Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Rock And Roll 60's Hits: By Michael Bangar Part 2

Here he is again ladies and gentlemen, Michael Bangar, pop singer and rhythm guitarist with The Silver Strings, doing his second love, writing for this blog, right straight from the heart. 
Thanks very much Michael.

Dear Andy,

Part Two

Meanwhile, in the UK and Europe, Cliff Richard and The Shadows and their likes were rocking the charts with some of their own catchy hits. In the US pop music in the charts were watered down to keep in line with the authorities idea to phase out rock n roll eventually. 
Michael Bangar

In the meantime, the US troops that were stationed in Germany, especially the African American were bringing with them and introducing their music to the European audiences and bands performing there by Rock and Roll artistes like Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, Bill Haley and His Comets, Ricky Nelson, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and of course King Elvis Presley.

African American artistes included: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles. Blues singers like BB King, Albert King, Freddie King, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, etc.

In Hamburg, a relatively unknown five-piece band from Liverpool, England calling themselves The Silver Beatles were doing the rounds there in clubs like The Star Club, doing covers of American rock n roll, pop, soul and blues. Made up of 3 guitarists John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and Pete Best on drums, they drew the crowd.

They paid their dues there working long sets to hone their craft. During a violent tragic incident where they were beaten up by thugs, Stuart succumbed to his injuries and passed on. Sad!

At home in the UK, some bands were doing the same thing. The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Animals, The Searchers, and others were also doing the rounds in clubs and concert halls polishing their skills, doing mostly covers of American music.

The Fab Four were smart enough to shorten their band name to The Beatles and dressed in matching outfits. With their Beatle boots and moptops, they started a fashion craze worldwide. In a short while in the UK, bands started sprouting out all over the place imitating them and their image.

Upon returning to England, Paul switched to bass and *Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey - real name) replaced Pete Best on drums. They got involved with Brian Epstein who took on their management. He worked on a recording deal for them. 

*Ringo Starr and the Singapore reaction:
http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2018/03/beatles-ringo-starr-is-now-sir-richard.html


Decca Records rejected them first saying that "guitar bands are on the way out" before EMI (Parlophone Label to be exact - who put them on to producer George Martin) took them on. Then they started their run of hits: Love Me Do, Please Please Me, From Me To You, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Help, A Hard Days Night and the list went on and on.

The groups formed and The Searchers had Sweet For My Sweet, Needles And Pins When You Walk In The Room. Gerry and The Pacemakers had How Do You Do, I like It, Ferry Cross The Mersey and the Liverpool Football Club Anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone. 

Freddie and The Dreamers gave us If You Got To Make A Fool Of Somebody, I Understand a remake of The Four Tunes 1954 hit (integrated with Auld Lang Syne) and Do The Freddie (their dance hit). Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas hit the British charts with George Harrison's Do You Want To Know A Secret, Bad To me, I'll Keep You Satisfied and Little Children. 


All the groups came along and followed their footsteps. They gave The Rolling Stones their first hit, I Wanna Be Your Man, which Ringo Starr recorded on their first album called, With The Beatles. Other Stones' hits followed - The Last Time, Under The Boardwalk (American group, The Drifters original) their giant hit Satisfaction and Get Off Of My Cloud. 

The Kinks, with their hits You Really Got Me, All Day And All Of The Night, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion and Waterloo Sunset. Manfred Mann with hits like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, If You Got To Go, Mighty Quinn, Go Now, Pretty Flamingo and Doo Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Doo. The Dave Clark 5 gave us Glad All Over, Catch Us If You Can, Because Because I Love You, Reelin' and A-Rockin', a Chuck Berry original. 

The Animals with House Of The Rising Sun (an American traditional folk song first popularised by Nina Simone), Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, Bring It On Home To Me, We Got To Get Out Of This Place, See See Rider. Hermans' Hermits and their hits I'm Into Something Good, No Milk Today, A Little Bit Better, Mrs Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter.

During that period, the early 60's there were some short-lived groups that had their songs in the UK charts as well. Like The Merseybeats with hits like I Think Of You, Sorrow, Wishing And Hoping. 

The Fourmost hits were A Little Loving, Hello Little Girl, Baby I Need Your Loving. The Honeycombs with a lady drummer gave the UK charts, Have I The Right, Leslie Anne, That's The Way. After a short period, these bands faded away from the UK pop music history book.

Written By:
Michael Bangar.

Disclaimer:
The information provided may not be accurate since it was an SMS document from Mr Michael Bangar who wrote the article from memory. If there is factual misinformation, do write in to allow us to make corrections.

Have you read Part One?
https://singapore60smusic.blogspot.sg/2018/02/how-rock-n-roll-changed-world-part-one.html

Images: Google.
Articles: Michael Bangar (Copyrights Reserved).

14 comments:

Fabian Foo said...

Andy
Salute to Michael for such a detailed naration of the pop music scene in the 60's.
Those days we listened to Rediffusion and Radio Singapore and all the popular hits were being broadcast in programs like Top Tunes of the Week.
I have the privilege to keep in possession some of the CDs from the above-mentioned groups and each one is the top hits of that pop group.
This possession will always remain as a gift of our passion for music we love and like in our teens and twenties.
Let us enjoy more of the music in that era. Cheers and we will enjoy feeling young once again.

JAMES KWOK said...

Good morning Andy.

When I was a primary school kid back in the 1950s, the Chinese communist-minded elders in my family condemned pop music as decadent. Since forbidden fruit tastes sweetest, everytime I got the chance I would sneak into Rediffusion Silver Network to listen to 'Request Programs' such as POBox608.

And when I was sent on errands to the provision shops and Chinese medicine shop along Balestier Road in front of the old Ruby Cinema, I would linger as long as I could outside the jukebox saloon. That was before it was closed down in the anti-yellow culture drive by the new post-colonial government.

Recalling the frequent gang fights over the jukeboxes, I now think that the closing-down was the right move, though I didn't think so then. Those were the days.

PETER CHEONG said...

Thanks for sharing.

ALPHONSO SOOSAY (NAOMI AND THE BOYS DRUMMER) said...

Delightful Highlights of Pop Memories of the Rock & Roll Hits 60’s. Numerous Classic Released In That Decade.

STEPHEN HAN FB said...

I like the music by the British and American singers of the 60s.This article brings some fond memories especially watching some of them performing at the National Theatre

PETER CHEONG said...

Stephen, like u I like British pops. The Shadows, Matt Moroe, Cliff Richard. I love country n Western music too.

STEPHEN HAN FB said...

Same music genre lovers.As for country, there are many newcomers and they are good

MICHAEL BANGAR (GUITARIST, BLOG WRITER) said...

3 guitarists John, Paul, George & Stuart Sutcliff on bass got together officially in 1959. They added drummer Pete Best for their gigs in Germany. Stuart died & Paul moved on to bass.

Upon returning to the UK, they sacked drummer Pete Best & replaced him with Ringo Starr. They hit the British charts with their first single "Love Me Do", which made the UK top 20 in 1962.

Drummer Allan White played on this single as producer George Martin thought that Ringo was not good enough. Today, Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer Ringo Starr is regarded as the most influential drummer of all time! George Martin had to eat his words!

Their next single "Please Please Me" hit the top of the British Charts & first shared the No.1 spot with Frank Ifield's "I Remember You". Their first hit in the US, in 1964 was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" & it reached No. 1 after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Many other of their hits followed. This opened the US doors to all the other British acts, who remain grateful to this day!

HIROSHI DEGUCHI said...

Hi, Andy.

I really enjoyed reading the article Mr Michael Bangar wrote. I found it very interesting and it brought back memories of my childhood and younger days. I wish it would be more fascinating if he could add something about the history of Singapore, the life of Singaporeans or where he used to go with friends or girlfriends. Because I am very interested to know what Singapore was like and how they lived when those old melodies attracted the heart of the people.

Anonymous said...

Great blog sharing. Glad to know some new oldies. Thanks!

PATRICK CHAN (LEAD GUITAR: ' THE PATRICIANS' WHAMPOA CC) said...

Hi Andy,
Can I have your permission to post this interesting article on our chat (Pat's Live Band) for sharing? We have around 60 members in our group.
Thanks.

ANDY: Pop Music Not Pills. © said...

By all means Pat. And thanks for doing so. Great to have this blog spread around, especially for Seniors and Youth to read about local 60's music.

Thanks also to others who wrote in with comments and suggestions. Appreciate the time you guys took to spare.

Thank you specially to Mike Bangar for all his articles.

STEPHEN HAN FB said...

Ringo Starr did some concerts with friends like Sheila E and Mike Hay Of Men At Work.

FL said...

Thanks to Michael Bangar for sharing with us his article on the pop bands of the sixties. I lived through those years listening to those British & American hit songs from my neighbour's Rediffusion set, and also through my own family's Medium wave transistor radio ! It's yesterday once more, sing The Carpenters.