British Invasion 1966-69 - The Waning Days Quiz

Answer: Winchester Cathedral

"Winchester Cathedral" turned out to be a massive hit eventually prevailing as the second biggest Billboard hit of the year after "The Battle of the Green Berets". The wacky idea of recording songs sounding like they belonged to the late 1920s belonged to Geoff Stephens.

He wrote this song after staring at a calendar of the beloved British Cathedral and recruited several studio musicians and vocalist John Carter to record it under the name The New Vaudeville Band, Carter singing through cupped hands to create the megaphone effect. Carter later would be the lead vocalist for First Class who had a Number Four hit in 1974 with "Beach Baby".

When the song became a hit, Stephens was obliged to form a touring group to support the song, the lead vocals now falling to Alan Klein who performed under the alias Tristram, Seventh Earl of Cricklewood.

He may have also been the Director of the Ministry of Funny Walks! The band never had another significant hit in North America but scored a couple of more successes in Britain before retiring to the cabaret circuit there with many changes in personnel over the years.

They ceased to be in 1988.

Answer: Wild Thing

"Wild Thing" was composed by a fellow named Chip Taylor who happened to be actor Jon Voight's brother, Angelina Jolie's uncle. Certainly he's made a bundle in residuals considering it has been used extensively in several movies, most notably "Major League". He also wrote "Angel of the Morning", a significant Top Ten hit for both Merilee Rush in 1968 and Juice Newton in 1981. It is hard to imagine these two songs being composed by the same individual since they're very much at the opposite ends of the musical spectrum.

The Troggs, short for troglodytes, introduced a new genre of music known as "caveman rock" and as far as I can tell, they might have been its only practitioners. They recorded "Wild Thing" and their follow-up release, "With a Girl Like You", in one studio session lasting less than 45 minutes. Another group had booked the studio time but their manager worked for both groups and anticipating that the recording group might finish early, arranged for The Troggs to be at the ready in the studio in case they were. Another oddity was that those songs were released as recorded - no post recording mixing!

The group would have one more reasonably successful Number Seven hit in 1968 with their rock ballad "Love Is All Around", their swan song to the Billboard Hot 100 and they would have no more charting efforts in any major market after 1968. The group persisted, however, touring and recording albums and were extant as 2018 dawned with one original member.

Answer: Sunshine Superman

Many music historians regard Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" as the first psychedelic recording to hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 and I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. In 1965, Donovan had minor hits with "Catch the Wind" and "Colours", songs with a definitive folky ambience and at the time, he was deemed to be Britain's answer to Bob Dylan. Those comparisons ceased with this hit!

Common to the era, many thought the song was about drugs... almost all songs, no matter how innocuous they might have been, seemed to draw those inferences back then. And every song writing artist would deny that it was as did Donovan. Much later he conceded that the song was indeed about LSD which had the nickname of "sunshine" among users. But he noted that it had another message as well. In 1965, he became involved in a romance with Linda Lawrence, the ex-girlfriend of Brian Jones, guitarist with the Rolling Stones. He regarded her as a "ray of sunshine" in his life and each stanza ends with a line like "When you've made your mind up forever to be mine". Essentially, the song was also about his pursuit of her love. She wasn't interested in the whole scene of being a rock star's squeeze, rebuffed him and moved to the U.S. About four years later, they encountered each other by chance, the romance was rekindled and they married in October 1970 and remain so 48 years later. So, some love songs actually work!

Answer: Paint It, Black

Back in 1966 when this song debuted, I usually stopped listening to the words after this early line:

"I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes"

I think the reason for abandoning the balance of the lyric was the driving tempo of the song... I just got lost in the music which is my wont to begin with. It was only about 40 years later, with the advent of the internet with music and lyric websites, that I became aware that the song was about death and notions of suicide. Elegies are meant to be played as dirges, not like this!

Originally, the song was indeed composed at a much slower tempo. Sometime before its recording date, bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts were clowning around with it at the studio and started playing it as if it were a Jewish wedding dance, an hora. For some reason, that tempo seemed to work better with Brian Jones' sitar playing, a major component of the arrangement. Ultimately, that was how the song was recorded.

Answer: You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" would ultimately be the biggest solo hit Dusty Springfield would have in her career in North America, Great Britain and probably everywhere else that mattered.

