THE OVERLANDERS – “Michelle”
In an ideal universe the Beatles would be hugely generous to people wanting to sample their songs and deeply harsh on people wanting to cover them. The Overlanders obviously felt that this featherweight tale of chatting up an exchange student would be improved by a dose of folky sincerity: it isn’t. The flimsy charms of the original – The Beatles’ very own “Wooden Heart”, praise be – are exchanged for a different, less knowing, kind of smarm. Those pained final “I love yous” seem imported from a different, weightier song and they sink like lead shot in candyfloss.
3
I couldn’t agree more about the sample/cover issue. Over the last year or so, I have heard a number of amazing songs using Beatles samples. When was the last time someone praised a beatles cover?
Fiona Apple’s Across the Universe?
Here’s another UK number one that didn’t drift over to this side of the Atlantic–and probably for a good reason. Around this time I did hear David and Jonathan’s icky version of “Michelle” and must wonder why, including this one, TWO lifeless Brit acts bothered to cover it, especially when the Beatles’ original had been released only a few months before. Was it a matter of Beatles cover for people who didn’t like the Beatles??
While I hold that good Beatles covers rarely stand up to the originals, there are notable exceptions–Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends” perhaps the most notable. I’d give honourable mention to Annie Lennox’s “Don’t Bring Me Down” (but then Annie has done many incredible covers, beginning her career with one of the best Dusty covers ever), Sandie Shaw’s interesting “Love Me Do,” and–dare I say it?–Bananarama’s “Help!”
Doctor Mod
Bit of a hangover from the ’50s, this trend – as you know, it was common practice in the ’60s not to release singles from albums, or include singles on albums (though the Beatles themselves broke that rule later in ’66), so lots of D-ranking acts tended to rush out covers of Beatles or Stones album tracks in the hope of making a quick buck/getting some easy publicity. They were usually crap – but of course as far as Stones album track covers are concerned, another 1966 number one bucked that trend spectacularly.
Given that “Michelle” the song was an obvious pisstake anyway (“I need you, I need you, I need you…I think you know by now” etc.) it probably got the cover versions it deserved.
This record has particular memories for me. In September 1966, some seven months after it topped the “hit parade”, I began junior school in South London. A boy in my class called Lance was of special interest as his dad was in The Overlanders and indeed drove around in a van advertising the fact. Of course by this time, the group had sunk without trace and nobody gave a flying foxtrot about them anymore.
As for the record itself, I personally think it is a good effort and far superior to the rather slovenly original from “Rubber Soul”. I shall have to concede, however, that the song itself is absurd. The guy should have left the exchange student alone and gone and pulled a local sort down at The Cats Whiskers in Steatham.
As bass/vocals of the Overlanders, Tom Ewing falls in the catergory occupied (at the time) by Max Bygraves who voted it a ‘miss’ on BBC’s “Juke Box Jury”. David Jabobs (Emcee)said that he couldn’t help thinking that Max was wrong. The record went on to become a worldwide hit – with the exception of North America. In the US, The Overlanders were under contract to HICKORY records (Acuff-Rose, Nashville Tennessee) and in his infinite wisdom (!) Wesley Rose decided that he did not want to risk releasing it as (at the time) there were a couple of hundred cover versions. Therefore, our ‘arch-enemies’, David & Jonathan (a.k.a. Roger Greenaway and Roger Cook) gained the US market. However, despite all comments on this page, the OVERLANDERS still are the ONLY band to successfully out-sell an original BEATLES version released as a single throughout most of the world.
To WALDO – Lance’s dad (Laurie Mason) passed away a few years ago. As a kid, he was very proud of his dad. I;m sure, like me, he misses him very much. Me? I went on to play bass for Roy Orbison for 10 years. I met him at the NME Poll winners concert at Wenbly in 1966.
Magnificent!
more of This Sort of Thing please :)
Terry
Thanks ever so much for the update. It’s nice to know that my memories as a five year old have not betrayed me thirty-one years down the line. Lance Mason! That was the boy. The school was Hazelrigge Primary in Clapham and Lance lived in Larkhall Rise.
I am sorry that Laurie is no longer with us. I’ve often wondered what became of Lance.
As for The Overlanders, I have another one of your singles on Pye called “My Life”, which was written by Tony Hatch. It was clearly recorded post “Michelle” and was a cracking little pop song in my opinion. Too bad it bombed.
I’m sure that I speak for everyone at Freaky Trigger when I wish you all the best, Terry. It must be the only istance one of the actual artists have contributed to the project. Thanks again. God Bless.
That’s FORTY-ONE years, of course. You can tell that I’m really buggered now!!!
