BRITPOP -- A Short History (in capsule form) of British Pop Music
by saki (saki@evolution.bchs.uh.edu)
Version 1.1 March 1992 (in two parts)
Copyright 1992, 1993--no unauthorized use permitted
----
You've probably been wondering whether the British teens were as
fortunate as you; whether, growing up in the fifties and sixties, they
had the same fine advantages you had.

Well, they had a richer culture, one could argue, but they didn't have
Elvis; they didn't have Buddy; they didn't have Chuck. Oh, yes...they
had the Beatles...but does that make up for the rest of it? :-)

Suffice it to say that the British experience of pop music was quite
different from the American. There were more holdovers from the music-
hall era of pre-War entertainment (rather like vaudeville). Pop crooners
and bands tried for all the world to imitate American songsmiths. Sometimes
you got a flash of inspiration, and then it was exclusive to British teens
alone (like skiffle music---America had none of this!) Then there was the
wireless (American English: radio). There were no top-40 AM stations in
England, all pounding a pop message to youngsters throughout the States, 
but rather the benevolent BBC ("The Beeb"), which only gradually allowed
rock and roll to transgress its airwaves. Most of the really good stuff
came creeping across the channel via clandestine "pirate" stations aboard
stationary ships like Radio Caroline, or continental stalwarts like Radio
Luxembourg---now *they* had the music-lover in mind! 

What the teenage Beatles grew up with, in their own pop music culture,
was substantially different from the American experience...so much so
that this note was created for your enjoyment and edification. In it
you'll find a list of groups and singers who entered and exited the
pop charts of the UK from the fifties through the end of the sixties---
the singers who influenced several generations of music listeners. It's
not an all-inclusive list; it stops roughly when the British Invasion
ceased to have an effect on the US, about 1968. There were groups aplenty
after this, but the wave had slowed, and it's the wave, and its imperceptible
precursors, that interest us. What was the Beatles' milieu? What might they
have heard? And while we know what American music did for them, what did
British music *fail* to do? Why did they retreat from skiffle, the Shadows,
Adam Faith, and create a whole new world of harmonic complexity and beauty,
just for them and us? Maybe by reading about that background---the styles
the Beatles abandoned---you'll be inspired to seek out some of it, and
hear for yourself.

Alas, the best LP collection of British pop has been out of print for
almost twenty years: Sire's "The Roots of British Pop." Maybe you
can find it at a record swapmeet someday.

As for books that delve deeper, some are still with us, and some
are equally remote. I recommend:

Adam Clayson's "Call Up The Groups" (1985)
Paul Flattery's "The Illustrated History of Pop" (1973) (out of print)
Guinness "British Hit Singles" (1983, updated periodically)
Donald Clarke, ed., "The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music" (1989)

And if there's a group or singer of the British persuasion whom you'd
like to see added here, or you have a correction or emendation, don't
hesitate to write to dmaclaug@agsm.ucla.edu, and politely suggest it.

Ready, steady....GO! :-)
------------------------
THE ANIMALS
-Songs include: 
Baby Let Me Take You Home (1964)
House of the Rising Sun (1964)
I'm Crying (1965)
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (1965)
Bring It On Home to Me (1965)
We Gotta Get Out of This Place (1965)
It's My Life (1965)
Don't Bring Me Down (1966)
etc.
- Originally the Alan Price Combo, the Animals were so-called after
Newcastle bluesman Eric Burdon joined Price and their local musical
sets became known for excessive (if exciting) raucousness. Price was
the keyboard genius of the group with an appreciation for American
blues and folk music; Burdon had the voice. Other members included 
Chas Chandler (from the Alan Price Combo), John Steele, and Hilton 
Valentine; Dave Rowberry replaced Price in 1965. As a Northern group,
they had the exotic cast to make it big, once the Mersey Sound had been
accepted by the musical establishment. Price left the group in 1965
(partly artistic dispute, partly a fear of flying) and Burdon continued,
keeping pace with the changing psychedelic world.
----
WINIFRED ATWELL (a.k.a. "Wonderful Winnie")
- Songs include:
Britannia Rag (1952 *and* 1953)
Coronation Rag (1953)
Let's Have A Party (1953)
Let's Have Another Party (1954)
Poor People of Paris (1956)
Piano Party (1959)
- Winifred Atwell was of West Indian descent and made a big name for
herself as a rollicking pianist in the early fifties. Her act included
two pianos, between which Wonderful Winnie would whirl, as the mood
and music suited her. Most of her chart hits were medleys of other
popular songs of earlier eras, such as (I kid you not) "Knees Up, Mother
Brown", "Sheik of Araby", "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", "Meet Me Tonight
in Dreamland", and "I Belong to Glasgow."
----
THE BACHELORS
- Songs include:
Charmaine (1963)
Faraway Places (1963)
Whispering (1963)
Diane (1964)
I Believe (1964)
Marie (1965)
etc.
- The Bachelors were a hit, it has been suggested, just by virtue of
their thick Irish accents, and were most popular with the mums and dads
who enjoyed regular, predictable, "clean" television and radio. They
managed to enter the American hit parade with several songs after the
British Invasion, but had little staying power.
----
KENNY BALL'S BAND
- Songs include:
Teddy Bear's Picnic (1961)
Samantha (1961)
Someday (1961)
Midnight in Moscow (1961)
March of the Siamese Children (1962)
So Do I (1962)
Green Leaves of Summer (1962)
Sukiyaki (1963)
etc.
- Kenny Ball was a trumpet player in the Terry Lightfoot's trad band
when he decided to strike out on his own. His band was one of the
Mighty Triumvirate of Trad Bands in England---the other two being
Mr. Acker Bilk's and Chris Barber's. Like his cohorts, Ball was able
to trade on the British public's incessant thirst for American musical
forms, and his biggest hit, "Midnight in Moscow" (a trad reworking of
a well-known Russian folk ballad), not only became a hit in Britain,
but also in the States.
----
CHRIS BARBER'S JAZZ BAND
- Songs include:
Petite Fleur (1959)
Lonesome (1959)
Revival (1962)
- Chris Barber's vision was less commercial and more "ethnic" than
his trad cohorts, with the result that he had very little chart
action during trad's heyday, though he had his dedicated followers. He
also refused to dress up in fin-de-siecle costumes, a la Mr. Bilk & Co.
Lonnie Donegan, who singlehandedly started the skiffle craze, had
been a banjo player in Chris Barber's band; and the band's one major
success (in America too) was their "Petite Fleur" (an old Sidney
Bechet tune), on which the lead clarinetist was Monty Sunshine
(I wonder if Larry Parnes gave him his name? :-) Chris Barber and his
ilk got lots of airtime from the BBC, but eventually overexposure
and a relentless new sound from Merseyside drowned out the rhythms
of trad.
----
THE BEATLES
- Original lineup: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison,
Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best. (Sutcliffe dropped out in 1961; Ringo
Starr replaced Pete Best in 1962).
- Songs include (1961-1969):
Cry for a Shadow ... I Me Mine
(Completists should consult Mark Lewisohn's "The Beatles Recording Sessions")
- You may have heard a word or two about this band. Suffice it to
say that, surrounded as they were by trad jazz, pop idols like
Cliff Richard and Adam Faith, groups with guitars like the Shadows,
and various crooners of questionable talent, the Beatles managed to
synthesize their beloved American sources (Presley, Chuck Berry, the
Everly Bros., Buddy Holly, Tamla/Motown artists) and create an
entirely new British musical movement. Their contribution can
scarcely be told in one page, let alone one paragraph, so I won't 
even try. :-)
----
CLIFF BENNETT AND THE REBEL ROUSERS
- Cliff Bennett, Sid Phillips, Ricky Winters, Frank Allen [later moved
to the Searchers], Chas Hodges, Maurice Groves.
- Songs: 
You Got What I Like (1961)
That's What I Said (1961)
Poor Joe (1962)
One Way Love (1964)
I'll Take You Home (1965)
Got to Get You Into My Life (1966)
Drivin' You Wild (1966)
- A group from West Drayton near London, Bennett and friends produced a
string of Parlophone non-hits from 1961; were booked to Hamburg's Star
Club; intrigued Brian Epstein, who added them to his stable of Nems stars;
and then began to see real chart action in the UK in 1964. Their biggest
success was a cover of the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life" in
1966, but by 1967 they were yesterday's papers. The group broke up; Bennett
has appeared briefly (in 1974 and 1982) for revivals, but when last encountered
was an aviation sales executive.
----
DAVE BERRY
- Songs include:
Memphis (1963)
My Baby Left Me (1964)
Baby It's You (1964)
The Crying Game (1964)
One Heart Between Two (1964)
Little Things (1964)
This Strange Effect (1965)
Mama (1966)
- Mr. Berry (who changed his name from David Holgate Grundy) started
out in a duo, a la the Everly Bros., and teamed up with a backing group
called the Cruisers in 1961. After being introduced to the band by producer
Mickie Most (whose stable included Herman's Hermits), the dreaded Mike
Smith at Decca allowed Dave and the Cruisers to record "Memphis", then
insisted that subsequent recordings include a studio band in back of
Mr. Berry. He had a few hits, including a cover of Bobby Goldsboro's
"Little Things"; and a weird stage act which emphasized Mr. Berry's
penchant for black clothing and odd hand and microphone "ballets". In
the eighties, he rerecorded several of his hits, to no success.
----
MR. ACKER BILK AND THE PARAMOUNT JAZZ BAND
- Songs include:
Summerset (1960)
Buena Sera (1961)
Creole Jazz (1961)
Stars and Stripes Forever (1961)
Stranger on the Shore (1961)
Gotta See My Baby Tonight (1962)
Lonely (1962)
A Taste of Honey (1962)
etc.
- Bernard Bilk was the front man for one of the most successful
pop bands in England. The wave they rode was that of *trad jazz*---to
Americans it sounds like Dixieland---which was hugely popular in
England after skiffle became passe. Mr. Bilk was always well received
in England, but in 1962 his best-known work in the States, "Stranger
on the Shore", reached Number 1 in the American charts, becoming the
first British instrumental to be so honored. 
----
CILLA BLACK
- Songs include:
Love of the Loved (1963)
Anyone Who Had a Heart (1964)
You're My World (1964)
It's For You (1964)
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (1965)
I've Been Wrong Before (1965)
Alfie (1966)
Step Inside Love (1968)
etc.
- "Swingin' Cilla"---so named by Brian Epstein---was a local Liverpool
lass who hung out at the Cavern (in some stories she denies being the
hatcheck girl there) and wanted to sing. After hearing Priscilla White
at the Cavern microphone, Brian decided that she would be perfect as
his "girl singer", and he groomed her paternally to that end. Luckily
she possessed a strong voice and George Martin created the arrangements
to back it up (or tone it down). The Beatles were particularly close
to Cilla; she covered their early "Love of the Loved" and they wrote
"It's For You" and "Step Inside, Love" for her.
