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Archive for the ‘Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich’ Category
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Heart had the bad timing of critical mass appeal around ‘77, just as punk was our religion. Talk about a jinx. Heart were helium coated, corporate, Lee Abrams AOR gack. They were literally nauseating. And loathed. Well, not by the masses, but those of us who felt we were in the know, with proper taste.
In hindsight, they were fascinating, for every sonic reason listed above. Now their glistening studio perfection is bizarrely intoxicating, addictive even, very much like the Roy Thomas Baker Queen productions and almost alien.
As with most of the big bands of the day, the ones radio rammed down our throats (REO Speedwagon, Journey, The Doobie Brothers), I always ended up having a guilty pleasure or two by each and every one. Heart were no exception.
Listen: Nothin’ At All / Heart
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I absolutely loved ‘Nothin’ At All’, right down to the apostrophy in it’s title, mainstream turned up to eleven production and all. Then there’s the picture on the sleeve. A styling faux pas representing everything that had gone horribly wrong with American AOR radio. Indeed, it exemplified why it eroded music as an important part of US culture. But I loved that single. Still do – more than ever actually.
Somewhere in the mid/late 90’s, there was a benefit at The Ritz, after it’s relocation uptown to where Studio 54 was once housed. Don’t recall the cause, but the headliners were Joey Ramone and the Wilson sisters from Heart. They had a side project at that time: The Lovemongers. And that’s who played on this occasion.
I went along with Joe. He had a bunch of friends backing him that night, playing some classics by other bands as well as a few from The Ramones, and was kinda in an ‘everyone come along for a laugh and a few beers’ mood.
Heart’s original road manager, Kelly Curtis, who went on to manage Pearl Jam, was with Ann and Nancy. Kelly and I became great friends in the early 90’s. He helped me out in life when I really needed it – in a big way and I’m always thrilled to see him, particularly as this was very unexpected (I think he was passing through town that day – or something). So he invited me into to meet Nancy and Ann.
By now, my venom for their music had long past, and it was a pleasure to sit and talk with these two incredibly lovely people. At one point, trying to make an extreme point, I quantified it with, “but don’t mind me, I love Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich”. Ann sits straight up and exclaims ‘I love Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich too’. Instant fast friends. We dug into songs, details and how we first heard them – as fans do. Somewhere in the conversation mix, I mention my other, at that time, obsession: Sunbeam mixers. Nancy’s guitar tech, in the room at that moment, whips round and says “You’re into Sunbeam – me too”. Ann says “He really is – show him”. So this guy takes off his T shirt, turns his back to me and proudly displays a ton of Sunbeam toaster tattoos across his torso. All the classic models.
Yes, hard to believe but every word of the above is true.
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I religiously collected local radio station charts placed in all the record shops and record departments at the variety stores. Every town had them. They’re really fun to scour nowadays for the national non-hits as well as being a great snapshot of the music you could hear at that given moment. If you search ‘music survey’ at eBay, there are always a bunch listed for auction.
I recall WT Grants on Salina Street in Syracuse had a huge record department, and stocked everything you could want, especially as WOLF, one of the town’s two Top 40 stations was pretty adventurous, playing a lot of obscure English rock and US RnB. This was a God send for me from ‘65 – ‘67, until they buckled and went all Billboard on us. That said record department had a soda counter attached to it, up a few steps with typical glittery colored American Graffiti style booths looking down on the hustle/bustle of kids pawing through and buying records (today you see the same activity at an Apple store or Game Stop), and they had a great jukebox. It was jammed with all the latest up and comers. I remember investing a dime to hear ‘Bend It’, well not only hear it but watch the single spin round on the store’s lavender/purple Rock-ola, at the same time admiring a factory printed Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich jukebox tab to accompany it. I wonder where that tab ended up. Hate to think.
