Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 05 December 15

Wilson Pickett, Cilla Black, Marmalade and more - the stories behind this weeks playlist

634-5789 - Wilson Pickett (1966)

Written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd, ‘634-5789’ was released as a single in 1966 and taken from the album, ‘The Exciting Wilson Pickett.’ Along with Jonny Lang, Floyd and Pickett performed the song in the 1998 movie ‘Blues Brothers 2000’ playing the proprietors of ‘Ed's Love Exchange,’ which according to the storyline could be reached by calling that number.

She Just Satisfies - Jimmy Page (1965)

Jimmy Page was one of the most in demand session guitar players during the early sixties and when we think of his solo career we tend to think of his work in the late eighties. However, Jimmy kicked off two decades earlier with his little heard and very collectable 1965 release on the Fontana label, ‘She Just Satisfies’ which he co-wrote with Barry Mason as well as producing and playing all the instruments apart from the drums and it would seem one of the rare occasions handling the lead vocals. The record was released just prior to his time with The Yardbirds and later Led Zeppelin.

Love’s Just A Broken Heart - Cilla Black (1966)

This became Cilla’s sixth consecutive top twenty UK hit and was originally a French song, ‘L’Amour Est Ce Qu’il Est’, written by Michele Vendome with English lyrics by Mort Shuman and Kenny Lynch. Produced by George Martin, this was also the opening track on side one on Cilla’s second album, ‘Cilla Sings A Rainbow’ which also included her versions of ‘A Lovers Concerto’ and ‘Make It Easy On Yourself’.

Baby Don’t You Do It - The Poets (1966)

This week our ‘British Beat Season’ focuses on the town of Glasgow. The first of the two featured acts are The Poets who were formed in 1961. They had several changes in personnel in the early years then, in 1964 they signed to Andrew Oldham for management and who succeeded in acquiring them a contract with Decca. Moving to London, they released three singles none of which became hits then when Oldham started his own Immediate label, they became part of that stable where they released two further singles, ‘Some Things I Can’t Forget’ in 1966 preceded by ‘Call Again’ in 1965 with its superior ‘B’ side, ‘Baby Don’t You Do It’.

Give Me Your Word - Billy Fury (1966)

This became Billy’s final UK top forty hit, and was also the year that he decided to turn the swimming pool at his Sussex home into a large duck pond. Billy had decided he wanted to spend more time on concentrating on his hobby of bird watching than he did performing, although it actually helped him sustain his music career at a time when he left the Decca label having recorded with them for seven years in favour of a very lucrative deal offered to him by EMI’s Parlophone outlet

Handbags And Gladrags - Double Feature (1967)

Written by Mike D’Abo who played the song to record producer, Mike Hurst who was looking for material for a new group called Double feature. Believing it to be the ideal song, he went ahead and recorded it. In the meantime, Andrew Oldham also got hold of the song and recorded it with Chris Farlowe. Oldham then contacted Hurst and persuaded him to withhold the release of his version in order to give Farlowe a head start that he reluctantly agreed to do, the result being that Chris’s version made the top forty leaving Double Feature’s copies to be melted down in order to recycle the plastic.

Wait For Me Marianne – Marmalade (1968)

The second in our ‘British Beat Season’ is a band who were formed in 1963 in Glasgow as Dean Ford and The Gaylords and signed to EMI. By 1967, they’d changed labels to CBS and at the suggestion of their manager Peter Walsh, changed their name to Marmalade. After four failed singles with the label, they finally came up with a winning formula with ‘Loving Things’ a cover of an American single recorded by The Grass Roots. The song was pretty well forced on them by their label. ‘Wait For Me Marianne’ was the follow up hit and was written by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, the couple responsible for all Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich’s successes.

Down In The Boondocks - Billy Joe Royal (1965)

Billy Joe was a protégé of Bill Lowery, a leading Atlanta based music publisher who also looked after Joe South and arranged for the pair to work together. Making his recording debut in 1961 for a small label owned by Lowery, he became frustrated by the lack of success and moved to Cincinnati to pursue a career as an actor but still recording the odd song from time to time…In 1965, he received a call from South who said he had a song he wanted him to record because he sounded a lot like Gene Pitney, so “Down In The Boondocks” was cut in a small studio Lowery had built in the suburbs of Atlanta. Both Warner Brothers and Capitol turned down the record but Columbia agreed to release it as they were trying to build a reputation for pop and rock at the time. A good decision as the record climbed to number nine on the American Hot 100.

Headline News - Edwin Starr (1968)

First released in 1966 when it reached number thirty-nine, then at the end of 1968 when the Tamla Motown label was having a huge amount of success with re-issuing back catalogue, and having purchased Edwin Starr’s back catalogue from the Ric-Tic label, they decided to try again with this track as part of a double ‘A’ side with ‘Stop Her On Sight (S.O.S)’. Their plan worked and the record climbed to number eleven.

Trance - Billy Dixon & The Topics (1961)

In 1956 American vocal group, The Four Lovers were signed to RCA where their first release, ‘Apple Of My Eye’ made the American Hot 100 but after a further six failed singles, they were released from their contract. In 1958 they met producer, Bob Crewe and made some personnel changes and also recorded under numerous different names including Hal Miller & The Rays, The Village Voices, Frankie Valley and The Voices and Billy Dixon & The Topics before settling on The Four Seasons.

Reach Out For Me - Dionne Warwick (1964)

As with most of Dionne’s sixties hits, ‘Reach Out For Me’ was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and taken from her album, ‘Make Way For Dionne Warwick’ that also included her International hit, ‘Walk On By.’ The song had originally been recorded by Lou Johnson the previous year.

Crazy Times - Gene Vincent (1960)

In complete contrast to Dionne Warwick’s record, a release by the late Gene Vincent and another Burt Bacharach song, ‘Crazy Times’ that he wrote with lyricist Paul Hampton in the style of Fats Domino’s ‘I’m Walkin’’ and became the title track to Gene’s 1960 album.