Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 24 January 15

Mellow Yellow - Donovan

Donovan

On the recording session, Donovan was unhappy with the sound of the horns saying they sounded as though they were playing a song for strippers. Insisting that the sound wasn’t sufficiently "mellow", the musicians suggested putting mutes onto their instruments bringing the story to a happy conclusion for Donovan, producer, Mickey Most and arranger and future Led Zeppelin member, John Paul Jones. Not forgetting the whispers that were originally believed to have been added by Paul McCartney but it subsequently turns out it was Donovan himself who whispers "quite likely" although Paul is believed to have been present for the recording.

Reach Out In The Darkness - Friend And Lover

Friend and Lover, an American folk duo consisted of husband and wife team, Jim Post from Texas and Cathy Conn from Chicago who met at a Canadian fair in 1964. They have since separated and Cathy remarried twice and now has three children and five grandchildren. Inspired by a New York Love-In, Jim wrote their only significant single, 'Reach Out In The Darkness' that reached number ten in the American Hot 100. Their follow up 'If Love Is In Your Heart' managed a number eighty-six position but no further success followed.

Mr Bojangles - Jerry Jeff Walker

Although only a minor hit in America for New York born composer Jerry Jeff Walker, his song 'Mr Bojangles' transcended into becoming something of a standard with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band taking their version into the US top ten and Sammy Davis Jr recording it and adopting it for his stage act. Walker’s original version was recorded partly in Memphis the vocal and rhythm tracks were laid down with the strings added in New York but were later removed for the album version at Walker’s request.

Walk Away Renee - The Four Tops

Four Tops

The song was originally a top five hit in The States in 1966 for The Left Banke whose sixteen year old keyboard player, Michael Brown was credited as composer alongside Tony Sansone and Bob Calilli. It was surprising that The Four Tops version was released a year later and even more of a surprise that it became such a big Stateside hit but with Holland, Dozier and Holland’s departure from Motown, the label bosses continued to plunder their past production work and plucked this track from the Tops’ album, 'Reach Out'.

Lovers Of The World Unite - David & Jonathan

David and Jonathan are singer songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. Cook began as a member of a five piece band called The Sapphires until 1961 when he joined The Londons for a year before forming a duo Jon and Julie with another member of the group, Jill Stevens to little success. Greenaway on the other hand was part of The Kestrels who released several now collectable singles for Pye and occasionally reform for charity shows. Cook accepted an invitation to join the group for the final few months of their existence, leading to one of the most successful British song writing partnerships of the sixties

I'm The Face - The High Numbers

'I’m The Face' was written by The High Number’s manager at the time, Peter Meaden in an attempt to cut a record that would appeal to the mod audience. The song was based on Slim Harpo’s 'I Got It If You Want It' but when the record failed to chart, the band changed their name to The Who, found new management and released Pete Townshend’s song, 'I Can’t Explain' beginning a whole run of top ten hits.

Moody River - Pat Boone

Pat Boone

Pat Boone’s 'Moody River' could easily hold the record for the American number one single to make it from recording studio to the airwaves in the shortest amount of time. Pat was played the original country version by Chase Webster at a time when his record sales were on the decline, so impressed, he went straight into the studios to record it. On his way home he turned on the radio and thinking the original recording had come on the air, nearly crashed his car when discovering it was the track he’d just finished recording. What had happened was Randy Wood, Pat’s producer had rushed a demo copy round to their local radio station who loved it so much that they put it straight to air.

I'll Wait For You Baby - Billy Hawks

BGP Records have recently released a nineteen track CD by jazz organist, Billy Hawks and contains two of his most successful albums, 'The New Genius Of The Blues' from 1967 and 'Heavy Soul!' from the following year. Hawks was born in Richmond, Virginia and at an early age learned to play the piano and listen to old blues records. In 1961 he joined Steve Gibbon’s Red Caps and the following year became part of The Modern Flamingos before forming his own group, The Billy Hawks Organ Trio in Philadelphia in 1964 performing mainly along the east coast of America. In 1966 they recorded their first album, 'The New Genius Of Blues' from which we’ve chosen his own composition, 'I’ll Wait For You Baby'.

Love Me Tonight - Tom Jones

His fifteenth of sixteen top forty hit of the sixties was an Italian song, 'Alla Fine Della Strada' written by Mario Panzeri and Daniele Pace with English lyrics later added for Tom by Barry Mason and re-titled 'Love Me Tonight'.

Read Bob Stanely’s latest article on the Welsh superstar, Tom Jones, here.