Last
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This
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Presented
by Ed Stewart
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Week
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Week
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2
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1
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I Couldn't Live Without Your Love | Petula Clark |
3
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2
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Out Of Time | Chris Farlowe |
4
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3
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Black Is Black | Los Bravos |
12
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4
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Goin' Back | Dusty Springfield |
9 |
5 |
You Gave Me Somebody To Love | Manfred Mann |
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5
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You Gave Me Somebody To Love | Fortunes |
11
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6
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A House In The Country | Pretty Things |
13
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7
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Love Letters | Elvis Presley |
22
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8
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(Baby) You Don't Have To Tell Me | Walker Brothers |
1
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9
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Get Away | Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames |
32
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10
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With A Girl Like You | Troggs |
19
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11
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Oops | Neil Christian |
10
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12
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This Door Swings Both Ways | Herman's Hermits |
5
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13
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The More I See You | Chris Montez |
20
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14
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Midnight Mary | Rockin' Berries |
28
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15
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Mama | Dave Berry |
24
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16
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I Love How You Love Me | Paul & Barry Ryan |
36
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17
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Hi-Lili Hi-Lo | Alan Price Set |
34
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18
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No 1 In Your Heart | Herbie Goins & the Night-Timers |
35
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19
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Counting | Marianne Faithfull |
29
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20
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Lil' Red Riding Hood | Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs |
27
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21
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Something's Going On In There Behind My Back | Dick Jordan |
29
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22
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Summer In The City | Lovin' Spoonful |
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23
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Visions | Cliff Richard |
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24
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Hanky Panky | Tommy James & the Shondells |
7
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25
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Bus Stop | Hollies |
17
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26
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Nothing In The World | Geneveve |
38
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27
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Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever | Four Tops |
37
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28
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Don't Come Running To Me | Madeline Bell |
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29
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When The Sun Comes Out | Force West |
15
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30
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No One Will Ever Know | Frank Ifield |
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31
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Barefootin' | Robert Parker |
40
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32
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How Long Is Time | Odyssey |
18
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32
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Lovers Of The World Unite | David & Jonathan |
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33
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Hi Hi Hazel | Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band |
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34
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It's So Hard | Honeycombs |
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35
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Green Light | Tony Blackburn |
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36
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The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon | She Trinity |
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37
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It's An Uphill Climb To The Bottom | Sharon Tandy |
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38
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I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water | Johnny Rivers |
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39
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Little Girl | Syndicate Of Sound |
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40
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High On Love | Knickerbockers |
Marianne Faithfull's single Counting, written by Bob Lind, was not well received by the music press. "Marianne's delivery is none too clear" declared NME, while in the Melody Maker, singer David Garrick went one step further, saying he couldn't understand a word she was singing. Record Mirror thought there was "something rather odd" about the record, although the DAME reviewer thought Marianne handled the song in "quite a sophisticated way". Although all the credit on the Pall Mall B-side I'd Like To Dial Your Number goes to Marianne, both words and music were actually written by her longtime friend Anthony Howell, who was naturally somewhat peeved to have been omitted. However, Marianne explained that Decca would have been unlikely to have allowed her to record a song that she hadn't written and would have insisted on her recording a standard to which they already owned the rights instead. (Thanks to Brian Long for additional information) |
South African soul singer Sharon Tandy (B Sharon Finkelstein)'s recording of It's An Uphill Climb To The Bottom was scheduled for release on the Polydor label, but withdrawn for unknown reasons. There were a few test pressings, however, and one of them made its way out to the Galaxy. Rather bizarrely, the record company allowed the single to spend three weeks in the bottom five of the Fab Forty before deciding to withdraw it. After this decision, the test pressing is quite likely to have been thrown overboard to join other rejected releases in a watery vinyl graveyard. It certainly was an 'uphill climb' to unearth any information about this Fab Forty entry and initially, it proved almost impossible to verify that the recording ever existed. The single's withdrawal by Polydor ensured that it was excluded from the weekly UK release sheets of the era, issued by Francis Antony. An invaluable source for tracking down obscure tracks from the Big L playlist, Francis Antony listed no Sharon Tandy single releases between February 1966 and February 1967. Nor was It's An Uphill Climb... listed in the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide, which often includes withdrawn singles because their rarity status commands high prices. With two major research resources drawing a blank and no information to be found on the internet, it was difficult to know where to look next. Our friends at Oldies Project who were naturally hopeful of including the track in their Fab Forty programmes, asked the webmaster of a South African site dedicated to Sharon, for information about the mysterious recording, but he had no knowledge of it. It is rumoured that the singer herself did not even recall recording the song. Finally however, Brian Long, the author of The London Sound, managed to find the recording referenced in a discography published in Record Collector magazine issue #296, dated April 2004 (clip above, left). The 'B' side is catalogued as Don't Be Proud. No suggested valuation was given in the feature and the single has not subsequently been added to the Sharon Tandy entry in the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide. It's An Uphill Climb... was penned by Fangette Willett who had a contract with New York publisher Metric Music. Walter Jackson's version of the song had entered the US Hot Hundred on June 4th, 1966, where it peaked at #88. Seeing as it was issued in the UK on July 1st and we so frequently see two recordings of the same song climbing the Fab Forty in tandem, this begs the question why the Sharon Tandy version was chosen for the Big L playlist over Jackson's US chart entry. Having proved that the Sharon Tandy single existed, it was another matter to track down a copy. The Oldies Project team had been searching for some time for this elusive recording, which was one of very few that were missing from their collection encompassing the entire Radio London playlist. It took several years of searching, but in April 2010, Kees Brinkerink the producer of Oldies Project's This Week in..., spotted a copy of It's An Uphill Climb... on eBay and managed to place the winning bid. Kees said, "I was astonished to see it offered. The condition of this test pressing is far from mint but it will certainly be usable in any future Oldies Project Fab Forty broadcast. I paid quite a lot for it, but I just had to have it." Sharon Tandy died in March 2015, aged 71. |
On July 20th, poor Keith Skues was rushed ashore and taken to Ipswich and East Suffolk Hospital. He was in great pain, caused by suspected appendicitis. Unfortunately, due to complications, he had to endure a six-week wait before he could have his cardboard appendix removed.
