My Favourite 45s: The Ones that Got Away, 1963-69 Quiz

Answer: The Kingsmen

I just don't know how I came to leave this record out of my original 1963 quiz - it's one of the most famous tracks ever recorded with between 1,600 and 2,000 cover versions, and it's generated books, theses, "Louie Louie" Days and FBI investigations. It was written by the American musician Richard Berry in 1955 who'd been inspired by a Mexican song called "El Loco Cha Cha"; he recorded "Louie Louie" in 1956, and released it in 1957. However it's best-known for the 1963 version by the Kingsmen.
Their version was recorded in one full and one partial take, and it was a shambles - slurred lyrics, ragged, sloppy, and the singer comes in two bars early at the end of the guitar solo. Sales were initially low, but everything changed when a Boston DJ, Arnie Ginsburg, played it as his "Worst Record of the Week". After that it just took off - and by the time it had, the band had split up!
It went to number 26 on the UK Singles Chart and to number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling over a million copies. It was ranked at number 54 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, at number 55 in the 2010 list, and at number 156 in the 2021 list.

Answer: The Hollies

"Searchin'" is the first track by the Hollies that I remember hearing; it was only their second single release so perhaps that's not surprising. It had originally been written for the Coasters in 1957 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but this is by far a better version - totally simple with wonderful falsetto singing by Graham Nash. I remember seeing them perform it on one of the first editions of "Ready Steady Go", just walking through the audience and miming to the backing track - I thought they were terrific!
It went to number 12 on the UK Singles Chart but it wasn't released in the US.
A nice bit of trivia - Paul McCartney chose "Searchin'" as one of his records when he appeared on "Desert Island Discs" in 1982, possibly as a wry reflection on him performing the song with the Beatles during their audition for Decca Records on January 1 1962 - the one that ended with Decca rejecting the band!

Answer: The Newbeats

Well you can't get much simpler than this - just a two-chord piano riff before Larry Henley's remarkable falsetto voice launches into the Newbeat's "Bread and Butter". I just loved it! It went to number 15 on the UK Singles Chart and to number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, selling over a million copies.
Trivia information - Larry Henley co-wrote Bette Midler's 1989 hit, "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Answer: Martha and the Vandellas

Martha and the Vandellas were always my favourite all-female Tamla Motown group - I couldn't abide the Supremes and that ghastly Diana Ross! "Dancing in the Street" went to number 28 on the UK Singles Chart (a 1969 re-release got to number four) and to number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. An execrable cover version recorded in 1985 by David Bowie and Mick Jagger in aid of the "Live Aid" appeal went to number one on the UK Singles Chart and to number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was a world-wide hit.

Answer: Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels

Mitch Ryder had a very long career in rock and pop music, and "Jenny Take a Ride" was one of his first hits. It's basically a four-note riff song with real excitement in its delivery - I loved it!
It got to number 33 on the UK Singles Chart and to number ten on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: The Jimi Hendrix Experience

"Hey Joe" was written in 1962 by American artist Billy Roberts, and was first recorded by LA garage band The Leaves; it spread around the music scene in California, being recorded by bands such as The Byrds and Love.
In 1966 Chas Chandler, former bass guitarist with the Animals, discovered genius guitarist Jimi Hendrix in New York and brought him to England. He recruited a drummer and a bass player to form a trio, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. They hit London like a bolt of lightning - nobody had ever heard anything like it before. "Hey Joe" was the band's first single release.
It went to number six on the UK Singles Chart but failed to chart in the US. It was ranked at number 201 in the 2010 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
Trivia information: "Hey Joe" was the last song played at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, a year before Hendrix died.

Answer: The Troggs

The Troggs got together in May 1964 in the (very) rural town of Andover in Hampshire (Reg Presley had a distinctive country accent). They chanced upon "Wild Thing" which had been released in the US by The Wild Ones but which had surprisingly failed to chart over there - it's a great, riff-driven song and quite sexy!
Further success for the band followed, especially the track "Love is All Around" that secured song-writer Presley's finances for life when the cover version by Wet Wet Wet spent 15 weeks at number one in the UK charts after having been used in the hit movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral" in 1994. Presley spent a lot of his royalties on researching into crop circles!
It went to number two on the UK Singles Chart and to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was ranked at number 257 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Answer: Tim Hardin

