Sweeping orchestral pop from Norm Bellis under a group name
Label: CBS
Year of Release: 1971
Following The Love Affair's success in 1967 with the (actually incredibly good) "Everlasting Love", record labels seemed to sense that there was clearly a cash cow to be milked. Stuff psychedelia, prog rock, funk, reggae and all that jazz. Platinum discs seemed more likely to fall at your feet if you just picked a catchy pop song, put an epic, sweeping, pounding orchestra behind a powerful vocalist, and gave the project a group name.
This wasn't a foolproof hit-making method, though, and quite a number of singles fell completely short of the Top 40. Long-standing act Worth - not a group, so far as I can ascertain, but the work of pop scene and Apple Music stalwart Norm Bellis - had five attempts to bite the chart cherry between 1970-73, and failed on each occasion, although his fourth flipside "Hey Mister Lonely" apparently picked up some attention outside the UK.
Second single "Let's Go Back To Yesterday" is catchy and persuasive, and sounded as if it could easily have burst out of the radio on a regular basis throughout September 1971. In reality, it didn't, and copies aren't easy to chance upon nowadays (though they won't cost you very much at all if you do want one).
While the B-side is credited to Roger King, it was actually apparently penned by Bellis himself, who was suffering some complications with his Apple Music contract at the time. And there you have it.
8 comments:
thanks you've piqued my interest, it being 1971 n'all. I've just looked up the Arnold, Martin & Morrow songwriter file and there this is listed (Sep '71) as label RCA 2005 with a different title flip "We Can Reach An Understanding" - over to you!
The copy of 45Cat seems to show the single "End of My Nose/ We Can Reach An Understanding" on RCA 2005.
Arnold, Martin & Morrow were most heavily involved with the group Butterscotch, but did write songs for other acts, of which this seems to have been one. Beyond that, I'm no particular expert, I'm sorry to say!
Thank you David !!
Greetings Albert
Arnold, Martin and Morrow were and still are prolific songwriters. You probably know this, so apologies, but they had their own record company in the early 70's called Ammo (the first release by Joe Brown made the top 40) which had a picture or logo for the artist(s) on the labels. Arnold, Martin and Morrow also discovered Guys 'N' Dolls and then had a go at a prototype Spice Girls with a five-piece called Glamourpuss, which featured the singing actress Stephanie Lawrence and somehow got a so-bad-it's-good slot on "Top Of the Pops".
Hi David
I can't download this single !!!, can you help ?
Greetings Albert
Hi David
The problem is solved
Many thanks, Albert
Good stuff. I follow your blog and always hope you veer away from the psych/garagey/prog/glam stuff I don't care for and post good pop songs like this. There's so many good unknown songs that came out over in the UK in the early 70s. Thanks.
Michael - that's why I try to update regularly and keep things as varied as possible. One man's meat is another man's poison, and I agree that there are lots of good examples of obscure early 70s pop (and indeed early 80s pop) which can be picked up for bargain prices. (Suffice to say, it's a bit easier on my wallet to buy these records now and then too!)
Post a Comment