Part Two of Field's Festive Fab 'Forty' for Sunday 25/12/66

Liverpool's Escorts formed in 1963, and this single was recorded by the sixth of seven line-ups. John Kinrade (ld gtr), Mike Gregory (bs/vcl), Paddy Chambers (ld vcl) and Paul Comerford (drms).

From Head To Toe was a track on the Miracles' Going To A Go-Go album. Despite the impressive pedigree of a song penned by Smokey Robinson and a recording produced by Paul McCartney, who also featured on tambourine, the single never charted nationally. Motown's Chris Clark was to issue probably the best-known version of the song the following year. Chris Clark rerecorded From Head To Toe with producer Ian Levine for Motor City Records in 1991.

The second of the Escorts' line-ups included Knees Club members Kenny Goodlass (#197), and Terry Sylvester (#101). Terry was with the band through line-ups one to four, leaving in February '66 to join the Swinging Blue Jeans.

Segal is Lionel Segal, one of the two owners of Strike Records. Yes Virginia There is a Santa Claus was issued on Go Records, a subsidiary of Strike. Lionel Segal and Adrian Jacobs owned Millwick Music, a music publishing company – the record labels were their outlets. Lionel was a budding songwriter as well as a businessman and an antiques dealer. Millwick's first signing (before launching Strike) was singer, songwriter, producer Miki Dallon. Miki was apparently friendly with DJs from Radio London and as a result, the first single on Strike That's Nice by Neil Christian was played heavily on the station. Hence the connection with Neil Spence/Dave Dennis!

Yes, Virginia... it's DD and TW!

Dave Dennis had already left Radio London on December 6th and his place aboard the Galaxy was taken by Chuck Blair (#375), to the right of the picture, who joined the station from the recently-defunct Radio England. Dave went on to enjoy an illustrious radio career and became a mentor to many DJs. Sadly, he died in December 2007. Photo courtesy of Hans Knot

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. With fewer new releases during the Christmas and New Year period, there were no DJ picks this week.

Climbers:
Hard Lovin'	Richard Kerr/Guy Darrell
Tell It To The Rain	Four Seasons
I Want Her, She Wants Me	Mindbenders
Matthew And Son	Cat Stevens
His Girl	Guess Who
Only Your Love	Kenny Damon
I Remember The Feeling/Baby What Do You Want Me To Do	Barbara Lewis
Sea Of Faces	Ways and Means
Club Nitty Gritty	Chuck Berry
Right Or Wrong	Mike Leslie
Standing In The Shadows Of Love	Four Tops
Disc of the Week:
I Don't Need Anything	Sandie Shaw
Album of the Week:
Finders Keepers	Cliff Richard & the Shadows

The Finders Keepers album was on release to coincide with the new Cliff and the Shadows film: "'The beat is the wildest! The blast is the craziest!... and the fun is where you find it!" The plot? Cliff and his merry men attempt to defuse a bomb in Spain! This epic starred Robert Morley, Peggy Mount, John Le Mesurier and Graham Stark.

Hard Lovin'

Richard Kerr

Decca F12538

This is an early release in the career of the British musician and songwriter Richard Kerr, who co-wrote with Scott English, the hymn to booze, called Brandy. Scott took Brandy to #12 in the UK in 1971, scraping into the US Hot Hundred at #91. However, in 1974, a reworking of the song as Mandy became a #1 smash in the US and a few months later, #11 in the UK, for Barry Manilow.

Hard Lovin' came out on Dec 30th, '66, but it was Guy Darrell's version, released Jan 6th '67, that entered the Fab Forty. The lyrics can best be described as bold!

In 1968, busker Don Partridge took Richard's song Blue Eyes, into the Top Three and he co-wrote Nice Time. This was tie-in song with Kenny Everett's first TV show of the same name, shown on Granada TV 1968-1969. The song is described on Youtube as "Great British toytown psych pop".

Richard Kerr's own recordings did not bring him chart success, but his songwriting skills were appreciated by many top recording artists, including megastars Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra and Andy Williams. He died in December 2023.

Sea Of Faces

Ways and Means

PYE 7N 17217

The Ways and Means single has a B-side appropriate for Big L, called Make the Radio A Little Louder. The group recorded three singles, all on different labels. The first, also released in '66, was a cover of two Beach Boys tracks, Little Deuce Coupe and The Little Old Lady From Pasadena. (That's three songs with 'Little' in the title on two records recorded in one year, trivia fans.)

The band, from Canterbury, Kent, were Tony Allison, Les Stankovich, Roy Delo and drummer Dave Legge (aka David Lee)

There's a band photo on the Kentbeat website

His Girl Guess Who King KG1044 The late Big L DJ, John 'Purpleknees' Edward, (pictured in 2001 with Pauline Miller, who kindly supplied the photo) told us how he produced this single, just after leaving Radio London: "Guess Who was the same band that eventually went to number one in the States with American Woman. I was 'A & R' and promotions head at King Records when I was 19 years of age and had just left Big L. The tape was offered to me and I thought it could be a monster – if it was sweetened with some nice romantic strings. I had the tape sent over from Canada and overdubbed the orchestra at Pye records, with Geoff Calver as engineer. The record was released crediting me as co-producer and it started to move, but was not picked up by the Beeb, so suffered from a distinct lack of promotion. The group was invited over to 'be here' for whatever was needed promotionally, but, by the time they arrived the record was on its way down."

Red additions to the climbers indicate singles 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 them played or announced as climbers.

The 'Family Forty' - an additional 40 tracks to cover the festive period, is here
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!