The song had Italian origins and a version of it reached Number One in Italy in 1965 as released by Pino Donaggio. Springfield saw Donaggio perform the song at the San Remo Music Festival and she reported that the music reduced her to tears. She got a copy of the score and sat on it for a year then asked a friend, Vicky Wickham, to compose English lyrics to complement the music. Actually, she had no idea how the Italian lyrics translated into English and didn't care. She wanted an entirely new song that would reflect her sentiments. In turn, Wickham recruited a friend of hers, Simon Napier-Bell, to help her in composing the lyric which they did in one evening. The next day, Springfield was in the studio recording it and it took 47 takes for her to be satisfied with the finished product. It is a classic, at least in my humble opinion.

Answer: Bus Stop

"Bus Stop" was written by the prolific Graham Gouldman who composed many songs during that musical era. Among them were The Yardbirds' break-out hit, "For Your Love", "Listen People" and "No Milk Today", recorded by Herman's Hermits and then later "I'm Not In Love" and "Dreadlock Holiday" for a group of which he was a member, 10cc. When he wrote "Bus Stop", he was all of 16 years of age!

The Hollies were formed in Manchester in 1963 and had a long string of Top Ten hits in the U.K. before making their mark across the pond. It appears that their records were released to the North American market starting in 1964 but for some reason didn't resonate with the public there like they did at home, a trend that persisted throughout The Hollies' recording career. The group consisted of lead singer Allan Clarke, Graham Nash and Tony Hicks on guitars, Bernie Calvert on bass and Bobby Elliott on drums when "Bus Stop" was recorded. Nash left in 1968 to help form Crosby, Stills and Nash, Calvert moved on during the early 1980s and Clarke retired in 2000. The Hollies have persevered right up to the onset of 2018 led by Hicks and Elliott who have remained as a constant presence throughout.

Answer: To Sir With Love

"To Sir With Love" was the title song of a movie of the same name starring Sidney Poitier. The song was performed in that movie by a 19 year old Scottish actress with the stage name of Lulu. Although she was an experienced TV performer, this was her movie acting debut. In 1964, at the age of 15 as part of the group Lulu and the Luvvers, she scored a Number Seven hit on the British charts with a cover of the Isley Brothers hit "Shout". It didn't quite fare as well abroad, barely eking into the Hot 100 at Number 94. When "To Sir With Love" became such a stunning hit, "Shout" was re-released in the American market and shot right up the charts... to Number 96 before fading away. This became a troubling theme throughout her twenty plus year recording career where she would have hits at home that were largely ignored in North America.

As an interesting sidebar, "To Sir With Love" never charted in Britain! There, it was the "B" side to the Number 11 hit "Let's Pretend" which, ironically of course, never cracked Billboard's Hot 100. It's the only instance during the 20th Century where a British artist had a Number One hit on the Hot 100 which failed to chart in Britain. In another quirk, some resources list "To Sir With Love" as the Number One rated song for 1967 while other's recognize The Monkees' hit "Daydream Believer" for the honor. The problem lies in the fact that the latter song overlapped into 1968. If one regards chart action for the calendar year only, "To Sir With Love" wins but in a direct comparison between the two songs and their chart performances, "Daydream Believer" was the bigger hit overall.

Answer: All You Need Is Love

"All You Need Is Love" was performed by The Beatles and assorted extras during a live, global, television link program, "Our World", which was broadcast via satellite on June 25, 1967. I remember the occasion very well. The concept of the program was to have songs contributed and performed from each of the six populated continents with a message that would be easy to grasp by everyone. The organizers asked The Beatles for a contribution and both Lennon and McCartney went to work independently to create something suitable. Lennon's song, "All You Need Is Love", was chosen over McCartney's due to its simplicity and universality and perhaps because it was an obvious reflection of the "summer of love" that 1967 had become. Among the "celebrity guests" that joined The Beatles for the performance as back-up singers in the chorus were Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Eric Clapton, Patti Boyd, and Jane Asher.

During this era from 1964 to 1969, The Beatles would annually have at least one of their songs reach Number One on the Hot 100. In 1967, they would have three; "Penny Lane" for one week in March, "All You Need Is Love" for one week in August and "Hello Goodbye" for the last week in December although it also remained Number One for the first two weeks of 1968. Thereafter, only five more Beatle songs would reach the apex of Billboard's Hot 100. The signs were ominous but we fans ignored them. Three years later, they ceased to be.