----
JOE BROWN 
- Songs include:
People Gotta Talk (1959)
Darktown Strutter's Ball
Jellied Eels (1960)
I'm Henry the Eighth I Am (1961)
What a Crazy World We're Living In (1962)
Picture of You (1962)
It Only Took a Minute (1962)
That's What Love Will Do (1963)
etc.
- Joe Brown was a talented East Ender whose visual signature, even more
than the toothy Tommy Steele, was a bright, shaggy blond crew cut. He
had been a guitarist who favored instrumentals and songs about Cockney
life (Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits covered several Joe Brown hits
in the mid-sixties) but hit the big time with "Picture of You" in
1962, a haunting, charming song about a lost love. His backing group,
the Bruvvers (renamed from The Spacemen), were jetisoned after the big
hits and Brown explored musical comedy in the mid- to late-sixties.
Brown headlined a tour in 1962 in which the Beatles took part; there
exists a photo of George rapturously holding Brown's guitar, and George
(clearly the fan) sings "Picture of You" during the BBC sessions.
----
MAX BYGRAVES
- Songs include (1953-1959):
Cowpuncher's Cantata
Tulips from Amsterdam
Meet Me on the Corner
You Need Hands
- Mr. Bygraves had made his career as a comedian in London's East
End and turned to a recording career in 1953, after his personality-
filled act was already well established. He was a predecessor of other
comedians and groups (like the Goons) who turned to music to further
their popularity; remarkably (or perhaps not so), he was one of several
singers to reach the charts ahead of established balladeers like Dickie
Valentine of the early fifties.
----
EDDIE CALVERT
- Songs include:
Oh Mein Papa (1953)
Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White (1955)
Stranger in Paradise (1955)
John and Julie (1955)
Zambesi (1956)
Mandy (1958)
etc.
- The self-proclaimed "man with the golden trumpet", Calvert was a
sort of proto-Herb-Alpert who covered big hits of the day (Perez Prado's
"Cherry Pink...") and made a big smash on BBC and burgeoning television
entertainment markets. In British pop he was something of an anomaly,
since trumpeters were not big in pop music at all.
----
THE CARAVELLES
- Songs include:
You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry (1963)
- Rarely do two singers have the limited success of the Caravelles---even
the Vernons Girls got more press than they did! The Caravelles were a
couple of secretaries who, in the words of British pop-watcher Alan
Clayson, were "swamped in orchestration or their producer's ideas". Their
only hit (in both the UK and the US) brought them eventual resounding 
obscurity.
----
CHAD AND JEREMY
- Songs include:
Yesterday's Gone (1964)
A Summer Song (1964)
Teenage Failure (1965)
Distant Shores (1966)
Rest in Peace (1967)
etc.
- Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde were a duo much in the mold of Peter and
Gordon. Chad actually played guitar but Jeremy was really a would-be actor
singing for want of something better to do. Astonishingly, they had *no*
chart hits in Britain, their native land, but found fame in the US. They
rode the first wave of the British Invasion and are barely remembered today,
though their output included several little-known gems such as "Teenage
Failure", a sort of light satiric view of themes better stated in Eddie
Cochran's "Summertime Blues"; and a real rarity in the "Within You/Without 
You" mode called "Rest In Peace", the duo's attempt to explain the
philosophy of life and death, all in a seven-minute song.
----
DAVE CLARK FIVE
- Songs include:
Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)? (1963)
Glad All Over (1963)
Bits and Pieces (1964)
Can't You See That She's Mine? (1964)
Anyway You Want It (1964)
Catch Us If You can (1965)
Over and Over (1965)
Try Too Hard (1966)
etc.
- Dave Clark was a film extra and drummer from North London who met
up with his musical mates (Mike Smith---not the same as the Decca fellow---
was the lead vocalist). They'd done as their first single a cover of the
Contours' American 1962 hit, but when their second single "Glad All
Over" jolted the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" out of the Number 1
spot, press people went mad and immediately invented the theory that the
"Tottenham Sound" had replaced Merseybeat. It was nonsense. The Dave Clark
Five continued to have respectable chart action for the next several years
(a late American hit, "Try Too Hard", shows particular piano virtuosity)
but in no way---got that?---were they ever serious challengers to the Fabs.
These days Dave Clark has become a pop-music archivist and among other
things has repackaged the British TV show "Ready, Steady, Go!" for
video markets.
----
BERNARD CRIBBINS
- Songs include:
Hole in the Ground (1962)
Right Said Fred (1962)
Gossip Calypso (1962)
- Cribbins had a limited range of success in the music/comedy mode. Like
Max Bygraves, the Goons, and Rolf Harris, his claim to fame comes from
comedic records released in 1962, though he was also a favorite occasional
funnyman on radio and telly with his musical portraits of the typical
British working class fellow.
