Artist: Various
Album: Some Other Guys: 32 Merseybeat Nuggets 1963-1966
Year: 1994
Label: Sequel Records / Collectables
Track List:
1. Farmer John - The Searchers
2. Yes - Johnny Sandon & The Remo Four
3. Do The Mashed Potatoes - The Undertakers
4. Come Go With Me - The Chants
5. Boys - Jeannie And The Big Guys
6. The Girl Who Wanted Fame - The Wackers
7. Some Other Guy - The Searchers
8. You're A Wonderful One - The Trends
9. Stupidity - The Undertakers
10. The Wildside Of Life - Tommy Quickly & The Remo Four
11. Love Or Money - The Wackers
12. Stand By Me - The Searchers
13. Lies - Johnny Sandon & The Remo Four
14. Peter Gunn - The Remo Four
15. I'll Go Crazy - Tommy Quickly
16. Everybody Loves A Lover - The Undertakers
17. Needles And Pins - The Searchers
18. Just A Little Bit - The Undertakers
19. I Wanna Know - Paddy Klaus & Gibson
20. I Pretend I'm With You - The Searchers
21. The Way You Do The Things You Do - Trends
22. Stage Door - Tony Jackson
23. I Know A Girl - Remo Four
24. I Could Write A Book - The Chants
25. If You Don't Come Back - The 'Takers
26. She's Mine - The Chants
27. Hey Teresa - Paddy Klaus & Gibson
28. Sticks & Stones - Jeannie And The Big Guys
29. All My Loving - Trends
30. I Don't Want To Go On Without You - The Searchers
31. Aggravation - Chris Curtis
32. Bye Bye Baby - Tony Jackson
This 77-minute compilation, which originally appeared on the Sequel label in England, is a decent if limited (by its restriction to the library of a single label) crash course in what the Liverpool sound was like, beyond the ranks of the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, etc. Of the dozen acts featured here, only one -- the Searchers -- ever saw success that lasted more than one or two chart entries, if that; the CD is a bit of a cheat, since the Searchers are represented by six songs (although only two hits). The rest is genuinely obscure, and all material drawn from the Pye Records vaults. There's a lot of high-quality playing on this collection, especially from the Undertakers and the Trends. The Undertakers' early sound never really got too close to what was thought of as Merseybeat, being dominated by the saxophone, an instrument seldom heard in Liverpool; the Trends, on the other hand, had good guitar attack, and lead vocalist Tony Priestly sang extremely well. Their tactical error may have been to record "All My Lovin'" (which they couldn't improve over the Beatles version) as their second single, which that shows off one of the problems that most of these bands had -- a lack of repertory of their own. Most of these groups were forced to cover others' songs, and sometimes each other's, or else to write their own material, even if they weren't good enough to do it. Tommy Quickly was at the bottom of the Brian Epstein management totem-pole, though not in his personal life -- he comes off as a decent enough singer, but nothing special; his backing band, the Remo Four, play well enough but were rather predictable on these records. The notes are thorough and the sound is more than acceptable.
|