Answer: There's a Kind of Hush

Admittedly, this might have been a bit tricky since they were all Top Ten Herman's Hermits' songs from the mid-to-late 1960s but "There's a Kind of Hush" was indeed the last significant hit the lads would have in America. "Wonderful World", a cover of Sam Cooke's 1960 hit, charted at Number Four in 1965. "A Must to Avoid" (Number Eight) and "Listen People" (Number Three) were hits in the early months of 1966. The one thing they all had in common was the simple and sincere vocal approach Peter Noone took in delivering the lyric. While many of the other British bands of the era were taking a decidedly grittier path in their music, the Hermits were clearly the master of middle-of-the-road, soft pop.

The song itself had that tinge of familiarity to it that hinted that it might have been written long before in a much simpler era but it was, in fact, quite contemporary. The composers were Geoff Stephens (there's that name again), the creative force behind The New Vaudeville Band featured in an earlier question in this quiz. His collaborator was Les Reed who also co-wrote "It's Not Unusual", Tom Jones' big debut hit.

I wonder how many of you actually got the right answer for the wrong reason, strictly speaking. Nine years later, another decidedly MOR recording artist scored a Number 12 hit with this song in 1976, The Carpenters. Generally speaking, the critics favoured the Hermits' version as superior. Judging from the Billboard charting positions, it would appear that the public concurred!

Answer: Silence Is Golden

This version of "Silence Is Golden" was, at minimum, the second ever on vinyl. It was written by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe who you might recognize as the primary composers for The Four Seasons with such songs as "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Dawn (Go Away)", "Ronnie" and "Rag Doll" and this song was originally the flip side of "Rag Doll" in 1964.

In 1967, The Tremeloes were the opening act to The Hollies when this song broke out as a hit. Toward the end of the tour, Tony Hicks of The Hollies congratulated one of The Tremeloes on the success of the song with a further comment that their timing was excellent... The Hollies had intended to cut the song themselves but were beaten to the punch. It would have suited their strength, harmonizing, exceedingly well.

When I stated that The Tremeloes made their debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967, that wasn't 100% accurate in a technical sense. In 1964, Brian Poole and The Tremeloes sneaked onto the chart for two weeks with a song entitled "Someone, Someone" peaking at an ignominious Number 97! That song reached Number Two in Britain that year and was but one of several hits the group had there between 1963 and 1965. In 1966, Poole decided to abandon the group and struck out on his own as a solo act. It sometimes happens this way... Poole, the alleged star of the group, drifted off into total obscurity while the remnants of the band adjusted personnel somewhat and ultimately enjoyed their revival just a couple of years later as just The Tremeloes. Although their resurgence in America was short-lived, they managed a few more hits in their homeland up to 1972 when the hit well went dry. A group by that name and several spin-off bands with other past members of the group continue to thrive on the British cabaret circuit well into the 2010s.

Answer: Gimme Some Lovin'

Spencer Davis formed his group in 1963 and from the start, the most musically influential member of the band was 15 year old Stevie Winwood. He composed most of the group's original songs and was its lead singer.

While "Gimme Some Lovin'" was the biggest hit for the band, your other options also made chart appearances on the Hot 100. "Keep on Running" was their debut peaking at Number 76 in March 1966; "I'm a Man" was their follow-up release to "Gimme Some Lovin" and it reached Number Ten in April 1967. Three months later, "Somebody Help Me" stalled at Number 47. Later that year, their last Billboard entry was with a song entitled "Time Seller" and it was a perfunctory Number 100 for a solitary week. When Winwood left the band in 1967 to form the group Traffic, Spencer Davis wisely recognized that Winwood was the straw that stirred the drink and in his absence, the group wouldn't have much of a future and disbanded a short time later. Evidence of Winwood's dynamic abilities would become apparent during the 1980s when he was one of pop music's biggest stars.

Davis moved to the U.S. in the early 1970s and while he still performed onstage with other new groups that he formed and reiterations of The Spencer Davis Group, he also went into production work, most notably with The Downchild Blues Band. With the dawn of the new millennium, Davis continued to compose and perform right up to 2018 as this is being written. Of course, at the age of 78, his activities have slowed down in his dotage.

Answer: Sunshine of Your Love

"Sunshine of Your Love" was recorded by Cream, a group comprised of lead guitarist Eric Clapton, bass player and the vocalist on this number, Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker. They formed in 1966. Both Clapton and Baker felt constrained in the groups they were with at the time, John Mayell's Bluesbreakers and The Graham Bond Organization respectively, and mutually admired the other's talents. Clapton was eager to have Bruce join them, although Bruce had also played in the Graham Bond group and Baker found Bruce an irritant. He agreed to have Bruce join Cream to placate Clapton. Together they produced four albums, most notably "Disraeli Gears" which featured this song and "Wheels of Fire" which spawned their other Hot 100 Billboard hit, the Number Six "White Room". By the end of 1968, the Bruce/Baker rift was raging and Clapton later noted that when they played live gigs, the competition to outdo each other was palpable. He noted that on one occasion he stopped playing altogether and the other two didn't even notice!

