Here’s a pub quiz question guaranteed to baffle even the speediest of mobile phone Google cheats.
What have Sheffield, leather stage gear, cross dressing, the New Vaudeville Band, the Troubles and film director Neil Jordan got in common?
The answer, pop pickers, is The Crying Game. Written by Geoff Stephens, the song was first released by Dave Berry in July 1964 and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart.

The legendary late session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan played lead guitar on it and soon to be Led Zeppelin member Jimmy Page supported.

The song was then recorded by Brenda Lee in 1965 and was subsequently covered by the likes of The Associates, Chris Connor, Kylie Minogue, Percy Sledge, Barbara Dickson, Chris Spedding, Jimmy Scott and crooner Alex Moore.

But to a generation who maybe missed out on Berry’s original version it’s probably Boy George’s 1992 revival which is best remembered.

Both his and the original rendition were used as the themes to the 1992 Neil Jordan movie The Crying Game. Boy George’s version of the song was produced by the Pet Shop Boys and reached 22 on the UK Singles Chart, 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the USA and topped the charts in Canada the following year becoming his biggest solo hit across the Atlantic.

His version was also featured in the Jim Carrey comedy film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as a joke reference to the Jordan film, with which it shared a plot point.

But it’s Berry’s original version which still stands out as a pop classic.

Born David Holgate Grundy, in February 1941, in Woodhouse, Sheffield he made his name performing a mix of familiar rock and r&b with untypical slower pop ballads which saw him a regular chart star in in Britain, and in Continental Europe – especially Belgium and the Netherlands – whilst pretty much missing out in the USA where he is best known for versions of Ray Davies’ This Strange Effect and Graham Gouldman’s I’m Going To Take You There.

Unusually in the era of Mop Tops and extrovert stage antics he preferred to appear on television completely hidden by a prop.
In his own words, to “not appear, to stay behind something and not come out”. He often hid behind the upturned collar of his leather jacket, or wrapped himself around, and effectively behind, the microphone lead. His stage presence was almost a slow motion performance.

His leather clad image drew on the early work of Elvis Presley and Gene Vincent and later provided an inspiration for Alvin Stardust.

Having borrowed his recording surname from rock/blues legend Chuck Berry he then had his first hit with that singer’s Memphis Tennessee – charting a month before the original in September 1963 and peaking at 19. Lesser hits My Baby Left Me and Baby It’s You slowed the tempo down in preparation for The Crying Game which like his two other biggest hits (a cover version of Bobby Goldsboro’s poppy American hit Little Things and BJ Thomas’s maudlin Mama) peaked at number 5.

This Strange Effect (UK number 37 in mid 1965), became a number one hit in the Netherlands and Belgium, countries where he still enjoys celebrity status.

It’s unlikely the modest performer ever anticipated the spotlight would shine again in 1992 with the cinema success of The Crying Game, a British thriller written and directed by Neil Jordan which explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

A critical and commercial success, The Crying Game won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Film Editing. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 26th greatest British film of all time.

Whilst Dave Berry’s chart days in the UK lasted just three years, The Crying Game’s composer Geoff Stephens’ successes spanned several decades and even included forming The New Vaudeville Band whose song Winchester Cathedral won him the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Recording.

His songs were often collaborations with other British songwriters including Tony Macaulay, John Carter, Roger Greenaway, Peter Callander, Barry Mason, Ken Howard, Alan Blaikley, Don Black, Mitch Murray, and Les Reed.

He began his career in amateur theatricals, when he wrote songs and sketches for musical revues presented by his own company, the Four Arts Society, while working as a school teacher, air traffic controller and silk screen printer. This led to BBC Radio accepting some of his satirical sketches for their Monday Night at Home programme.

Subsequently, becoming involved with music early in 1964 he had his first hit Tell Me When, co-written with Les Reed, a Top 10 hit for The Applejacks.

That year, in addition to his chart success with Berry he and Peter Eden discovered and managed Donovan, producing his first hit single and debut album, What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid.

In 1966 he formed The New Vaudeville Band, writing and recording songs in a 1920s musical style. Their debut single Winchester Cathedral was a number 1 hit in the USA and number 4 in the UK Singles Chart and covered by others including Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Sinatra. It was followed by further hits for the band, Peek A Boo, Finchley Central and Green Street Green.

With John Carter, Stephens wrote Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James for Manfred Mann and, with Les Reed, There’s a Kind of Hush for The New Vaudeville Band. A year later, a cover version of the song was a hit for Herman’s Hermits, and it was also later a hit for The Carpenters. Over the next few years he wrote, or co-wrote, hits for The Hollies (Sorry Suzanne), Ken Dodd (Tears Won’t Wash Away These Heartaches), Cliff Richard (Goodbye Sam, Hello Samantha), Tom Jones (Daughter of Darkness), Mary Hopkin (Knock, Knock Who’s There? – the 1970 UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest), Scott Walker (Lights of Cincinnati), Dana (It’s Gonna Be a Cold Cold Christmas), The Drifters (Like Sister And Brother), Crystal Gayle (It’s Like We Never Said Goodbye), Hot Chocolate (I’ll Put You Together Again), Sue and Sunny and Carol Douglas (Doctor’s Orders) and, most successfully of all, UK number one hits for David Soul (Silver Lady) and The New Seekers (the Ivor Novello Award-winning, You Won’t Find Another Fool Like Me).

In 1972, his joint composition with Peter Callander of Daddy Don’t You Walk So Fast, was recorded by Wayne Newton. It sold over a million copies. In 1983, Stephens and Don Black composed the songs for the West End musical Dear Anyone, followed a year later by The Magic Castle with Les Reed. He has also been awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1995, and the Jimmy Kennedy Ivor Novello Award for Services to British Songwriting in 2000.

More recently he wrote To All My Loved Ones, featured as a centrepiece of the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
In 2005, Stephens worked with Peter Callander and David Cosgrove on the musical production of Bonnie & Clyde. Most recently Stephens has worked with Don Black on a planned stage revival of Dear Anyone.

Who hasn’t, in an unguarded moment, caught their reflection in a mirror or shop window and wondered just who it was looking back at them?

What parent hasn’t had to wake up to the fact that their offspring has grown up far more rapidly than they can give them credit for?

Or perhaps it’s just sitting an examination and realizing there are more questions left than there is time to answer them in?
In each of these cases Dr Rockandpop would prescribe a healthy dose of Sandy Denny’s masterpiece Who Knows Where the Time Goes? It won’t cure the condition or even answer the question (especially in the exam room) but it might make you feel better about yourself – if only because it shows you are not alone.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? was written by the English folk-rock singer and songwriter Sandy Denny – or Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny to use her given name – who originally recorded the song as a demo in 1967, singing and playing guitar on the track.
Later that year, she briefly joined the folk band The Strawbs, and re-recorded the song, again with only her voice and guitar, for what became the album All Our Own Work, which would not be released until 1973.

American folk singer Judy Collins heard a tape of the original demo recording in 1968, and decided to cover the song. She released her recording first as the B-side of her cover of Both Sides Now, and then as the title track of her album Who Knows Where the Time Goes, both released in 1968. Hers was the first widely available recording of the song.

Having studied and briefly worked as a nurse before signing up for art college and making a name for herself on the folk circuit, in 1968 Denny joined the folk-rock band Fairport Convention. She recorded Who Knows again on her second album with the band, the 1969 album Unhalfbricking. This version had more of a rock influence.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? became a signature song for both Denny and Fairport Convention, and has been covered by many artists including 10,000 Maniacs, Mary Black, Eva Cassidy, Nana Mouskouri, Lonnie Donegan, Nanci Griffith, Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet, Deanna Kirk, Charlie Louvin, Cat Power, Eddi Reader, Kate Rusby, Nina Simone (on her 1970 live album Black Gold), Barbara Dickson, Kate Wolf and Sinéad O’Connor.
It is obviously a love song – or at least a song about love, but it’s also a song about perceptions. The song revolves around three verses, each third reflecting a different perspective of time and its meaning. The song is a slow-paced reflection on observed events. First the statement: “Across the evening sky all the birds are leaving” and then the question: “But how can they know it’s time for them to go?”
Having made these observations, Denny then writes that for her, some things are timeless – “Before the winter’s fire, I will still be dreamin’, I have no thought of time.” and in the last line of the short chorus asks rhetorically “Who knows where the time goes?”. Verse two expands into: “Sad, deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving. Ah, but then you know it’s time for them to go. But I will still be here, I have no thought of leaving, I do not count the time.”