DJ Climbers: | ||
The Moment Of Truth | Three Good Reasons | Tony Blackburn |
More Than Love | Ken Dodd | Chris Denning |
Pack Up Your Sorrows | Joan Baez | Dave Dennis |
Poor Dog (Who Can't Wag His Own Tail) | Little Richard | Kenny Everett |
If You Were Mine, Mary | Eddy Arnold | Bill Hearne |
La Bamba | Trini Lopez | Duncan Johnson |
Warm And Tender Love | Percy Sledge | Paul Kaye |
Just A Little Bit Of You | Dallas Frazier | Mike Lennox |
I Saw Her Again | Mamas & Papas | Mark Roman |
See Me Cry | Bobby Shafto | Keith Skues |
I Want You | Bob Dylan | Ed Stewart |
Give Me Your Word | Billy Fury | Norman St John |
God Only Knows | Beach Boys | Tony Windsor |
Just A Little Bit Of You | Dallas Frazier | Capitol CL 15457 |
Dallas Frazier may not have been a
name familiar to Big L listeners, but he was and is a very successful songwriter.
Dallas either wrote, or co-wrote with producer Kim
Fowley (information on this varies) the novelty song Alley
Oop. Issued for contractual reasons under the name of The
Hollywood Argyles, the single was a huge hit on both sides of
the pond, becoming a US #1 and a UK #24 in July 1960. The song was covered
by many groups, including the Beach Boys, Brian
Poole And The Tremeloes and the Bonzo
Dog Doo-Dah Band.
In 1965, Charlie Rich scored a Hot Hundred
smash with another of Dallas's songs, Mohair Sam,
and later both Engelbert Humperdink
(1967) and Elvis Presley (1971) reaped
the massive benefits of recording There Goes My Everything.
Dallas always found greater success as a songwriter than as a singer. According
to Brian Long's book The London
Sound, Dallas Frazier's first UK release, Elvira, a minor US
chart entry (#72), had been a climber in the Fab for May 29th 1966. As Alan
Field did not note having heard the disc as a climber that week,
it is quite possible it had been scheduled to be one, but for some
reason the single never made it out to the Galaxy. Such anomalies
between Fab listings typed in Curzon Street and what actually made it to
air, were quite common. (See Brian's notes
on the subject.) Whether or not the disc was actually played on Radio
London, Elvira, like Just A Little Bit Of You, also failed
to migrate from the climbers to the chart. Fifteen years later, however,
Elvira was riding high in the Hot Hundred, winning the
Oak Ridge Boys a gold disc.
Hugely-respected in the world of country music, with his songs being recorded
by the likes of Willie Nelson, Brenda Lee, Charley
Pride and Merle Haggard,
Dallas has been honoured with an entry in the Nashville
Songwriters' Hall of Fame www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com.
In 1988, he retired from songwriting to pursue a religious calling.
A Hollywood Argyles album containing
Alley Oop (Lute 101) is now so collectable that prices as high as
$1,750 have been asked for it on the
Net! The album cover shot of the band is extremely surreal, with photographs
of the heads of most of the members apparently having been pasted on to
the bodies of a bunch of completely different men, dressed in shiny gold
suits! Possibly, this very strange move was necessitated by the contractual
problems with record companies.
At that sort of asking price, (higher than much of the Beatles'
collectable material) you can't help wondering if the vendor is ever going
to be able to grin from ear-to-ear as he counts a huge pile of dollar bills,
and thinks, "Look at that cave man go".
Climbers: | |
Half A Picture | Daemon Dee |
Sh-Boom Sh-Boom | Diane Ferraz & Nicky Scott |
I Feel Something In The Air | Cher |
Adam's Apple | Peddlers |
Doctor Love | Bobby Sheen |
Tell Her I'm Not Home | Ike & Tina Turner |
Not A One Girl Guy | Barry Benson |
Joint Disc of the Week: | |
Just Like A Woman | Jonathan King |
Just Like A Woman | Manfred Mann |
Album of the Week (courtesy of Brian Long): | |
Yardbirds | Yardbirds |
The information coloured PURPLE was kindly provided by Roy Taylor.
The red addition to the climbers indicates a single listed in Brian Long's book 'The London Sound' based on information typed in the Curzon Street offices or other sources.
Alan Field did not hear it played or announced as a climber.
The Caroline 'Countdown Sixty' chart (south ship) for this week is here
This week's Radio City 'City Sixty' on the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame is here
Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty!