Last
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This
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Presented
by Tony Blackburn
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Week
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Week
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3
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1
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Morningtown Ride | Seekers |
2
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2
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Dead End Street | Kinks |
7
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3
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I'm Ready For Love | Martha & the Vandellas |
5
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4
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You Keep Me Hangin' On | Supremes |
14
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5
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If Every Day Was Like Christmas | Elvis Presley |
28
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6
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There Won't Be Many Coming Home | Roy Orbison |
20
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7
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Sunshine Superman | Donovan |
19
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8
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Save Me | Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich |
11
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9
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Walk With Faith In Your Heart | Bachelors |
16
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10
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Pamela Pamela | Wayne Fontana |
22
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11
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Colour My World | Petula Clark |
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12
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Any Way That You Want Me | Troggs |
15
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13
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East West | Herman's Hermits |
25
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14
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Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus | Neil Spence |
40
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15
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Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies | Association |
1
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16
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My Mind's Eye | Small Faces |
6
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17
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Green Green Grass Of Home | Tom Jones |
31
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18
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I've Got To Hold On | Peddlers |
21
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19
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Island In The Sun | Righteous Brothers |
9
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20
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What Would I Be | Val Doonican |
25
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21
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Rhythm Of Love | Merseys |
37
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22
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Hang On To A Dream | Tim Hardin |
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23
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Happy Jack | Who |
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24
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In The Country | Cliff Richard & the Shadows |
13
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25
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Seek And Find | Washington D.C.'s |
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25
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I Feel Free | Cream |
8
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26
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True Story | Twice As Much |
33
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27
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Money (That's What I Want) | Junior Walker & the All Stars |
26
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27
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Going Nowhere | Los Bravos |
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28
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Night Of Fear | Move |
34
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29
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I See The Light | Simon Dupree & the Big Sound |
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29
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(I Know) I'm Losing You | Temptations |
23
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30
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It's Not Easy | Normie Rowe |
38
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30
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When I See My Baby | Studio Six |
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31
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Call Her Your Sweetheart | Frank Ifield |
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31
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The Star Of The Show (The La La Song) | Zoot Money's Big Roll Band |
27
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31
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Missy Missy | Paul & Barry Ryan |
37
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32
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Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again) | Spellbinders |
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32
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Deadlier Than The Male | Walker Brothers |
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33
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Mustang Sally | Wilson Pickett |
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33
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From Head To Toe | Escorts |
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34
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Hey Joe | Jimi Hendrix Experience |
38
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34
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Come By Here | Inez & Charlie Foxx |
36
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35
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Sitting In A Ring | Ebony Keyes |
40
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35
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The Proud One | Frankie Valli |
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36
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Something Inside Of Me Died | Gene Latter |
28
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37
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Gotta Get Out The Mess I'm In | Young Idea |
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38
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Always Waitin' | Barry Benson |
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39
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When Will The Good Apples Fall | Ronnie Hilton |
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40
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Can't Stop Talkin' About My Baby | Mike Patto |
Alan Field comments on the three singles placed jointly at #31
It's unique to have three unrelated records in the same position in the same week, but I heard and listed all three. Call Her Your Sweetheart by Frank Ifield was definitely played at joint #31 on the Fab 40 show. I've got it listed at that position first and so had (past tense) chart contributor Hans Peters. Contributors Wolfgang Buchholz and Hans Evers also have it at #31, though the record isn't in Brian Long's Curzon Street list. Hans Peters later crossed out Call Her Your Sweetheart and replaced it with the third record Missy Missy, which Brian and I have both listed but Wolfgang and Hans Evers haven't. The Zoot Money record appears at #31 in all five lists.
Call Her Your Sweetheart was actually in the Family Forty which debuted on 11th December 1966 to cover the whole of the Christmas period, so it may have been included in the Fab 40 by mistake, but it was included nonetheless. It wasn't in the chart the following week, but appeared as a re-entry at #33 on 25th December.
Please see footnote to FF for 4th December regarding the Troggs' #12 entry this week, Any Way That You Want Me.
WPTR Good Guys
Over in Albany, New York this week, WPTR 1540 had its own Top 40.
If the name sounds familiar, WPTR is the station where Larry Dean worked prior to joining Radio England. Many SRE jocks - including Chuck Blair and Johnnie Walker - took their names from the WPTR jingle package that Larry brought with him to his new job in watery wireless.
This was the home of original WPTR Good Guys – Boom Boom Brannigan, Bruce Wayne and Charlie Brown.