----
JIM DALE
- Songs include:
The Picadilly Line (1956)
Be My Girl (1957)
Just Born (1958)
Crazy Dream (1958)
Sugartime (1958)
- Jim Smith showed up as Jim Dale on the "6.5 Special" show and,
with an ambition to be a comic, did his parody of Donegan's "Rock
Island Line" and came to the attention of Parlophone. George Martin,
who's done a little producing for at least one other group, was
assigned to Dale and engineered a string of semi-hits, though Dale
himself was much more interested in comedy and theatrical work. That
ambition finally realized when Jim Dale joined the National Theatre
Company; from the sixties to the eighties, Dale has been a regular
performer, including the lead in the seventies play "Scapino" and
the eighties revival of Noel Gay's 1937 cockney musical, "Me and My
Girl."
----
DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK AND TICH
- Songs include:
You Make It Move (1965)
Hold Tight (1966)
Hideaway (1966)
Bend It (1966)
Save Me (1966)
Touch Me Touch Me (1967)
Zabadak! (1967)
Legend of Xanadu (1968)
etc.
- Despite their name, Dave Dee and the Bostons had been around since
1958 with various band members. Dave Dee, in his off hours, was a
police cadet and on duty the night of the tragic Eddie Cochran/Gene
Vincent car crash in 1960; he was responsible for making sure Cochran's
equipment got back to the US after the event. But after a season at
the Hamburg Top Ten Club, the boys were better able to tackle the pop
world. Their songs had smirky titles but exhibited some experimentation
(such as unusual instrumentation or tempo changes: one song included
"an empty beer bottle zoomed down a fretboard while two bits of plywood
were smacked together", according to Clayson.) Dave Dee never lost the
performing bug and has organized various revivals of his older work.
----
TERRY DENE
- Songs include:
A White Sport Coat (1957)
Start Movin' (1957)
Stairway of Love (1957)
- Terry Williams worked as a record-packer, had a desire to sing at
office parties (his Presely imitations were well received) and was
discovered by producer Jack Good of "6.5 Special". As Terry Dene, he
*almost* had respectable hits, but his cover of Marty Robbins' "White
Sport Coat" was a bigger hit for another British group, and his second
single was overshadowed by a Sal Mineo version. He was cast as a pop
singer in a film called "The Golden Disc" but the "hit song" that was
crafted for Dene wasn't a hit at all. And then, the inevitable: he was
drafted into the British Army. After much publicity (like Elvis'
celebrated military career), Dene reported for duty, only to be let
go after a nervous breakdown. From then on he was in virtual disgrace,
and when last heard of, he was a preacher for the Jehovah's Witnesses.
Alas, such is the occasional cruel fate of pop music.
----
JACKIE DENNIS
- Songs include:
Lah Dee Dah (1958)
Purple People Eater (1958)
- Jackie Dennis was 15 years old when he was discovered and rushed
into fame via the "6.5 Special" show. A true Scot, young Jackie was
always clad in kilt, sporran and velveteen jacket. His one hit achieved
Number 4 in the UK and even some minor interest in the US, but other
than a cover of Sheb Wooley's notorious nonsense, Mr. Dennis was not
heard from again.
----
KARL DENVER TRIO
- Songs include:
Marcheta (1961)
Mexicali Rose (1961)
Wimoweh (1962)
Never Goodbye (1962)
etc.
- Why did this man change his name from Angus MacKenzie? :-) This
Glaswegian gentleman spent some time in the Merchant Navy before
finding a quiet niche at the American Grand Old Opry; immigration
authorities shipped him back to England, where he befriended Jack
Good of "6.5-Special" fame (apparently a good contact to have) and
started his recording career. Denver claimed that his version of
"Wimoweh" was most authentic, as he'd heard it while in South
Africa from Kikuyu tribesmen, but the damndest thing is that
The Weavers and the Kingston Trio had already recorded duplicate
versions of the song before Denver released his, and the American
group The Tokens had already had a hit with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight",
a slightly more commercial record. Oh well...those funny coincidences.
----
LONNIE DONEGAN
- Songs include:
Rock Island Line (1956)
Stewball (1956)
Lost John/Stewball (1956)
Skiffle Session (1956)
Bring a Little Water Sylvie/Dead or Alive (1956 and 1957)
Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O (1957)
Cumberland Gap (1957)
Jack O' Diamonds (1957)
Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight)? (1959)
and many more....
- As pop writer Paul Flattery put it, Anthony Donegan "didn't so much
start the skiffle craze; he *was* the skiffle craze." "Skiffle" brings
blank looks to US record purveyors, but in England, when Chris Barber
and Lonnie Donegan were part of Ken Colyer's "pure" jazz band in 1955, 
there would often be a musical break between standard Dixieland renditions
(Barber, Donegan, and another band member named Alexis Korner---the
father of British rhythm and blues---would predominate here.) "Skiffle"
was a British term of the twenties, describing the replacement of
legitimate jazz instruments by washboards (percussion), tea-chest-and-
broom-handle bass, guitar and kazoo. The musical sources were primarily
American black and folk idioms.

Young Anthony (having taken the name Lonnie from bluesman Lonnie
Johnson) and Colyer were at odds when Donegan's skiffle-session break
became the audience favorite. Donegan left the band and started his
own purely skiffle group and had a string of hits starting in early
1956. Skiffle itself swept the country. Groups like the Vipers and
Chas McDevitt (with singer Nancy Whiskey) also rose to fame; American
black singers and bluesmen were championed by their new fans; skiffle
clubs opened and closed, creating a popular coffee-bar mentality. And
youngsters like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, thrilled to the marrow
by singers like Presley and Chuck Berry, were nevertheless heavily influenced
by skiffle. It was the fact that *anyone* could play, apparently regardless
of musical talent, that brought so many young amateur musicians into the
streets, seeking the spotlight of fame.

Another innovation was the television show "6.5 Special", which presented
the remarkable vision (to Britain, at least) of teenagers *dancing* to music
played in the studio, much of it skiffle. A talent spot was added and
young bands from all over England tried out. Skiffle maintained its lead
in popular music until about 1957; Donegan, probably due to his disarming
talent and charming presence, survived much longer by incorporating English
music-hall styles and reviving native pride in same. He still records today.
----
DONOVAN
- Songs include:
Catch the Wind (1965)
Colours (1965)
Sunshine Superman (1966)
Mellow Yellow (1967)
There Is A Mountain (1967)
Jennifer Juniper (1968)
Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968)
Atlantis (1968)
etc.
- Donovan Leitch had a gentle Scots manner and a profound reverence
for Bob Dylan---so much so that he wore the same style of clothes,
used the same instrumentation and honored the same antecedents, Woody 
Guthrie among them. If you look closely at the Pennebaker film "Don't
Look Back," you can see Dylan mocking poor Donovan mercilessly. But
Donovan's music was respectable and even innovative after about 1966,
achieving top-ten hit status in both the UK and US throughout the
British Invasion and even afterwards. Donovan now lives in the US and
occasionally does a well-received concert.
----
CRAIG DOUGLAS
- Songs include:
A Teenager in Love (1959)
Only Sixteen (1959)
Pretty Blue Eyes (1960)
The Heart of a Teenage Girl (1960)
A Hundred Pounds of Clay (1961)
Time (1961)
When My Little Girl is Smiling (1962)
Our Favorite Melodies (1962)
- Craig Douglas was another "6.5-Special" discovery, and his greatest
moments in British pop came from semi-successful covers of songs
by mostly insipid American artists. He was privileged to star alongside
the inimitable Helen Shapiro (who later toured with the Beatles) in an
early Richard Lester music film, "It's Trad, Dad" (sometimes seen in
the States under the absurd title "Ring-A-Ding Rhythm"), in 1962. Other
than that, his fame is not lasting.
----
ADAM FAITH
- Songs include:
What Do You Want (1959)
Poor Me (1960)
Someone Else's Baby (1960)
When Johnny Comes Marching Home/Made You (1960)
How About That (1960)
Lonely Pup (in a Christmas Shop) (1960)
This is It/Who Am I (1961)
The Time Has Come (1961)
As You Like It (1962)
Don't That Beat All (1962)
The First Time (1963)
etc.
- Adam Faith was Terry Nelhams originally. He was playing in the
Worried Men, a skiffle group, when he began to get notice on the
"6.5 Special" in 1958. "What Do You Want?" was his big hit, complete
with Buddy-Holly hiccup. He was described by rock writers as part
of the Holy Trinity (Adam Faith, Billy Fury and Cliff Richard) and was
the first British pop star to admit to premarital sex. After his
pop career, he was successful in a British TV show in 1972 called 
"Budgie", then played David Essex's sidekick in the follow-up to
"That'll Be The Day" called "Stardust."
----
MARIANNE FAITHFULL
- Songs include: 
As Tears Go By (1964) 
Come and Stay With Me (1965) 
This Little Bird (1965) 
Summer Nights (1965)
Yesterday (1965)
etc.
- More legendary in some quarters as Mick Jagger's girlfriend, Ms.
Faithfull was an alleged shy convent girl who was recorded by
Andrew Oldham, the Stones' producer, while she was just seventeen.
Her somewhat weak, if sweet, voice was buoyed up by lush production,
and she had several legitimate hits to her name. Married in 1965
to John Dunbar, owner of the Indra Art Gallery in London (where
Yoko Ono exhibited her work), Marianne hit it off with Mick (on
the rebound from Chrissie Shrimpton) and began to hang out with
the dark forces of rock music. Her celebrated descent into heroin
addiction was detailed in the song she co-wrote with Jagger,
"Sister Morphine". Her comeback in the eighties was all the more
remarkable for the complete change in her voice, from tremulously
faint to a harsh, embittered croak.
----
GEORGIE FAME AND THE BLUE FLAMES
- Songs include:
Yeh Yeh (1964)
In the Meantime (1965)
Like We Used to Be 91965)
Something (1965)
Get Away (1966)
Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
etc.
- An enterprising Manchester lad, Clive Powell entered music by playing 
at one of the ubiquitous Butlin's Holiday Camps, then made for London
to hone his craft. Upon meeting that master names-smith and manager
extraordinaire, Larry Parnes, Mr. Powell was renamed Georgie Fame;
after a disappointing tryout as a lead man, Parnes put Fame behind
Billy Fury, then playing with the Blue Flames. In 1961 the Tornados
began to back up Billy, and Fame and his Blue Flames were off and
running---not back into the harmless niceties of pop, but into
American blues, ska, and even jazz. Fame attracted a listenership
that was more beatnik than teenage, and his following gradually
evolved into Mods while he made his first chart appearance with
jazz-vocalese great Jon Hendrick's "Yeh Yeh". His association
with ex-Animal Alan Price led to some further musical whimsy in
the mid to late sixties, but for the rest of his career he just
missed being terminally hip.
