First a straightforward use of the tune with love song lyrics. I did not know until I looked this up that it had first been recorded by Nancy Sinatra in 1962. In the UK Maureen Evans had a hit with it a year later.
His most famous work was done with King Crimson for whom he came up with the name and wrote most of the lyrics for the first four albums though he didn’t play on them.
I have featured his work before since he wrote the English language lyrics for Italian group Premiata, Forneria, Marconi (PFM.) The World Became the World is a prime example of Sinfield’s art.
Another of the most successful songwriters of the 60s, Ken Howard, has died. Together with his songwriting partner Alan Blaikley (whose death I noted here) he wrote hits for The Honeycombs, The Herd and, most notably, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Their songwriting list is impressive.
This was a no 4 for the latter band in 1965.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich: Hold Tight!
Later in their career Howard and Blaikley went into writing TV Themes and musicals.
This is perhaps the most familiar of those tunes.
Vejle Symfoniorkester: Miss Marple TV Theme
Kenneth Charles (Ken) Howard: 26/12/1939 – 24/12/2024. So it goes.
From the sublimely named LP Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake (don’t take up smoking kids). As I recall it came in a circular cardboard sleeve (and when released as a CD years later in a cylindrical tin resembling those tobacco was once sold in.)*
The Small Faces: Song of a Baker
*Looking it up it seems that the very first release was also in a tin but quickly replaced by the circular cardboard as the tin was too expensive and rolled off record shelves!
I saw in Tuesday’s Guardian that Zoot Money has died. He was one of the most celebrated performers of Rhythm and Blues in the early to mid 60s and a staple of the music press at the time.
His band had only the one real hit, though, Big Time Operator, which I featured here.
This is Zoot and his band playing what was in effect his signature tune
Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band: Barefootin’
George Bruno (Zoot) Money: 17/7 1942 – 8/10/2024. So it goes.
Sérgio Mendes, who popularised Bossa Nova in the 1960s, has died.
I remember this very familiar tune as getting a lot of airplay at the time but it wasn’t a hit in the UK. (Only Never Gonna Let You Go was, and it only got to no. 45 in 1983.) It is however probably the one for which he will be most remembered.
Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66: Mas Que Nada
Sérgio Santos Mendes: 11/2/1941 – 5/9/2024. So it goes.
In the 60s French artists didn’t usually reach the British charts. The yé-yé generation was kind of looked down on as I recall.
Françoise Hardy was an exception. (So too was The Singing Nun, but she was Belgian and really a novelty act.)
Hardy actually managed a minor hit in the UK in 1962, with her first recording, Tous les garçons et les filles. It reached no 36. The reason it sticks in my mind is because it was occasionally played during French lessons when I was in Secondary School.
Hardy, who had a sweet vocie, had three other ‘hits’ in the UK. Et même reached no 31 in 1964, All Over the World no 16 in 1965 and Autumn Rendezvous no 51 in 1966.
Françoise Hardy: Tous les garçons et les filles
Françoise Hardy: All Over the World
Françoise Madeleine Hardy: 17/1/1944 – 11/6/2024. So it goes.
His yodelling style was not really to my taste but he certainly sounded distinctive.
In a commemoration like this, for this particular singer, there is only one song which is appropriate. The first of three consecutive UK No. 1s for him.
Frank Ifield: I Remember You
Frank (Francis Edward) Ifield: 30/11/1937 – 18/5/2024. So it goes.
Jimmy James and the Vagabonds is a band name I remember from the 60s. But I can’t say I could remember hearing any of their tracks. Their name appeared in the music newspapers of the day as a gigging and support band.
Lead Singer Jimmy James died a few weeks ago and his obituary was in The Guardian.
It was their version of the Neil Diamond song Red, Red Wine (a no 36 in 1968) that UB 40 latched onto to give them one of their biggest hits.
This was their first though very minor hit, a no 53 in 1967.
Jimmy James and the Vagabonds: I Can’t Get Back Home to My Baby
Jimmy (Michael) James: 13/9/1940 – 14/5/2024. So it goes.
I saw in the Guardian’s obituary column that Clarence “Frogman” Henry left us in April. So called because of the croak he employed in his first US hit Ain’t Got No Home, he only had three hits in the UK. I don’t remember ever hearing Lonely Street, but You Always Hurt the One You Love and (I Don’t Know Why) But I Do certainly rang a bell
Clarence “Frogman” Henry: (I Don’t Know Why) But I Do
Clarence “Frogman” Henry: 19/3/1937 – 7/4/2024. So it goes.
