Radio London - Big L Fab Forty 26th September 1965

Sunday 26th September 1965

Up from #15 to #7 for the Four Tops' third Fab Forty entry. Note that the B-side of this continental release is 'Baby I Need Your Loving'. This song had been issued as a UK single in 1964 c/w 'Call On Me' and had appeared in the Fab Forty at the start of the year.

The song is so well-known that most people will be surprised to hear that it never made the UK Nationals.

The UK B-side of 'It's the Same Old Song' was 'Your Love is Amazing'.

Last	This
Week	Week
13	1	If You Gotta Go, Go Now	Manfred Mann
5	2	Tears	Ken Dodd
2	3	Hang On Sloopy	McCoys
6	4	Take A Heart	Sorrows
4	5	Eve Of Destruction	Barry McGuire
20	6	Almost There	Andy Williams
15	7	It's The Same Old Song	Four Tops
3	8	Whatcha Gonna Do About It?	Small Faces
1	9	Look Through Any Window	Hollies
21	10	Run To My Lovin' Arms	Billy Fury
17	11	Baby Don't Go	Sonny & Cher
8	12	California Girls	Beach Boys
19	13	Shake And Fingerpop	Junior Walker & the All Stars
28	14	Papa's Got A Brand New Bag	James Brown & the Famous Flames
9	15	It's All Over Now Baby Blue	Joan Baez
29	16	Message Understood	Sandie Shaw
18	17	Move It On Over	Del Shannon
14	18	Il Silenzio	Nini Rosso
12	19	Like A Rolling Stone	Bob Dylan
22	20	Some Of Your Lovin'	Dusty Springfield
26	21	Action	Freddy Cannon
35	22	Do You Believe In Magic?	Lovin' Spoonful
31	23	That Means A Lot	P J Proby
16	24	You've Got To Hide Your Love Away	Silkie
23	25	She Needs Love	Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders
40	26	Untrue Unfaithful (That Was You)	Nita Rossi
10	27	(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction	Rolling Stones
33	28	In The Midnight Hour	Wilson Pickett
–	29	There's Another One Behind / Shame And Scandal In The Family	Lance Percival
32	30	Agent 00 Soul	Alex Harvey
–	31	Round Every Corner	Petula Clark
11	32	Just A Little Bit Better	Herman's Hermits
39	33	Early Morning Rain	Peter, Paul & Mary
25	34	I Got You Babe	Sonny & Cher
–	35	It's Good News Week	Hedgehoppers Anonymous
30	36	Make It Easy On Yourself	Walker Brothers
7	37	Universal Soldier (EP)	Donovan
–	38	Green Is The Grass	Jonathan King
27	39	'Til I Lost You	Vince Everett
–	40	Thou Shalt Not Steal	Glenda Collins

–

It's Good News Week

Hedgehoppers Anonymous

Decca F 12241

Alan Field's Fab Notes:

The band formed in 1963 as the Trendsetters. The five members were in the RAF (all except Alan Laud, were based at RAF Wittering) and they changed their name the following year to Hedgehoppers - a slang reference to low flying. Jonathan King became their manager in 1965, added Anonymous to the group name and supplied the protest song which was to become their first and best-known hit.

The version of It's Good News Week that was being played on Big L wasn't the same recording that was on sale in the shops. Early promotional copies of the record that had been sent to the station included an original verse about blood in Asia and butchering the sacred cow. The words on the issued single were changed at the insistence of the record company, although the new lyrics about famine and birth control were probably only slightly less offensive!

(l to r) Mick Tinsley (vcls), Alan Laud (gtr) John Stewart (lead), Ray Honeyball (bass) Leslie Dash (drms, gtr) Decca publicity photo: David Wedgbury.

–

There's Another One Behind / Shame And Scandal In The Family

Lance Percival

Parlophone R 5335

Alan Field:
And talking about lyrics, er, which we were..... While the calypso-style Shame And Scandal In The Family hints strongly at certain extra-marital liaisons, we're pleased to report that There's Another One Behind are the innocent words of an exasperated bus conductor speaking to the waiting queue! (Although the lyrics are very much of the mid-Sixties and would now be considered extremely non-PC.) The song is very much in the mould of Bernard Cribbins' 1962 hits Hole In The Ground and Right Said Fred, and was written by the same team, Ted Dicks and Myles Rudge.

Lance Percival became the King of Calypso on the BBC's magazine-style news programme, Tonight where he would compose and perform calypsos based on topical stories. He went on to join late-night Saturday satirical show That Was the Week That Was. As part of the team on the show that broke all the rules, Lance did something unknown in TV comedy at the time – improvisation – making-up calypsos on subjects suggested by the studio audience. In 1965-6, he starred in his own BBC comedy sketch series, The Lance Percival Show.

Lance also appeared in films. In The Big Job, he starred with Syd James and Dick Emery as a bank-robbing trio. In the animated Beatles feature Yellow Submarine, he voiced the character Old Fred. He died in January 2015 at the age of 81. (Notes by Alan Field and Mary Payne)

Agent 00 Soul

Alex Harvey

Fontana TF 610

Mary Payne:
Alex Harvey's Sixties singles are all highly collectable. Recorded at the Marquee Club, with Steve Winwood (at the time still with the Spencer Davis Group) on piano, Agent OO Soul can fetch £30. (Click right, for information on purchasing the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide.) The spy-themed song was promoted with the assistance of James Bond's Aston Martin! Alex was also a cover star for Radio Scotland's 242 Showbeat Monthly, in July 66.

James Mc Nair's great feature The Troubled Life of a Glasgow Troubadour tells Alex's story from his winning the surprising title of 'Scotland's Tommy Steele' to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and his untimely death in 1982, one day short of his 47th birthday.

Climber:
On The Horizon	Syndicats
Everybody Tries	Mark Loyd

Everybody Tries

Mark Loyd

Parlophone R5332

Mark Loyd (born Nigel Basham) released three solo singles on Parlophone in 1965 and 66. Everybody Tries is a Carter-Lewis composition and the only one of the three releases with a Pall Mall *B-side, She Said. (Mint copies can command aroud £60)

Mark was originally a member of Southend-on-Sea band, the Monotones, who backed him on his solo releases. The group was sometimes known as 'the UK Monotones' to avoid confusion with a US group and later changed name altogether. They released several Parlophone singles as the Treetops, on which Mark was heard performing lead vocals, vibes and harmonica.

All about the Monotones

On the above site, Jim Eaton wrote: "I'm sorry to report that Mark Loyd passed away on April 4, 2012, after fighting cancer for seven years. Mark had been living in Sydney, Australia where he ran a successful event/management company."

*Pall Mall Music was the publishing company in which Radio London's managing company, Radlon Sales had a 50% shareholding.

Climber information courtesy of Wim van Genderen

Tune in next week for another Big L Fab 40!

The Caroline 'Sounds of '65' chart (south ship) for this week is here