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

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 Brenda Lee's first hit in '56. Back to the album, it was OK, but that's one curious album cover - what on earth are they doing?

We're at #3 in the charts this week on their ninth week of a 28 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in its fourth and fifth weeks. The rest of the top five were, guess who? - The Beatles, The Beatles, West Side Story and The Searchers and there are no new entries in the entire chart.

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album, which is somewhat unusual because it's their debut. Their entry tells us they're another Epstein-managed, Martin-produced, Liverpool-based band who were arguably more successful than The Beatles in the very early days, with their first three singles getting to #1 (a feat not repeated until another Liverpool-based band, Frankie Goes To Hollywood managed it in the 80s). The other fact that jumped out at me is that Gerry, despite YNWA being swiftly adopted by Liverpool FC, was an Evertonian. All the original band members are no long with us, but apparently Gerry's Pacemakers still exist - but the fact that the longest serving member joined in '22 suggests it might possibly be a slightly cynical cash-in.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a copy of the LP for a couple of quid, but if you fancy a mint copy it'll set you back £75 (which I suspect is going to be the theme for the year). I imagine this holds a lot of fond memories for some and I found it an interesting enough listen from a historical aspect, but I won't be rushing back to it.

22/12/63 - Interesting enough

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And all at once I owned the earth and sky

Image
A new year to start the New Year - starting my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 30/12/01 : Swing When You're Winning -   Robbie Williams There's a reasonable argument I should reject this album, but it was such a surprising cultural moment that even I don't feel I can, so it means we're starting the year with one that "we" own. This is our fifth visit with Mr Williams - I'm determined not to enjoy it, but I also have to admit I'm not going to hate it nearly as much as I would like to.  You know what? This is perfectly fine. Completely inessential, but he's not doing anyone any harm. For the most part, it's classic Sinatra-or-thereabouts tracks which Robbie does a decent job with on the vocals (along with some slightly peculiar guests) and they've obviously got some decent musicians in to lay down the backing tracks. He rarely does anything wildly original with them but, most importantly, he doesn't ruin them either - I don't...
Read more

I wanna keep the door from closing, yeah

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 26/12/25 : I Barely Know Her - Sombr Christmas week gives us some odd albums - last year we had Lana del Rey's album from '12, which hasn't left the chart all year. I'm pleased to say we're somewhat more up to date this year with an album that came out in August - I met it as a new entry  and was somewhat nonplussed by it, but I have mentioned it a couple of times since because it's just not gone away, which is somewhat unusual. So let's see what I make of it on a second listen (this trick totally failed to convince me of the virtues of Addison Rae earlier today). Well, well, well - Sombr at least intrigues on second listen. I'd struggle to describe it - it's kinda poppy indie with a woozy vibe to it, but it feels like it has depths to it and I reckon the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on. Intriguing indeed - I'd love to tell you more but that's all I got for the time ...
Read more

In your grace, I looked for some meaning - but I found none

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #3 :  Essex Honey - Blood Orange Dev Hynes’ fifth album as Blood Orange felt uniquely keyed into the fragmented, distracted headspace that comes after someone passes, in his case, his mother. Essex Honey’s restive nature was summed up in its painful opening lines, which you could read as the dying’s acceptance of death starkly contrasting the living’s ability to meet them on those terms: “In your grace, I looked for some meaning,” Hynes sings on Look at You. “But I found none, and I still search for a truth.” That search is wide-reaching: The Field refashions the Durutti Column’s Sing to Me as a racing hymnal made for the stereo of a Ford Escort. There are tough little Robert Rental-style post-punk gems in The Train (Kings Cross) and Countryside that bristle with frustration. Vivid Light is a plainly soulful duet with Zadie Smith; Life, featuring Tirzah’s unmistakable vocals, basks in languid, flute-dappled funk. T...
Read more