Tag Archives: Sixties

Beat ’66 Show #3 – The Blurb
23
Jan

Hello and welcome to Beat Sixty-Six, in which we play some of the sounds that were around back in the sanctified pop music year of 1966.

This show includes soul sounds from Fontella Bass and James Brown, R and B from Them, the Pretty Things, Chris Farlowe and the Spencer Davis Group, a film theme from Eliot Fisher,
Motown is represented by the Supremes and the Four Tops, garage sounds from the Groupies, reggae from Prince Buster, the last gasp of non-Beatles Mersey sounds appropriately enough from the Merseybeats, tracks from the Kinks and the Rolling Stones, French singer-songwriter Michel Polnareff, and Nigerian high-life superstar Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson

THE SORROWS “Take A Heart”

One of the most overlooked bands of the British Invasion, the Sorrows offered a tough brand of R&B-infused rock that recalled the Pretty Things (though not as R&B-oriented) and the Kinks (though not as pop-oriented).

Their biggest British hit, “Take a Heart,” stopped just outside the U.K. Top 20; several other fine mid-’60s singles met with either slim or a total lack of success.

With the rich, gritty vocals of Don Fardon, taut raunchy guitars, and good material (both self-penned and from outside writers), they rank as one of the better British bands of their era, and certainly among the very best never to achieve success of any kind in the U.S.

Don Fardon had a solo Top 20 hit with “Indian Reservation” in 1968

THE KINKS “Where Have All The Good Times Gone”

From late 1965 Kinks’ mainman Ray Davies’ dissatisfaction and frustations – in the wake of a nervous breakdown earlier in the year – had begun to surface in the Kinks’ records – Where Have All The Good Times Gone appeared on the B-side of the happier number “Till The End Of The Day”. This was a pattern the band would repeat throughout 1966.

THE SUPREMES “My World Is Empty Without You”

Their run of number one US hits had to come to an end somewhere but it seems a shame that it had to be with this gorgeous, poignant song of loss and woe. Diana Ross’s plaintive, vulnerable voice is perfect for this song.

The Afghan Whigs covered this magnificently in 1994, the guitar intro reminiscent of the Stones’ “Paint It,Black”

PRINCE BUSTER “Too Hot”

Too Hot by Prince Buster neither celebrating nor criticising the rude boys, just commenting.

The song was covered by The Specials on their first album

JAMES BROWN “I Got You (I Feel Good)”

James Brown’s big crossover breakthrough into the pop charts came with “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag” followed by “I Got You(I Feel Good)” in late 1965 and it was still there come January 1966.
The B-side is this great slow burner, “I Can’t Help It (I Just Do-Do-Do)”

ELLIOTT FISHER “Theme from ‘Our Man Flint'”

Espionage was were big in the mid-sixties with James Bond and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. so inevitably there were parodies. One of the best was Our Man Flint starring James Coburn as special agent Derek Flint – and the instrumental theme tune by Elliot Fisher was arguably as good as any Bond theme. The trailer gives you some idea of where the film was coming from – check out the clearly-not-German “Dr Schneider”, always raises a smile.

ROLLING STONES “Get Off Of My Cloud”

Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s influence on the band is not always appreciated – it was he who persuaded Mick Jagger and Keith Richard to write songs in the first place, even locking them in a room on more than one occasion until they came up with a hit.

After I Cant Get No Satisfaction had become their biggest and most acclaimed record so far, they could have been forgiven for resting on their laurels but according to Keef that was never an option with Oldham, who cajoled them into writing what is arguably an even better record than Satisfaction.

According to Philip Norman’s Stones biography “Shout” :
“The follow up to (Satisfaction) was an upbeat dance record with chords cribbed unashamedly from Twist And Shout and a lyric – bawled purposefully by Jagger in double time – which must represent the earliest attempt to infiltrate the British Top Ten with marijuana smoke”

The B-side is a decent enough number called “The Singer Not The Song”, slightly marred by Richard’s 12-string guitar which is out of tune throughout. Without wishing to ignite once more the whole Stones / Beatles debate, there is no way Paul McCartney would have allowed that on a Beatles record.

PRETTY THINGS “Midnight To Six Man”

The Pretty Things with Midnight To Six Man, great song, great title, the band’s tough R&B sound only enhanced by the piano of Nicky Hopkins (who similarly graced records by The Who) and the organ of Margo Lewis of Goldie & The Gingerbreads – but it still barely skimmed the Top 50.

