New entry at #39
Long before he considered jumping ship from Caroline South to join the Big L DJs, Tony Blackburn appeared in the Fab Forty as a Fontana recording artist.

Fab at the Top
In the history of the Fab Forty, few acts succeeded in going straight from climber to #1, but the Beatles have done just that, leapfrogging 39 other singles to grab the top slot.

Kenny & Cash's (strictly unofficial) Album of the Week

Early in 2023, a new recording emerged of part of Kenny Everett's Big L Show from April 16th 1965. Richard Rickard had recorded it (as well as a lot of other offshore radio material) on a reel-to-reel tape machine while a student in Essex during the Sixties.

Listening to this time-capsule, we discover that Kenny and Cash had selected their own Album of the Week, Roger and Out, the first LP release by Roger Miller. The track that Kenny picked for his show was I Ain't Comin' Home Tonight. Kenny revealed that the Dynamic Duo was running a Kinky Competition with the prize of dinner with them. We would love to hear from the winner! Although it had not officially been chosen as a double-sided hit, Kenny included Yes it Is, the B-side of Ticket to Ride, which this week had jumped straight in at #1.

(With thanks to The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame)

The production on I Want That Boy can safely be described as 'Spectoresque'. The Chantelles were lead singer Iris (Riss) Long, (aka Riss Lana, aka Riss Chantelle), Jay Adams and Sandra Orr. The vocal group had evolved from the Lana Sisters, a trio that had released seven singles between 1958 and 1960, and had included Dusty, prior to her Springfields days.

During the Beatles' one-week stint at the Gaumont Cinema, Bournemouth, 19th-24th August 1963, the trio was billed as The Lanas. They were one of the unfortunate acts obliged to perform in the second half of the concert, during the hysterical build-up to the Fabs. With their 50s-style sequinned frocks, publicity posters proclaimed them 'The Glamorous Lanas'. Although the Beatle show's programme publicity photograph shows Dusty in the line-up, she had already left the Lanas by this time.

In 1965, the Chantelles were heavily promoted as the Big L girl group and this was their first release. No doubt the reason behind the selection of I Want That Boy as Disc of the Week is twofold. First, the B-side is the PAMS of Dallas Big L song, London, My Hometown and second, that song had been assigned (for the purposes of copyright outside North America) to Radio London's publishing company, Pall Mall Music. The Chantelles also appeared twice in the feature film centred around Radio London, Dateline Diamonds (released on DVD and VHS in 2003), singing I Think of You and Please Don't Kiss Me. Part of Dateline Diamonds was filmed aboard the Galaxy in the autumn of 1965, but the 'Radio London studio' in which the Chantelles suddenly appear and start singing, is a Pinewood Studios mock-up, bearing no resemblance to the tiny studio aboard the ship.

(Click on the photo to buy the Dateline Diamonds DVD. Both I Think of You and Please Don't Kiss Me are available with other Chantelles recordings on the Go Girl compilation CD.)

Our Dateline Diamonds feature, with full cast list, photos taken during the filming and cinema foyer promotional photos, is here. Below, right, the Chantelles from the film, in the 'mock-up' Radio London studio, with Programme Director Ben Toney watching from the 'control room'.

Dateline Diamonds is included in an 8-film collection called 50's And 60's Films With A Beat. Other titles are Be My Guest, Live it Up, Every Day's a Holiday, The Primitives, The Golden Disc, Band of Thieves and Tell me Another.

The Chantelles in the mock-up studio at Pinewood

My Hometown, written by PAMS jingle company's legendary composer Euel Box, had been commissioned as part of the Radio London jingles package. Hundreds of versions of what was in reality an extended station jingle, were recorded by PAMS for North American radio stations – and some of those 'home towns' must have proved lyrically challenging. The song frequently achieved popularity with local station audiences who would regard it as unique to their own city. Stations often released a single of their lyrically-localised version of the My Hometown song and many become regional hits. Audiences were unaware that the song was part of a jingle package and that numerous 'home towns' throughout the USA and Canada had ther own, customised versions. However, in the UK, London, My Hometown was unique. The 98 CKGM Super 70s Tribute Page, run by Marc Denis, contains a good example in Montréal, My Home Town, (credited to 'The CKGM Singers'). There was even a follow-up, Have a Ball in Montréal!

The same situation with My Hometown exists with 'Big Lil' - often regarded by Big L fans as Radio London's own exclusive theme tune. 'Big Lil' is, in fact, a PAMS music bed played on the electric organ, entitled The Sonowaltz. It was part of the 'Sonosational' Series 18, which, like My Hometown was written by Euel Box. The music was then customised by PAMS adding 'wonderful Big L' and 'wonderful Radio London' using a Sonovox-effect voice. (The late Chris Elliot, who had used the Sonovox device to record numerous jingles, explained that it was possible to obtain a vaguely similar effect by taking an electric shaver and pressing it into the vocal chords.) The truth is that PAMS has superimposed many a North American radio station name in a Sonovox voice over that particular music bed, to comprise part of the station's customised jingle package.

On the Galaxy, the Sonowaltz was frequently used as a lead-in to the bottom-of-the-hour news bulletin. DJs began to joke that 'Big Lil' was 'on her way' or 'sitting at the organ' ready to play the station theme music and the tune took on its own persona.

I think it's very likely that Sister Salvation was the inspiration for the Sonowaltz.

It's not big news that Euel Box, the main writer of Series 18, borrowed styles that were popular in 1961 when the series was written. One of the cuts is even named "Prado" after Perez Prado who provided the inspiration for that cut.

Other cuts in the series were based on Henry Mancini riffs and other well-known composers of the time. There's a definite "Mr. Lucky" sound to one if you listen closely.

Most people are not aware of this, but it went on with almost every series. In the mid 60s the bossa nova cut from Series 29 was a direct rip-off of a Ray Charles song!

In the late 60s Spanky and Our Gang, Sergio Mendez and others influenced the writers. In the early 70s it was the Carpenters, Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago.

It always surprises people who hear these jingles for the first time, because they are more familiar with the songs than the jingles. To us jingle collectors, we are so used to the jingles that we almost forgot that most of them were "borrowed" from popular artists.

I read with interest your piece on the origins of Euel Box's Sonowaltz (Pams series 18).

The origins of particular Pams cuts are the subject of much interest in the jingle fraternity. I agree that Sister Salvation sounds very similar in many ways and could indeed have been an inspiration to Mr Box (inspiration is a kinder word than rip-off!) however I think (along with others) that Blue Brass Groove from the band of Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley is more likely the source.

It's a composition from his brother Nat and can be found on Youtube.