Label: Decca
Year of Release: 1972
I highly doubt Community Chest were anything other than a studio based group created by jobbing songwriter Geoff Wilkins and South African singer Emil Zoghby. Both names feature prominently on the credits here, and their names also appear scattered across a wide array of other pop and glam flops throughout the early seventies.
Don't click away just yet, though, because "You Gotta Start Somewhere" is actually a lovely piece of pop with one foot in a vat of seventies polish, and the other in late sixties songsmithery. The insistent, chiming organ throughout the track gives it a huge warmth and a strong hook which sounds more '67 than '72, and the slightly bubblegummy chorus is also a delight. This isn't a single that ought to have been a hit necessarily, so much as one that might have been with the right push.
The B-side is actually OK too, with its central chiming riff and faint proto-pub rock delivery. I haven't bothered to investigate the other work of Wilkins and Zoghby in any depth until now, but this might prove to be my springboard for further research.
4 comments:
Thanks for putting this song up. Geoff Wilkins was my dad (he passed away in 2015), so I grew up with these old records in my collection. (In fact, as I was given a pile of factory samples along with my first record player, I was under the initial impression he was the world's most prolific songwriter.) Anyway, as I don't have many of these in digital form, it's nice to be reminded of the melodies.
Thanks Darryl. I'm very sorry to learn of your Dad's passing.
I never did begin my proposed mission to delve deeper into his work, so if there's any records of his you'd particularly recommend, let me know! (This assumes I can find copies, of course...)
Thanks for your comment. One of my favourites (and a really catchy tune) is The Last Bus Home, by Candlewick Green. This was a bit of a disaster as it got a lot of airplay on the radio but the record manufacturer hadn't predicted how popular it would be. The small run of pressings sold out in a few days, and the single charted, but there weren't enough copies in the shops to let it reach its potential. By the time new discs arrived, the world had moved on. The comments on YouTube hint at how people loved the song and miss hearing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpXHeEeVy9M Later on, Olivia Newton-John Recorded 'Hands Across the Sea' and it was shortlisted for Eurovision, but they chose a different song of hers instead (she lost to Abba that year - oh well).
That's a good track.
Had things turned out differently I still doubt your Dad would have beaten Abba, unfortunately! And imagine if he had - musical history as we know it completely rewritten with a huge hole in the middle of it.
I'll have a look on 45cat or Discogs to see what else he's credited for and have a listen to some other things soon.
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