Arkansas’ “The Culls” did a more laid back version a year later, which is still pretty good.

FONTELLA BASS “Recovery”

Fontella Bass started out as a piano accompanist.

Her singing career began in 1961 when, as piano player with Little Milton’s band, she was asked to fill in for Milton at short notice.

“Recovery” was her follow-up to the hit for which she is best remembered, “Rescue Me” – this was the rarely-heard B-Side of that record, “The Soul Of A Man” which if anything showcases her vocal talents better than either of the aforementioned tunes.

SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Let Me Down Easy”

Some lovely restrained electric piano and guitar work on this track.

Paolo Nutini has covered this recently – I can’t say I’m his biggest fan but he has a decent stab at it imho.

THE GROUPIES “Primitive”

Is it possible to make a slow garage record that still sounds exciting?

The main riff is a note-for-note copy of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightnin'” and props to them for NOT speeding it up. It works for me but others remain unconvinced.

The Cramps covered this years later.

FOUR TOPS “Just As Long As You Need Me”

A track from “The Four Tops second album” possibly named by the same person who named the Spencer Davis Group’s second album. I guess the record industry didn’t trust the public to recognise albums by name.

This was take to extremes by Chicago (whose albums I believe have always had numbers on them rather than titles, like a magazine) and of course Peter Gabriels’ first three albums were just called Peter Gabriel. Unimaginative bunch.

This is “I Like Everything About You”, another track from the album, its a little gem.

THE MERSEYBEATS “I Stand Accused”

By late 1965 The Merseybeats were ready to call it a day as most of their British Beat Boom compatriots had done, as the scene sputtered out, condemned by Motown, folk-rock and the British R&B boom to go the same way as surfing music.

The Merseybeats had one last great single in their locker though, a soulful cover of I Stand Accused (written by Jerry Butler, the original singer with The Impressions)

Isaac Hayes did an incredible eleven-minute version of this – described by the Youtube listeners as the perfect song to make love to.

Although you wouldn’t necessarily want to make sexy time with your special one to Elvis Costello’s version (2:21).

MICHEL POLNAREFF “La Poupee Qui Fait Non”

The first hit for French singer songwriter Michel Polnareff who recorded versions in German, Italian and Spanish – bet he regrets not recording an English language version cos I reckon that could have been huge in the USA and Britain, offering something slightly different …

The song was recorded in London so that he could use the best session musicians around, which in mid-sixties London meant Jimmy Page on guitar. John-Paul Jones also plays bass on this which means it could well be the first instance of future members of Led Zeppelin playing on the same record.

Michel Polnareff has completed his first album in sixteen years which will be released over the next few months, definitely worth a listen and if its any good you’ll doubtless hear tracks from it on the Beat City podcast (which does the same thing as Retro Beat ’66, only for the music of 2016)

St Etienne did a towering version of this in the nineties:

CHRIS FARLOWE “Think”

First chart placing for North Londoner Chris Farlowe on the Immediate label with “Think”, one of five Rolling Stones songs Farlowe covered – logical when you remember that Immediate was set up by the aforementioned Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham (who incidentally is well worth a follow)

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The B-side was pretty good too.

REX LAWSON “Bete Boire”

Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson was one of the best-known highlife musicians in Nigeria during the sixties.

This track comes from a session recorded in late 1965.

This recording session was held one afternoon in August of 1965 in a Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation studio in Lagos, and if you listen carefully you can hear cars honking on the streets outside.

Listening to this all these years on, you can’t help but marvel at how good Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson and the Majors sound loose, limber and focused, paying great attention to ensemble dynamics, tight horn choruses and flowing solos.

This is another track from the same session, “Osaba Koro”

“Osaba Koro” by Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson

THEM “I Can Only Give You Everything”

Them in full-on garage mode with I Can Only Give You Everything

This is Them in full-on Animals mode with “Call My Name” from the same album

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FESTIVE FIFTY YEARS AGO 1965 Further Listening – Nos 30-21
4
Jan

Every year here in Retro Beat City we put together an end of year chart featuring some of the great tunes of the year.

In the spirit of the late great John Peel’s Festive Fifties you will hear a combination of hits, less well known songs and downright obscure tunes.

You can stream or download the chart rundown completely FREE in two parts:

30. THE FOUR PENNIES “Black Girl (In The Pines)”

Blackburn’s The Four Pennies with a traditional American folk song from the Appalachian mountains made famous by Leadbelly

which sounds excellent with a British Beat Group arrangement.