After again asking: “For who knows where the time goes? Who knows where the time goes?” verse three takes on a more positive note: “And I am not alone while my love is near me, I know it will be so until it’s time to go. So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again. I have no fear of time” before reprising the question: “For who knows how my love grows? And who knows where the time goes?”

In 2007, the Unhalfbricking version of the song was voted “Favourite Folk Track of All Time” by listeners of BBC Radio 2.
After several turbulent years and mixed reaction to her bid for solo fame, tragically Denny died in 1978 aged 31 due to allegedly self inflicted injuries and health issues related to a long history of alcohol abuse.

Retrospectively she has been described as “the pre-eminent British folk rock singer” and music publications Uncut and Mojo have called her Britain’s finest female singer-songwriter.”

With the possible exception of female minor members of the royal family there are not many girls’ names that haven’t been the subject of a decent pop song or two.

It probably explains why les belles Beatrice and Eugenie are yet to feature in the best sellers whilst Sue. Suzie Suzanne, Mary, Jane, Eloise, Barbara et al have cropped up regularly over the years and why the Jennifers of this world are blessed with two of the finest tributes – Jennifer Eccles by The Hollies and Jennifer Juniper by Donovan. Not forgetting, of course, some lesser items such as Jennifer She Said (Lloyd Cole), Jenny From the Block (Jennifer Lopez), Jenny Jenny (Little Richard) and Jenny Take A Ride (Mitch Ryder).

Top of the crop though has got to be The Hollies with their March 1968 number seven hit. It was greeted with a sigh of relief by the band’s fans who had been a tad disturbed by their first trip down something deeper (King Midas In Reverse which peaked at 18 the previous September).

Things got worse again later – for goodness sakes whose idea was The Day That Curly Billy Shot Down Crazy Sam McGhee (number 24 in 1973)? – but for now jaunty Jennifer was a return to the chirpy nature the band had established as their own – even though they got perilously close to voyeurism with Look Through Any Window (September 1965) and could even wax lyrical about the joys of queuing at a Bus Stop (June 1966).

Lyrically Jennifer Eccles was simplicity itself and with the exception of her much repeated first name there’s barely a three syllable word to be found:
“White chalk, written on red brick
Our love, told in a heart
It’s there, drawn in the playground
Love, kiss, hate or adore

I love Jennifer Eccles
I know that she loves me
I love Jennifer Eccles
I know that she loves me

(((((La la la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la)))))))

I used to carry her satchels
She used to walk by my side
But when we got to her doorstep
Her dad wouldn’t let me inside

One Monday morning, found out I’d made the grade
Started me thinking, had she done the same?

I used to carry her satchels
She used to walk by my side
But when we got to her doorstep
Her dad wouldn’t let me inside

I hope Jennifer Eccles
Is going to follow me there
Our love is bound to continue
Love, kiss, hate or adore. Singing:

I love Jennifer Eccles
I know that she loves me
I love Jennifer Eccles
I know that she loves me

I love Jennifer Eccles
I know that she loves me
I love Jennifer Eccles
I know that she loves me

I used to carry her satchels
She used to walk by my side
But when we got to her doorstep,
Her dad wouldn’t let me inside.”