Tim Hardin was an exceptionally talented singer-songwriter, writing such wonderful songs as "If I Were a Carpenter", "The Lady Came from Baltimore" and "Reason to Believe". However by far his best song was his first single release, "How Can We Hang On to a Dream", one of the best break-up songs ever. It's sung to a piano and strings backing - absolutely beautiful - and the lyrics are simple but heart-breaking.
The late great John Peel rated Hardin highly - I have a lasting memory of him playing this track on the very last edition of his "Perfumed Garden" late-night programme on the pirate radio station Radio London, the day before it was forced to close in mid-August, 1967. And when Peel signed up for the new BBC Radio One station he booked Hardin for one of his first "Top Gear" programmes. I also remember seeing the Nice do a cover version at the Marquee Club in London in 1968 in their own indomitable style!
Hardin could have been a superstar, but his life was destroyed by heroin; he died of an overdose in 1980.
The song didn't make the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but it got to number 50 on the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: Simon & Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel's 1966 album, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme", was very successful, containing a lot of songs written by Paul Simon over previous years. This single, "A Hazy Shade of Winter", was recorded during the sessions for the album but not included on that release; rather, it was released as a single a few weeks later.

It's a strong, driving track - possibly the most rock'n'roll of the whole of Paul Simon's oeuvre. Sadly it was hardly played on the radio in the UK. It went to number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but didn't chart in the UK until 1991, when it got to number 30 on the UK Singles Chart. Of course the Bangles made an excellent cover version in 1987, which got to number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and to number 11 on the UK Singles Chart.

Answer: Buffalo Springfield

November 1966 saw rioting in the Sunset Strip area of Los Angeles due to the imposition of a 10pm curfew on young people in this thriving recreational area of the city. Stephen Stills, guitarist for Buffalo Springfield, witnessed this and wrote "For What It's Worth".

It's a classic song of urban paranoia - despite a number of urban myths, the song wasn't written about the Vietnam War or the Kent State shootings. I really liked the sense of menace induced by the sparse instrumentation. It went to number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but it wasn't released in the UK.

It was ranked at number 63 in the 2004 "Rolling Stone" list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Answer: The Move

The Move were from Birmingham, and 1967 was very much their year with four consecutive top-five singles in the UK. "I Can Hear the Grass Grow" was the second of these, and in my opinion the best - a good, driving pop song. I saw the band play live at the Marquee Club in London that year and they were great!
It went to number five on the UK Singles Chart but it wasn't released in the US.

Answer: Honeybus

Honeybus formed in London in 1967, and were fortunate to have an excellent songwriter, Peter Dello. The band's second single, "(Do I Figure) In Your Life", attracted a lot of airplay: a slow ballad of loss and abandonment, it's a really superb song. Sadly, it failed to chart in either the UK or the US.

However in 1968 their next single, "I Can't Let Maggie Go", was a deserved top-ten hit - probably helped by being used in a TV advertisement for a low-calorie bread. However Dello was unwilling to tour and to promote this single and so left the band, which staggered on until they disbanded in late 1969. I saw them play at Exeter University Rag Ball in early 1969 and I thought they were excellent - great songs and great harmonies.

Answer: The Turtles

"Happy Together" by the Turtles sounds joyful and optimistic, but in fact the lyrics are about unrequited love. It has a great chorus, a terrific hook and a great horn section - the song varies between quiet phases and full-on "Wall of Sound" sections. Some reviewers labelled it as "bubblegum pop", but that's really unfair - the song has some real depth.
I feel some gratitude to the Turtles because they helped the great Judee Sill's career by buying the song "Lady-O" from her.
It went to number 12 on the UK Singles Chart and to number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: Warm Sounds

"Birds and Bees" by the British duo Warm Sounds is possibly one of the oddest records you'll ever hear. It's a beaty, bouncy pop record with some lush strings in the background, but what really stands out is the impeccable upper-class "Received Pronunciation" of the vocals - possibly sounding even posher than those of Deborah Evans-Stickland of the Flying Lizards in the late 1970s.
The record was released on the Deram label, whose A&R men had an ear for oddities - Procul Harum, the Moody Blues, the Move and Honeybus were on the label, and they also released David Bowie's first album.
Warm Sounds were true one-hit wonders, but it's a great record and worth tracking down. It went to number 27 on the UK Singles Chart but failed to chart in the US.

Answer: Iron Butterfly

In the mid- to late 1960s I was a great fan of the West Coast band Vanilla Fudge, who were one of the prototype Heavy Metal bands. Iron Butterfly followed in their footsteps with "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", a classic 17-minute album track which was somehow hacked down to a three-minute single! It has a great riff and wonderful bluesy guitar - though I really prefer the album version (apart from the two-minute drum solo!).
It went to number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart but failed to chart in the UK.