Hi , I was sorry to hear that Laurie Mason was no longer with us . I played bass with the Overlanders along with Laurie, Paul Brett under the Harry Hammond agency,the drummer originally with us was Brian Middleditch as I remember ? and then Phil Wainnman joined us for a few months,the other member was Ian Griffiths, I trust they are all well ?? All the best Paul
What, Phil Wainman the Sweet and Alex Harvey producer? Goodness gracious!
Marcello:- another 1966 number one bucked that trend spectacularly.
Can’t find the hit that you referred to – was it in the USA?
Geoff
“Out Of Time” by Chris Farlowe, which I don’t think did much business in the States.
So very,very sorry to hear Laurie died a few years ago, what happened? I had an crush on him when I was at school and went on to meet him and his wife in 1969 , when I was “down south” at a friends house in Kew. I live on Merseyside and met Laurie when he starred with the Overlanders at th Garrick in Leigh and then later at his house. They were wonderful hosts to me and my friend and Laurie took us to the Chelsea Drug Store for a drink. People can make fun of his records all they want, but I am a folk fan and found the music very entertaining I have the LP Michelle and one of them with the Settlers, he had a great voice and far better than half the rubbish sung by X Factor “stars” of today. I am really sad to hear he had dies he must have only been in his early sixties, I wish I’s kept the letters I received from his wife, I called my daughter Cheryll after hearing the name for the first time of his daughter.
Hi everyone,
Laurie died in Florida ’94 of a heart attack, just six months after meeting my middle son, Laurence, who was named for him (and who plays drums, lead and bass and dabbles with keyboard) and who pointed me at the YouTube Overlanders videos this morning and, indirectly, here.
He was only 54, but was living life to the max as an unrepentant child at heart and I’m still very proud of him.
Lance
BTW Waldo: who are you?
I think we’d all like to know that…
AFAIK the only other direct contributions by involved parties to Popular thus far are Joe Moretti, who played on “Out Of Time” (and with the People Band – rock on Joe!), and Mitch Murray who was a bit put out by our “Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde” remarks since he co-wrote the song.
Oh, I dunno, I had to go and read MMurray’s comments, which seemed quite magnanimous actually. (In short: yeah, you are all correct but I was a jobbing songwriter so whatever, thanks for your comments)…
not forgetting DOUG YULE who googled himself and discovered that our very own ms “i hate music” had declared him best of all the velvets!
And elsewhere Richard Jobson taking offense to me calling his film 16 Years Of Alcohol rubbish!
Next expected celebrity Popular contributor:
Ian Bairnson evens
Steve Harley 2-1
Windsor Davies 5000-1
Wow! Ian Bairnson – Pilot and Alan Parsons Project – how ace would that be!
Hi – First post for me. I stumbled into this thread via Google and The Overlanders.
When Beatles covers were mentioned by bza above I thought, “Surely there’s plenty of good ones?” thinking immediately of Joe Cocker, of course – Let It Be, Bathroom Window, Little Help, Something – golden, magical stuff.
Then I remembered Cliff Bennett – Got To get You Into My Life – and Billy J Kramer – Do You Want To Know A Secret? – which weren’t necessarily covers but which I’ve always liked as much as the originals.
Then Cilla, excellent, not always covering – Step Inside Love, Love Of The Loved, Yesterday (haven’t heard that, bet she’s big-ballad-tastic).
Then Gordon Giltrap’s In My Life – which was majestic. Not better than the original but magnificent. I requested it last year at a gig and he said that he doesn’t sing any more because he was never much good at it! Never mind, Gordo, you’ll get the hang of the guitar soon….
The Stones did I Wanna Be Your Lover very competently, again not really a cover.
The covers webpage that I looked at said that Duffy Power with Graham Bond covered I Saw Her Standing There, which I would love to hear. It said that Hendrix did Day Tripper, Sgt Pepper and Tomorrow Never Knows, which I can’t begin to imagine.
I could go on – I do, I know – but I’ll close with a bursting-with-pride mention of my son’s cover on private CD of Come Together. The band, Daddy Rabbit, were all aged 12/13 and they did a bang-up job on a difficult-to-deliver song featuring an important tricky drum line. Oh, he was the drummer – didn’t I say that?
Hello BriMo and welcome (and congrats to your son!)
