Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Tony Hazzard (1969)

Anthony Hazzard was born on 31 October 1943 in Liverpool, and is best known as a successful songwriter of the late 60's. He learned the guitar and ukulele when young, but didn't start his music career until he finished his education at Durham University, and with the encouragement of Tony Garnett of the BBC, he moved to London where he signed a contract with publisher Gerry Bron. Bron could see potential in Hazzard's songs, and wanted him as a solo artist, releasing his first single 'You'll Never Put Shackles On Me' in 1966. Although it didn't chart, another of his songs was submitted to Herman's Hermits, who had a Top 20 hit with 'You Won't Be Leaving' in 1966. Following a dry spell where he struggled to write anything that he considered worthy, he gave 'Ha! Ha! Said The Clown' to Manfred Mann, who took it to the upper reaches of the UK charts. In 1968 his psyche-tinged 'The Sound Of The Candyman's Trumpet' was recorded by Cliff Richard and entered into the 1968 'Songs For Europe' preamble for the Eurovision Song Contest, although it lost out to 'Congratulations' in the final vote. Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, The Casuals, The Family Dogg, and The Swinging Blue Jeans all turned to Hazzard's pop tunes in the late 1960's, and many of them scored hit singles with their recordings. In the midst of all this success as a writer, Hazzard released his first solo album 'Tony Hazzard Sings Tony Hazzard' in 1969, and despite the fact that every single track had been successfully released as a single by another artist, it was commercially unsuccessful, although his second album, 'Loudwater House', fared much better. It could have been the fact that he was a relatively unknown singer which caused that first album to flop, as it certainly wasn't the quality of the songs, and so to make it appeal to a wider audience I've replaced Hazzard's own versions of his songs with the hit single versions from a wide variety of 60's artists, and we end up with a great tribute album by some of the biggest names of the era, and a fitting celebration of Hazzard's songwriting. 

Track listing

01 Listen To Me (The Hollies)
02 Brown Eyed Girl (The Family Dogg)
03 Me, The Peaceful Heart (Lulu)
04 The Sound Of The Candyman's Trumpet (Cliff Richard)
05 Hello It's Me (The Casuals)
06 Fox On The Run (Manfred Mann)
07 Hello World (The Tremeloes)
08 Goodnight Sweet Josephine (The Yardbirds)
09 Ha! Ha! Said The Clown (Manfred Mann)
10 Hey Mrs. Housewife (The Swinging Bluejeans)
11 You Won't Be Leaving (Herman's Hermits)
12 Fade Away Maureen (Cherry Smash)

The Tremeloes - Suddenly You Love Me (1968)

For my second post by The Tremeloes I've extracted a number of rare recordings which have appeared over the years on expanded re-issues of their albums and their box sets. It turns out that 1968 was a very productive year for them, recording over two dozen songs, which they raided for singles and b-sides over the next couple of years, and they also used another dozen of them for their 'World Explosion' album in 1968, but that still left a number of unused songs, so by taking them and adding in a few of the singles, we can make up another album that could have been issued in 1968. 

Track listing

01 Suddenly You Love Me
02 I Miss My Baby
03 You Don't Know Like I Do
04 Reach Out I'll Be There
05 All The World To Me
06 Every Little Bit Hurts
07 No No No
08 As You Are
09 I Shall Be Released
10 I'm Gonna Try
11 Even The Bad Times Are Good
12 Show Me
13 I Take What I Want

The Tremeloes - Yellow River (1972)

On New Year's Day, 1962, Decca Records auditioned two promising young bands: Brian Poole and the Tremeloes and another combo (also heavily influenced by Buddy Holly) from Liverpool, the Beatles, and in a decision which defies belief in hindsight, Decca chose Brian Poole and the Tremeloes over the Beatles, reportedly based on location – the Tremeloes were from the London area, making them more accessible than the Liverpool-based Beatles. The original quintet consisted of lead vocalist Brian Poole, lead guitarist Rick West (born Richard Westwood), rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Alan Blakley, bassist Alan Howard and drummer Dave Munden, and after they signed to Decca it didn't take long for them to have their first UK chart hit with a cover of 'Twist And Shout' in July 1963. They followed that with another cover, this time of The Contours' US million-seller 'Do You Love Me', and from then on the hits just kept coming - 'I Can Dance', 'Candy Man', 'Someone, Someone', 'Three Bells' and a version of 'I Want Candy'. With Poole leaving to attempt a solo career (which proved unsuccessful) in 1966, the Tremeloes continued as a four-piece with a revised line-up after Howard left to be replaced by Len "Chip" Hawkes. Remaining with Decca, their first single as a four piece was a cover of Paul Simon's 'Blessed', but this failed to chart, so the band switched from Decca to CBS Records, with Mike Smith producing, and although their cover of The Beatles 'Good Day Sunshine' also failed to chart, it established them as a group with a more contemporary sound and image. From 1967 onwards they had a run of chart hits, starting with Cat Stevens' 'Here Comes My Baby', then 'Hello World', 'Suddenly You Love Me', 'I'm Gonna Try', and 'My Little Lady', as well as their classic number one single 'Silence Is Golden'. All members shared vocals, though most of the songs featured either Hawkes or drummer Dave Munden as the lead singer, and while their style of music proved popular with both younger music fans and parents rather than rock music fans, their albums and b-sides included more rock-styled tracks such as band compositions 'Try Me' and the instrumental 'Instant Whip. One of these more ambitious group-composed numbers was '(Call Me) Number One', which reached no. 2 in the UK in 1969, and remains one of my favourite ever tracks. Their cover version of Jeff Christie's song 'Yellow River' was shelved at the time, but when Christie wanted to release it himself he used The Tremloes backing track and just laid his vocal over the top, earning himself a number one hit single with his band Christie. 'Me And My Life' (another favourite of mine) was a no. 4 UK chart hit in 1970, while 'By the Way' reached no. 35 that year. Their album 'Master' was released a few weeks later, but failed to sell despite being a strong record, and the hits also dried up after 'Hello Buddy' just missed the UK top 30 in 1971, but they did continue to score big in the European charts throughout the 70's. Three more albums of original material were released in the 70's, one of them the belatedly-released soundtrack to the film 'May Morning', but in the first of two posts from the band I've collected all my favourite singles and b-sides that never appeared on an album, along with a few out-takes, and they all go to show that, in my opinion, splitting with Brian Poole was the best thing they ever did. 

Track listing

01 Hello Buddy (single 1971)
02 No More Sad Songs (previously unreleased 1971)
03 No No No (previously unreleased 1971)
04 Yellow River (previously unreleased 1970)
05 Instant Whip (b-side of '(Call Me) Number One')
06 Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham (single 1970)
07 Take It Easy (b-side of 'Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham')
08 (Call Me) Number One (single 1969)
09 If You Ever (b-side of 'Too Late (To Be Saved)')
10 How Can You Say Goodbye (previously unreleased 1972)
11 I Like It That Way (single 1972)
12 Too Late (To Be Saved) (single 1971)
13 Heaven Knows Why (previously unreleased 1972)
14 Wakamaker (b-side of 'I Like It That Way')