My only problem with WT Grants or Walt’s being there were so many choices, and not enough money to buy them all on my $1/week allowance and a bit of cash from mowing lawns. I still get cold sweats hearing a lawn mover. I would literally walk up and back neighbor’s yards behind their mowers deciding what record this torturous act would earn me. I distinctly remember suffering through several yards earning enough to buy FRESH CREAM. I went cheap, and sprung for the mono pressing as they were $1 less. Who knew then that monos would end up way more valuable. Man, am I happy I bought them: Pink Floyd’s PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN, The Jimi Hendrix Experience AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE and Big Brother & The Holding Company CHEAP THRILLS to mention a few that reaped incredible returns. Well if I ever decide to sell them that is. I soon figured out other ways to get all these records – and more – for free. That saga is covered in my Jack Dupree post for the more curious of you.
Meanwhile, the one record that got played by WOLF (and I bet only by WOLF in the whole of the US as I’ve never seen it on any other local chart – ever) but NOT stocked, was ‘Richard Corey’ by Them. It’s actually a cover written by Paul Simon. Van Morrison reportedly hated it.
If you couldn’t find something at Grant’s there was also Walt’s Records, just down a block and right next to a peanut shop, freshly roasting their wares.
Walt’s was a great shrine to obscure stuff, and very RnB heavy. The place smelled fantastic – a constant mixture of fresh vinyl and roasted nuts. Like Grant’s, I was told they “couldn’t get” this single by Them either. “Couldn’t get”, what the hell does that mean? Turns out the lyric “He went home last night and put a bullet through his head” was a big deal….I’m guessing neither outlet dared stock it just in case. Guns were not cool once – it’s a shame that’s changed. And it took me years to find this as I’m sure not many were pressed. How WOLF got away with playing ‘Richard Corey’ – a lot – for several weeks without a problem is surprising, but they did.
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True story. I know you will think this is a lie, but I swear on a stack of Ramones albums that it is not.
UK manager Dennis Muirhead paid me his yearly visit at Columbia Records in the late 90’s. We’d met back in ‘85 when I’d first joined Elektra and he always stopped by when he came through town. One of his clients at the time was Stuart Coleman. Stuart lived then in Nashville and had produced many successful country acts, but had prior UK hits with Shakin’ Stevens. Dennis gave me a package including all his producers latest discographies which I browsed while catching up. I noticed Stuart had started his career in the 60’s with The Shadows. So I said to Dennis, hey this guy goes back a bit, is he English? Affirmative. I proceeded to say I wish these fellows would list all those really early engineering jobs they would have started out doing prior to that first producer opportunity. “I mean, Dennis, he could have worked on something obscure like…..Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours or something”. I just grabbed that fun, eccentric example out of my head.
Dennis looks me square in the eye and says “He was IN Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours”. Silence. Neither of us could believe what had just transpired. “You’re not kidding are you, well call him now”. He suggested one better, that I ring his place asking for him as a member of the band, which I did. I let Stuart know fairly fast that Dennis was there with me, and we had a very nice chat. I mailed him this jukebox tab, he autographed it and sent it straight back.
As for the group, I was interested because of the name. When I saw their first single ‘Mirror Mirror’ entering the UK charts, I had to hear them asap. But it wasn’t to be for ages. Even though released Stateside, it was nowhere to be heard or found. WMCR, the little station that gave me all those unwanted promo singles at the time, weren’t serviced by London, parent company of Parrot Records – home to Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours. Damn. I was jonesing by the time their second single hit. ‘Don’t Stop Loving Me, Baby’ limped into the UK Top 50 at #50 for one week. I love a good followup flop usually more than the previous hit, so this was reaching fever pitch.
Finally I was successful, finding it in a 25¢ bin at The House Of Oldies on Bleeker Street in NYC when my Aunt Nancy invited me along to visit some relative for a few days. I got a ton of London titles there – The Cryin’ Shames, Lulu & The Luvvers, The Gonks, Hedgehoppers Anonymous and Jonathan King among them – all nice orange swirl promos. This is a great double sider. Not overly special but a solid British staple. Actually, just tonight I realized some similarities to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich thereby explaining a lot of it’s appeal for me.