You can catch one of the “Overlanders 1967/68 line up gigging in Torrox Spain where he lives these days.He was a member along with Paul Arnold under the Harry Hammond agency which also had “the Settlers and for a while “the Crazy world of Arthur Brown” He plays at the ” el Playazo ” Nerja and ” el Ancla ” in Torrox costa amongst other places. his melodic soft rock style has matured, but he still plays some of the old “overlanders ” repertoire
I knew laurie in person in the 70s, i still have the 45rpm single michelle which i think the overlanders did better than the beatles, and i will always think that, i did not know that laurie had passed away until i looked on utube, it took me aback a bit i must say, my wife and i are holidaying in orlando this november, and was hoping to see him once more, but alas, it seems not, i know now that it was some years ago since laurie died but may i say rest in peace, i will never forget him, he always had time for us, to chat or whatever, it would be nice to know where his resting place is, as we could pay a tribute to him by visiting.
Dave.
I worked with Lawrie Marsh in the early 1960′s at Olivetti in London and when he left he was the lead singer for the Overlanders and had the agreement from the Beatles to take this version of Michelle to the UK no 1 spot. They decided not to release it other than on an LP. The reason that you heard no more about them is that he used his share of the money made (£35K alot in those days) to form his own pop agency in Soho. By the way he was a natural as we used to tour the south London pubs on a Friday night after work when he used to get up and sing on their stages (yes stages) in the days before Karioki.
Lance,
I worked with Laurie and Maggie on the cruise ship(Thompsons)Ithaca-
I was stunned to learn in these colunms of his passing-what has happened to Maggie-did they part.
I knew them both very well in the 70s-please let me know.
He was a stunnig singer.
Allen Warrender(organist)
warrender651@btinternet.com
L
when laurie was starting out he worked with me in clapham for John Pinches (medallists)he was a wages clerk and one day he had a photo shoot on clapham common and i covered for him saying he had gone to the doctors he was great fun that was roughly 1965 never saw after he left but always rembered him
I went to Worthing Boys High School with Laurie from 1952 – 1956. We also joined the Sea Cadets together. As a young boy, even before his voice broke,he was a very good singer. He entered and won a BBC radio talent programme hosted by Carol Levis and we were all very impressed. He and I were great friends and even though it is nearly 50 years ago I still remember how he was so full of life and ‘into everything’. I was very sorry to read that he died in 1994 of a heart attack but knowing him as I did all those years ago I reckon he had one helluva life. My guess is ‘Never a dull moment’. Laurie was great fun to be around
Laurie Mason was my grandfather by blood but nothing more to me than that!
Lance,
I worked with Laurie and Maggie on the cruise ship(Thompsons)Ithaca-
I was stunned to learn in these colunms of his passing-what has happened to Maggie-did they part?
I knew them both very well in the 70s-please let me know.
He was a superb singer.
Allen Warrender(organist)
warrender651@btinternet.com
I only met Lauri Mason once when dating his son Lance. Lance was a bit of a wild child and sang in pubs round Clapham and Lambeth North in the early eighties in a Rock n Rival. Lauri wasn’t really there for his kids Lance and Cheryl after he and Sandy split up.
I’m trying to track down Cheryl we were good friends and have lost contact Des would also like to know how you are
Eira
EiraJane@aol.com
Paul Arnold Friswell 3 Feb 2011
Discovered this site only recently as a newcomer to todays technology. Have read with interest the comments made about the Overlanders. Take it from me as one of the original trio comprising Laurie Mason Peter Bartholomew and myself Paul Arnold Friswell and the first to leave in summer 1966, we had no delusions of grandeur and we didn`t think we were the greatest thing since sliced bread as many do today.We made our first single late in 1962 produced by Mike Collier and Al Saxon. Typically early sixties pop it was shelved when the producer phoned to say that a new group called The Beatles had released their first single called Love Me Do and in his opinion would change the face of pop music. How right he was. We decided we would have to go down another avenue. I had written a number of folksy/country type songs and since we all enjoyed the music of Bob Dylan and Peter Paul And Mary, that was the avenue we decided to go down. Our first single for Pye Records “Summer Skies And Golden Sands” was released in July 1963. It didn`t chart but put us in front of the British public as an original sound. The song had seven covers in the States one charting in the Bilboard Country Charts. We worked as a trio until 1965 when we added bass and drums Terry Widlake and Dave Walsh.Michelle was our tenth single getting to No 1 Jan 1966.I don`t really give a monkeys what people think of it, its history, Getting to No 1 was my Mount Everest and I climbed it alongside some great people. Laurie had a wonderful sense of humour and I used to curl up hearing him ask for a pint of milk in a pub or club he never drank or smoked.Peter was a talented musician /singer/writer and you coudn`t wish to meet a nicer bloke,wonder where he is today.Terry was a mean bass and was a good vocalist.We shared some unbelievable moments of madness listening to Spike Jones And The City Slickers. Dave was a first class drummer, myopic as hell which was just as well in less favourable venues, he used to take his bioculars off before a gig so he didn`t spoil his image. After I left, musician singers came and went and the Overlanders disbanded in 1967. I made a couple of singles for Pye and reformed the group as The New Overlanders, there`s originality. We finally folded in 1972 and I formed a duo with my then wife. I left the business in 1981 and got a proper job. I`ve been singing as a semi pro ever since in and around my home county Warwickshire.We had great times and a lot of fun but it`s history. To Lance Mason, you can be proud of your Dad. We were writing to each other late eighties until we lost contact when I was made redundant and my life nose dived for a while.He kept asking me to come out to Florida,I wish I had.To Terry Widlake, our last contact was a phone call from Indian Wells from you. By that time I was a bit of a waste of space with no job and a failed marriage. Wish I could have kept in touch with you.So here we are in 2011 and I`m enetering my 49th year as a singer. I still go out as I have done for the last twenty years singing to my own backing tracks and I`m also a member of my local Male Voice choir.To all of you out there I was fortunate to work with,my thanks for some great and fun years and I wish you all the best for the future.