Nirvana apparently did it a few years later under the name Where Did You Sleep Last Night.

29. MARTIN CARTHY “The Queen Of Hearts”

“The Queen Of Hearts” is taken from folk singer Martin Carthy’s self-titled debut album which consists entirely of his settings of traditional folk songs.

Martin Carthy should really be better known among music fans in general – although in folk music circles he’s pretty much royalty, both in his own right and in having married Norma Waterson of the Waterson clan. He still regularly performs and records to this day often with Norma or his daughter Eliza.

His adaptation of the traditional balled “Scarborough Fair” was copied by Paul Simon (without credit) on Simon And Garfunkel’s “Parsley Sage Rosemary And Thyme” album in 1966. Good old Paul, when he steals, he steals from the best.

This is another track from the album, “High Germany”

28. JOHNNY NASH “Lets Move And Groove”

A slow soul stormer which barely dented the US charts on its release in September 1965, one of a few soul records in the Festive Fifty of 1965 that could reasonably be said to be ten years too early.

There was a rather overblown version of this song by Byron Latimore that featured in Piper’s striptease scene in “Orange Is The New Black” but you’re probably better off watching that with the sound turned down.

Johnny Nash would become more famous for his reggae hits in the late sixties and early seventies including this Bob Marley cover:

27. JOHN FAHEY “I Am The Resurrection”

John Fahey was a unique and uniquely influential guitarist, blending the old tyme picking style of old folk and bluegrass with the sonic palette of 20th century classical composiers like Bela Bartok and Charles Ives. His 1965 album “The Transfiguration Of Blind Joe Death” refers to his sometime alter-ego on record.

This is another track from the album, called “The Death Of The Clayton Peacock”. As one of the Youtube comments points out, it actually does sound like a dying peacock.

26. DUSTY SPRINGFIELD “I’ve Been Wrong Before”

When people think of Dusty Springfield albums these days they tend to go for 1968’s “Dusty In Memphis” which has all the hip criteria of being recorded in Memphis with the Muscle Shoals house band some of the best soul producers of the era (Tom Dowd and Jerry Wexler)

However, 1965’s “Everything’s Coming Up Dusty” (that couldn’t possibly be an ironic double-entendre, could it? Could it?) is for me her greatest album. If you overlook an ill-conceived, by-the-numbers take on “La Bamba” the album is wall-to-wall gold.

Her cover of Randy Newman’s “I’ve Been Wrong Before” is comfortably the best version of that song, and you could say the same about “Oh No Not My Baby”, Rod Stewart notwithstanding.

25. THE ZOMBIES “Sticks And Stones”

A track from the Zombies debut album “Begin Here” which also features their debut hit and best-known song “She’s Not There”, covered later by Santana. Whether you prefer that version or this one is down to whether you like guitars better than keyboards I suppose.

24. THE RATS “Rats Revenge Part Two”

For completeness’ sake here is the equally deranged “Rats Revenge Part One”.

There were at least three bands called The Rats who got to make records. One was a punk band from Portland, Oregon active from 1980-1984 or thereabouts. One was a psychedelic band from Hull which featured future Bowie sideman Mick Ronson on guitar and recorded “The Rise And Fall Of -Bernie Gripplestone” in 1967. Its nowhere near as good as its title.

23. FELA KUTI “Igba l’aiye”

This track comes from a session by Fela Kuti and his Koola Lobitos recorded for Leo Sarkisian’s then-relatively new Music Time In Africa show (available on the Voice Of America and going strong to this day under the care of the excellent Heather Maxwell)

Click for more details and further tracks.

22. THE RAMSEY LEWIS TRIO “The ‘In’-Crowd”

Fifty years ago, the Ramsey Lewis Trio sat in a Washington, D.C. coffee shop, musing over what it could add to its set that evening. It was booked for a run at Bohemian Caverns — the group had issued a live album made at the nightclub, and it was gearing up to record a follow-up live album. Over walked a waitress, who inquired about the band’s predicament.

Fifty years later, Lewis still remembers her name: Nettie Gray.

“She had a jukebox,” Lewis says. “Jukeboxes in coffee shops — people don’t know about that any more, but she went over to the jukebox and played: ‘You guys might like this! Listen to this!'”

Her recommendation was “The In Crowd,” sung by Dobie Gray — a popular hit at the time. Lewis and the band worked out an arrangement quickly, then ended their set with it that evening, to wild applause.