Still, it was brownie points all round as it turned out to be the band’s biggest American hit to date. Not only that but the title is a combination of the names of band founder members Allan Clarke’s wife Jennifer nee Bowstead and Graham Nash’s wife Rose nee Eccles.
The same “girl” – Jennifer Eccles (who by now had “terrible freckles”) – also features in the song Lily the Pink by comedy/poetry group The Scaffold.
The reference there is an in-joke, as Graham Nash, who left the Hollies in December 1968 and joined supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash (and sometimes Young), sang backing vocals on the recording.

As a song it was certainly lightweight in the context of fellow 1968 singles such as The Beatles’ Hey Jude and The Rolling Stones’ Street Fighting Man. But it was still good and has endured as one of The Hollies best remembered pop outings.

For a while The Hollies had all the potential to be one of the best ever bands to emerge from the Beat Boom era. Their pioneering and distinctive three part harmonies were an update on the Everly Brothers’ vocals and in turn went on to influence the likes of The Eagles.

Despite not being great creators of their own material they had a keen ear for a good cover (eg Bruce Springsteen’s early gem Sandy (4th of July, Asbury Park) they weren’t afraid to surprise listeners with the occasional banjo and mandolin break or the hint of a pedal steel guitar. And who can resist the now taboo wolf whistle aimed at Jennifer and her freckled frame?

Singalong maybe, but the band spent 231 weeks on the UK singles charts during the 1960s (the ninth highest of any artist of the decade) and into the mid 1970s.

The band was formed by Allan Clarke and Graham Nash in 1962 as a Merseybeat-type group in Manchester, although some of the band members came from towns further north in East Lancashire.
For example Graham Nash may have grown up in Manchester but in his solo song Military Madness he says he was born “in an upstairs room in Blackpool.”

Despite regular personnel changes and the occasional death (not to mention court ordered spin off groups with similar names they are one of the few British groups of the early 1960s (along with the Rolling Stones) that have never disbanded and continue to record and perform. In recognition of their achievements, The Hollies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

If it had been a school homework project to write a song about a typically British Sunday afternoon in the late 1960s it’s unlikely that the Small Faces would have come top of their class.

Here was the band who had got away with murder not having Here Comes The Nice banned for its drugs overtones and then frolicked through Itchycoo Park with its experimental “flange” phasing and psychedelic references, suddenly taking on a Music Hall identity and presenting us with one of the oddest lines in British rock/pop.

Well, it’s not every day you get landed with “Gor blimey, hello Mrs. Jones, how’s old Bert’s lumbago? (he mustn’t grumble)” or words to that effect.

In the dry tones of a lyrical analysis Lazy Sunday has “a traditional cockney East End of London Music Hall sound.” But there’s clearly more to it than that.

OGDENS’ NUT GONE FLAKE

It was written by the Small Faces songwriting duo Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, and appeared on the band’s 1968 concept album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake which it preceded as a successful single. It reached number two in April 1968, despite being released against the band’s wishes because, they claim, it was recorded as a joke rather than as a chart contender.

And there’s more. The song was actually inspired by Marriott’s feuds with his neighbours – hence:
“Wouldn’t it be nice to get on wiv me neighbours (da da da do)
But they make it very clear they’ve got no room for ravers.
They stop me from groovin’, they bang on me wall
They’re doin’ me crust in – it’s no good at all.”

It’s also noticeable for its distinct vocal changes. Marriott sings large parts of the song in a greatly exaggerated cockney accent – almost as if he’s auditioning for the role of the Artful Dodger in Oliver!

It seems he did this partly due to an argument he had with The Hollies, who said that Marriott had never sung in his own accent (well, they were from Manchester weren’t they?).

JOHNNY ROTTEN

In the final bridge and the last two choruses, he reverts to his usual transatlantic influenced singing accent.
Ironically some time later John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) cited the Small Faces as one of his few influences as vocalist for the Sex Pistols.

According to Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, Lane’s “rooty dooty di” (well actually: “Root-de-doo-de-doo, a-root-de-doot-de-doy-di, A-root-de-doot-de-dum, a-ree-de-dee-de-doo-dee (doo-doo, doo-doo”) vocal lines were in imitation of a member of the Who’s road crew. The two bands had recently toured Australia together – a tour later blamed as sowing the seeds of the Small Faces sudden disintegration.