Paul Arnold (Friswell)
Welcome, Paul – as far as I can tell you’re the 13th of the Overlanders’ extended family to contribute to this thread, and it’s great to read your memories. I just wonder if there’s a friends-and-family reunion on the cards as a result of this discussion! All the best to you and everyone connected with the band.
Am trying to trace lance mason and sister without going into to much detail on here its regarding Eunice Mason my mother who is ok.
please contact me on face book under nick spooner, littlehampton. west sussex.
# 34 – Paul. I’ve just read this. Thanks ever so much for your wonderful contribution, which was as interesting as it was poignant. As you suggest, nobody can take away from you the fact that you had a number one record at the very epicentre of the 1960′s, besting for three glorious weeks some of the most important artists in the history of the industry. As I mentioned all of four years ago now, I was at primary school with Laurie’s son Lance from September 1966 some six months or so after “Michelle” left the charts. Like yourself, I had discovered this site quite by chance when I “googled” The Overlanders and up popped the Popular link. I have been a contributor ever since in a variety of irritating guises and have enjoyed myself enormously. As Erithian says, greetings to yourself and everyone else conected with the band, overland and sea.
When I was 16 years old back in the 60′s my Mum was in hospital, Lauries wife was in the next bed to my Mum, they became friends and I remember my sister and myself along with Mum and Dad visiting Laurie and family in the address at Larkhill Rise you speak of. Those were the days!!
I remember collecting ‘most’ of the records the Overlanders made and I still have them to this day.
I am so sorry to hear that Laurie is no longer with us but I have to admit that he left a lasting reminder with the records he made with the Overlanders, God bless Laurie, proud to have known you and the rest of the group xx
Hello Paul
Good to have grown up with the songs of the Overlanders, they will never be forgotten.
Wishing you well. x
Well, hello Paul!
I was the drummer with Terry, Paul, Peter and Laurie and well remembering joining the Overlanders (in late November 1965) My first gig was a test/audition recording at the BBC where we did ‘Freight Train” and a couple of others that I don’t recall. After a few days rehearsal we went to Bradford for a week at the ALHAMBRA Theatre and on the last but one day (Friday) Harry Hammond the manager called to say Tony Hatch had procured a Beatles number (Michelle) from Rubber Soul and he wanted us to record it ASAP. Harry rushed the acetate recording up to Bradford and we rehearsed it the next day (Saturday) and had a Pye studio session booked the following day (Sunday).
Time was of the essence as we were to leave the UK on the same Sunday night Dover to Ostend ferry and drive to Germany for a two week stint in the Storyville club, Frankfurt.
When we returned to England (I think, New Years day 1966.) all the music papers were giving the release of Michelle, rave reviews and none of us imagined that how our lives would change in the course of the next few weeks. Fantastic times: touring, radio, TV and meeting an unbelievable galaxy of stars.
It was very disappointing not to have a follow up hit and it all started to come unglued from the middle of 1966.
I left on New Years Eve 1966 and joined a Birmingham group called Second City Sound with whom I remained until the mid-seventies. I joined British Airways as Cabin Crew in 1978. I then became an Instructor at BA’s training school at Heathrow. In the mid 80′s I had my myopic vision fixed by a wonderful eye surgeon in Harley Street ( Paul is right about my appalling short-sightedness.) and I obtained my commercial flying licences and went on to fly. In 1990 I made contact with Laurie – (it may have been through contact with Terry Widlake ?) and me and my wife Jan visited him several times in St Petersburg Florida where he and his wife had a restaurant in one of the shopping malls.