Fifty years later, that song remains Ramsey Lewis’ biggest hit.

“If somebody had come up with another song that fit the style of what we wanted, there would not have been an ‘In Crowd,’ ” he says.

A much-covered song, I’m quite partial to Bryan Ferry’s Roxyfied – if not Enossified – take on it from 1974.

21. THE STRANGELOVES “I Want Candy”

Although producers Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer used their real names in the writing and production credits of this single, they claimed The Strangeloves were actually three Australian brothers (and ex-sheep farmers) named Giles, Miles and Niles Strange. Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer dressed up in shaggy wigs and exotic clothing for publicity photos as The Strangeloves.

They hoodwinked enough American teens with their phony story, “Aboriginal” drums and cheap Beatle wigs in 1965 to send “I Want Candy” to number 11 on the US charts. For some reason it failed to trouble the scorers in the “brothers”‘ supposed “native” country, Australia.

If they’d never recorded anything else, the Strangeloves’ footnote in music history is assured. “I Want Candy” is a revelation – a Bo Diddley jungle beat, jazzy guitar line, and massed, slightly out of tune vocals sounding like a fraternity at the most drunken part of the evening.

Bow Wow Wow did a great version in 1981. Sorry if it reminds you of that fecking Candy Crush advert. #notsorry

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FESTIVE FIFTY OF 1965 Further Listening – NUMBERS 40 – 31
3
Jan

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The second of five blog pieces taking you a little bit deeper into the Festive Fifty of 1965.

Click here if you missed

Download the two parts of the actual podcast here:

This of blog posts gives a bit more background to each track, plus links to other related tracks worth hearing.

Enjoy!

40. THE CONTOURS “First I Look At The Purse”

Three years – an eternity in terms of the pop charts, both in the sixties and now – had passed since The Contours’ “Do You Love Me” went global, and while only lead vocalist Billy Gordon remained from the line-up that cut that record, and even though the group were strictly second division in the Motown pecking order, the band’s sound and output was still carefully controlled to ensure a direct line, sonologically speaking, between The Big Hit and all subsequent releases.

This song was written by Miracles Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rodgers and managed a reasonably creditable #57 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The J Geils Band did a superb garagey version of this song in 1970, by the way – worthy of The Band themselves and a million miles from their early 80s hits.

39. PRINCE BUSTER “Wash Wash”

Featuring Georgie Fame on organ and the Les Dawson Combo (the Jamaican ska group not the dour Yorkshire comedian although I reckon he could have probably handled the organ part on this)

The song is “based” on an old Frankie Laine number “That Lucky Old Sun” from 1949, but you do have to do whatever the aural equivalent is of “squint” in order to hear it.

38. AFRICA FIESTA “Minge Rhumba Fiesta”

L’Orchestra African Fiesta, often known simply as African Fiesta, was a Congolese soukous band started by Tabu Ley Rochereau and Dr. Nico Kasanda in 1963.

Tabu Ley and Dr. Nico were originally members of the seminal band Grand Kalle et l’African Jazz. They left African Jazz and started their own group, African Fiesta, with which they helped elevate the genre of African rumba into the genre now known as Soukous.

This track and many others equally as great can be found on the compilation “Rochereau et l’African Fiesta National 1964/1965/1966” under Tabu Ley Rochereau’s name (there were ructions between the two founder members which led to Nico Kasanda leaving the group and setting up African Fiesta Sukisa)

The track “Jaloux Jaloux” is just beautiful – listen to the singing on this.

37. SMALL FACES “Whatcha Gonna Do About It?”

The debut single and the debut hit from the peerless Small Faces – although the band weren’t that enamoured of the song and preferred the B-side “Whats A Matter Baby?”

36. DONOVAN “Universal Soldier”

In an era of many protest songs (notably Barry McGuire’s “Eve Of Destruction”) Buffy Saint-Marie’s gentler-sounding song stood out, as rather than an angry rant at generals and war in general it pointed the finger at the men who actually went off to war, and questioned their choices directly. A masterpiece of a song given a good treatment by Donovan

Here’s the original, with an introduction by Buffy Sainte-Marie describing the inspiration behind the song:

35. BRENDA HOLLOWAY “You Can Cry On My Shoulder”

Nothing I can say about this song, or indeed about Motown’s finest singer Brenda Holloway, that can’t be said better by Motown Junkies on Brenda Holloway

and then check out this dark, dark tale of a bad relationship:

34. THE WHO “My Generation”

According to Pete Townshend in a later interview “My Generation” started out as a talking blues folk song record, Townshend being hugely affected by Bob Dylan at the time.

