Two Of Each were a UK vocal quartet who formed in 1966 with a line-up of Mandy More on vocals, John Conran on bass and vocals, Michael Castro on lead guitar and vocals and Tina Ambrose on drums. In 1967 More left the group and was replaced by Mally Page, and around this time they secured a record deal with Decca Records. Their first single for the label was 'Every Single Day', which was released in 1967, but that was a short-lived union, and in 1968 they signed to Pye Records, where they would stay for the rest of their recording career. Their first single for Pye was the Tony Hatch/Jackie Trent-composed 'The Summer Of Our Love', backed with the excellent 'Saturday Morning', but with no chart action, they had to wait a year for their next record on the label. In 1969 they released a fine version of Paul William's 'Trust', and this had another Hatch/Trent composition on the flip, with their 'Trinity Street' sounding like it should have been released a couple of years earlier. Their final single for Pye comprised two covers, with 'Here Comes The Sun' on the A-side, backed with a psyche-tinged take on 'Colour My World', and after this 1970 release the band went through some line-up changes, and re-emerged as a new group called Sweetcorn. Under this name they released three singles on Pye Records, sticking with Hatch/Trent songs for a couple of them, and backing singer Jamie on 'I'm Gonna Love You', which was released as Jamie And The Sweetcorn. For the b-side of their final single in 1971, John Conran wrote 'Carpet Ride', and it is one of their best recordings, so I wonder if they might have had more success if they'd been allowed to write more of their own material. Putting that to one side, here is the almost complete musical output of Two Of Each and Sweetcorn from 1967 to 1971, and they are an example of yet another pop group who tried for five years to get a hit single, and are now just a forgotten footnote in the history of UK pop music.
01 Every Single Day (single 1967)
02 I'm Glad I Got You (b-side of 'Every Single Day')
03 The Summer Of Our Love (single 1968)
04 Saturday Morning (b-side of 'The Summer Of Our Love')
05 Trust (single 1969)
06 Trinity Street (b-side of 'Trust')
07 Here Comes The Sun (single 1970)
08 Colour My World (b-side of 'Here Comes The Sun')
09 Catch Me, Catch Me (single as Sweetcorn 1970)
10 Sunshine Follows The Rain (b-side of 'Catch Me, Catch Me')
11 I'm Gonna Love You (single as Jamie & The Sweetcorn 1970)
12 No, No, You Don't Know (b-side of 'I'm Gonna Love You')
13 Carpet Ride (b-side of '(We Can) Work Together' as Sweetcorn 1971)
Thank you very much. Another band I know nothing about, but the write-up sounds intriguing.
ReplyDeleteG.