The chart has a number of tracks in common with the Fab Forty. Mark Roman's climber Sugartown was already in the Albany Top 40, having been a previous WPTR DJ Hitpick. One or two tracks are unknown in this country and were probably local hits, while a different version of UK success Born Free was on the WPTR listings.
36 35Sitting In A Ring Ebony Keyes Piccadilly 35378 Ebony Keyes, whose real name was Kenrick Des-Etages, has a full feature in the Fab Forty for April 2nd 1967, where his follow-up single Cupid's House reached #17. There's a video clip of Ebony miming to Sitting in a Ring from a German show called Beat Beat Beat here – although the song is mistitled Sitting in the Rain.
37
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32
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Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again) | Spellbinders | CBS 202453 |
Help Me (Get Myself Back Together Again) – was the Spellbinders' first UK release. It just scraped into the US Hot Hundred at #100. The band returned to the Big L playlist on March 12th 1967 with Paul Kaye's climber Chain Reaction, written by Van McCoy.
DJ Climbers: | ||
Listen To My Heart | Bats | Tony Blackburn |
Listen To The River Roll Along | Wee Willie Harris | Chuck Blair |
Tick Tock | Corduroys | Pete Drummond |
My Girl, The Month Of May | Dion & the Belmonts | Kenny Everett |
A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues | Clyde McPhatter | Paul Kaye |
Baby Do The Philly Dog | Olympics | Mike Lennox |
Sugar Town | Nancy Sinatra | Mark Roman |
Lookin' For Love | Ray Conniff & the Singers | Keith Skues |
Bad Misunderstanding | Critters | Ed Stewart |
Single Girl | Sandy Posey | Norman St John |
Baby Tomorrow | Paul Jones | Tony Windsor |
My Girl, The Month Of May | Dion & the Belmonts | HMV POP1565 |
Kenny's Everett climber did indeed climb the Fab Forty and took the Christmas #9 slot. The single, as released in the US was A-side Berimbau B-side My Girl the Month of May. However, a slightly different story is associated with the UK release on HMV. There is no evidence to suggest that Radio London ever played Berimbau, even though we know it went into the shops as the record's A-side. Released on December 8th 1966, the single does have indications of having been a double A-side. HMV did not differentiate between A-and B-sides by giving them separate numbers, so no clues there.
Possibly, an acetate of My Girl the Month of May got sent to the Galaxy in error by the record company, but it seems unlikely, considering that it reached the Fab Forty and was played on Big L for several weeks. Had there been an admin error, there would have been plenty of time for HMV to have supplied Radio London with a copy of Berimbau. It's also possible that Alan Keen considered Dion's own composition My Girl the Month of May, to be the stronger offering and made his own decision about which side to play.
The 25-track CD Together Again and More contains both tracks
In 1967, Dion and the Belmonts, previously known as the most successful white doo-wop group, had just re-formed and recorded their album Together Again, from which the two tracks on HMV Pop1565 were taken.
Berimbau is a popular Brazilian samba, the name referring to a wooden single-string percussion instrument. Dion and the Belmonts do not attempt to sing the Portuguese lyrics, but turn the tune into a virtual instrumental, using their voices as musical instruments. It comes close to a return to their original doo-wop style.
Dion and the Belmonts' version of Berimbau. The Sergo Mendes and Brasil 66 version
My Girl the Month of May Dion and the Belmonts
Cover versions include Knees Club members The Alan Bown (after they dropped the word 'Set') and went psychedelic, and The Bunch
Climbers: | |
Oh What A Fool | Peter Lee Stirling |
Make Believe | Jason Deane |
Sitting In The Park | Georgie Fame |
Too Many Fish In The Sea | Young Rascals |
Can't Stop Around | Human Instinct |
Progress | Pretty Things |
You'd Better Run | Listen |
You Better Run | N' Betweens |
Disc of the Week: | |
Behind The Door | Cher |
Album of the Week: (courtesy of Brian Long) | |
A Quick One | The Who |
You'd Better Run | Listen | CBS 202456 |
A climber for two weeks running, You'd Better Run had been a summer Top Twenty hit in the USA for the Young Rascals - who coincidentally have their own Big L climber this week. Last week's Fab revealed that because of the connection between the N' Betweens and Slade, mint condition copies of their version can fetch £225. Pristine copies of the other version by a second Brummie band, Listen are also pretty collectable, exchanging hands for £165. The group line-up reveals all: Roger Beamer, (bass), John Crutchley, (lead), Geoff Thompson (drums) with one Robert Plant on vocals. Robert also released solo singles in 1966, but was to find his fame a far cry from the Young Rascals, with Led Zeppelin.
Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty!