenly had the line "I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes" going around in his head and before lunch was served, he’d completed the song.
World of Lonely People - Jimmy Justice
Jimmy was encouraged by Emile Ford to form his own group and enter the same talent contest that he had previously won resulting in a recording contract with Pye. His first record, 'I Understand Just How You Feel' was credited to Jimmy Justice and jury although the backing band were The Checkmates. It wasn’t until his fourth single that he scored his first big hit with the cover of The Drifters’ 'When My Little Girl Is Smiling' following it with two further big sellers, 'Ain’t That Funny' and 'Spanish Harlem'. Largely due to the indecision of choice of material, Jimmy failed to achieve a further hit although he continued to turn out commercial records including this 1963 release, 'The World Of Lonely People'.
Come Along Please - Bob Wallis & His Storyville Jazz Band
Wallis started his first band in his hometown of Bridlington in 1950, which lasted for seven years. In 1956 he joined Papa Bue’s Viking Jazz Band, and the following year became part of Diz Disley's Jazz Band and, briefly in 1958, Acker Bilk’s Band. From then on he formed his own Storyville Jazzmen who were one of the leading outfits throughout the "trad" boom of the late fifties. His own trumpet playing and singing was inspired by Henry “Red” Allen. His two minor UK hits were with 'I'm Shy Mary Ellen I'm Shy' reaching number forty-four in 1961, and the more successful 'Come Along Please' the following year. Change in popular taste brought the demise of the Storyville Jazzmen but Wallis went on to play with a variety of bands including Monty Sunshine’s. He then moved to Switzerland, where he continued to work throughout the eighties.
Baby Don't Go - Sonny & Cher
Sonny met Cher at a Hollywood coffee shop that was a popular meeting place for musicians. He was working for Phil Spector at the time and brought her to meet his boss who invited them both to sing backing vocals on some of his productions. He then borrowed some money to produce his own record with Cher but at the last minute, she asked him to sing with her so 'Baby Don’t Go' was recorded as a duet. Reprise bought the rights but no contracts were signed and in the meantime they signed with Atco.
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My Memories of 30 Years of Sounds of The Sixties
Bob Stanley tells us about the show has evolved over it's many years, including some of the celebrity presenters.
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The Applejacks
The history of the six piece from Solihull.
