Tag Archives: British Invasion

♫ The Everly Brothers — A Brief Tribute ♫

Posted on by under music, Tributes

In my current state, it would almost certainly have escaped my notice, but for my dear friend Ellen who sent me an email to let me know that Don Everly, the older of the two Everly Brothers, had just died on Saturday at the age of 84.  He was preceded in death by his brother and musical partner, Phil, who died in 2014, sixteen days before he would have turned 75.

I well remember listening to the Everly Brothers as a child and during my early teen years.  They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with Bye Bye Love, written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit #2 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have to Do Is Dream, and Problems.  In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded Cathy’s Clown, written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single.

The Everly Brothers charted 31 singles on the Hot 100, including three #1s: Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have to Do Is Dream, and Cathy’s Clown. The latter was the first single to top the US and UK charts simultaneously.  The Everly Brothers’ career slumped in their home country in the wake of the British Invasion in 1964. However they retained a faithful following in countries including Canada, Australia and the UK. They scored nine Top 40 hits in the UK between 1963 and 1965, including the self-penned The Price Of Love.

The Everly Brothers ended their partnership in 1973 after a gig on July 14, 1973, at Knotts Berry Farm in California, at which Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off the stage.  Embarking on a solo career, Phil charted three times as a solo artist with the #37 peaking Who’s Gonna Keep Me Warm being his biggest hit. He also had a Top Ten entry in 1983 on the UK singles chart with She Means Nothing To Me, a duet with Cliff Richard. The brothers reunited in 1983, when they appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The concert spawned a well-received live LP and video.

The Everly Brothers were part of the first group of ten artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Rather than a single song and set of lyrics, I shall post a few of their most popular songs as a tribute to a fine duo whose music will live on.

All I Have to do is Dream (1958)  Charted at #1 in both the U.S. and UK

Cathy’s Clown (1960)  Charted at #1 in both the U.S. and UK

Wake Up Little Susie (1957)  Charted at #1 in the U.S. and #2 in the UK

Bye Bye Love (1957)  Charted at #2 in the U.S. and #6 in the UK

♫ Because ♫

Posted on by under music

The other night, I played a song by the British group the Dave Clark Five, and in the comments, a friend said his favourite by them was Because.  The song rang a bell, and when I went and listened, I remembered it well, remembered liking it back in the day.  Funny how we don’t think of a song for decades, and all of a sudden it’s clear as a bell.

This song hit #3 in both the U.S. and Canada, but didn’t fare so well on the band’s home turf, likely because in the UK it was released as the B-side of another song, Can’t You See That She’s Mine.  B-side songs just never quite seem to make it to the top of the charts.  According to Wikipedia …

Because was written with the intention of being the Dave Clark Five’s fifth US single, but the band’s label, Epic Records, was initially resistant, believing the ballad strayed too far from the hit-making formula that had proven successful with the band’s previous upbeat singles. In May 1964, the song was released in the UK as the B-side to Can’t You See That She’s Mine. Clark insisted that Because be released as an A-side in the US, and Epic eventually agreed. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number sixty in August, and peaked six weeks later at number three.  Because became the band’s fifth US single to sell more than one million copies.  In Canada, the song reached number three on RPM magazine’s singles chart.

The songwriting credits on the record are given to Dave Clark and Mike Smith, but Because is one of several Dave Clark Five songs claimed to have been co-written by Ron Ryan, rather than by Clark.

I was surprised to find that the Supremes recorded a version of Because on the group’s A Bit of Liverpool (1964), a tribute album dedicated to music of the British Invasion.  And Julian Lennon recorded the song for the soundtrack to Dave Clark’s musical Time (1986). Released as a single in 1985, Lennon’s version reached #40 on the UK Singles Chart, and #8 on the Belgium Singles Chart.

Because
The Dave Clark Five

It’s right that I should care about you
And try to make you happy when you’re blue
It’s right, it’s right to feel the way I do
Because, because I love you

It’s wrong to say I don’t think of you
‘Cause when you say these things
You know it makes me blue

Give me one kiss and I’ll be happy
Just, just to be with you
Give me, give me, a chance to be near you
Because, because I love you

Give me one kiss and I’ll be happy
Just, just to be with you
Give me, give me, a chance to be near you
Because, because I love you
Because, because I love you

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Dave Clark
Because lyrics © Songtrust Ave

 

 

♫ I’m Into Something Good ♫

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For a time in 1965, Herman’s Hermits kicked The Beatles off the charts. And as the Fab Four transitioned into a more serious, studio-only band, there was still an appetite for bright pop songs with a definite British edge, which is where Peter Noone and his band came in.

For some reason, Herman’s Hermits popped into my head earlier today with Listen People, and I could not shake them out at all!  My ears must be clogged!  At any rate, I was going to play Listen People, for I like it, but I could find almost no trivia on it, so I decided instead to go with this one, I’m Into Something Good, which I also like and for which I found some interesting songfacts!

I had no idea that this was written by the songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King who wrote for so many artists including the Monkees, Aretha Franklin, the Drifters and many more! Goffin & King are … the gold standard by most any measure!