----
WAYNE FONTANA AND THE MINDBENDERS
- Songs include:
Hello Josephine (1963)
Stop Look & Listen (1964)
Um Um Um Um Um Um (1964)
The Game of Love (1965)
Just a Little Bit Too Late (1965)
She Needs Love (1965)
- Glyn Ellis had fair talent for beat music (i.e. tambourine), following
the interests of the Liverpool/Manchester fans, and basically threw
himself together with a preexisting group, The Mindbenders, after
his own group The Jets became too unreliable for regular touring.
The basic problem from then on was that the newly-renamed Fontana
considered the Mindbenders his own backup group, although they
didn't think so. The two had a few hits separately and concurrently,
though the Mindbenders has the better chart action; Fontana fancied
himself a Cliff Richard sort, but had limited success on the comeback
trail until his eventual quiescence in the early eighties.
----
EMILE FORD AND THE CHECKMATES
- Songs include:
What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For? (1959)
On a Slow Boat to China (1960)
You'll Never Know What You're Missing (1960)
Them There Eyes (1960)
Counting Teardrops (1960)
etc.
- Born in Nassau, the Bahamas, Ford was a British subject and one
of the first British black pop singers. Starting out as a sound
engineer, he won a talent contest in 1959 and made his career
basically covering old, familiar hits of the past. His recording
career diminished early in the sixties but his stage presence
was enough to keep him active on the cabaret and live-convert
circuit after that.
----
THE FORTUNES
- Songs include:
You've Got Your Troubles (1965)
Here It Comes Again (1965)
This Golden Ring (1965)
etc.
- Originally a Birmingham-Welsh vocal trio, the Fortunes got onto
the beat bandwagon with a non-chart hit called "Caroline" that
at least achieved immortality by being adopted as the theme music
of Radio Caroline, the famed off-shore sailing vessel that brought
pop music to Brits through the magic of clandestine radio. Their
chart success brought them to the attention of American radio as
well, but by their third hit they decided to admit that they used
session players on their records, though (this should make you
feel better) played all by themselves in concert. Something about
this revelation sat poorly with their populace, and they fell out of
favor shortly after.
----
THE FOURMOST
- Songs include:
Hello Little Girl (1963)
I'm in Love (1963)
A Little Loving (1964)
How Can I Tell Her (1964)
etc.
- The Fourmost came from Ringo's old neighborhood, a run-down locale in
west Liverpool called the Dingle; the Fourmost also used to welcome
Ronnie Wycherley as a singing partner before he went off to be Billy Fury.
They included Joey Bower, Billy Hatton, Mike Millward, and Dave Redman 
(later replaced by Dave Lovelady, who had played for Ted "King Size"
Taylor.) They soon became one of the Nems artists, incorporating
some questionable comedy into their act as well as music; the
contemporary audiences liked it, anyway. Their first two hits
were Lennon-McCartney numbers, but without that ballast there
was no guaranteed success. The band was virtually defunct after
the late 1960's.
----
FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS
- Songs include:
If You've Got to Make a Fool of Somebody (1963) 
I'm Telling You Now (1963) 
You Were Made For Me (1963) 
I Understand (1964)
Do the Freddie (1965)
etc.
- Freddie Garraty was actually from Manchester, and he and his
group emerged from an inauspicious skiffle background to capture
the humor market in pop music in 1963; their raucous stage antics
made a serious rendition of their songs somewhat problematic. 
Obviously influenced by some of the Beatles' loves (James Ray's
hit "If You've Got to Make a Fool of Somebody" was done on stage
by the Fabs but not recorded), Freddie's group cheerfully mangled
the rest of their output by forgetting such vital things as tuning
their guitars. Their one dance hit is exceeded in silliness perhaps
only by the "Wilbury Twist", but it's a toss-up.
----
BILLY FURY AND THE TORNADOES
- Songs include:
Maybe Tomorrow (1959)
Margot (1959)
Colette (1960)
That's Love (1960)
Wondrous Place (1960)
A Thousand Stars (1961)
Halfway to Paradise (1961)
Jealousy (1961)
I'll Never Find Another You (1961)
Last Night Was Made For Love (1962)
Once Upon a Dream (1962)
etc.
- Ronnie Wycherley was from the Dingle area of Liverpool, like
Richard Starkey, but he managed to find gigs playing in Birkenhead,
the more posh section of town across the Mersey. It was there
that the famed star-maker Larry Parnes saw him and put him on
regular concert tours. Fury's stage movements were somewhat 
reminiscent of the famed Elvis but he had some songwriting
talent (several of his early records were his own compositions).
The success of his compatriots basically forced Fury out of the
limelight; there wasn't much of a calling for his sort of
singer after the Beatles hit it big. He attempted several
comebacks in the early seventies but to no avail.
----
GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS
- Songs include:
How Do You Do It? (1963)
I Like It (1963)
You'll Never Walk Alone (1963)
I'm The One (1964)
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying (1964)
It's Gonna Be Alright (1964)
Ferry Cross the Mersey (1964)
I'll be There (1965)
etc.
- The infectiously-cheerful Gerry Marsden was a part of the skiffle
scene in Liverpool, a clear-cut star in the making, who spent time
with his Pacemakers in the same German clubs as the Beatles, often
sharing the stage or trading off group members for a lark. Another
Dingle lad, Gerard Marsden started out with his brother in the Mars
Bars, then became the Marsden Trio with guitarist Les Chadwick. Bob
Wooler, compere at the Cavern Club, thought they had something going
and began to recommend them for local concerts and nightclub gigs.