A low-budget promotional video for Lazy Sunday was filmed at drummer Kenney Jones’ parents’ home in Stepney, East London and features his next door neighbour pretending to strangle Marriott.
And like all good jokes it was adapted by others. The song was later covered by the Toy Dolls as on their 1995 album Orcastrated; The London-based indie rock/garage revival band The Libertines covered the song in 2003 as part of the soundtrack to British film Blackball; Leeds-based indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs covered the song on French radio in 2008 and Jack Wild recorded a version of the song for his first studio album The Jack Wild Album.

The group was founded in 1965 by Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, and Jimmy Winston, although by 1966 Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan as the band’s keyboardist.

The band became one of the most acclaimed and influential mod groups of the 1960s gradually evolving from r&b covers to hook laden pop and eventually psychedelia.

Their last original hit was in in 1969 although Itchycoo Park re-charted in 1975 and Lazy Sunday re-emerged in 1976.
The Small Faces never actually disbanded; when Marriott, who wanted to shed his pop star image, left to form Humble Pie, the remaining three members recruited Ronnie Wood as guitarist, and Rod Stewart as their lead vocalist, both from The Jeff Beck Group, and carried on as The Faces.

The original Small Faces lived on in spirit – they were one of the biggest musical influences on the Britpop movement of the 1990s. Despite the fact the band were together for just four years in their original incarnation, their music output from the mid to late sixties remains among the most acclaimed British mod and psychedelic music of that era. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Sadly Ronnie Lane died in 1997, Steve Marriott died in 1991) and Ian McLagan died in 2014.

In music as in many things it’s a good rule of thumb to defend the original version as being the best. Friendships have crumbled when the rule of thumb is followed by a “yes but what about” addendum.

So with Love Is All Around it’s perhaps better to leave well enough alone and come to the compromise that although the original version by The Troggs – written by that band’s frontman Reg Presley – got there first and for that has a certain amount of merit, it will probably be the revival by Wet Wet Wet which will go down in the pop and rock history books – and anyway their frontman Marti Pellow was a lot more of a poster boy than the eccentric Reg.

One major stumbling block is that The Troggs (originally called The Troglodytes) looked like a bunch of farm hands who had grown their hair long, hired a set of stripey stage suits and struck lucky at the Young Farmers’ Ball. And they didn’t sound too confident or competent either.

THE TROGGS

Reg Presley (lead vocals) and Ronnie Bond (drums) were childhood friends and in the early 1960s formed an R&B band in their home town of Andover. In 1964 they were joined by Pete Staples (bass) and Chris Britton (guitar) and became The Troggs. They were signed by Larry Page, manager of The Kinks, in 1965 and by May 1966 almost topped the UK charts (it went one better in the USA) with what has subsequently become a rock classic – Wild Thing (written by American Chip Taylor).

Capitalising on Presley’s sneering vocals plus a fair slice of innuendo and double entendre and a sound like their recording studio was located in a garage, they continued to ride high with hits including With a Girl Like You (a UK number 1 in July 1966, US number 29), I Can’t Control Myself (a UK number 2 in September 1966 and their first UK single release on the Page One label), Anyway That You Want Me (UK number 10 in December 1966), and Give It To Me (UK No.12 1967) before it looked like it was back to the fields for the Andover quartet.

It’s fair to say that few people saw Love Is All Around coming. Featuring a string quartet and a ‘tick tock’ sound on percussion, it was written by Presley and was purportedly inspired by a television transmission of the Joy Strings Salvation Army band’s Love That’s All Around.

The song was first released as a single in the UK in October 1967, peaking at number 5. On the Hot 100, the record entered at number 98 on 24 February 1968, peaked at number 7 on 18 May 1968, was on the chart a total of 16 weeks, and ranked number 40 for all of 1968.

