LONG JOHN BALDRY - “Let The Heartaches Begin”
(#240, 25th November 1967)
Brazenly unconvincing love-lost flummery by the same people who wrote the previous Number One. Baldry, wearing his serious bluesman’s hat, later professed to hate the record but listening to it I don’t believe him for a second: this sounds like it was a huge amount of fun to make, and it’s reasonably fun to listen to, too. Baldry chews up every word - if he thought he was going to get another hit, or even another go in the recording studio, you couldn’t tell it from this - and he reaches a peak of endearing hamminess in the half-spoken final chorus. He’s backed by all the fuss and pomp of contemporary production trappings: what the Beatles and Engelbert - opposing bosses of ‘67 pop - had in common was a maximalist approach to arrangements, and every canny hitmaker seemed to follow suit. 5
Site powered by
Chris Brown on July 21st, 2006
I know I wasn’t born yet, but it’s amazing how few of the Number Ones from this supposedly golden age I can actually remember hearing. And this isn’t one of them. In fact, pretty much all I know about Long John Baldry is that Elton John is half-named after him.
FT's rosie on July 27th, 2006
Another classic example of how some performers are represented by work which is far, far from their best, or even typical.
FT's Doctor Mod on July 31st, 2006
The song rather strikes me as an imitation of Tom Jones imitating Engelbert.
Baldry (god rest his soul) was great–just listen to his It Ain’t Easy LP–but you wouldn’t know it from this record.
But then his best stuff never made the charts.
Rosie is right. How many times haven’t we said this about other artists–Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, etc., etc., etc.
Waldo on April 9th, 2007
I always felt that this was a wind-up. Any doubters should listen again to the final chorus which Long John prefaces with a cry of “Yes!” before dissolving Johnny Ray-like into a ludicrous display of sobbing, panting and sobbing, whilst the backing singers try their best to drown the idiot out. Wonderfully funny.