Listen: Will Ya / Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours
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The B side ‘Will Ya’ is my favorite of the two, but just. That timid but still wildish fuzz solo is the tie breaker. Mike Goldsmith picked me up the stock copy pictured, only a few months ago, at Academy Records in Brooklyn. I had never seen nor heard of one being pressed as it seemed likely this would never have made it beyond the promo stage – but here it is.
A few posts back, Manfred Mann on April 24th to be exact, I mentioned a terrific site lovingly maintained by Mary Payne and dedicated to 60’s pirate station Radio London. A day later, I get an email from this very iconic lady – thanking me for the kind words. I couldn’t have been more pleased – or so I thought.
Mary certainly did some trolling around, finding my post about the history of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s ‘Bend It’ in the US, and proceeded to include some of those details on her Radio London site. What an knockout – thank you Mary. If ever I’d have thought as a kid that someday, even my name alone would get a mention by Radio London, I would’ve expired.
Listen: Touch Me, Touch Me / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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Well within her post, she wonders what US Fontana did about a later single ‘Touch Me, Touch Me’, by the band for the American market – given ‘Bend It’ had been cock blocked due to suggestive lyrics. My real belief is US dj’s didn’t want to bother learning the band’s name – that simple. Add to it, they only visited Stateside once for press and local TV’s, never playing live, which also didn’t make for a successful recipe.
As for ‘Touch Me, Touch Me’, US Fontana simply didn’t release it. A few months later, (June ‘67), it was included on the band’s US GREATEST HITS album, a collection of all their singles that traded pretty exclusively off some regional US hits like ‘Bend It’ and ‘Hold Tight’ (although I did hear ‘Hideaway’ twice on WOLF). It faltered at #155 in Billboard’s Top 200. Even that was a surprise showing. The icing on the Fontana brainforce’s cake was to NOT include the band’s then current single ‘Okay’ (released July ‘67) on the LP – despite the group getting their first National US TV that very summer (August ‘67) performing…..’Okay’. It was to be their last release with Fontana.
Debuting on Imperial with ‘Zabadak’ the following November, they finally got a loads of airplay and ultimately cracked Billboard’s Top 100.
As if the mention was not enough, I find on closer examination of her posting, that the Radio Caroline site has now been updated to include their weekly charts from the 60’s as well.
Oh boy. I’ve been there for a few hours and have barely had time to do this here post. Visit it and prepare. You will need to set aside even more hours.
Thank you again Mary, you’ve made my year – and keep up the great work on your Radio London site.
Listen: A Walk In The Black Forest / Horst Jankowski
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A good dose of instrumental muzak never hurt anyone. Having been occasionally amazed in a supermarket or drug store by a version of some really un-obvious choice is the best part. I wish I could remember a few, but other than The Seeds ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’, I can not. Even hearing that took a good minute to identify, they can really trip you up.
Somehow, Horst Jankowski managed a US #12 Billboard single, and a UK #3 with ‘A Walk In The Black Forest’ in ‘65. Great song title as well. The album from which it came reached #18 here in the States. His easy listening, and presumably inexpensive to make LP’s were released, minimum of three per year through 1970 – with four in ‘67 alone. It made for a nice break in a landscape of Motown and British Invasion pop radio I will admit. Today, it’s more than happening when it gets the unexpected spin in the jukebox.
Listen: Zabadak / Horst Jankowski
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I’ve not seen that many other singles by the fellow, given the number of albums issued, but they may have simply evaded me. One big surprise was stumbling on his extremely easy listening version of ‘Zabadak’. I knew of several others, easily a dozen from obscure places around Europe and Japan. The most famous being those by Boney M, Dana Valery and The Sorrows. The wildest one comes as part of the German Decca LP release by The Charing Cross Boys: DANCE TO THE SONGS OF DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH, which by the way I’m jonsing for.
Found this one at a record fair – you guessed it, in a 10 for $1 box. That’s 10¢ each for those of you without a calculator or a knack for math.
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Listen: Brown Girl In The Ring / Boney M
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If ever there was a double sider, this one qualifies. Probably by accident, Boney M’s massive worldwide success, their cover of The Melodians’ Jamaican hit ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ was coupled with ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’. Who knew? The A side was such a smash in the UK (#1) that even the flip took hold, got played and charted on it’s own right (also #1). It was a time when Boney M could do no wrong, German accents and all, one of many consistent ‘phenomenas’ in England. When they get themselves worked up, they really get themselves worked up.