With its by then predictably simplistic Presley lyrics (“I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes, well love is all around me and so the feeling grows. It’s written on the wind, it’s everywhere I go, so if you really love me, come on and let it show”) that might well have been that.

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL

Then seemingly out of the blue, writer and director Richard Curtis approached Scottish chart stars Wet Wet Wet about recording a cover song to soundtrack his film Four Weddings and a Funeral.
The band got to pick between three songs, the other two being I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor and Can’t Smile Without You by Barry Manilow.

Singer Marti Pellow said that the decision to pick Love is All Around was an easy choice “because we knew we could make it our own.”
The song, which has a different introduction from The Troggs’ version, was released seven years after the Wets’ first hit, in May 1994.
It entered the UK Singles Chart at number four..After climbing to number two the following week, it finally got to number one on 29 May and remained there for 15 weeks, the second-longest UK chart reign of all time (beaten only by Bryan Adams’ (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, which was number one for 16 weeks in 1991, and equalled by Drake’s One Dance in 2016). The song spent a further 20 weeks in the UK Top 75.

Throughout its chart run, some radio stations banned the song because listeners were fed up of hearing it. By February 2018, it had sold 1.9 million copies in the UK – making it the country’s best-selling love ballad of all time.

Reg Presley famously spent some of his songwriting royalties on crop circle research. Pellow also recorded his own version of the song for inclusion on his 2002 album Marti Pellow Sings the Hits of Wet Wet Wet & Smile.

The Troggs’ original drummer, Ronnie Bond, died on 13 November 1992. In January 2012, Reg Presley retired after being diagnosed with lung cancer. The band carried on with new lead singer Chris Allen. Presley died on 4 February 2013.

In 2004, Pellow told the Daily Record, “We did everybody’s head in the summer of 1994″ but added: “I still think it’s a brilliant record. Its strength is its sheer simplicity. Any band would give their eye teeth to have a hit record like that. I’m very proud of it.”

In 2013, the year that Reg Presley died, Love Is All Around was named as the number one song in VH1’s The Ultimate Movie Soundtrack: Top 100.

In the mid 1960s if you were a teenage male and couldn’t find enough mates to form a band with then the world was in danger of being a lonely place. And the chance of appealing to the opposite sex was almost out of the question

As a standalone you could try and be the new Bob Dylan but in those days Mr Zimmerman tended to move too quickly musically to keep up with – unlike today when physically he barely moves at all and musically he’s more inclined to go backwards.

DONAVAN

Then along came Donovan and overnight it seemed like you only needed a passing knowledge of Woody Guthrie’s back catalogue, a fading denim jacket, a peaked cap, tousled hair, a harmonica and an acoustic guitar which you may or may not be able to play – oh and a few songs of your own might help but weren’t absolutely necessary.

In retrospect when Catch the Wind first charted in June 1965, Donovan came in for a lot of flack he didn’t really deserve. Or did he? Future influential tunes such as Mellow Yellow (he had a thing about colours – hence second hit Colours and third hit Turquoise not to forget album track Tangerine Puppet), Sunshine Superman, Jennifer Juniper, Hurdy Gurdy Man and the jibberish which was Goo Goo Barabajagal were still a while away.

With its Alka Seltzer title it’s easy to see why Catch The Wind was difficult to take seriously. And that’s before you look too deeply at lyrics such as: “In the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty I want to be in the warm heart of your loving mind, to feel you all around me and to take your hand along the sand.”

Still it’s probably the only hit ever to contain the word “t’would” as in: “For me to love you now, would be the sweetest thing, t’would make me sing, ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.”

So who was this fresh faced troubadour who brought so much hope to loners everywhere starting with his early 1965 Ready Steady Go! debut?

Donovan Philip Leitch was born on 10 May 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow, to Donald and Winifred (née Philips) Leitch. His father was Protestant and his mother was Catholic. He contracted polio as a child – leaving him with sympathy earning limp. In 1956, his family moved to the new town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England – but he’s still regarded as a flower of Scotland.