You can just about discern this when you listen to it, in amongst the thunderous Keith Moon drums, the bass solo(!) from John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey’s stuttering pillhead vocal delivery.

Time has rendered this safe by repeated plays and listening – there’s probably an oldies channel near you playing it right now – but have a listen to it in context of some of the songs around it at the time (it was kept off no 1 by the Seekers’ “The Carnival Is Over”, while Ken Dodd’s “Tears” was still in the Top Ten) and you can get a hint of just how explosive that final descent into feedback would have sounded at the time.

The B-Side, a cover of James Brown’s “Shout And Shimmy” was none too shabby either.

33. THE YARDBIRDS “For Your Love”

Written by future 10CC founder member Graham Gouldman, “For Your Love” marked a bit of a change of direction for The Yardbirds away from straight blues / R and B numbers. Guitarist Eric Clapton hated the song and barely plays on it – he would leave the band soon after, paving the way for the more open-minded Jeff Beck.

“For Your Love” had an unusual chord structure and instrumentation – it features bongos and harpsichord, the latter played by Brian Auger as it was the only keyboard available in the studio. Auger’s parting comment was “who in their right mind would buy a single with a harpsichord on it?”

Turns out the answer was “quite a lot of people” as it reached #2 in the UK and #6 in the US and remains the band’s biggest hit.

The B-side was a more standard blues instrumental called “Got To Hurry” – sounds like Clapton’s enjoying himself a bit more here. (as an aside, check out the Youtube comments below it – the eternal “Who’s the greatest guitarist” arguments rage on and on and on …)

32. THE ROLLING STONES “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

The release of this record with its instantly recognisable introductory riff (which incidentally came to Keith Richards in a motel in Clearwater, Florida – they’ve probably got a plaque up or something). Keith didn’t see the possibilities of the riff even after Mick Jagger had gone away and written the lyrics and the band had recorded it.

Up until “Satisfaction” the Stones’ sound was recognisably white boys playing black music. From this point on, they played the Stones’ music.

The follow up was “Get Off My Cloud”, and you can almost taste the confidence with which they play it, knowing they’ve just blown the competition out of the water with “Satisfaction”. This is the point where the Stones really started to strut.

31. THE POETS “That’s The Way Its Got To Be”

Managed by Andrew Loog Oldham (who also handled the Rolling Stones), with a nice line in self-penned songs and a sound that just took the British Beat Group sound that little bit further into what would soon be called psychedelic rock, the Poets seemed to have everything going for them in 1965 releasing singles like “Thats The Way Its Got To Be” and “I Am So Blue” (below) but they never had a single reach higher than their 1964 debut “Now We’re Thru” (stalling at #31) and indeed never got to make an album. They were huge in Scotland though

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FESTIVE FIFTY OF 1965 Further Listening – Numbers 50 – 41
2
Jan

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Every year here in Beat City we produce an imagined chart based on the answer to the question “What would John Peel’s Festive Fifty have looked and sounded like if he’d done one fifty years ago?”

This year (just gone) being 2015, we’re looking back to 1965, one hell of a year for music in so many ways.

This series of blog posts gives a bit more background to each track, plus links to other related tracks worth hearing. Enjoy!

50. THE PRETTY THINGS “Honey I Need”

The co-founder (with Phil May) of the Pretty Things Dick Taylor was a college contemporary of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, even playing bass (very) briefly in the early incarnation of the Rolling Stones.

Taylor met singer Phil May at art college and formed the Pretty Things.

After two covers (“Rosalyn” and “Don’t Bring Me Down”) “Honey I Need” was the Pretty Things’ first self-penned hit. They never really cracked America owing mainly to a lot of very bad behaviour on the part of the members of the band.

One of only a very few acts from the 1965 Festive Fifty that are still going in 2015, and not just on the oldies circuit – they released an album in 2015 wryly titled “The Sweet Pretty Things (Are In Bed Now Of Course)” and while nobody is claiming its better than their crazed, noisy early albums or their 1967 rock opera “SF Sorrow” (yeah, Who and Kinks fans, they were there first with that particular bloated form) its a decent album.

