The Truth was a duo, made up of Londoners Steve Gold and Frank Aiello, who both worked in the hair industry - Gold as barber and Aiello as hairdresser. The performed together as a folk outfit until one of Gold's customers, songwriter Jeff Cooper, had a conversation with him about music, and suggested the pair record a demo, primarily to showcase Cooper's songs. The result impressed Pye Records so much that the company signed Cooper and the duo, which took on the name The Truth from Aiello's favourite Ray Charles song. Their first single was the Cooper-penned 'Baby Don't You Know', which was released in September 1965, and while it and its follow-up 'Who's Wrong' failed to chart, their third single, a cover of the Beatles' album track 'Girl', made all of the national charts in February 1966, breaking the Top Twenty in the New Musical Express charts, the Melody Maker and Disc and Music Echo charts, and the Record Retailer charts. Consolidating of the success of a cover version, the band's next single was their version of Ray Davies' 'I Go To Sleep', and it worked, with the record peaking at number 38 in the Melody Maker listings in June 1966. The duo stuck with to cover versions for their other single releases, signing with Decca Records in 1966, who released their take on The Troggs' 'Jingle Jangle' on their Deram imprint, backed with Donovan's 'Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)'. Their final two records appeared on the Decca label, but neither 'Walk Away Renee' in 1967 nor 'Seuno' in 1968 troubled the charts, and so the duo broke up in the wake of their final release. Aiello stayed in the music business, appearing in musicals before becoming the vocalist for early heavy metal band The Beast, which later changed its name to Bedlam, and which featured Cozy Powell on drums. After Bedlam broke up, Aiello remained with Powell in Cozy Powell's Hammer, and they scored a top ten hit with their 'Na Na Na' single. Gold changed his recording name to Steve Jameson, and occasionally recorded under the name Nosmo King, under which he recorded a single whose b-side - 'Goodbye Nothing To Say' - caught on with the Northern Soul audience, resulting in Pye Records re-issuing it under the fake group name of The Javells, and it scored him a top 30 hit. Although much of the band's output consisted of covers, they did record a number of original songs, and an album made up primarily of them, along with some less obvious covers, would have been very welcome in 1968, so as they never got around to issuing a long-player, this is what it could have sounded like had they done so in the late 60's.
Track listing
01 Baby You've Got It
02 Who's Wrong
03 Fly Away Bird
04 She's A Roller
05 Jailer Bring Me Water
06 Baby Don't You Know
07 I Can't Make It Alone
08 Old Ma Brown
09 Come On Home
10 Jingle Jangle
11 Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)
12 Busker Bill
13 Sueno
