Oldies Hits We Never Knew

Much has been written about the revolt of the pirate radio stations in the UK against the BBC’s limitation of rock and roll on the British Airwaves. There has even been a movie or two done about it. The most famous was the 2009 film “The Boat That Rocked” or as we knew it in the US, “Pirate Radio.” The movie was also called “Good Morning England” in France, “Radio Rock Revolution” in Germany, and “I Love Radio Rock” in Italy.

But this is not about a movie that had multiple titles all over the world but about songs and artists that were hits in the UK but were relatively unknown in the US.

Who is this lady on the left? Probably the biggest of these artists was Helen Shapiro. Although too poor to own a record player, Helen's parents encouraged music in their home (she had to borrow a neighbor’s player to hear her first single sung with “Susie and the Hula Hoops," a school band with her cousin, 60s singer, Susan Singer. In 1961, aged fourteen, she had a UK No. 3 hit with her first single, "Don't Treat Me Like a Child" and two number one hits in the UK, "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness". The latter did not top the UK chart until 19 October 1961, by which time Shapiro had reached 15. She had a No. 2 in 1962 with "Tell Me What He Said", achieving her first four single releases in the top three of the UK Singles Chart. Most of her recording sessions were at EMI's studios at Abbey Road in Northwest London. Her mature voice made her an overnight sensation, as well as the youngest female chart topper in the UK. Before she was sixteen years old, Shapiro had been voted Britain's "Top Female Singer". The Beatles first national tour of Britain, in the late winter/early spring of 1963, was as one of her supporting acts. During the course of the tour, the Beatles had their first hit single and John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song "Misery" for her, but Shapiro did not record the composition. But for some reason EMI turned that record down. What’s worse, EMI decided not to release her songs in the North American market. This is why most of us over here have never heard of her.

Back in those days, the UK and Canada had a policy restricting songs recorded by American artists in favor of versions of those songs recorded by home based artists. As a result, many of those songs were not released in the US.

Another of those groups was “The Bystanders,” a Welsh rock harmony group that recorded on Piccadilly Records. The Bystanders issued eight singles, including their biggest song, "98.6" which topped out at #45 in UK Singles Chart, in February 1967. The version we knew in the US was done by Keith' was the bigger hit, reaching No. 24 even in the UK. We didn’t hear the Bystanders version in the US. You can hear the Bystander’s version of “98.6” on the soundtrack album of “Pirate Radio.”

Interestingly enough, the “Pirate Radio” Sountrack omits four tracks that were included on The Boat That Rocked album and both versions of the movie; "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells, "The Letter" by The Box Tops, "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis, and "Hang On Sloopy" by The McCoys! Go figure!

We know Cilla Black as a one hit wonder for her “You’re my World” which charted in 1964 in the US but along with her “Anyone Who Had A Heart” topped the charts at #1 in the UK. The song was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for Dionne Warwick in 1963. In the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand, Warwick's recording lost out to the cover version by Cilla Black. Black's version was a UK number-one hit for three weeks in February/March 1964 and was also the fourth best-selling single of 1964 in the UK, with sales of around 950,000 copies. Cilla also had a show on the BBC that aired from January 1968 to April 1976.

Finally, I present The Barron Knights, a British humorous pop group, originally formed in 1959 in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, as the Knights of the Round Table. They started out as a straight pop group, and spent a couple of years touring and playing in English dance halls before making their way to Hamburg, Germany. Bill Wyman, later of the Rolling Stones, has written that the Barron Knights were the first group he saw with an electric bass, at a performance in Aylesbury in July 1961, inspiring him to take up the instrument. In 1963, at the invitation of Brian Epstein, they were one of the supporting acts on The Beatles' Christmas shows at the Finsbury Park Astoria in London, and later became one of the few acts to tour with both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The UK charts in the 60s had no fewer than 6 of their songs; "Call Up the Groups" (1964) # 3, "Come to the Dance" (1964) # 42, "Pop Go the Workers" (1965) # 5, "Merry Gentle Pops" (1965) # 9, "Under New Management" (1966) # 15 and "An Olympic Record" (1968) # 35! Nary a blip on the US Radar screen! But tomorrow I’ll play their version of “Traces” by “The Classics IV.” “The Classics IV” recording peaked at # 2 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening music charts, making it the highest charting single for the band from Jacksonville Florida.

By now I’m sure you are asking why bother with these long lost oldies. The answer is simple. One of the criticisms of the Oldies genre is that there is nothing new to hear. Modern covers of these old songs don’t seem to count. But in my humble opinion, finding a long lost oldie, cover or not, is what helps keep the genre alive. They are a part of the history of rock and roll. Part of our history! Oh MY!