Boney M was everywhere – and seemingly all walks of musical taste liked them. I know I did.
Rasputin /Boney M
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Their NIGHTFLIGHT TO VENUS album contained both ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ and ‘Brown Girl In The Ring’ as well a bunch of other classics: the title track, a version of The Creation’s ‘Painter Man’, ‘He Was A Steppenwolf’ and ‘Rasputin’ (which became the followup reaching #2). One of those huge selling albums, like we don’t really have much anymore, the ‘Painter Man’ track became a single, charting at #10, a whole year after the double A whammy peaked.
Painter Man /Boney M
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Somewhere in that team, good taste prevailed. Not only did they cover The Creation, they had a go at The Smoke’s ‘My Friend Jack’, Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’, The Yardbird’s ‘Still I’m Sad’ as well as Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s ‘Zabadak’.
God knows where I got this – probably wrote away for it being the record collector I was at 8 years old. Still have a few Fontana 7″ mailers from that time period as well. I would write to this person, Claranelle Morris, at Fontana’s main office in Chicago back then, pestering her about The Herd and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. She’d send photos, bios, sometimes even a single. I guess she figured you couldn’t hear or buy them in the sticks of the Syracuse suburbs, so give the kid the record already. We’re going to toss them anyways. Thank you Claranelle. To go back and police the Fontana dumpsters – if only.
It was years later, when I finally got a break to get into the business (Howard Thompson gave me my 1st A&R job at Elektra – without him, I’d still be struggling), that I discovered as soon as a record isn’t current, being worked at radio or believed in (at Columbia, my last label job, this often happened within a few weeks: Charlie Walk in particular convinced many he was quite good at A&R, he’s now unemployed) – off to the dumpster went the product, and many times off to the scrapheap went the act’s career.
But let’s not lose focus……so I found this catalog in one of the many trunks of ’stuff’ I’ve saved over the years. It’s just like new, man, I wouldn’t mind a box lot of many of the titles here. Of course, I loved the English groups back then, but also had a jones for Gloria Lynne. It wasn’t only because she was on Fontana (which was always a favorite label – Suzanne King made me a great Fontana T Shirt for my birthday one year. She lives in Chicago now – visit the Fontana building Suzanne. It was at 35 E. Wacker Drive.). Gloria Lynne had a bunch of records on Everest prior. I had a copy of ‘Indian Love Call’ from that period, given to me in one of the Saturday morning piles of singles my uncle, a jukebox operator, would drop off instead of trashing when I was very young, about 5-6. It’s probably the reason the record collecting gene was dangerously awakened in my DNA.
I paid attention to Gloria Lynne singles. I often heard them on the radio playing in the local barber shop where I’d get my haircut as a little boy. Must have been an AC station of it’s day, way before it’s then output turned into bachelor pad, lounge, hipster stuff decades later.
It’s been one year ago today since we lost Dave Dee, therefore I’ve decided on this re-post from January 2009.
In that time, Claranelle Morris’ daughter found my remembrances of her Mom. She googled her name. Claranelle was the sweetest lady from Fontana, who would send me all things released by the label, and especially those by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, who I had originally written to her about in the 60’s (see post). One of the best communication results via SO MANY RECORDS, SO LITTLE TIME I’ve ever been lucky enough to have.
Listen: Zabadak / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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In honor of yet another year owning ‘Zabadak’, I’ve decided it’s an annual tradition to repost my original entry about the single’s history from December 28, 2008.
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Let’s face it. The theme song to ABC’s syndicated daily pop show, WHERE THE ACTION IS, titled ‘Action’ by Freddie Cannon, was so good, even The Ramones could have covered it.
I lived for WHERE THE ACTION IS and saw many a great act each day after school. Our local Syracuse affiliate, WSYR-TV, was wishy-washy, and many times pre-empted it with other things. Looking over the complete, chronological list of episodes and guests, I’ve only just discovered missing Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours, The Action and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich for just that reason. Indeed, I’m a bit crushed having now discovered these atrocities. Scumbags.