He didn’t have a Green card and was deported a couple of times but made his way back to Florida quite easily This was very pre 9/11 and immigration procedures were a lot less stingent. We wanted to emigrate to the States and were incredibly lucky to win green cards in the US government lottery. This coincided with BA offering early retirement and as Jan and I were both BA crew, we took the offer and opened our own restaurant in Florida too!
Once we were up and running I well remember phoning Laurie to tell him we were in the USA but the phone was on voice mail so I left a message for him. I was absolutely dumbstruck when, an hour later, I received a call from Lance (who I’d last seen as a child) telling me his father had died a couple of days before !!
Jan and I had a very successful restaurant for 4 years but I desperately wanted to return to flying and in 1997 I joined Alaska Airlines in Seattle as a flight crew instructor and subsequently US Airways in Pittsburgh and Charlotte NC. as a Flight Crew Instructor and training developer in the International Section for pilots on the A330 Airbus and the Boeing 767.
Fast forward to January this year and we retired to our home in Spain where we are incredibly content to remember the fantastic sixties and occasionally get a phone call from friends far and wide to say they just heard Michelle on the radio!
Dave, great to hear from you, and what a great career path! So we’ve got email addresses above for Eira Jane Featley and Allen Warrender, and contributions from Terry Widlake (albeit from four years ago), Paul Friswell and yourself, as well as many others connected with the band. If Waldo, who himself has a connection (see #4 above) and I can somehow organise a reunion it’d be one of Popular’s more notable achievements. How about it?!
BTW, Terry Widlake was featured in BBC4’s profile of Roy Orbison a few weeks back, talking about how much of an Anglophile the Big O was – well worth looking out for if you missed it.
Hi Erithian,
What a quick response !
Bugger ! forgot to watch the BBC 4 prog – I had an idea Terry might be in it as well, so… double bugger!
Terry was actually responsible for me joining the Overlanders……he used to come into an insurance brokers I worked for in Birmingham and through him I was put in touch with Harry Hammond and got a job working in Germany.
I was incredibly touched to see Paul’s complimentary remarks about my drumming (although it’s not very apparent on Michelle !!)
Dave, can I also echo Erithian’s words of greetings to you and thank you ever so much for your career notes post “Michelle”. I wonder if Macca knew how his innocent little song, supposedly about an exchange student or some such like, would alter so many people’s lives when he was writing what many people thought was a stocking filler for “Rubber Soul”?
Canada calling: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-guard-for-thee-crispian-st-peters.html
Seen this – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Overlanders_(band)
How come nobody has yet to mention the legendary Rick Wild (still performing, see….http://www.mrbenidorm.com/Rick_Wild/)??
Was he ever in the band or what?
Thanks to Dave Walsh, my old friend and colleague, Terry Widlake and Lance for filling in some gaps in my story! I was with Terry in The Sherwoods – managed by The Overlanders manager, Harry Hammond. I hadn’t realised that the Overlanders did The Storyville Club in Cologne, too! I visited the site just a few weeks ago and that part of the city is now a tip; the club long since gone. I was shocked, too, when Terry told me of Laurie’s death. I really loved the Overlanders and they gave me a real zing to be more professional in what I do. I now tour with either a solo rock ‘n’ roll show or else with Dave Morgan from ELO… Spain seems to be the place we’re most wanted although, for me, I’m grateful that Sweden and Japan want in as well. Would love to hear from Lance and DW…. Terry often mails me and keeps in touch. Very bestests to all of you. Alan George Smith – keyboards, The Sherwoods
Thanks for your contribution, Alan. Let’s hope that those contacts are made. The Overlanders touched me too (see #4 and ->).
To Nick Spooner,
Have tried to find you on fb to no avail. Do you have an e-mail address I can write to you on? Glad to hear you’re okay. How’s Beverley?
Best wishes from Cherry Carter (nee Mason)
TOTPWatch: The Overlanders thrice performed Michelle on Top Of The Pops;
13 January 1966. Also in the studio that week were; Hermans Hermits and The Nashville Teens. Alan Freeman was the host.
27 January 1966. Also in the studio that week were; Crispian St Peters, Dusty Springfield, Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours, Sandie Shaw and The Mindbenders, plus The Go Jo’s interpretation of ‘Spanish Flea’. Pete Murray was the host.
3 February 1966. Also in the studio that week were; Petula Clark, Eddy Arnold, Crispian St Peters, The Rolling Stones and St Louis Union, plus The Go Jo’s interpretation of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin”. Jimmy Savile was the host.
None of these editions survive.