Album review

Here’s a track from the new album called “Hell, Here And Nowhere”

49. TOSHIKO MARIANO AND HER BIG BAND “Kisarazu Jinku”

Known for her mixing jazz with Japanese influences, pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi (using her married name on this recording) was the first Japanese student to enrol at the prestigious Berklee School Of Music in Boston.

Still with us at 86, Akiyoshi has recorded well over fifty albums. This is probably the best solo jazz piano clip performed by a woman in her late 70s that you’ll see today.

48. ALTON ELLIS “Dance Crasher”

Alone among Jamaican singers of the era, Alton Ellis consistently released records critical of the violent lawlessness epitomised by the burgeoning Rude Boy culture (sanitised into pork pie hats and shiny suits by later generations of British teenagers).

“Dance Crasher” is the most famous of this run of songs although “Blessings Of Love” and in particular “Cry Tough” are also well worth a listen

47. BERT JANSCH “Needle Of Death”

“Needle Of Death”, a response to the recent death of a friend from a heroin overdose, is from his self-titled debut album, generally regarded as the first British singer-songwriter album.
Its an astonishing debut, recorded on a reel-to-reel tape recorded at the Camden Town flat of engineer Bill Leader – check out the way he attacks the guitar on “Strolling Down The Highway”

46. TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS “Pain In My Belly”

Credited to “Prince Buster And The Maytals” since the band had recently signed to Buster’s label and the logic of the record industry dictated that it was good for sales to use the more famous name to sell the record.

That is definitely Toots Hibbert’s voice though – as is also the case on “Jamaica Ska”, made around the same time and similarly credited.

45. THE CASTAWAYS “Liar Liar”

The Castaways hailed from the twin cities of Minneapolis / St Paul in the garage band hotbed that was Minnesota in the sixties.

“Liar Liar” was their debut single and their only hit.

The follow-up “Goodbye Babe” is pretty much a rehash with a different vocal trick to it but still, you’d have thought it would have made SOME headway if only for the genuinely scary half-spoken intro …

44. SUPER ENSEMBLE NEMOURS JEAN-BAPTISTE “Fanatiques Compas”

Haitian sax player and bandleader Nemours Jean-Baptiste released the album “Les Trois Dangers” in 1965 and the track “Fanatiques Compas” is the standput track.
From the record company, IBO records in the late sixties:

“Nemours Jean-Baptiste and his renowned Ensemble, is truly an asset to the musical art of Haiti. It is a symbol, a landmark, in a new concept of interpreting music of Haitian origin. In a word, it is the result of the will of the Haitians to enrich their native musical repertoire.

There is no doubt that Nemours Jean-Baptiste is a musician well qualified to be able to conceive and improve upon a new swing. An unusually fine agile musical ability is one of the main ingredients in Nemours’ formula for success. His care in adapting his original ideas to the tastes of the public is acknowledged by their pleased attitude toward his inspirations.

Four years ago, to give new impetus to Haitian music, he created the rhythm known as “Konpa Direk”. This renovation was enthusiastically welcomed, and it brought immediate fame to Nemours Jean-Baptiste.

From its inception, this new rhythm was approved of by everyone. Both young and old could dance to it with ease. Its authentic styling and personality coupled with new melodies and fine arrangements bring this rhythm each day closer and closer to the forefront of popular dance music, a position, it so justly deserves.”

Another track from the album – “Immortel Compas”

43. BILLY STEWART “I Do Love You”

Billy Stewart died in a motorbike crash in January 1970 at the age of 32, a tragically early loss of a great talent who would undoubtedly have flourished with the smoother Philadelphia-style soul of the early to mid seventies – “I Do Love You” reached #26 in the US Hot 100 while the follow-up “Sitting In The Park” went two places higher

42. OS KRIPTONS “Billy Boom”

Angolan garage band Os Kriptons consisted of Gil Azevedo Lima on rhythm guitar ) ,António Veloso on drums, Carlos Alberto Sanchez on bass and José Antonio Diamantino on viola, of all things. Playing their first gig in N’Gola cinema in Luanda, they achieved a fair amount of local success with their first EP, form which “Billy Boom” is taken. This is “Manga Madura” from the same EP.

41. THE ANIMALS “Bring It On Home To Me”

Alan Price’s final single with The Animals was a cover of the Sam Cooke classic (below) – he was replaced briefly by Mickey Gallacher who went on to become a central part of Ian Dury And The Blockheads.

Look out for the next instalment of this blog in a couple of days’ time.

Stay groovy, won’t you?

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