Soon Gerry and his pals were appearing with the Beatles, even headlining,
in Liverpool and environs. It seems that Brian Epstein, who took on
Gerry et al. as another sure-fire Mersey group, was not as anxious
to find them a record contract. Gerry persuaded George Martin to
come up to Birkenhead to see them play; and Martin was happy to fob
off his Beatles-reject, "How Do You Do It?", which took Gerry and crowd
to number one right off the bat. And they did a better job of the song
than the Fabs, too! They balanced sentimental hits with Mersified
ones; their "Ferry 'Cross the Mersey" gave lasting identity to this
famed Liverpool landmark. Well into the eighties, Gerry has kept his
hand in singing and hitmaking.
----
THE GOONS
Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers (also Michael Bentine,
who left in 1953)
- Songs include:
I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas/Bluebottle Blues (1956)
Bloodnok's Rock and Roll (1956)
Ying Tong Song (1973)
etc.
- For a Yank, it's hard to understand the appeal of the Goons in
staid post-war Britain of the fifties; they're as near as one
comes to national absurdist humor, with a touch of the surreal
thrown in. But their nonsense rhymes and funny voices, impersonations
and wildly funny skits kept the country in hysterics (the kind you
get from laughter) for much of the decade. They did a few short films
and released a few records, but much of their influence was felt over
their popular radio shows. John Lennon, for one, claims that much of
his approach to humor (especially in his two books) came from the
Goons. And the Boys were terribly impressed when told that the A&R
man who would be handling their production at EMI was George Martin,
recording manager for the individual Goons among other comedy acts.
----
RUSS HAMILTON
- Songs include:
We Will Make Love (1957)
Wedding Ring (1957)
Rainbow (1957)
- Liverpool was responsible for far more singers than just the
Fabs and their ilk. Russ Hamilton grew up there as Ronnie Hulme
and in 1957 had a fairly big hit with "We Will Make Love", which
is reported to have been such a big hit that the BBC decided he
couldn't have meant anything suggestive by it (lovely logic!).
Perhaps America is more puritanical; here he had a hit with
"Rainbow", and Hamilton became only the sixth British performer
to earn an American gold disc. After his next record, Hamilton
apparently dropped from musical sight.
----
JET HARRIS (solo) 
- Songs include:
Besame Mucho (1962)
Main Title Theme from "Man with the Golden Arm" (1962)
- Jet Harris, originally part of Cliff Richards' backing group
The Shadows. After Cliff's huge success in the early sixties,
the Shadows struck out on their own, and shortly after a few
chart hits (such as "Apache", a bigger hit in the States by
Jorgen Imgemar) and before he joined former Vipers-mate Tony Meehan 
for a few hits (such as "Diamonds"), Harris followed the lead of
Duane Eddy and released an instrumental version of "Besame Mucho"
(probably not what influenced Paul, who was doing the song in the
Beatles' Hamurg gigs). Harris suffered serious injuries in a car
crash in 1963, and seems to have lost his nerve for performing. He
tried a comeback in 1967, produced by pal Tony Meehan (now an
authentic record producer), but lapsed into oblivion.
----
JET HARRIS AND TONY MEEHAN
- Songs include:
Diamonds (1963)
Scarlett O'Hara (1963)
Applejack (1963)
- Both Harris and Meehan had belonged to the Vipers, an important
skiffle group of the mid-fifties; Meehan was also in The Vagabonds,
the backing group for Larry Parnes' pretty-boy Vince Eager, and
Harris had been in Tony Crombie's Rockets. The two became part
of the Shadows when the group was both backing Richard and acting
as opening act for him. Meehan left the group in 1961, to become
an arranger and producer for Decca. Harris hung on a bit longer,
tried a few instrumentals, and then teamed up with Meehan. Due to
their pervasive moody personae, they developed an enthusiastic
following and "Diamonds" was a huge hit for them in January 1963...
the last of the Old Wave of British pop hits before something called
the Mersey Sound hit big just after the first of the year. Meehan
and Harris had two more top ten hits before Harris' car crash in
September 1963.
----
HEDGEHOPPERS ANONYMOUS
- Song (only one!):
It's Good News Week (1965)
-Some of us in the States remember this as a good-natured protest
song, with an infectiously cheery Gerry-Marsden-like vocal warbling 
about "Someone's dropping bombs somewhere/Contaminating atmosphere/And
blackening the sky...". But Hedgehoppers Anonymous were really five
boys on active duty in the Royal Air Force, masterminded by mid-sixties
pop mini-mogul Jonathan King (who sang "Everyone's Gone to the Moon").
The lads, originally The Trendsetters, were spotted by King at the
Bedford R.A.F. and reformed as the Hedgehoppers (an obscure air
force slang), with King's amendment to their name in the form of
"Anonymous." At one point, in fact, it was assumed that they were
just Jonathan King in funny suits. King wrote this one hit, and it
enjoyed a few weeks on the charts before the group collapsed into
obscurity.
----
HERMAN'S HERMITS
- Songs include:
I'm Into Something Good (1964)
Show Me Girl (1964)
Silhouettes (1965)
Wonderful World (1965)
Just a Little Bit Better (1965)
A Must to Avoid (1965)
This Door Swings Both Ways (1966)
No Milk Today (1966)
There's a Kind of Hush (1966)
etc.
- Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone was a Manchester lad much taken
by Liverpool beat groups such as the Beatles, whenever he wasn't
engaged in his primary career in the late fifties, that of a child
character in Granada TV's famous "Coronation Street" prime-time
soap. He managed to involve himself a tad in music, fronting for
his backup group as Peter Novack, his TV stage name. They became
much the rage of the Lancashire area, eventually being discovered
by producer Mickie Most, who renamed Peter "Herman" after the "Sherman"
character in the Jay Ward then-popular cartoon series. Peter Novack and
the Heartbeats had been much enamoured of groups like the Everlys, Buddy
Holly and Merseybeat faves, so stepping into this mould wasn't at all
a problem. With his band renamed the Hermits, Herman and his group were
carefully tailored by Most for triumph in the American market...which 
is where most of it happened. Some of his hits here catered to an 
inauthentic cockney persona ("Mrs. Brown", "Henry VIIIth") and some 
took advantage of the latest trends ("No Milk Today" was written by
Hollies genius Graham Nash). Peter Noone outlived it all, managing to
circumvent certain pop-star death by reinventing himself in cabarets
and on the acting circuit in the '70s and '80s.
----
MICHAEL HOLLIDAY
- Songs include:
Yellow Rose of Texas (1955)
Starry-eyed (1950's)
Story of My Life (1950's)
- A merchant seaman, born in Dublin but raised in Liverpool,
Holliday won a talent contest and began his climb up the fickle
ladder of success. He had his own television series, featuring
his singing and guitar playing, in the fifties, and was described
as sounding rather like his idol Bing Crosby, but in 1963 killed
himself, perhaps out of despair over the changing scene of
British music.
----
THE HOLLIES
- Songs include:
Ain't That Just Like Me (1963)
Searchin' (1964?)
Stay (196???)
Just One Look (1964)
I'm Alive (1965)
I Can't Let Go (1966)
Look Through Any Window (1966)
Bus Stop (1966)
Stop Stop Stop (1966)
Carrie Anne (196???)
He Ain't Heavy (He's My Brother) 1969)
Air That I Breathe (1970)
Long Cool Woman (1972)
etc.
- Allan Clarke and Graham Nash were boyhood buddies who ended
up in a plethora of small groups around Manchester, so impressed
were they by the Everly Brothers; a booking in December 1962 led
to their renaming as The Hollies. There are rumors that neither
Nash nor Clarke were accomplished musicians---so? Neither were
Hedgehoppers Anonymous---but Hicks and two other members, bassist
Eric Haydock and drummer Donald Rathbone, made up for it. It was
Hicks' idea to experiment with banjo and similar exotic strings 'n'
sounds; but the real vituosity was in the three-part harmonies
of Clarke, Hicks and Nash. Nash, of course, left the Hollies after
1968 for CS&N (later CSN&Y) and was replaced by  Terry Sylvester 
of the Escorts. Their hits after 1969 were all done without Nash's
songwriting talent.
----
THE HONEYCOMBS
- Songs include:
Have I the Right (1964)
Is It Because (1964)
Something Better Beginning (1965)
That's the Way (1965)
- Why is it that Britain had so many passable rock 'n' roll stars
with a mania for hairdressing? First Ringo, then the Honeycombs. At
least this group had an interesting gimmick: a female drummer named
Honey Lantree who worked in a hairdressing salon owned by Martin Murray,
the group's drummer. Ms. Lantree's brother was bass player; nice and
cozy. The group had one major hit ("Have I The Right?") and a few
halfhearted followups. 
----
FRANK IFIELD
- Songs include:
Lucky Devil (1960)
Gotta Get a Date (1960)
I Remember You (1962)
Lovesick Blues (1962)
Wayward Wind (1963)
Nobody's Darlin' But Mine (1963)
Confessin' (1963)
Don't Blame Me (1964)
etc.
- Ifield was English by birth but grew up in Australia, began a modest
singing career there, and decided to try the home country for the
really big one...if it existed. In between delivering milk, he
managed a few chart entries but made his name with a cover of an
old, soppy standard, "I Remember You". He dressed it up with some
distinctive yodelling and plaintive harmonica---a sound that was
so pervasive that at one time (irrespective of the Bruce Chanel
influence) John Lennon said he was moved to try harmonica on many
of their early hits. The Beatles, in fact, pushed him off the charts
in 1963, and thereafter he hit those heights only occasionally.
----
THE IVY LEAGUE
- Songs include:
Funny How Love Can Be (1965)
That's Why I'm Cryin' (1965)
Tossing and Turning (1965)
Willow Tree (1966)
- John Carter and Ken Lewis had a group called the Carter-Lewis
Duo (inventively) that had a minor hit in 1963, but teaming up
with Perry Ford, the Ivy League made waves with the lilting, harmonic
"Funny How Love Can Be", which was covered much more raucously
(if interestingly) by Danny Hutton (of "Roses and Rainbows" fame,
later of Three Dog Night.) Carter and Lewis eventually couldn't
stand each other, and were replaced by another duo which, with
the unfortunate Mr. Ford caught in the middle of it all, became
The Flowerpot Men in 1967. 
----
TOM JONES
-Songs include:
It's Not Unusual (1965)
What's New, Pussycat? (1965)
Thunderball (1966)
Green, Green Grass of Home (1966)
Detroit City (1967)
etc.
- Jones was a lad from Glamorgan in Wales who wanted to be a pop
star rather than a vacuum-cleaner salesman...a noble ambition.
He had several strong hits in 1965, then moved more into the
realm of ballads and cabarets, eventually catering to a group
of middle-to-old aged fans...much the same as he does today.
----
End Britpop Part I; continued....