scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 24/11/63 : Freddie & The Dreamers -  Freddie & The Dreamers A band not based in Liverpool - what's going on? Yeah, this lot are from the massively distant metropolis of Manchester. And one look at the album cover makes me suspect I'm not going to like this. Well, in the same way that Manchester isn't a million miles away from Liverpool, this isn't a million miles away from the Merseybeat sound.  There is more variety than we've seen on some of this year's albums but that's not always a good idea - their cover of "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" is a most peculiar downbeat thing and "I'm A Hog For You" is really surprisingly bad. But, for the most part, it's pretty listenable - their version of Roy Orbison's "Crying" was actually pretty decent and we also met the second version of "Money (That's What I Want)" of the year. We're at #4 in the charts thi...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 15/05/26 : Is This How Happiness Feels? - Reverend & The Makers  I like R&TM '07 debut album and was pleasantly surprised when my youngest added their debut single "Heavyweight Champion Of The World" to one of her playlists, which shows that it's travelled well. However, I would never, in a million years, have imagined that nineteen years later I'd be reviewing their latest album as one of the highest new entries of the week - I'm very happy to do so though! Yeah, this is decent "wry state of the nation and/or relationships" stuff. It's not going to blow anyone away but  they're decent tunes with decent lyrics from a slightly off-kilter viewpoint. There are also a couple of unexpected guest artists - Vicky McClure on "Haircut" (which is a surprisingly tender song about how not noticing a haircut can be a reflection on the state of a relationship) and Robbie Williams...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 01/12/63 : Sugar And Spice -  The Searchers Oh look, another album from this lot, making it 4 out of 5 for the year for Liverpool-based bands (compared with only one album which featured any women). I've very much expecting this to be similar to their last album - and to suffer somewhat by being visited so soon afterwards. Yeah, it's pretty much more of the same, although the tracks are a lot less recognisable - the title track and "Saints And Searchers" (which you'd know as "When The Saints Go Marching In") were the only ones I recognised, with the rest of the album just drifting past me. So yes, it's definitely a case of diminishing returns - but it was unlucky I met it the day after their previous album. We're at #5 in the charts this week on their fourth week of a thirteen week run, with this being as high as it got. The rest of the top five were  The Beatles  (starting a TWENTY ONE week ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 08/12/63 : Meet The Searchers -  The Searchers This is our second visit with The Searchers and I know I know some of their stuff, but can't recall any of it off the top of my head - let's see if I recognise any of this... Oh yes, I obviously recognise "Sweets For My Sweet" and "Love Potion No 9" as Searchers tracks, although I later learned that they're both cover versions - as is every other track on the album! Some of which I recognised including the somewhat peculiar selection of "Twist And Shout" (our fourth visit with this track, and our second this month after The Beatles), "Money (That's What I Want)" (also recorded by The Beatles), "Stand By Me", "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?". I don't know if it's just the tracks shared with The Beatles or an overall vibe, but this felt more forward looking than Gerry'...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 15/12/63 : How Do You Like It -  Gerry And The Pacemakers This is, to my surprise, our first visit with Gerry - I'm expecting it to be bearable but not all that exciting. Yeah - perfectly bearable. It's in a similar vein to our recent visit with The Beatles with decent levels of energy, but maybe is just a bit less forward looking with obvious links back to 50s rock'n'roll or musicals. It was nice to hear the "original" version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" though and "Summertime" wasn't too bad either.  I also recognised "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" from the The Carpenters version - I think I'd assumed it was a cover, but had never considered who had done it originally. So obviously, I Googled it to learn it was written and first recorded by Hank Williams in '52, although it was brought to wider attention by Jo Stafford's version later that year - it was also...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 22/12/63 : West Side Story Original Soundtrack -  Various Artists Ah, I was aware a decision was going to be required as to whether the film soundtrack required a separate visit from the musical  original cast recording  - but I wasn't aware it was going to come around quite so quickly! But actually, it wasn't such a tricky decision after a quick listen to the first minute of both of them because they're significantly different - and the Wikipedia entry also contains quite a few interesting facts which I obviously have to bore you with! It certainly starts in traditional film soundtrack style with  over 11 minutes of a overture and a prologue before we get any singing - they certainly wouldn't do things that way these days. However, it also does something else you wouldn't see these days by including snippets of dialogue, which actually works quite well. The songs are pretty much as you'd expect because if y...