GEORGIE FAME AND THE BLUE FLAMES - “Yeh Yeh”
(16th January 1965)
The sound of the pirates - Georgie Fame’s promoter was so frustrated by the lack of establishment airplay for his acts that he set up Radio Caroline, helping start the domino topple which led to the state-sanctioned Radio 1 on the one hand, and the vital tradition of illegal UK pop broadcasting on the other.
Unsurprisingly then, “Yeh Yeh” sounds ineffably hip, living up to its pointedly dropped ‘a’s with an appropriately smoky, aloof vibe. The organ-led backbeat is concentrated essence of nightclub, a whiff of a mysterious and illicit world made safe by a square-friendly chorus. When I listen to it I think of an old Jules Feiffer strip where a Marlon Brando lookalike fingersnaps, mumbles and jives through a page of fluid panels, cool but slightly preposterous. 5
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