The Early Radio London Fab Forties
Sunday 31st Jan 1965
#12 'I'd Be Far Better Off Without You' was originally the A-side of this Pye Sandie Shaw single
Another Pye release, The Kinks climb to #4
Last
This
 
Week
Week
5
1
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' Righteous Brothers
1
2
Go Now! Moody Blues
6
3
Come Tomorrow Manfred Mann
11
4
Tired Of Waiting For You Kinks
2
5
Yeh Yeh Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames
7
6
Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow The Sun) Del Shannon
14
7
Baby Please Don't Go Them
5
8
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' Cilla Black
10
9
Leader Of The Pack Shangri-Las
10
The Special Years Val Doonican
9
11
Cast Your Fate To The Wind Sounds Orchestral
3
12
Girl Don't Come Sandie Shaw
29
13
I'll Never Find Another You Seekers
4
14
Terry Twinkle
18
15
Come See About Me Supremes
8
16
Ferry 'Cross The Mersey Gerry & the Pacemakers
19
17
Getting Mighty Crowded Betty Everett
21
18
Three Bells Brian Poole & the Tremeloes
24
19
Dance Dance Dance Beach Boys
12
20
I Feel Fine Beatles
23
21
Promised Land Chuck Berry
15
22
Somewhere P J Proby
22
23
Goin' Out Of My Head Dodie West / Little Anthony & the Imperials
17
24
I'm Lost Without You Billy Fury
27
25
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) Marvin Gaye
33
26
What In The World's Come Over You Rockin' Berries
32
27
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood Animals
34
28
Thanks A Lot Brenda Lee
37
29
The 'In' Crowd First Gear
31
30
Shake Sam Cooke
40
31
Thou Shalt Not Steal Dick & Dee Dee
20
32
Downtown Petula Clark
38
33
The Game Of Love Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders
13
34
Baby I Need Your Lovin' Four Tops
35
35
Everybody Knows Dave Clark Five
36
36
Let The Sunshine In Peddlers / Presidents
26
37
I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You) Cliff Richard & the Shadows
16
38
Walk Tall Val Doonican
39
Funny How Love Can Be Ivy League
28
40
What Have They Done To The Rain Searchers


14
7
Baby Please Don't Go Them Decca F12018

Released in 1964, Baby Please Don't Go would have been in the tiny library of singles that Big L had aboard the ship from the beginning (see the Cliff Richard story below). In Brian Long's book, The London Sound, Kenny Everett related how the DJs had to play the few available tracks so often that the songs would be going round and round in their heads all night when they tried to sleep! Any new material arriving on the tender would be fallen upon by the jocks like starving men on a crust of bread. During those desperate few weeks, they must been ecstatic to discover that the Them single had a brilliant B-side, in the form of Gloria which they were only too happy to play just as much as the A-side!

Listening to Baby Please Don't Go on Oldies Project, it occurred to the Radio London webmasters that in well over 40 years, neither of them had ever been able to decipher the words Van Morrison was singing. Off they went to look up Muddy Waters' words and found them on the Blues For Peace site. Finally understanding those words led to another search. We now know all about Rolling Forks, in Pope County, Minnesota, a town of folk with predominantly Norwegian ancestry!

By coincidence, a couple of days later we were contacted by Francis K, webmaster of the Irish '60s Showbands & Beat-Groups Archive. It's a great site, giving a fascinating insight into a thriving music scene about which most of us outside of Ireland have remained totally ignorant. There aren't too many Fab Forty artists on Francis's site, but of course there's always Them.

The Irish '60s Showbands & Beat-Groups Archive reveals that the Belfast band's line-up at the time of the recording was Billy Harrison (guitar),  Alan Henderson (bass) and Van Morrison (vocals/harmonica), two other members having left. However, only Van appeared on the single, with Decca's Dick Rowe ousting the other band members in favour of experienced session men like Jimmy Page. The follow-up Here Comes the Night appeared as Dave Cash's climber six weeks later on March 14th and held the #2 slot for two weeks running. (Sleeve courtesy of Francis)




26
37
I Could Easily Fall (In Love With You) Cliff Richard & the Shadows Columbia DB 7420

Sir Cliff, in those days still plain Cliff Richard, has been photographed for the picture sleeve (right) beside a lamp to hammer home the point that I Could Easily Fall is from Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. The song had been the first track to be played by Pete Brady on Radio London when transmissions officially started at 0600 on Dec 23rd 1964, so this was its sixth and final week on the station playlist. It was unusual for Cliff to take the title role, as Aladdin, like most pantomime principal boys, is traditionally played by a woman. However, the director adhered to casting tradition when Arthur Askey was given the role of Widow Twankey and the Shadows played a bunch of comic laundry sidekicks. The show, with Una Stubbs taking the female lead, ran at the London Palladium from December 1964 to April 1965 – an amazingly long stint for a panto!

