I saw in yesterday’s Guardian that singer Beverley had died in April.
I featured her version of Randy Newman’s Happy New Year on 1/1/2021.
Beverley’s marriage to John Martyn was marred by abusive behaviour on his part and also meant Beverley’s career, certainly in a solo sense, stalled.
This was her second solo single. This time a song written by Donovan – which is obvious when you listen to it.
Beverley: Museum
Though known after her marriage, and in her musical collaborations with John, as Beverley Martyn, in accordance with the Scottish tradition on headstones I commemorate her in death with her maiden name.
Beverley Kutner: 24/3/1947 – 27/4/2026. So it goes.
I’ve been saving this one up for several years to wait for the next time Jan 1st fell on a Friday.
It’s the first ever single released on Decca’s Deram label – designated DM 101 – sung by Beverley (Kutner – later Martin) and featured Jimmy Page on guitar. Guitar is not the first thing that strikes you about the song, though. That would be the ringing piano chords at its start.
Beverley: Happy New Year
Deram’s releases were a curious blend of the commercial and the much less so. The label was originally set up to demonstrate a breakthrough Decca’s engineers had made in representing sound stereophonically on record.
This release was not a bad opening statement even if Happy New Year wasn’t a hit.
Howver DM 102 was; I Love My Dog by Cat Stevens which reached no 28 in the UK charts. He outdid that feat later in the year with Matthew and Son (DM 110) equalling the highest position (no 2) reached by DM 109, The Move’s Night of Fear. The oddest hit on Deram though was surely I Was Kaiser’s Bill’s Batman by the immortal Whistling Jack Smith.
Happy New Year was written by Randy Newman who is due a commendation for not adding an apostrophe ‘s’ as most USians do when talking about the day when the calendar flips. To my mind that makes it a felicitation for one day only (as in Happy Birthday! or Merry Christmas!) rather than the desire for good fortune to be with you for a full 365 (or 366) days.
Here’s Newman’s demo version – with a picture of Beverley’s single version cover sleeve.
Another couple of songs that might as well have been from the 60s.
As you might expect from the title the first is a jeu d’esprit. From a band known rather peculiarly as Three Dog Night – apparently something to do with Australians on cold nights warming themselves up with dingos – it was a hit in 1971.
Three Dog Night: Joy To The World
Their other UK hit came a year earlier and was a Randy Newman song, a warning about the dangers of strange places and unusual substances.
