Sunday 29th August 1965

Straight in at #23. The Hollies – going through their 'peeping tom' phase! Dylan continues to dominate the playlists, with six recordings of his songs in this week's Fab Forty. Yet another Dylan composition will be appearing in two weeks' time, as sung by Manfred Mann.

Last	This	Presented by Duncan Johnson
Week	Week
12	1	(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction	Rolling Stones
1	2	I Got You Babe	Sonny & Cher
2	3	All I Really Want To Do	Byrds / Cher
8	4	Make It Easy On Yourself	Walker Brothers
–	5	Like A Rolling Stone	Bob Dylan
13	6	What's New Pussycat?	Tom Jones
3	7	Zorba's Dance	Marcello Minerbi
10	8	Don't Make My Baby Blue	Shadows
39	9	Whatcha Gonna Do About It?	Small Faces
20	10	Just A Little Bit Better	Herman's Hermits
16	11	Laugh At Me	Sonny
7	12	Help! / I'm Down	Beatles
19	13	Il Silenzio	Nini Rosso
32	14	Take A Heart	Sorrows
27	15	Universal Soldier (EP)	Donovan
26	16	Hark	Unit 4 + 2
21	17	You're My Girl	Rockin' Berries
37	18	The Time In Between	Cliff Richard & the Shadows
5	19	Everyone's Gone To The Moon	Jonathan King
17	20	Ju Ju Hand	Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
28	21	I Have Cried My Last Tear	Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers
11	22	Catch Us If You Can	Dave Clark Five
–	23	Look Through Any Window	Hollies
6	24	Unchained Melody	Righteous Brothers
9	25	We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place	Animals
–	26	(It Won't Hurt) Half As Much	Them
30	27	Hurt Me If You Will	Mark Four
–	28	Baby Don't Go	Sonny & Cher
4	29	See My Friend	Kinks
–	30	Try To Understand	Lulu
33	31	Hang On Sloopy	McCoys
–	32	Eve Of Destruction	Barry McGuire
29	33	That's The Way I Must Go	Headliners
31	34	I'll Never Get Over You	Everly Brothers
–	35	Ride Away	Roy Orbison
23	36	You've Got Your Troubles	Fortunes
–	37	It's All Over Now Baby Blue	Leroy Van Dyke
36	37	It's All Over Now Baby Blue	Joan Baez
–	38	Everything's Wrong	Chubby Checker
–	39	Save Your Heart For Me	Gary Lewis & the Playboys
–	40	She Belongs To Me	Masterminds

According to Brian Long in his book The London Sound, both sides of the Beatles' single were now being played on Big L due to the saturation play that Help! was getting on radio and tv. As the record slips to #12 this week, Radio London starts to list the B-side I'm Down alongside Help! in the Fab Forty.

Something else that Brian points out is the amusing play on words that provided the stage name for the artist who enters the Fab 40 at #38 this week. Ernest Evans was said to resemble a young Fats Domino, so it seemed only natural he should be renamed Chubby Checker!

Additional notes from Mary Payne:

A recording of the Kenny and Cash Show broadcast on Thursday, Sept 2nd does indeed include an airing of I'm Down, plus a brief interview with Chubby Checker, taped the previous Saturday during the Radio London Club afternoon at the Marquee Club. Chubby must have been in the UK promoting his new single Everything's Wrong, new in this week's Fab Forty at #38. He was clearly attempting to shake off his outdated 'twist' image.

Kenny and Dave had the Marquee crowd yelling, "We want knees! We want knees!". At first we wondered if this had been an attempt on their part to get Decca to release their Knees single and to have it accepted onto the Big L playlist, but then we established that they had not actually recorded the song when the recording was made at the Radio London Club afternoon. Radio London DJs wrote the Big L Column for 'Disc' on a rota basis. On 30th October 1965, shortly after the demise of the Kenny and Cash Show, the Dynamic Duo wrote that they had just recorded 'Knees'. Perhaps they had incited the Marquee crowd to yell for a display of patellae? (Possibly Chubby Checker's.)

So far, no recorded evidence has emerged of either side of the Kenny and Cash record having received airplay on Radio London. This was despite the single's B-side – called The B-Side (what else?) – being a product of the Radlon-linked publishing company, Pall Mall Music. A strange decision by Decca saw the 'B' side moved to the 'A' side (which, as the song's creator, David Cumming pointed out, made no sense whatsoever). Fate conspired against Kenny and Cash enjoying a hit single - although from what David reports about the recording session, Kenny would not have enjoyed it at all! Climber lists from this period are far from complete and recordings from 1965 are thin on the ground, but the possibility of the single having featured as a climber cannot be ruled out entirely. However, there are several reasons why Knees might have failed to make the Radio London playlist. By the time it was released (or 'escaped') in November, Programme Director Ben Toney probably considered that the only point in Big L promoting a novelty single might have been as a possible revenue for Pall Mall. (Thanks to the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame).

DJ Climbers:
Whenever You're Ready	Zombies	Kenny Everett
Roundabout	Connie Francis	Earl Richmond

Climber:
Run To My Lovin' Arms	Billy Fury
Disc of the Week:
Some Of Your Lovin'	Dusty Springfield

Tune in next week for another Big L Fab 40!