This was originally recorded by Earl-Jean (real name Ethel McCrea), who had been the lead singer the R&B vocal group The Cookies. Her version, titled I’m Into Somethin’ Good, peaked at #38 in the US in August 1964.

The song became a British Invasion hit when producer Mickie Most heard Carole King’s demo and decided to cover it with a new British group, Herman’s Hermits. The band was fronted by 16-year-old John F. Kennedy lookalike Peter Noone, who had already appeared in the British TV soap Coronation Street. Released as the group’s first single, it went to #13 in the U.S. in December 1964, but proved wildly popular on their home turf, reaching #1 in the UK in September.

According to Peter Noone …

“On the record you can hear the enthusiasm of this band who believe that they were going to be heard on the radio. When the record was on the radio, we thought we’d made it.”

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, both future members of Led Zeppelin, played on some Herman’s Hermits songs, but not this one.  This was Herman’s Hermits’ only song to reach #1 in the UK, where it remains their best-known song. After it hit, the band went on tour in the U.S. with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars and made inroads in that country, where they were welcomed as part of the British Invasion. In 1965, they had two U.S. #1 hits: Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter and I’m Henry The VIII, I Am.

I’m Into Something Good
Herman’s Hermits

Woke up this mornin’ feelin’ fine
There’s somethin’ special on my mind
Last night I met a new girl in the neighbourhood, whoa yeah
Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good (Somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’)

She’s the kind of girl who’s not too shy
And I can tell I’m her kind of guy
She danced close to me like I hoped she would (she danced with me like I hoped she would)
Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good (Somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’)

We only danced for a minute or two
But then she stuck close to me the whole night through
Can I be fallin’ in love
She’s everthing I’ve been dreamin’ of
She’s everthing I’ve been dreamin’ of

I walked her home and she held my hand
I knew it couldn’t be just a one-night stand
So I asked to see her next week and she told me I could
(I asked to see her and she told me I could)
Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good (somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’)
(Somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’, ahhh)

I walked her home and she held my hand
I knew it couldn’t be just a one-night stand
So I asked to see her next week and she told me I could
(I asked to see her and she told me I could)
Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good (somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’)
Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good (somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’)
To something good, oh yeah, something good (somethin’ tells me I’m into somethin’)
To something good, something good, something good

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Carole King / Gerry Goffin
I’m Into Something Good lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

♫ I Go To Pieces ♫

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Tonight’s song is for our friend rawgod … he mentioned this some time ago … maybe as long as a year ago … and I put it on the list, but just never got around to playing it.  My apologies, rg, but tonight’s is just for you!   Only thing is … since it’s been so long, I don’t remember what artist we might have been talking about when you mentioned this one, so I’m not sure if you wanted Peter & Gordon’s, or Del Shannon’s version.  I’m going to guess, knowing what I do about your tastes, Peter & Gordon.  However, to be on the safe side, I shall play both!

Del Shannon had written I Go to Pieces for an R&B singer named Lloyd Brown whom Shannon discovered at a Michigan nightclub. Shannon arranged and produced Brown’s recording but was unable to find a label interested in releasing the track. Shannon did attempt to himself record I Go to Pieces in the August 1964 session at Mira Sound Studios NYC, but was unable to cut a satisfactory vocal of the song before the three hours booked for the session ran out.  Following the success of the Peter and Gordon version, Del Shannon himself recorded the song at Bell Sound Studio NYC in March 1965.

I Go to Pieces” passed to Peter and Gordon when they and Del Shannon along with the Searchers shared the bill for a tour of Australia in the second half of 1964. At one of that tour’s venues Shannon pitched I Go to Pieces to the Searchers singing it for the group in their dressing room: Peter and Gordon in the dressing room next door overheard Shannon singing it to the Searchers – who weren’t interested in it – and recognizing the song’s potential to become a Merseybeat-style hit, Peter and Gordon asked Shannon to let them record it.

Released in the UK on 20 November 1964, I Go to Pieces became the second consecutive Peter and Gordon single to miss the UK Top 50 but like the preceding Nobody I Know, despite missing the UK charts it became a hit in the US where the “British Invasion” craze was at its height in 1964-65.

Now I’m wondering, though, if rawgod wanted Patsy Cline’s I Fall to Pieces?  Sigh.

I Go to Pieces
Peter and Gordon

When I see her comin’ down the street
I get so shaky and I feel so weak
I tell my eyes look the other way
But they don’t seem to hear a word I say

And I, go to pieces and I want to hide
Go to pieces and I almost die
Every time my baby passes by

I tell my arms they’ll hold someone new
Another love that will be true
But they don’t listen, they don’t seem to care
They reach for her but she’s not there

And I, go to pieces and I want to hide
Go to pieces and I almost die
Every time my baby passes by

I remember what she said when she said
“Goodbye baby. We’ll meet again soon maybe.”
“But until we do, all my best to you.”
I’m so lonely, I think about her only

I go to places we used to go
But I know she’ll never show
She hurt me so much inside
Now I hope she’s satisfied

And I, go to pieces and I want to hide
Go to pieces and I almost die
Every time my baby passes by

Go to pieces and I cry
Every time my baby passes by
Go to pieces and I cry

Songwriters: Del Shannon
I Go to Pieces lyrics © BMG Rights Management