GERRY AND THE PACEMAKERS – “I Like It”
More jollity from the Mitch Murray Merseybeat hit factory. Vigorous to the point of being smackable, “I Like It” is a cute song nevertheless. All the chin-tickling and tie-straightening is neatly, evocatively specific, and deserves a lighter treatment than it gets: “I Like It” should be as flirtatious as its coquettish object. As it is Gerry Marsden yells, nudges and winks his way through a record which gets old well before its two-and-a-bit minutes end.
3
This is the Popular entry with the least number of hits (not counting ones up for < a week)
I’d be inclined to give this a higher mark; energetic, fairly innocent and a nice little link between vaudeville and power pop.
So very chipper, it’s surely an improvement on their first hit. The compressed Nashville piano slip-notes are an almost jazzy cherry on the top.
More Mersey madness here: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/07/end-of-era-gerry-and-pacemakers-im-one.html Thanks for reading as always!
Around this time, Gerry Marsden confronted Brian Epstein and said he was devoting too much time to the Beatles and not enough to the Pacemakers. They were probably selling equal amounts of records, were immensely popular and hardworking, and he felt fully justified. It was night time. Epstein walked over to the window. “Gerry, look at the sky” he said. “The Beatles are like the moon, the sun, and all of the stars in the sky.” Marsden nodded, wondering where this was going. Then Epstein pointed at a bare lightbulb dangling above their heads. “And that’s you” he said.
That was the beginning of that light bulb’s career, which came to an abrupt end when it stupidly tangled with Edward Woodward in the early seventies.
Mitch Murray also wrote I’m telling you now which sounds similar