for Sunday 25th September 1966
The Stones – straight in at #21 (but rather strangely, being obliged to share the slot with Chris Montez) – commenced their Rolling Stones 66 tour at The Royal Albert Hall on Sept 23rd. They were supported by Ike and Tina Turner, who have this week's Big L Album of the Week, and The Yardbirds.
Guantanamera has risen to #9, but Digno Garcia's version, which appeared from nowhere to share last week's #18 with the Sandpipers, has vanished.

– 35 Dommage Dommage Engelbert Humperdinck Decca F 12496 Dommage Dommage (Too Bad, Too Bad) was the first release by unknown singer Engelbert Humperdinck who as Gerry Dorsey, had previously failed to spark much interest at Decca. His manager Gordon Mills suggested the name change and the performance of the song by the newly-christened Engelbert, won him the 1966 Knokke - Heist song contest in Belgium. Other UK competitors that year were Truly Smith, Chloe Walters, Eden Kane and Jimmy Wilson. Gigliola Cinquetti released a French-language version of Dommage Dommage. Englebert's competition-winning rendition did not secure him a US release, but over there, three other versions of Dommage Dommage – released simultaneously – vied for sales. The song's composer, Paul Vance, just about fought off the competition from Jerry Vale and Steve Rossi. Vance and Vale both charted, but only in the lower reaches of the Hot Hundred. However, Vance must have fared well in royalty cheques.

Strictly Come Bending
There's an amusing story on the fascinating site So Many Records, So Little Time, concerning Bend It.

Howard Blaikley's lyrics were deemed too sexually explicit for tender American ears, so the record label US Fontana made a desperate attempt to convince listeners that the song concerned nothing more than a new dance craze called 'The Bend'. Somehow, they'd got away with this ruse in the UK, by employing Ready Steady Go's resident twinkletoes, Patrick Kerr, to devise a dance specifically to fit the record.

Yes, OK, a cinema promotion shot by Pathé News shows Patrick demonstrating 'The Bend' with a troupe of trendy dolly birds and a Playboy bunny thrown in for good measure, but Dave Dee still has a look on his face that tells you he's singing about something else altogether. Even in his later years, Dave (right) had a knack for it.

With amended lyrics and Dave's rerecorded vocals, the single was pronounced suitable for issue on the 'delicate' side of the Pond and came complete with a six-step instruction leaflet on how to go about 'bending' on the dance floor.

So Many Records, So Little Time webmaster Kevin says:

"Luckily, this was a hit in the northeast {of America}, including my hometown Syracuse, where it went #1 on the WOLF chart. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy from that particular week’s survey, but do have one from two weeks prior."

Left, the band (known as 'The Dozies' for short) on stage

About halfway down the page, there's an MP3 of the all-new-squeaky-clean version of the song (I wonder how many people were fooled?) plus instructions by Patrick Kerr, for those who want to 'bed - er, sorry BEND-alonga-Dave' and a copy of the WOLF All-American Survey dated December 10th 1966, where DDDBM & T are at #12, on their way up.

After we speculated about how the record company would have coped with promoting the Dozies' 1967 release Touch Me, Touch Me, Kevin wrote another page on the subject to explain. He suspects that a major factor in the band's lack of American promotion is that US DJs couldn't be bothered to learn the long name.

Those with good memories will recall that WOLF 1490 in Syracuse, New York is the station where Howie Castle, aka Bud Ballou worked after the closure of Radio Caroline.

Our WOLF 1490 feature and tribute to Howie by 'Brother Vic' is here. Bob Mitchell's WOLF tribute site to the station is here.

Somewhere My Love, the vocal version of Lara's Theme from the film Dr Zhivago, did unusually badly in the Fab, compared to the Nationals, where it reached #22 in the autumn of '66 re-entering in the summer of '67, this time to make #14.

The Mike Samme Singers were back in the charts incognito in March '67. They were the genuine recording artistes on I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman, (see Fab 26th February) with producer Noel Walker providing the whistling. Billy Moeller, who later made live appearances as Whistling Jack Smith did not participate in the recording.

Besides climbers that were played at the time of the broadcast of the Sunday Fab Forty, Alan kept a note of others he heard later in the week and incorporated them into his list.

Two of this week's DJ climbers, End of the Season and Oh What A Day It's Gonna Be were penned by Ray Davies

Climbers:
Everything I Touch Turns To Tears	Brian Poole
Someone's In The Kitchen With Dinah	Wee Willie Harris
San Francisco Woman	Bob Lind
Join My Gang	Oscar
Bad News Feeling	Vikings
No One Knows	Graham Bonney
Flamingo	Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
I Can't Control Myself	Troggs
Stop Stop Stop	Hollies
Happy New Year	Beverley
Disc of the Week:
A Fool Am I	Cilla Black
Album of the Week:
River Deep Mountain High	Ike & Tina Turner

Aboard the Galaxy:
New DJ Alan West got his first climber, 'It Hurts Me' by Bobby Goldsboro

Ashore:
Sept 24th saw the arrival in the UK of the unknown Jimi Hendrix.

The Caroline 'Countdown Sixty' chart (south ship) for this week is here

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty!