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).