Influenced by his family’s love of folk music, he began playing the guitar at 14. He enrolled in art school but soon dropped out, to live out his beatnik aspirations by going on the road and submerging himself in the burgeoning British folk scene.

In Hatfield, he spent several months playing in local clubs, absorbing the folk scene around his home in St Albans, learning the crosspicking guitar technique from local players such as Mac MacLeod and Mick Softley and writing his first songs. In 1964, he travelled to Manchester with regular sidekick Gypsy Dave, then spent the summer in Torquay, Devon where he took up busking, studying the guitar, and learning traditional folk and blues.

Along his early career he became a friend of pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones and The Beatles – allegedly teaching John Lennon a finger-picking guitar style that Lennon employed in Dear Prudence, Julia, Happiness Is a Warm Gun and other songs.

Catch the Wind revealed the influence of Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who had also influenced Bob Dylan so Dylan comparisons followed for some time – not helped by Donovan’s appearance in D. A. Pennebaker’s film Don’t Look Back documenting Dylan’s first UK tour.

Dylan later told Melody Maker: “He played some songs to me. … I like him. … He’s a nice guy.”

DYLAN CLONE

In an interview for the BBC in 2001 to mark Dylan’s 60th birthday, Donovan acknowledged Dylan as an influence early in his career while distancing himself from “Dylan clone” allegations: “There’s no shame in mimicking a hero or two – it flexes the creative muscles and tones the quality of our composition and technique. It was not only Dylan who influenced us – for me he was a spearhead into protest, and we all had a go at his style. I sounded like him for five minutes – others made a career of his sound. Like troubadours, Bob and I can write about any facet of the human condition. To be compared was natural, but I am not a copyist.”

Meanwhile back with Catch the Wind – it reached No 4 in the United Kingdom singles chart and No 23 in the United States. The single version featured Donovan’s vocals with echo and a string section. The song was re-recorded for Donovan’s first album What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid, without the vocal echo and strings and with a harmonica solo added.

When Epic Records was compiling Donovan’s Greatest Hits in 1968, the label was either unable or unwilling to secure the rights to the original recordings of Catch the Wind and the follow-up single, Colours. Donovan re-recorded both songs for the album, with a full backing band including Big Jim Sullivan playing guitar and Mickie Most producing.

It has also been covered by umpteen acts including Johnny Rivers, Melinda Marx, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Cher, The Blues Project, Glen Campbell The Lettermen, Eartha Kitt, Sammy Hagar, Chet Atkins, Rickie Lee Jones and Joan Baez.

As Rod Stewart so memorably put it with his 1969 album title – An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down. Probably true.
He could have added – An Old Pop Song Won’t Ever Let You Down Either. Though in a way Handbags and Gladrags did. For him. And didn’t.
Confused? You will be.
Depending on which rock/pop generation you grew up with (or through) the “no, no, you are talking nonsense, this was the best version” argument will rage.

The song was actually written in 1967 by former A Band of Angels member Mike d’Abo who was by then the lead vocalist with the well established but sometimes troubled former blues band Manfred Mann (named after their sometimes troubled former bluesman founder Manfred Mann).

With the opening lyrics of “Ever seen a blind man cross the road trying to make the other side? Ever seen a young girl growing old trying to make herself a bride? “
It was clearly not a moon in June boy meets girl ditty.

In a 2003 interview with The Sunday Express, d’Abo, who also co-wrote The Foundations’ classic Build Me Up Buttercup, explained that Handbags and Gladrags was meant to suggest that fashion and style weren’t everything, a message that bucked the trend in youth culture at the time.
“I knew it was a social comment,” he said. “The moral of the song is saying to a teenage girl that the way to happiness is not through being trendy. There are deeper values.” How true even today.
As the lyrics say: “But once you think you’re in you’re out, Cause you don’t mean a single thing without the handbags and the gladrags that your granddad had to sweat so you could buy.”