But seeing an LA centric act, who were basically down the street from the studios I’m guessing (The Guillteens, The Ikettes with and without Ike & Tina Turner, The Vejtables, The Leaves, The Seeds, Gary & The Hornets, Love, Dino Desi & Billy, The Buffalo Springfield and Jan & Dean) almost daily was bliss.
Not to mention the RnB stuff: Martha & The Vandellas, Doris Troy, The Royalettes, Mary Wells, Brenda Holloway, The Toys, Maxine Brown, Kim Weston, Carla Thomas, Billy Stewart, Bobby Hebb, Alvin Cash & The Crawlers or Felice Taylor. I still replay The Vibrations doing ‘My Girl Sloopy’ vividly in my memory.
Then there were the black and white segments from England, a real high for this sicko: The Small Faces, Gary Farr & The T-Bones, Them, The Mindbenders, The Zombies, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, Unit 4 + 2, The Who, Wayne Fontana, Marianne Faithfull and The Yardbirds. Surviving somehow for all to see, The Cryin’ Shames clip (complete with Dick Clark’s intro):
While I’m on the subject of TV shows – there was a great summer replacement in ‘67 for HOLLYWOOD PALACE, the weekly Saturday night variety program hosted by Dean Martin on ABC-TV. You know the one The Rolling Stones made their US network debut on, whereby Dean poked fun their way during his into and outro to the performance.
Well, in summer ‘67 it was replaced with PICCADILLY PALACE. The sight to the series lists air dates and guests for each episode. I generally lived each week for the moment. Well that’s not entirely true, a lot happened that summer. Still, some of the guests: The Small, Faces, The Hollies, Manfred Mann, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, The Kinks and The New Vaudeville Band. If anyone has footage, please let me know.
Listen: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine / Country Joe & The Fish
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Listen: Who Am I / Country Joe & The Fish
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Listen: I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag / Country Joe & The Fish
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Along with Big Brother & The Holding Company, Tim Rose, Moby Grape and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I finally heard Country Joe & The Fish on Boston’s WBZ very late one night, summer ‘67. I would lie awake for hours, a truly twisted little kid, listening to music from cities and towns only reachable after 9pm, when the FCC’s regulations at the time (maybe still) allowed their daytime ‘directional’ antennas to relax, and beam wider and farther. It was a smorgasbord of great late night radio – the kind you only hear about existing so long ago. All this music was actually there for me to hear by searching my pocket sized handheld device. Every kid had one even then: an AM transistor radio.
By summer ‘67 I was an old pro at this – the previous spring/summer ‘66 brought me the same privilege, but that year the bands were almost exclusively English. Boston and the whole Northeast was pretty UK centric when it came to radio programming. At night you’d hear The Moody Blues, The Small Faces, The Pretty Things, non-hits by hitmakers (Hollies/Troggs/Searchers/Swinging Blue Jeans/Zombies/Them) – loads of stuff. WBZ heavily played Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s ‘Hold Tight’ that year, but so did the local Syracuse stations. If it weren’t for Billboard, I’d of had no idea it wasn’t a national smash.
Well by summer ‘67 we were at the very front end of what, by ‘68, would become FM radio – all the fireside closeness that your pal, the pot head DJ, would exude. But just before it all got commercial, the late night Top 40’s were a Godsend.
I really wanted some records by this band though – and you couldn’t buy their singles for love or money then. Like The Seeds and Moby Grape, they seldom found their way east so it was all about patience in getting any exposure to them – unless you sprung for the album. I finally got ‘Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine’ via my scam with the adult station in town (they’d give me all their unplayable rock singles believing I was indeed from the local children’s hospital). Not until years later did I notice the annoying Farfisa that seemed to be so prevalent. How did I miss it then? I guess they just sat nicely as part of the San Francisco sound due to production and guitar style. Very Quicksilver like tones from Barry Melton (I think it was him).
