Reupload - Tony Merrick - Lady Jane/ Michelle

A Stones cover one one side + Beatles cover on the other = near-hit single

Label: Columbia

Year of Release: 1966

Depending on how far you want to push or stretch the term, Tony Merrick could be regarded as a one hit wonder thanks to this single. It spent a solitary week at number 49 in June 1966 before dipping back down under the waves again - so close and yet so far.

It's not too surprising it was at least faintly in-demand for awhile. Both sides cover the two biggest hitting bands of the sixties, with "Lady Jane" taking on Jagger and Richards and "Michelle" naturally being another cover of The Beatles track. The A-side here is beautifully arranged, sounding like a touching and innocent piece of baroque styled pop, with strumming harpsichord sounds meeting plucked nylon guitar strings. Merrick's vocal performance is gentile and ever so slightly arch, suiting both the song and the arrangement.

"Michelle" on the flip side is less interesting, unfortunately, though it's not a Beatles track of which I'm especially fond, so your experience of it may differ.

Chris Parmenter Orchestra - Cul-de-sac/ Donkey Feel

 

Souped up, modish cover of Roman Polanski film theme

Label: Polydor
Year of Release: 1966

Roman Polanski's strange gangster flick "Cul-de-sac" caused a fair share of rumbles on its release in 1966. Portraying two individuals on the run backed into a corner, holed down with a couple in a peculiar relationship, it also features a bald Donald Pleasance delivering an uneasy performance. 

The theme tune to the film itself is unusually and unexpectedly threadbare, sounding like one of Joe Meek's unused 3am demos polished up with an orchestra behind his back. While the film itself may have been respectfully reviewed, the title track clearly wouldn't have made a good single or momento of anyone's cinema visit. 

Enter Chris Parmenter, Polydor's house producer who had been behind work such as The Longboatmen's "Take Her Anytime" and The Cymeron's "I Can See You". Somebody at the label obviously thought he could turn the theme into something harder edged, and indeed he did - those Meekish keyboard whines are still intact, but the track is given firmer footing and considerably more welly. It wasn't enough to impress the public who clearly felt they didn't need an audio souvenir of Donald Pleasance wearing a nightie and some lipstick, but it's a cool, modish piece of work.

Brown Ale - It's Only A Wind Up/ Norman Service

Eurovision baiting novelty single written by future Eurovision songwriter

Label: Radioactive

Year of Release: 1981

In the first few years of Left and to the Back's life I tried to tie the blog neatly in with each year's Eurovision contest by writing some relevant material, but the stats for those entries prove that I might as well have been talking to myself. 

Still, since most readers here seem to hate the contest, perhaps this 45 will provide the spite they're looking for. The British have always had a complicated relationship with Eurovision, feeling entitled to win it while looking down on it at the same time. As a nation, our attitude has been akin to the Goth Kids on South Park entering a talent show to perform lame, half-hearted songs, then acting like scolded teenagers when we inevitably finish in 22nd place.

"But Dave!" I hear you cry. "The Iraq war, our uncompromising approach to international politics and the way everyone is just so jealous of how great we are as a nation was the reason our Electro Swing Birds Eye Potato Waffles song finished in 24th place in 2015!" Er, are you quite sure about that one?

Still, David Mindel was behind that piece of waffly electro versatility, and he also co-wrote this Eurovision mocking novelty single in 1981 as well. You have to wonder if anyone responsible for the contest had checked his track record before hiring him; it could be we had a renegade in our ranks, hired by Putin to upset our chances. 

"It's Only A Wind-Up" is, of course, a rewrite of the 1980 winner for Bucks Fizz, "Making Your Mind Up", and dissects the contest's downsides, from hidden singers in the wings and jarring key changes to the vain and beige attempts to produce music which has luke-warm cross appeal. It's a cosy jaunt through the sillier aspects of the show rather than a savage knifing, though there's one moment when a swear word seems promised, then fails to emerge. Naughty Mr Mindel.

While the song nails some of the worst tropes of eighties entrants to the contest, back when the show seemed irreversibly stuck in some mid-seventies light entertainment twilight, it's off-beam by present day standards. Trucker's key changes seldom occur anymore, and most countries put forward their best pop stars, some of whom even go on to achieve global success if they finish low on the scoreboard (as 2022's "Snap" by Rosa Linn proved). Having some kind of appreciation for pop music as well as Classic Rock is probably essential for watching the contest without throwing a hissy fit, but it's become a world-class spectacle for all the right and wrong reasons, for the garish flash and the class alike, and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Unicorn - P.F. Sloan/ Going Back Home

 

English Country Rock meets Jimmy Webb 

Label: Big T

Year of Release: 1971

Unicorn are occasionally cited as one of the seventies rock groups who really should have been huge, but barely raised above the club and university circuit. Consisting of Ken Baker on guitar and keyboards, Pat Martin on bass, Kevin Smith on guitar and mandolin, Peter Perryer on drums and Trevor Mee on guitar, they also sang harmonies in a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young styled blend. They weren't alone in taking that particular road in the UK - even Hank Marvin was up to similar tricks by the early seventies - but their style was admired enough to catch the ears of David Gilmour, who produced a number of their LPs.

Prior to Gilmour's ears twitching, this little single slipped out on the Big T label, a cover of Jimmy Webb's "PF Sloan" which took the bruised Americana of the original and sanded down some of the edges to create a version some still reference as outshining Webb's version. It certainly lets plenty of sunlight in through the cracks, sounding like a possible minor hit in another universe. 

Unicorn had a long history prior to this record, beginning life as The Late Edition in 1968 and occasionally backing Billy J Kramer under that name, before eventually shortening their name to The Late and finally Unicorn. How such name-hopping came about isn't recorded, but one can only assume that line-up changes may have been to blame.

"P.F. Sloan" was included on their first LP "Uphill All The Way" which contained covers of artists the band admired, before Gilmour got his mitts on the group and produced "Blue Pine Trees" for the Charisma label in 1974 and "Too Many Crooks" and "One More Tomorrow" for Harvest in 1976 and 1977 respectively.

JAB - Pretty Polly/ Easy Action

 

Sweetly sung beast of a mystery indie rock single

Label: JAB

Year of Release: 1988

Another bunch of mystery performers, I'm afraid. There was a brief period in the late eighties and early nineties where bands who were keen to prove they were serious and going places shelled out for limited run pressings of singles to sell at gigs. A nice slab of vinyl felt like much more of a statement than a mere demo cassette, after all, and vinyl pressing plants were starting to feel the CD market pinching into their profits; this led to some good deals for aspiring bands. 

What it didn't leave was a neat audit trail. A white label 7" single with some hand-stamped details and inked scribble on it doesn't offer many clues to the poor mp3 blogger. If the band were also never signed to a proper label - and the vast majority of them weren't - these brief moments were usually their only recorded message to the world. They are their era's equivalent of the unidentifiable crackly sixties acetate. 

The net result is I've had this record in my collection for nine months and still been completely unable to work out who the band JAB are. It's an interesting effort, though; the "Pretty Polly" side has clattering train-track rhythms, chiming guitar lines and buttery, folky female vocals. It's the kind of indie rock confection the music press at the time would have been sympathetic towards, but if JAB got a mention at the time, I certainly can't remember it (but what am I, a walking IPC encyclopaedia?) 

The flip "Easy Action" has a groovier swagger which points slightly towards the forthcoming baggy movement, but those careful, pretty vocals clearly date it in the mid-to-late 80s period. It might make your feet twitch slightly, but it isn't funky.