Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 31 October 15

The stories behind tracks from The Troggs, Sam Cooke, Billy Fury and many more...

Gemini - Del Shannon (1968)

Taken from his album, “The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover”, which happened to be Del’s real name and showed a very different side of the performer and used different pictures for the British and American releases, the US version had a dark cover with a small picture of Del in the top left hand corner whilst the UK issue had him standing in a large field. “Gemini” was a self penned song and released as a single in April, 1968.

Sha-La-La - Manfred Mann (1964)

In America Manfred Mann found themselves competing with the original version of “Sha-La-La” by The Shirelles whose single only managed to scrape into the lower end of their charts at number sixty-nine, unusual for the US, where this British cover climbed all the way to number twelve.

Silhouettes - Herman’s Hermits (1965)

Written by Bob Crewe and Frank Slay, the song was originally an American hit for both The Rays and The Diamonds in 1957. The idea of the song came to Crewe when he was looking out of the window of a train and spotted the shadow of a couple embracing in the shade of a passing building. He quickly set about turning the image into a hit song.

I Can Only Give You Everything - The Troggs (1967)

‘Trogglodynamite’ is the title of the second album release by The Troggs with more than half the songs composed by members of the band although the two tracks featured today were from outside writers. Track one on side one was a song by Tommy Scott and Phil Coulter called ‘I Can Only Give You Everything’ and although no singles were taken from this collection, this track could have been a contender.

Let’s Turkey Trot - Little Eva (1963)

Her real name was Eva Narcissus Boyd who took the name Little Eva from a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 anti-slavery novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Let’s Turkey Trot was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin despite having been compared to the melody of The Cleftones 1956 recording of ‘Little Girl Of Mine.’ The track was later featured in the movie, ‘Easy Rider’ but was omitted from the soundtrack album presumably because the record label was refused clearance.

Blue Girl - The Bruisers (1963)

The Bruisers were originally session men from Birmingham employed by record producer, Norrie Paramor to back Tommy Bruce on his first record releases and to back him on tour. This group of competent musicians even managed one minor hit on their own. The song ‘Blue Girl’ was written by Johnny Worth under his pseudonym Les Van Dyke, and even without their coarse voiced vocalist it became popular in its own right.

Cupid - Johnny Nash (1969)

Originally written and recorded by Sam Cooke in 1961 and whose version reached number seven on our charts although it was written for a female singer that Cooke’s record producers had spotted on an American TV variety show but once they’d heard the song, decided that Sam should record it himself. Johnny Nash’s 1969 revival of the song became his third consecutive top ten hit and the first he hadn’t written himself.

Natural Born Bugie - Humble Pie (1969)

Written by Steve Marriott, the title of the song often mis-spelt as ‘Boogie’, this was the debut single and only hit for one of Britiain’s first super-groups. It was one of the few hit songs not to include its title in the lyrics but ‘natural born woman’ instead. In the autumn of 1971, Peter Frampton left the band to pursue a solo career resulting in his ‘Frampton Comes Alive’ album of 1976 selling over 16 million copies worldwide and is still one of the best selling live album of all time. Momentary, Steve Marriott was under discussion as the replacement for guitarist Mick Taylor who left The Rolling Stones in 1976. But Mick Jagger blocked the move, because he knew that Marriott would not put up with being in the background.

(Ain’t That) Good News - Sam Cooke (1964)

The American chart books list the title simply as ‘Good News’ but it was often listed as ‘(Ain’t That) Good News.’ It was written and recorded by Sam Cooke and was the title track to his last album he recorded before his death. It was also one of the first songs he recorded in over six months following the tragic drowning of his eighteen month old son, Vincent.

All I Need Is You - Sandy Denny & The Strawbs (1967)

Most of the songs on the album, ‘All Our Own Work’ were written by either Sandy Denny or Dave Cousins from The Strawbs and were recorded in Copenhagen in 1967 over the course of just one day in a converted cinema with a three track tape machine. To help subsidise the trip, Sandy and The Strawbs played in the Tivoli Gardens in the evenings, the only paying gigs they ever did together. ‘All I Need Is You’ was written by Dave Cousins.

Because Of Love - Billy Fury (1962)

This became Billy’s fourteenth UK top forty hit in a chart career that had begun in 1959 with his first release, ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, a song that had originally been offered and rejected by Marty Wilde. After the record went into the charts he was offered and accepted a seven year recording contract with Decca.