‘Who Am I’ was the real clincher – hearing this one late at night – it really sounded fantastic. I’d clamp that radio to my ear as soon as it came on. Couldn’t play it too loud for fear of waking up my Mom & Dad – the music battling crickets and the sonic backdrop of the Thruway in the distance. Beautiful ambience.
Woodstock took ‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die’ mainstream – FM underground mainstream that is. By then (‘69), the band was fried – it didn’t matter. But these singles: classic period pieces.
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Listen: Come On Home / Wayne Fontana
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Wayne Fontana’s version of ‘Come On Home’ came on the radio during the summer of 1966. It was an instant favorite. A year earlier, he was the first live act I’d ever seen, well actually that was Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders. One short year later, they had split into two separate items – seemed like an eternity. Both had hits in the UK, but only The Mindbenders managed to get attention here with ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’. I was glad to finally hear a solo track by him, as he’d had two UK hits by then. The single only got a few weeks worth of spins, and then on the more mainstream leaning Top 40, WNDR, as opposed to the more logical and much better WOLF (they were allowed to fumble occasionally). Little did I know at the time, ‘Come On Home’ was written by Jackie Edwards, the same guy who’d written my early Spencer Davis Group favorites ‘Keep On Running’, ‘Somebody Help Me’ and ‘When I Come Home’. Years later, I discovered his deep involvement in ska and the various solo records, as well as duets (with Millie, amongst others) he had recorded, many of which I’ve managed to obtain over the years.
Wanye Fontana, along with Dave Berry, opened for the original lineup reunion of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich I’d up and flown to England to see on April 28, 2001 at The London Palladium. By then I’d waited 35 years to see them, and that was quite long enough for me, so off I went. Like Dave Berry, he was well seasoned and hysterically entertaining live – each running through their many UK hits including respective tracks (like ‘Come On Home’) now regarded as Northern Soul staples. It was all great fun, but no comparison to when the headliners hit the stage.
Yes – that’s my opinion about him and his band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Legendary. I have totally avoided the passing of musicians on the blog. I prefer to keep this a bit of a fantasy flashback, about all the great things music brought into our childhoods, teenage years and lives in general, timeless in a way. But an exception is the loss of Dave Dee.
Like everyone, I’ve had many favorites through the years, always feeling, at the moment, they were irreplaceable forever – then life goes on and others move in to that top spot. But still, an absolute favorite in so many ways is Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. My soundtrack to being a kid, and an aspiration to living someplace where people could dress in wild colourful clothes, as this band did while my upstate NY peers did not.
I began writing their US label, Fontana and started a dialog (above) with Claranelle Morris, who would send along their photos, bios, promotional oddities and occasionally records (see more scans at end of post). A year or two later when I had her trust, she would sneak the latest releases by The Mindbenders, The Troggs, The Pretty Things and The Herd in the post to me as well. I do wish I knew her whereabouts now to say thanks a million.
Listen: Okay / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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I love all of their records, but for some reason, ‘Okay’ has a sentimental thing about it. That opinion is clearly just mine, as most of their singles are wonderfully eclectic musically, and possibly more interesting, whereas ‘Okay’ is fairly straight forward singalong pop. Still it reached #4 in the UK charts doing just as well as their others. This band, if fact, during 1966, sold more records in the UK than either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, as well between ‘66-’68 chalked up more weeks in the British charts than, believe it or not, again, The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. Watching them do ‘Okay’ on Piccadilly Palace made my summer that year – and that’s saying a lot given it was the infamous summer of ‘67! See the below clipping from the local newspaper.
They only ever made two appearances on National US television: Cleveland’s Upbeat, which was shown locally in Syracuse too, (May 28, 1967) performing ‘Hold Tight’ and ‘Bend It’, and then on the above mentioned, nationally syndicated Piccadilly Palace (August 26, 1967) doing ‘Okay’ and ‘If I Were A Carpenter’.