The whole concept of "supergroups" is an intriguing one. A Wikipedia entry on the topic quotes a passage from a 1974 Time magazine article entitled "The Return of the Supergroup" which follows in brackets - ("the supergroup was a "potent but short-lived rock phenomenon" which was an "amalgam formed by the talented malcontents of other bands." The article acknowledged that groups such as Cream and Blind Faith "played enormous arenas and made megabucks, and sometimes megamusic", with the performances "fueled by dueling egos." However, while this "musical infighting built up the excitement ... it also made breakups inevitable."). And so it was with Cream!

Answer: Those Were the Days

Mary Hopkin was just 17 years of age when she recorded "Those Were the Days". It was derived from an old Russian folk song reworked with English lyrics by a British songwriter/performer named Gene Raskin. Paul McCartney heard Raskin and his wife perform the song and was intrigued with it. Meanwhile, the model Twiggy caught Hopkin winning a talent show on TV and recommended her to McCartney thinking he might help her advance her career. When McCartney met Hopkin and listened to her sing, he encouraged her to sign with the Apple label and suggested that this be her debut recording. In an ironic sequence of events, "Those Were the Days" knocked The Beatles' "Hey Jude" from Number One on the British chart but conversely, "Hey Jude" prevented "Those Were the Days" from ascending to Number One on the Hot 100, blocked at Number Two for three weeks!

Mary Hopkin only had one more half decent charting success on Billboard with the Number 13 "Goodbye" in 1969 although she did have a little more staying power in Britain with four top ten hits there. In 1970, she married an American musician/producer Tony Visconti and largely abandoned the entertainment business to attend to her two children. Following the break-up of the marriage in 1981, Hopkin resumed her career with recording, performing in concert and song writing. With the new millennium, she continues in those capacities and is actively involved in the musical careers of her children, Jessica Lee Morgan and Morgan Visconti.

Answer: Build Me Up Buttercup

Still, whenever I hear "Build Me Up Buttercup", I don't identify it as being a British song. To me, the vibe is pure beach music from the Carolinas! But The Foundations were a British group alright. They were formed in London in 1967 with members from all over the globe including an Egyptian, a Sri Lankan, and a few natives from various islands in the West Indies. Normally, the group consisted of about 11 members over the course of their brief day in the sun from late 1968 to early 1970.

They had no charting successes whatsoever after 1969. Competing interests within the group members, struggles with management, difficulties in acquiring good material and the complexities of dealing with so many personalities within the group, led to its splintering in 1970. During that decade, various groups with links to the original members began touring as The Foundations, clearly not a good scenario but almost an inevitable one. Eventually, the various groups were whittled away and with the new millennium, only one now exists touring the cabaret circuit in Britain led by Colin Young who was the lead singer on this song.

Answer: Jude

It all started with "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in February 1964 and it came to an end with the aptly entitled "The Long and Winding Road" in June 1970. In between those two Number One hits, The Beatles had 18 other Number Ones with "Hey Jude" ranking as their biggest hit ever on the Billboard Hot 100. Clearly they were the Admirals of the British expeditionary forces leading the musical invasion on North American soil. But did they ever have a lot of help! From 1955 to 1964, only three British recording acts had Number One Billboard hits - Laurie London in 1958 with "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", Mr. Acker Bilk with "Stranger on the Shore" and The Tornados with "Telstar", both in 1962. During the Invasion years a total of 13 British recording entities, including The Beatles, landed in that much coveted position, most between 1964 and 1966 at the apex of the era.

Looking back fondly on those years, I think the reason for the success of "The Invasion" was that the Britbeat sound being created by British artists was unique, totally unlike that which was being produced by North Americans. Naturally, as it almost always happens, the latest hot thing ultimately becomes routine and stale and so it was with that musical style. It was only through continued musical evolution that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones maintained their popularity throughout that era while most other British bands couldn't or wouldn't adapt and faded away. However, they all left behind one legacy. Regardless of where you were born or lived, be it Sweden, Australia, Spain, the West Indies, or wherever else, if you made good music it could be a hit on Billboard. As music fans, we were all richer for that!