Comments on: THE FOUR PENNIES - “Juliet”

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:47:32 +0000

“Jealousy,” of course…I really am in the grip of incipient Alzheimer’s… :-(

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:44:44 +0000

Re 16 Billy Fury’s highest chart position was with the ok Jealousy in 1961; Jezebel was a Marty Wilde hit from the following year, arguably his best, a raucous update of one of Frankie Laine’s best singles (1951, so pre-chart).

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:39:59 +0000

Re 22. Yes, Toni Arthur is a gen-u-ine witch, too. Hearken The Witches Rune, with (ex) husband Dave Arthur is a properly eerie album. I went to school with their son Jonathan who was a nasty piece of work, a psychological bully. Not that it affected me so much I still remember 30-odd years later… He also had an enviable David Cassidy mane, the bastard!

Talking of Play School presenters Julie Stevens also made a couple of very nice singles in a similar posh-pop vein to Julie Covington’s The Beautiful Changes.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:23:59 +0000

Dimly…

“If You Were Me, (if you were me)
and if I were you (if I were you)….”

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:07:45 +0000

Even I can’t remember that one, I’m afraid.

By: rosie

rosie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:52:00 +0000

There was a childrens TV series called If You Were Me, which followed the fortunes of kids who went on exchanges. A kind of precursor to Wife Swap, if you will. It had a very catchy theme song with the same title sung by Lionel Morton.

Anybody else remember it? Or am I hallucinating in my old age?

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:32:56 +0000

So did Gerry Marsden and Peter Butterworth. It was all very strange.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:31:55 +0000

Lionel Morton used to pop up a lot on the Sooty and Sweep show. I think he was a mate of Matthew’s.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:26:34 +0000

Oh yeah, she graduated to Play Away, didn’t she? I was very fond of her when I were a lad…she’s also been on the folk scene for donkey’s years and still turns up on the Mike Harding Show etc. from time to time.

By: mike

mike — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:07:16 +0000

Or what about folk-rock godmother Toni Arthur, who was very much one of the “faces” on the London hippy scene (or so I was told by a fellow survivor)…

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:57:29 +0000

Although I guess the coolest Play School presenter, in retrospect, must have been young Judi Dench…

By: mike

mike — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:51:22 +0000

Count me in as another one who remembers “On The Rebound” as a Radio One signature tune. This must have been early 1970s, as I didn’t own a radio until 1971. I’ve also got vague memories of it being used on one of the Savile shows, but no idea as to which.

(Incidentally, Savile’s Speakeasy was responsible for introducing me to the terms “gay” and “straight”, circa 1972. Quite bold for its time, really.)

As regards the Four Pennies, I’m one of the generation that had Lionel Morton as one of their regular Play School presenters. Sporting the longest hair of any of the male presenters, he struck me as being “the trendy one” - and I thought it was ever-so-ever-so cool that he was a former pop star to boot…

By: Mark G

Mark G — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:44:30 +0000

Oh yeah, they were very “Kid Creole” style, but nothing came afterwards.

Seems like it was a one-off for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Wheeler

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:19:14 +0000

Speaking of which, whatever did happen to the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps?

By: Mark G

Mark G — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:15:15 +0000

Well, the song is well known/remembered, but Billy Fury’s version probably not.

A bit like Little Richard’s biggest hit being his version of “Baby Face”

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:37:57 +0000

The tendency seemed to be automatic number ones for big name acts but they haven’t gone on to become “classics” in the oldies radio sense of the term; I occasionally hear “Temptation” but that’s about it.

Again this highlights the randomness of time, popularity and circumstance which defines chart performance; plenty of Billy Fury’s hits remain fondly remembered and played but statistically his biggest hit (”Jezebel”) is probably the one least remembered these days.

By: rosie

rosie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:34:06 +0000

But there again, my Dad liked Frank Ifield and bought at least three of the quattrain so they were familiar in our house.

The paradox is, somebody must have been buying even the most obscure number ones for them to be number ones, so they’ll be familiar to somebody.

The name Mike Raven rings bells but I can’t hear anything in my head. If I find an mp3 of Soul Serenade it may jog a memory.

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:07:26 +0000

Then again, “I Remember You” aside, one could argue that the Frank Ifield quattrain of number ones also counts, which I think is a pity…

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:05:25 +0000

Now you’ve got me thinking. I’m not sure whether it was used on Savile’s Travels; it might have been used for Speakeasy, which was the other show Savile had on Sunday afternoons on R1 for a time. Google’s unhelpful on this front but I’m absolutely certain that R1 did use it for something.

(My favourite one was the version of “Soul Serenade” they used as the theme for the Mike Raven show if anyone other than me - Rosie? Waldo? - remembers him…ultra-hip soul and R&B jock who pursued a bizarre parallel career as a Hammer horror actor…)

Least remembered number ones of the sixties? Not too many candidates, but most of them would come from the pre-Beatles era; “I Love You,” “Surrender” and “Temptation” in particular spring to mind (and I’d guess not too many folk recall “You’re Driving Me Crazy” these days either).

As for the seventies, I really don’t think we can top “Baby Jump”; the remaining seventies chart toppers will I suspect be very familiar to most, with just two possible and partial exceptions…

By: rosie

rosie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:14:35 +0000

On The Rebound was a theme tune for something on Radio 1 in the late 60s. Was it Savile’s Travels? I’m sure somebody must know. Anyway, I didn’t think I remembered it when I first encountered it in Popular but when I obtained an mp3 to listen to it was very familiar in a brings-back-Sunday-afternoons kind of way. I’m pretty sure it came between Jimmy Savile and John Peel.

(Actually, now that I have had a look, everything currently waiting in the warren for the 70s I remember quite clearly. If I’d had to name the least memorable 70s single it might well be Float On which has already slipped out of Bunny’s paws.

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:43:25 +0000

Jackie T was played on SOTS last week, funnily enough! But, yes, I remember a friend having an Arcade comp called 20 Number Ones Of The Sixties or somesuch - and Jackie’s cut was entirely new to us.

On The Rebound, maybe?

Spoiler Bunny forbids me from suggesting the least remembered 70s number one….

By: rosie

rosie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:13:20 +0000

I think of Jackie Trent’s offering as perhaps the most obscure.

I’m not trying to be controversial, just pointing out that, actually, my sister and I between us bought both this and DTYLA, so they weren’t obscure to me!

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:40:48 +0000

Didn’t think I was being controversial there - Sweets and Needles have had more spins than Don’t Throw over the years, and I’m fairly sure would register with 45-and-unders a little more readily. But it’s all relative - number ones are never obscure by definition (with the strange, solitary exception of Baby Jump). I don’t think I’ve ever heard Juliet outside of Sounds Of The Sixties. Oh, I was born the year it came out.

Out of interest, DJP and Rosie, what would you say were the least remembered no.1s of the sixties?

By: DJ Punctum

DJ Punctum — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:15:38 +0000

If oldies radio is anything to go by, I would have thought that both songs were pretty well remembered.

By: rosie

rosie — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:57:36 +0000

wichita @ 6: which all goes to show that one person’s ‘least remembered’ is another’s milestone. Or maybe millstone, I’m not sure, but I loved this at the time and like it a lot even now.