Listen: Bend It (Original Censored Version) / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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Listen: Bend It (Clean US Version) / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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A last ditch attempt was made by US Fontana to find a way for ‘Bend It’, a worldwide smash, to be heard in America. So they had Dave go in and re-vocal it, taking out a few suggestive lyrics – which clearly were about sex, and changing some words into an implied dance routine, ‘The Bend’. The single was re-serviced with a dance instruction sheet (see scan below). Unfortunately, they couldn’t change the important line “when night’s ending, we’ll be bending” and hence a failed experiment.
To think nowadays the original would be on Disney Radio right next to Lil Kim, no problem. For the real fussy collector, you can tell the rare ‘dirty’ version from the ‘clean’: the ‘dirty’ leaves out the comma between Dozy Beaky on the label as opposed to the ‘clean’, whereby the punctuation is correct ie: Dozy, Beaky. Luckily, this was a hit in the northeast, including my hometown Syracuse, where it went #1 on the WOLF chart. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy from that particular week’s survey, but do have one from two weeks prior (see scan below). Anyone with a copy – name your price.
In the late 80’s, I made friends with Safta Jaffery, an English manager who looked after (still does) some prominent producers. He came to see me at Elektra, we got to talking and I discovered he knew Dave Dee. My excitement was obvious, so he graciously said “Next UK trip, give me a heads up and I’ll get you an introduction”. He went a few steps further, arranging a lunch. I trembled waiting for Dave in the lobby of the studio that housed his office. I’m pretty sure it was Mickie Most’s RAK. Although I arrived on time, to the minute, he finally came barreling down the circular staircase about half an hour late (the longest half hour of my life), all smiles and very apologetic. As we walked to the restaurant, he said he’d been tied up on the phone with a musician friend who needed some advice. I asked who, being rather casually curious. “Scott Walker” he replies. Holy shit. I almost passed out. Walking down a London street with Dave Dee as he spoke nonchalantly about a Scott Walker telephone conversation he’s just had. I wasn’t ready.
We spent a good hour together, talking non stop about the 60’s, answering all kinds of questions, just the nicest, most courteous guy. Of course he was only too happy to fill out a jukebox tab for me too:
Listen: Zabadak / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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Last year around this time, Bob Lefsetz (who publishes a great subscription letter you should all Google and sign up for) wrote about hearing The Box Tops during Christmas break in Vermont, ‘67. It was a nice piece, time traveling me back to that Christmas/New Year’s week, growing up outside of Syracuse – a ten year old obsessed with records. I wrote him a response with much of the following, but don’t know if he ever read it, he never responded. That’s fine. It motivated me to start my own blog, so all good.
Basically, I still like the winter weather as it reminds of that week off school as a kid. Everyone wants to escape it here in NY nowadays but I love staying home, hanging around the deserted city, having friends over especially if they bring Christmas cookies, keeping the fireplace going and hoping for snow. Growing up near Syracuse was pretty drab but we had one remarkable perk: a Top 40 station, WOLF, that from ‘64 – ‘67 seemed to flawlessly play the good bits of Billboard’s chart alongside national non-hits, most of them British – and many rightfully considered classics today, including several each by The Who, Them, Manfred Mann, The Zombies, The Kinks, The Moody Blues, The Pretty Things and The Move. So I’d spend that whole week glued to the radio, crawling the record shops and record departments at W.T. Grants & Woolworths, collecting chart handouts, asking for discarded Billboard magazines and stocking up on deletions. One of the UK bands whose label, Fontana, didn’t or couldn’t put the needed payola cash behind them on a national level, actually had hits upstate: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Some consider them too pop, or zany, but I just loved their image (paisley pants/flowered shirts) and music. Eventually, they switched US labels in late ‘67, to Imperial, who made a big attempt at breaking them here – and almost did. ‘Zabadak’ got a lot of play, charted in many markets – and got great reaction (KHJ in LA took it Top 10 – see chart above). I was feeling liberated. Finally they were having a hit, and The Small Faces too (‘Itchycoo Park’ was doing equally well). US radio was about to be on pulse – I didn’t need to move to England. Then THUD. ‘Zabadak’ stalls at #52. Seems it’s been all down hill ever since.
