Reupload - Paul Conway - Come A Little Bit Closer/ Be Lonely Little Girl

 

Lovely bit of Orbison-influenced beat from a performer who went AWOL

Label: Piccadilly

Year of Release: 1964

Over the years, "Left and to the Back" has paid host to the work of a number of recording artists who  have just disappeared into the shadows. This is odder than it sounds - most performers, however obscure, are known as the "bloke who was nearly a pop star" or "the woman who still does a turn at the local club" to their local communities at least. Some, on the other hand, just evaporate to the extent that their ex-band members are reduced to starting webpages trying to trace them. 

Paul Conway (real name Roger Newell) had also worked under the name Vern Rogers, and issued four singles on Oriole under that name  from 1962-64 ("Be Everything To Anyone You Love", "He's New To You", "I Will" and "Anna (Go To Him)". All these records failed to chart, and he clearly decided to change his name to Paul Conway to ensure he was no longer saddled with the "flop artist" tag. 

A new contract with the Pye subsidiary Piccadilly delivered two additional records, "Don't Make Fun of Me" and this effort. The former release is a fairly slow paced pop stroller which doesn't advance significantly from his twee teen pop beginnings, but this is a lovely piece of old-school beat drama about a likely lady, filled with quivering vocals, dramatic brass lines and a neat, pounding chorus. The track had previously been recorded by Jay and The Americans who had issued it as a successful 45 in the USA a few months before - this version has a bit more darkness about it, though, and may end up becoming your favourite.

Numerous people have tried to track down Paul Conway over the years, not least his old backing group The Hi-Fis (creators of the brilliant "Tread Softly For The Sleepers" single) who devoted an entire webpage into searching for him. Sadly, the first and last news anybody received about Conway related to the fact he had passed on - a tragedy which proves that even in these days where it feels as if everyone is hooked on and wired into the worldwide web, some very talented performers either aren't with us here in the digital jungle, or just haven't thought about vanity Googling themselves; or perhaps alternatively, wanted to leave that side of their lives completely behind. In Conway's case, we will possibly never know.