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They say don't go on Wolverton Mountain if you're lookin' for a wife

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Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 10/11/63 : Born Free -  Frank Ifield He's been mentioned a few times in the top five this year, but apart from that I can tell you absolutely nothing about him - the best we can do is hope he doesn't come from Liverpool. Ah yes, there's no danger of that Merseybeat sound - we're back in 50s territory here in the style of Andy Williams or Perry Como, complete with, quite obviously, added yodelling in places. Well, I guess I was asking for something different and that's definitely what we've got here - there's no danger of me every listening to it again, but it was nice to have some more variety. We're at #4 in the charts this week on a surprisingly length 32 week run (obviously not everyone was listening to that hip new sound) with it having peaked at #3 in its 5th-7th weeks. The rest of the top five were  The Beatles ,  Gerry & The Pacemakers ,  The Searchers  and Kenny Ball with the highest new...
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Rooty-tooty-ba-da-ba-da

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Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 17/11/63 : Kenny Ball's Golden Hits -  Kenny Ball Somewhat to my surprise, this is our first ever mention for Mr Ball - I know he was closely associated with Acker Bilk who's popped up a few times but we have yet to have the pleasure of Kenny's company. And I strongly suspect I'm going to be nonplussed by the whole thing. I couldn't actually find this album, but I don't feel I can miss out any albums this year, so I recreated it by using Kenny Ball's Greatest Hits, which might have come out 37 years later but still contained nine of the ten tracks on the original album. And it's all perfectly fine trad jazz with the occasional vocals thrown in for good measure - it's done well but it's not at all the sort of thing I need in my life. It would be fine at a summer fete, but I find it gets very tiresome if I have to actually listen to it for any length of time - sorry, Kenny! We're at #4 in t...
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Some other guy run off my honey like a yellow dog

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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...
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I could bore you to death about how much summat went wrong

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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...
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Sugar and spice and all things nice - kisses sweeter than wine

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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 ...
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Your first sweet kiss thrilled me so

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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'...
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Well, if your hands start a-clapping and your fingers start a-popping

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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...
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