December 28th: it’s been 41 years today (the receipt is still in the sleeve) that I bought ‘Zabadak’ at Walt’s Records on Salina Street, doing my part. It’s a fantastic single – all jungle drums with haunting strings and chants. Sounded stunning on the radio – like nothing else – a lot of stations played it for a few weeks. The kind of record that zaps me right back, hence I always remember the date – and I’ll always remember that great shop. I can easily visualize the decor – it’s unique record shop smell – I wanted everything in the place – still do. One whole wall was lined with brackets that held 25+ copies of a single, where all the biggest sellers made it. But the obscure records – many of the ones I mentioned – would reside in the back – on a four sided carousel that swirled, and had slot like pockets, each able to hold 10 or so copies of a single. I would go straight to that unit every visit (usually once or twice a month), having to decide which two or three singles I could afford on a dollar a week allowance. Some of the ones I had to pass up took me years to locate (The Small Faces ‘All Or Nothing’ with the picture sleeve and The Riot Squad ‘How Is It Done’ come to mind). But there were many I did get (Pink Floyd ‘See Emily Play’, Them ‘Richard Corey’, The Yardbirds ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine’ & The Herd ‘From The Underworld’). On December 28, 1967 I tore to that rack – and there it was – ‘Zabadak’. My Aunt Nancy, a grand lady, had brought me shopping and kindly paid, thereby allowing me to spend my dollar allowance to buy Inez & Charlie Foxx’s ‘Count The Days’. We went on to visit another relative that afternoon where I was tortured, staring at these jems, jonesing to get home and play them.
Now I’m convinced Hot Chip could do a killer remake of ‘Zabadak’. Please consider it guys.
Oh and one other tid bit about Walt’s. I ran there to buy Traffic’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’ the day after seeing them at Syracuse University’s Jabberwocky Club on their first tour. As I walked in, out came Traffic, with loads of soul and jazz albums. They patiently waited as I bought the single then signed it’s picture sleeve.
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Listen: Pictures Of Lily / The Who
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Listen: Patterns / Small Faces
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Listen: I Feel Free / Cream
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Ok. So these are fairly recognizable records. Certainly The Who and Cream songs are, probably the most obscure being The Small Faces’ ‘Patterns’. Although on many comps, it’s their hardest Decca single by far, and was never issued in the US on a 7″. The reason I have them clumped together: they all travelled back to The States with my Mom from Ireland in June ‘67. She had gone off to see my Aunt for a few weeks and I loaded her down with a list and a half of records to please, please, please buy me. She came back with four (all she could probably afford but I was totally content, for good reason); my Aunt Connie ordering the one I wanted most (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich ‘Okay’) and sending it on later. Luckily I had the greatest parents in the world for millions of reasons, two being their patience with my record fetish and generosity toward the addiction. I found that I had housed The Cream single in the actual bag they all came in (notice the address matches the stamp on the sleeve), so when pulling it to play tonight, I thought it would be fun to bunch them together for this little, but true, story. Thanks Mom.
Some chart and review clippings from a locally printed (there were many in the 60’s) newspaper style teen handout at record shops. This one, RECORD BEAT was, I think, from Buffalo and somehow made it’s way to a local Syracuse (where I grew up) store – probably it was spread over the upstate New York area. These were really fun to get, there were just so many records on all the charts they printed inside, which included the CASHBOX Top 100 singles, The UK’s Top 50 and a locally compiled RnB chart, plus the features and accompanying pictures – most of which were basically bios and promo photos from the labels. No problem. I ate it up. The really fun one here is the ‘Ask Your DJ To Play’ reviews. Can you imagine, they’d actually take your requests back then, and sometimes play them at night. We know now that even then it was corrupt but nothing compared to how wretched American radio became. At least they finally put themselves out of business but not before keeping 1000’s of great records off the US airwaves. I’m still pissed that ‘Hold Tight’ by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich wasn’t played nationally. A real loss for America. At least it got some just rewards 42 years later when Quentin Tarantino used it in ‘Death Proof’, even name checking the band (which unfortunately the actress fumbled!!!). (Please feel free to email any such clippings you have in return.)