In March 1965, (while the show was still running) an EP, Cliff's Hits From Aladdin And His Wonderful Lamp, was released, which in addition to I Could Easily Fall, contained the show tracks Havin' Fun, Evening Comes and Friends.

Co-stars and composers of the show's music, The Shadows had already reaped National Top Twenty success with the tongue-in-cheek-titled Genie with the Light Brown Lamp. They too issued an EP of themes from the hit panto. Alongside Genie were tracks Little Princess, Me Oh My and Friends. They went on to pen the tunes for the Palladium's 1965 panto Babes in the Wood, starring Frank Ifield. Christmas 1966 saw Cliff and the Shads back at the Palladium in Cinderella.

I Could Easily Fall is on the 2-CD compilation, Cliff's 40 Golden Greats. For full track listing and clips of selected songs, click on the sleeve photo, right.


DJ Climber:
Last Time You'll Walk Out On Me Mike Hurst Dave Cash

Climbers:
Can I Get To Know You Better Mark Wynter
The Name Game Shirley Ellis
Soldier Boy Cheetahs

A recording of a Dave Dennis lunchtime show on azanorak.com has been accurately re-dated to Saturday 6th February 1965 (based on the chart positions of all four Fab 40 records announced). It was at one time incorrectly dated one week earlier. Dave also announces Last Time You'll Walk Out On Me by Mike Hurst as Dave Cash's climber for the week commencing Sunday 31st January. Machteld and Gert's listings show the record as Dave Cash's climber for 24th January, and as an unassigned climber for the 31st.

The incorrect dating of the recording may have resulted in the Mike Hurst climber being listed as Dave Cash's pick for the wrong week, or there may be separate verification for 24th January and Dave Cash simply held on to the climber for a second week. Without drawing a conclusion on that, we're certainly able to correct the list for 31st January 1965, moving the record up from unassigned climber to Dave Cash's pick.

********

Mark Wynter's greatest national chart success had been a #4 in 1962, with Venus in Blue Jeans, a US Top Ten hit for Jimmy Clanton.



Soldier Boy
Cheetahs
Philips BF 1383

Carl Barron and the Cheetahs started their musical career in 1961, first calling themselves as the Echoes. The Birmingham quintet released their first single Only the Beginning, on Columbia in 1964. When lead singer Carl Barron (aka Colin Smith) departed shortly afterwards, Ray Bridger took over as vocalist and the band became simply the Cheetahs. With Nigel Wright on guitar, his brother Rodney Wright on bass and drummer Euan Rose, the band released a further six singles on the Philips label between 1964 and 1966. The first two of these were covers of Mecca (Gene Pitney) and Soldier Boy (The Shirelles). Their version of Mecca had appeared in the lower end of the Caroline charts in October 1964. Lyrically, Soldier Boyseems rather an odd choice for an all-male band, but this was dealt with by adding an introduction that explains the song is about an overheard conversation between a girl and her departing soldier.

Ray Bridger's son Nathan has kindly supplied the two scans on the left, including the front page promo for Mecca from the New Musical Express in September 1964. In the bottom photo, Ray is on the left at the back, beside Nigel, with the Wright brothers in front.

The Cheetahs would return to the Fab 40 in December 65, with their self-penned Whole Lotta Love.

Nathan says: "I'm also playing in a band, Grand Harmonic, keeping the old songwriting tradition of our family going - and it's going pretty well actually."

The late Carl Wayne has been mistakenly linked to the Cheetahs in publications such as the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide. This is presumably because they came from the Birmingham area and their vocalist was known as Carl.

Above, left: The height of Brummie fashion, 1964. But at least this later version of the band is wearing Chelsea boots. Carl Barron's Cheetahs were originally kitted out in animal suits, complete with matching furry paws!



Tune in next week for another Big L Fab 40!

The Caroline Chart for this week is here


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