Junk Box Jury

Taken from the LP ‘Pye Records Presents Ten Years Of Golden Hits’ | (Marble Arch MT 10) 1969

The Overlanders | “Michelle” | (Marble Arch) | The mysterious formula by which songs are transformed into hit records is almost as elusive as the lodestone sought by alchemists of old.

Many have stumbled on the formula by accident, only to lose it at a second attempt. The ingredients of a hit were once defined to me as “the right singer with the right song at the right time”.

That’s all very fine, but someone still has to find all those ingredients and then bring them together. It takes a touch of genius to steer a commercial company through a policy that consistently produces hits and someone, somewhere at Pye obviously has that touch.

When Pye entered the record field they had to face up to the fact that the majority of established stars were already signed to the two major companies. This meant that the only hope of making a sizeable impression on the market lay in finding new names and in creating new stars, and that required great foresight, great courage and confidence.

During the past decade I have been required to listen, professionally, to practically every record that Pye have issued and have never ceased to wonder at the frequency with which they have managed to bring together the right singer and the right song at the right time, even while taking a chance on newcomers.

On these two commemorative LPs you will find many songs that have adorned the Hit Parade in recent years and many artistes who are now household names.

The Overlanders | “Michelle” | (Marble Arch)

Lonnie Donegan, once the banjo player with Chris Barber’s Band, became, after signing with Pye records, the first British artist ever to win three Gold Discs for million sellers. You’ll find two of them here and, by coincidence, both are oldies dressed up in the inimitable Donegan style.

“Chewing Gum”, first published in 1924 was written by Billy Rose and Marty Bloom and Lonnie found it in an old Boy Scout songbook. “Dustman” is even older; the tune was used by Tommies in World War One, but Lon helped to write the up-dated lyric which was to make it a million seller.

I remember a music publisher bringing me the acetate of this one, and I gave it its first broadcast, predicting an instant number one, which it became. Lonnie’s ex-boss Chris Barber is featured here with his only million seller on which, ironically, he didn’t appear himself.

It’s the 1952 composition by New Orleans jazzman Sydney Bechet, “Petite Fleur” and as recorded by the Barber band it was a feature for their clarinettist at the time, Monty Sunshine.

West Indian singer Emile Ford was a Pye discovery, and although there may be many of today’s pop fans who have never heard of him, the track here was a colossal hit. His beat version of the 1916 song “What Do You Wanna Make Those Eyes At Me For” was a number one for five weeks in Britain.

Easy-Beat

I still remember a rather nervous, but extremely enthusiastic young band leader putting his head round my office door at the BBC one day, and asking if I could find a spot for his newly formed band.

At the time I was restyling the Sunday morning show “Easy Beat” and as it happened I was looking for a trad-slanted band, and he got the job. Kenny Ball and his boys came for a month’s try-out and were so tremendous that they stayed.

He had just cut his now famous version of “Samantha” and I like to think we were of some assistance in helping along an inevitable hit. Kenny also played “Midnight in Moscow” for the first time on “Easy Beat” and that one was destined to become a hit all over the world, making number two in the States in 1962, and earning a Gold Disc.

I had the honour of presenting the award to Kenny, along with miniature gold replicas which he had thoughtfully had made for every member of the band and for the record’s producer, Alan Freeman.

Alan, who has now gone to live in Australia, was also responsible for the biggest hit that cockney character Joe Brown has ever had on record, and you’ll find that here as well—”Picture of You”.

The Overlanders | “Michelle” | (Marble Arch)

During the Beatle-dominated era of the mid-sixties there was an almost constant flow of hopeful recording managers to Liverpool, each seemingly convinced that every other cellar club contained another four mop-heads just waiting to provide fame and fortune for all concerned.

Many were called, but few were chosen, and still fewer made any kind of impression. But again Pye made the right choice, A&R man Tony Hatch had been advised to listen to a group called The Searchers—he liked what he heard, signed them to a contract, and soon many more people were to show they liked what they heard as well.

A cut above most of their contemporaries instrumentally, The Searchers also had a distinctive vocal blend, as you’ll hear on their three tracks re-issued here.

My own favourite is “Needles and Pins”, written by Americans Jack Nitsche and Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher), and it proved a favourite with record buyers, too, for it made number one in Britain, was a hit in America, and by 1 964 had sold a million.

