for Sunday 30th April 1967

A promising start last week saw the Searchers coming straight in at #27, neck-in-neck with the Five Americans. Now both versions of Western Union have slipped down to #36.

This Dutch picture sleeve of the Searchers is courtesy of Willy de Ruyter.

The Five Americans were a Dallas-based band led by Michael Rabon, who had enjoyed a Top Ten hit in the US Hot Hundred.

 


Last
This
Presented by Ed Stewart
Week
Week
8
1
The Boat That I Row Lulu
6
2
Pictures Of Lily Who
30
3
Silence Is Golden Tremeloes
1
4
Birds And Bees Warm Sounds
7
5
New York Mining Disaster 1941 Bee Gees
16
6
The First Cut Is The Deepest P P Arnold
18
7
Show Me Joe Tex
10
8
Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got Jimmy Ruffin
12
9
Come Back Girl Jackie Edwards
19
10
I Got Rhythm Happenings
15
11
Little Games Yardbirds
12
Then I Kissed Her Beach Boys
39
13
Peanuts And Chewy Macs Cymbaline
27
14
I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) Aretha Franklin
5
15
What'll I Do Peddlers
40
16
Girl I Need You Artistics
17
Children Pretty Things
2
18
Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix Experience
19
Shake A Tail Feather James & Bobby Purify
31
20
Say You Don't Mind Denny Laine
21
21
Nick Knack Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
29
22
Town Of Tuxley Toymaker Billy J Kramer
3
23
I Can Hear The Grass Grow Move
26
24
Maroc 7 / Bombay Duck Shadows
25
The Wind Cries Mary Jimi Hendrix Experience
38
26
Get Me To The World On Time Electric Prunes
27
Tears Tears Tears Ben E King
20
28
I Can Fly Herd
29
Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me Gladys Knight & the Pips
33
30
Bless My Soul (I've Been And Gone And Done It) Studio Six
31
24 Sycamore Wayne Fontana
25
32
Don't Go Home (My Little Darlin') Susan Maughan
33
All The Children Sleep Force West
36
34
Let's Live For Today Living Daylights / Rokes
35
A Certain Misunderstanding David Garrick
24
36
Western Union Searchers / Five Americans
37
Jonathan Wotsit Vic Richards
38
Bowling Green Everly Brothers
39
Funny 'Cos Neither Could I Shotgun Express
40
The Moving Finger Writes Len Barry

Sixteen up – sixteen down! The Wind Cries Mary jumps straight in sixteen places up the Fab Forty at #25 and nearly collides with Purple Haze, down sixteen places this week at #18!

30
3
Silence Is Golden Tremeloes

Thirty-five years after claiming the FF #3, the 2002 line-up of the Tremeloes was on a UK tour called Call Up the Groups, with the Barron Knights (naturally), Fortunes, Marmalade and legendary guitarist Bert Weedon. Between them, the musicians performed over thirty of their million-selling hits. In recent years Silence is Golden has often been sung a capella by a choir comprising members of various groups on the bill, as a tribute to sadly-departed band members.

39
Funny 'Cos Neither Could I Shotgun Express Columbia DB 8178

Shotgun Express existed for only a short while in '66 and early '67. Rod Stewart had joined as a vocalist after leaving Steampacket. He featured on I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round, the first Shotgun Express single, which reached #15 on the Fab Forty for 13th November '66. However, he had left to join the Jeff Beck Group before this second single was recorded.

Other group members were Beryl Marsden (vcls), Peter Green (b Greenbaum) (gtr), Peter Bardens (org), Dave Ambrose (bs) and Mick Fleetwood (drms).

Beryl Marsden was no stranger to the Fab, having already appeared there solo in December 1965/January 66 with her single Music Talk.

Mick Fleetwood was already familiar to the Fab, as his only single with the Bo Street Runners, Baby Never Say Goodbye, had been at #28 on 8th August '65.

After Shotgun Express, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood were briefly with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, (version #108, according to Pete Frame's Rock Family Trees) before forming Fleetwood Mac. Dave Ambrose headed for The Brian Auger Trinity and Peter Bardens went to The Love Affair. Mint copies of Funny 'Cos Neither Could I are now very collectable, fetching around £45.

DJ Climbers:    
You Gotta Stop / The Love Machine Elvis Presley Tony Blackburn
Cuttin' In Timi Yuro Chuck Blair
Two Streets Val Doonican Tony Brandon
I Love Everything About You Bobby Hebb Pete Drummond
My Old Car Lee Dorsey Paul Kaye
Roll With The Punches Garnet Mimms Lorne King
Fly Me High Moody Blues John Peel
Groovin' Young Rascals Mark Roman
Finchley Central New Vaudeville Band Keith Skues
Yesterday's Papers Chris Farlowe Ed Stewart
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat Bob Dylan John Yorke

John Yorke spent such a short time as a Big L DJ that Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat was the first of only two climbers allocated to him.

Aboard the Galaxy this week

Radio London had chosen the Attack's version of Hi Ho Silver Lining (written by Scott English) as a climber for two weeks some time ago – 26/02/67 and 05/03/67. Decca released the single on 03/03/67, but it was dropped from the Big L playlist, in favour of Jeff Beck's version, which was issued 10/03/67 on Columbia. Whether or not the record companies intended a race for the charts, Radio London management was always more likely to favour Beck's version, because the B-side Beck's Bolero, was published by their company Pall Mall (with writing credit to Jimmy Page). On 12/03/67, Beck's Hi Ho... was picked as Tony Blackburn's climber and was soon scaling the Fab Forty.

The end of April /beginning of May would, therefore, seem rather late in the day to be promoting the Attack version, which had already been released for two months. Nevertheless, this week Big L was running a competition to give 50 copies of the Attack single away, even though the song had been a Fab Forty #4 for Jeff Beck only two weeks earlier and had already hit #14 in the Nationals!

The exact date when this competition began and how often it was repeated on air, is not known, but there is recorded evidence of it being aired in the early hours of May 4th, by John Yorke. Paul Kaye voiced the promo and gave the closing date as Monday 8th May. The audience was required to listen sufficiently closely to Hi Ho Silver Lining to count how many times lead singer Richard Shirman repeated the song's title. This odd choice of promotion did ensure further airplay, even though the record was no longer included in the Radio London playlist, but the publicity had come too late for the Attack. (Read the band's version of what went wrong on Marmalade Skies website)

Ashore

May 5th
Keith Skues
interviewed the Beach Boys at the Finsbury Park Astoria. The interview, originally intended to be played during the 15-minute Coffee Break, became a one-hour special. The band appreciated that airplay on the offshore stations was the reason for their massive popularity in the UK and they expressed disappointment that their tour schedule did not permit them the time to visit the Galaxy.

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.

Climbers:  
Day Time, Night Time Simon Dupree & the Big Sound
I Can't Turn Back Time Vince Edwards
Day After Day After Day Jeannie Lambe
Take The Time Shangri-Las
Samantha's Mine Spectrum
Got To Get A Good Thing Going Original Dyaks (*)
Music To Watch Girls By Andy Williams (*)
Sunshine Girl Parade (*)
Baby I'm Your Man Dickie Rock (*)
The Magic Bus Pudding
The Happening Supremes
Euston Station Barbara Ruskin
Things Get Better Johnny Carr
Out Of Left Field Percy Sledge
Sweet Pea Manfred Mann
Disc of the Week:  
Waterloo Sunset Kinks
Album of the Week:  
Take Two Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston

Soul Set:
Let Me Come On Home Otis Redding (*)
When Something is Wrong With My Baby Sam and Dave

There is currently no Ballad Box information available for this week


Green additions to the climbers indicate singles sourced from 'Monty's Diary'. (See Fab Forty for 010167). Monty has noted that The Happening, The Magic Bus, Euston Station and Things Get Better all continue to be played as climbers, as per the previous week.

(*) This addition to the Soul Set was discovered by Paul Osborn on a recording of the Lorne King show from Monday 1st May 1967. The track had been on the SS list two weeks earlier. (We have no SS list for last week.)
(*) Although Brian does not have the comprehensive Curzon Street climber list for this week, he does have a note of the four additional climbers above. These were heard by listeners, but were not noted either by Wolfgang Buchholz or Alan Field at the time. UPDATE April 2016: Although unnoticed back in 1967, Wolfgang has confirmed recently hearing the records by the Original Dyaks and Dickie Rock both played as climbers on archive Radio London recordings from this week, available on azanorak.com
.
Mauve additions to the climbers were kindly contributed by Hans Evers
Alan Field did not hear the records listed in green,
blue or mauve played or announced as climbers.


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

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty