I know it’s not Friday but 1960s record producer Shel Talmy died earlier last week; I saw the notice a bit too late for my posting. A Chicagoan, he moved to Britain in 1962. After blagging his way into a job in the record business in London he was in charge of the mixing desk for the first hits of both the Kinks and The Who. He also produced early David Bowie tracks and Friday on my Mind for the Easybeats, the song after which my category is named, plus Mike D’Abo’s debut as lead singer for Manfred Mann, Just Like a Woman.
The Kinks: You Really Got Me
The Who: Can’t Explain
Sheldon (Shel) Talmy: 11/8/1937-13/1120/24. So it goes.
Song writer Geoff Stephens has died. The obituaries all mentioned Winchester Cathedral which was a hit for the group he set up, The New Vaudeville Band, no 1 in the US but no 4 in the UK. His song-writing CV is impressive (see link above.)
Co-written with John Carter, this was the third Manfred Mann single to feature Mike d’Abo on lead vocals and a no 2 UK hit. The lyric kind of prefigures the line, “She settled for suburbia and a little patch of land” in Albert Hammond’s The Free Electric Band.
The sound and vision in this Top of the Pops appearance aren’t quite in synch. (They are in this clip but the vision quality is poorer. Filmed off a TV screen I suppose.)
Manfred Mann: Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James
Geoffrey (Geoff) Stephens: 1/10/1934 – 24/12/2020. So it goes.
I did get ribbed about this one, though. Not at school, but by a neighbouring boy when visiting my grandparents in Johnstone. (They only lived there for a few years before moving on.)
This is a much more poignant song written by Mike Hugg who was a member of 60s band Manfred Mann. When the band morphed into Manfred Mann Chapter Three Mike shifted into writing theme tunes and incidental music for film and TV as well as having a solo career. His album Somewhere was released in 1972 and Blue Suede Shoes Again got a bit of radio airplay as a single at the time but wasn’t a hit – which I could never understand as I really liked it.
Mike Hugg: Blue Suede Shoes Again
His theme tune for the TV series Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads is undoubtedly much better known. This is the full version.
Mike Hugg (as Highly Likely): Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?
When looking for Blue Suede Shoes Again I came across this track and it’s brilliant.
