Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 22nd July 2022, your regular mélange of musical goodness....over to...

John -

"Hi Everyone, Hope you're all keeping safe and well. Here are my three for this week."

Jayne -

"Greetings RPM faithful and thanks for your tracks. Here are three tunes that have resonated with me this week."

Philip -

"As Boris rides off into the sunset to polish up his betrayal narrative, the Tory membership are left with a choice of contenders neither of whom many of them wanted to see in the final two! What a gift to the opposition...so come on Sir Keir, get stuck in and for crying out loud start outlining an alternative vision for how Britain should be. (Preferably a place where the government deals with important issues that people care about rather than indulging in toxic and demented anti-woke culture wars for a start).

Best wishes to everyone, and hope you all dealt with this week's extreme heat OK.

Guitar heaven this week, starting with..."

Piers -

"It has been a busy week only one evening at home since our last postings to RPM and as I have become slightly bored with doing the same old Hoagy Carmichael, Bix and Tram, (Beiderbeck and Teagarten) numbers I have been listening to, and singing some other early jazz standards, by the likes of Fats Waller as well as the usual....

This one went down pretty well..."

"As some of you may know, I organise a monthly acoustic play around in the Crown at Fakenham on the third Thursday of every month and last night's session was particularly fine.

This is a song that I sang last night for my friend Alan (He's from Tennessee). Love those boots! "

"When it is sunny in summer my mind always turns to my youth in Southend, and the sound track to fun fairs was always the Coasters, Chuck and Eddie..."

Bonus Track: But I realise that sometimes high and squeaky is what I need to hear.... so could I include this very summery tune please?

Jackie -

"Here's three from musicians we saw at the Ryedale Festival Late Night Folk concert in Malton last week."

James -

"Here's this weeks picks."

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope you all got thought this hot week ok. Here’s my 3 of the week."

Allan

"Three early UK 'rockers' this week."

Just Born (To be your baby) by Jim Dale (from 'Six-Five Special' LP released late 1957. Parlophone label) - "Throughout the fifties, both the BBC and ITV had recognised a 'toddlers truce' between the hours of 6 and 7pm, such was the perceived threat to the minds of the nation's youngsters from the cathode ray in the corner. However, Saturday 16th February 1957 saw the BBC initiate not only a (five minute) six o'clock news but also, shock, horror, fifty five minutes of that new fangled 'rock and roll'. Hosts included pugilist Freddie Mills, Pete Murray, 'hip speak' translator Jo Douglas and Jim Dale. Music for all the acts was generally provided by Don Lang and his Frantic Five or the John Barry Seven but, most importantly, the whole shebang was produced by Jack Good, fresh from University and a comedy double act with Trevor Peacock. Good persuaded the powers that be to accept a magazine format which included some music and had a set built to suit. However, with just hours to go before transmission, Good ordered the set stripped of all accoutrements and presented the show from a bare studio with the audience milling about between acts, As well as co-presenting, failed ballet dancer Jim Dale had recently signed with Parlophone producer George Martin and released 'Be my girl' which hit number 2 and followed that up with this ('live') hiccuper which, towards the crescendo, features a posse of screaming girls (well, three or four anyway!) each time he giggles!!! The album also features Laurie London, the King Brothers, Terry Wayne and Jimmy Jackson and is currently for sale on Discogs for between £5 and £40. I think mine cost me 50p!!! Dale went on to chart another couple of times before branching out into song writing (including songs for 'The Winter's Tale' and 'Shalako') and he was rewarded with a hit for Des O'Conner, with the classic 'Dick-A-Dum-Dum' in1969, and the brilliantly evocative 'Georgy Girl' for The Seekers. Of course, his career then saw him become a regular in the 'Carry On...' films and, later, receive a request from Sir Lawrence Olivier to join the National Theatre. He then moved to Broadway where he won numerous TONY's and many other 'critics' awards in the 1980's and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2009. As recently as 2019 he received an MBE in recognition of his work with children's literature."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfnKCd9_540

You Got What It Takes by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates- ' (7" single released December 1959. HMV label) - "Originally a 1958 US hit for Bobby Parker, the song became a hit again (number 10) in the US for Marv Johnson in late 1959 when it was produced by soon to be Tamla head honcho Berry Gordy and leased to United Artists. Here in the UK, where it reached the stratospheric number 5, the song received two competing versions. Interestingly, one version was by the Lana Sisters, featuring a youthful Mary O'Brian, soon to become Dusty Springfield. Of course, Dusty would famously say that it was 1963, following a Springfields recording session in Nashville, where she was exposed via the New York radio stations to the delights of Tamla Motown, Stax, Atlantic etc (especially The Exciters 'Tell him'). However, she must, surely, have known of this proto Tamla goodie at the time of recording as the Sisters record was released in direct competition. Also released the same week was Johnny Kidd and the Pirates cover version, his third single following the classic 'Please don't touch' number 25 hit and the less than classic 'If you were the only girl in the world'. Kidd, who until early1959 had been wowing the crowds as Freddie Heath and the Nutters, continually received unsympathetic treatment by his management and, especially, the HMV label, probably due to his undoubted crowd pulling around the UK's clubs and concert halls, and this may well have overridden the fact that an album recorded/released in, say, 1962 would possibly have put him at the pinnacle of UK rock and roll. There are several fine compilations out there, including the interesting See For Miles 'Rarities' and 'Classic and Rare' compilations, which include several tracks recorded for his proposed but unreleased and incomplete 1963 album, which I heartily recommend."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_p8qRd4g4

Collette by Billy Fury (7" single released 29th January 1960. Decca label) - "An important and interesting release for Billy for a couple of reasons. Firstly, its number nine chart placing convinced Decca (never the most adventurous label in the 60's) to allow Billy to record his debut album, 'The Sound of Fury', which is now recognised as one of the most important album releases by a British rock and roller. The album was recorded on April 14th and Billy planned to tour the album immediately after its release. Fury and his manager placed an advert in the Liverpool press for bands to audition to support either Fury, Duffy Power or Johnny Gentle and, amongst the hopeful attendees were the Silver Beatles, with disgruntled stand-in drummer Johnny Hutchinson replaced after a couple of numbers by the late arriving, and temporary drummer Tommy Moore. Perhaps because of this, and Stuart Sutcliffe's hardly proficient bass playing, they were passed over for Fury and sent out on a tour of Scotland behind Johnny Gentle. For just one short period, we could have had the Beatles backing the UK's most authentic rocker..................... One other Beatle related fact: the drummer on the 'Sound of Fury' album was Alan White who, three years later, would perform drum duties on the Beatles debut single after Pete Best had proved less than adequate for recording purposes at the group's initial EMI audition.

And finally, is it me or does the guitar riff remind you of the theme to 'Outer Limits'? "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB5sSqNBZZ0

Tim -

" Hi RPM skallywags. Try these three out...they certainly got my feet tapping."

'Til Next Time...