Though he was a performer in his own right he is better known as a songwriter; perhaps best remembered for Wild Thing, a song The Troggs had a huge hit with and was then taken up by Jimi Hendrix. The Troggs later recorded Taylor’s very different Any Way That You Want Mebut in the meantime Taylor composed Angel of the Morning, brought to prominence by Merrilee Rush and later a hit in the UK for P P Arnold.
I must confess that until I read Taylor’s wiki page I hadn’t realised that he was a brother of actor Jon Voight (and therefore uncle to Angelina Jolie) nor that he had co-written I Can’t Let Go, a UK no. 2 for The Hollies in 1966.
The Hollies: I Can’t Let Go
James Wesley Voight (Chip Taylor): 21/3/1940 – 23/3/2026. So it goes.
Pointing to a possible new direction for the group but not a big hit by Hollies standards, King Midas In Reverse only just crept into the top twenty. This prompted them to revert to more commercial material for subsequent singles (with the possible exception of Listen To Me, which also failed to reach the top ten) and so helping along Graham Nash’s decision to leave the group.
I mentioned when I began this category that The Jeff Beck Group’s Hi-Ho Silver Lining had been the runner-up in the competition which started off these musings.
Tallyman was The Jeff Beck Group’s follow-up single and as far as I recall failed to trouble the charts in any way and as a result is much less known these days than its predecessor. Tallyman has the distinction of being written by Graham Gouldman who composed 60s hits for among others The Yardbirds and The Hollies. Gouldman is now more famous for being a member of 10cc.
I was of course familiar with the cover of this that was a hit for The Hollies in 1964 (see this video of them playing/miming in what looks like the first Top of the Pops studio.)
I hadnât heard the co-composer Doris Troyâs original version until recently. Something struck me about it immediately. Isnât this reggae before reggae was invented?
The Hollies were frequently referred to by Jimmy Savile in his Top of the Pops introductions as “the groups’ group,” meaning that other groups admired them. They started off quite “pop”py but just before Graham Nash left for CSN(Y) began to produce more interesting stuff like King Midas In Reverse and this one which was a particular favourite of one of my schoolfriends.
Once again we have what looks like a promotional film. ( More proof these were not vanishingly rare before videos came along.)