At around this time, ballad singers were having a pretty lean time. Everyone seemed to be gripped in the beat fever. I should certainly have hesitated before releasing a disc by a romantic-voiced solo singer.

But that aforementioned genius at Pye had spotted the talents of handsome young Mark Wynter, and also had a song that was just right for him titled “Venus in Blue Jeans”. Only the time seemed out of joint. But I was wrong, Pye were right, and Mark had a huge hit.

Another group success here was really a lucky break for Pye, because they bought an independently produced recording—shrewdly seeing the merit of what was to become yet another million seller.

Girl drummer

This was “Have I the Right”, recorded by the late Joe Meek (creator of “Telstar”) with a London group known as The Honeycombs who were unusual in that they had a girl drummer, Honey Lantree.

This group has long since broken up, but what a good number this was, written by their managers at the time and the now distinguished pop composers Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard.

Of all the groups which started on the rocky road to stardom in the early sixties, hardly any remain in the business today—but Pye signed a foursome who, almost unbelievably with the same personnel, are now international stars.

These ex-art students got together in London in 1961, and adopted an almost Dickensian style of dress which inspired the name The Kinks. Undoubtedly one of the strongest factors in keeping this group on the crest of the wave lies in the brilliant song-writing talent of Ray Davies.

Of the four Kinks’ songs here, my own favourite is the old-fashioned sounding, yet graphically charming “Waterloo Sunset”, but perhaps the most commercially rewarding was “You Really Got Me”, the combined British and American sales of which topped the million mark.

The Overlanders | “Michelle” | (Marble Arch)

The story of the young girl from Dagenham who created quite a stir with her predilection for appearing barefoot on television has been too often told to need repetition. Sandie Shaw is now thoroughly established as a recording and cabaret artiste in many European countries, and included here are several of the hit songs that helped to fashion that reputation.

I think you’ll find it pleasant to hear again “Girl Don’t Come” and “Long Live Love” and perhaps you will agree with me that they have rather more merit than the average passing fancies of the Hit Parade.

And of course it was essential to include Sandie’s fantastic 1967 Eurovision Song Contest winner “Puppet On a String”.

Perhaps the most extraordinary hit of the whole collection is Jackie Trent‘s only number one to date, “Where are You Now”. This record had been on release for several weeks without doing anything, and then it was used as a theme in a television series (ironically I’ve forgotten the name of the TV programme) and caught the popular imagination almost overnight.

Haunting recording

Although Jackie has not personally recorded another hit to compare with that one, she is now married to Tony Hatch and together they are one of the most formidable song writing teams in the business.

Another instance of the readiness at Pye to take chances lay in the creation of Sounds Orchestral, the joint dream-child of producer John Schroeder and pianist Johnny Pearson. They may never again hit the number one spot as they did with the haunting “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”, but they have given us a recording unit capable of refreshingly different sounds.

It must have been difficult to select just two of the many beautiful songs written by the gentle Glaswegian poet, Donovan, but I’m glad that the choice fell on his first hit “Catch the Wind”, as redolent with magic as ever it was.

Blues ballad

Don is now idolised in America, but thank goodness he is not another example of the prophet being ignored in his own country. He writes and sings of beauty and love in terms that we can all understand.

And finally a word about two artists who both had longish recording careers before they came to Pye. Long John Baldry had not achieved Hit Parade recognition until he cut the McCaulay and McCleod blues ballad “Let the Heartaches Begin”, but what a success that turned out to be!

And finally Val Doonican. I think his decision to switch to the Pye label was a mark of the distinction and prestige that this young company has acquired in its few short years.

It may have been necessary at the outset to concentrate on new names, but they are now in a position to attract established stars. Val, of course, had scored a number of hits, but when he came to Pye he started all over again with the song here “If the Whole World Stopped Loving”.

I know that many radio listeners enjoy hearing the “Revived forty-fives” and I’m equally sure that this collection of them on two LPs is yet another indication that Pye has its finger very firmly on the pop pulse. (Brian Matthew)

The Overlanders | “Michelle” | (Marble Arch)

In his album liners Brian Matthew forgot about the Overlanders number “Michelle” from 1966. And because of this awkward oversight I’m making them my Pye label stars.

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cost of record: £1
from: charity shop