Having recently charted with the lightweight Semi Detached Suburban Mr James (a last minute change from Mr Jones so as not to upset the departed original Manfred Mann frontman Paul Jones) and Ha Ha Said The Clown, it clearly wasn’t quite up the band’s street (well, not until 2003 when they included their version on an album).

CHRIS  FARLOWE

So, one step forward please the rasping vocals of Chris Farlowe whose previous finest moment is, of course, his chart topping anthem Out of Time (written by Jagger and Richards) – a song which is still helping him do the oldies circuit today.
Handbags came 18 months after that smash and, apart from an Out Of Time re-issue in 1975 was his last chart hit – peaking at 33. Remarkable really that it’s still so well known.

Then again, it’s not all down to his version is it?

ROD STEWART

Two years later, in 1969, Rod Stewart recorded a version of the song for the album An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down. Arranged by Mike d’Abo, who also played piano on the recording, it failed to do much in the United States, until it was re-released as a single in 1972, and managed to peak at 42 in the Billboard Hot 100. In 1993, he recorded a live version of the song during his session for MTV Unplugged. This version was included on the album Unplugged…and Seated. When introducing the song on the 2004 live recording of One Night Only! Rod Stewart Live at Royal Albert Hall, Stewart asked the audience to recall who “else did it” and then stated “I did it first!”

Except, of course, he didn’t. And although adopted by his British fans, it was never a hit single for Stewart in the UK.

Another two years on, in 1971, Bill Chase and his jazz/rock fusion group Chase recorded a version as a single. It was included on their 1971 debut album Chase.

To a newer generation of listeners though the 2001 version by Welsh rock band Stereophonics is the definitive interpretation. Released originally as a single, it was subsequently added to their previous album’s re-release Just Enough Education to Perform and on their first compilation album.

The band had originally recorded their version as a demo “for a laugh”, but after the record company heard it they saw the potential of it being a single. Despite receiving some criticism (and accusations in some quarters that the band was “selling out”), it became one of their most successful singles: in Ireland it peaked at number three and it was certified gold in the UK where it reached number four.
The song was released as a single on 3 December 2001. Five different releases were made available – two CDs, a maxi-CD, vinyl and cassette.

THE OFFICE

To many people though the song will forever be associated as The Office theme song. In 2000, a version of Handbags and Gladrags was specifically arranged by Big George as the theme song on the BBC comedy series. Three versions were recorded – a short, instrumental piece as the opening titles theme, a short, vocal piece as the closing titles theme and an alternative full studio version. Both vocal versions feature the vocal performance of Waysted vocalist Fin Muir but in episode four of the first series a version performed by Ricky Gervais (in character as David Brent) was featured over the end credits.

Along the way even the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2004) and Engelbert Humperdinck (2007) have had a go at d’Abo’s “social comment.”

By the time Gerry and the Pacemakers peaked in the UK charts at number six in the spring of 1964 with Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying, there was already an ominous sense of their helium balloon of success beginning to deflate.

Ok, it turned out to be the group’s breakthrough single in the USA – where it reached number four, but when you’ve already gone into pop music’s pantheon hall of fame by becoming the first act to reach the UK number one spot with their first three singles (all in 1963) – and narrowly missing a fourth chart topper by just one place because of fellow Liverpool group The Searchers (with Needles and Pins), number six seems a bit of a warning sign.

After that it was a slippery slope – 24, 8, 15 and 29. By November 1965, apart from charity discs and re-issues the band’s chart days were over.

GERRY MARSDEN AND THE MARS BARS

It was probably to be expected. Despite frontman Gerry Marsden’s cheeky chappie charm, a distinctively husky voice and the gimmick of strapping his guitar so high it could have doubled as an underarm deodorant, there was always going to be a question mark over the commercial longevity of any band originally called Gerry Marsden and the Mars Bars (thankfully changed after a complaint from the chocolate bar manufacturers).

Not that transitioning from chart topper to cabaret and nostalgia tour stalwart seemed to worry the effervescent Marsden who fronted several subsequent versions of the band he first helped form in 1959 as well as carving out a solo career, only calling a day (so far) in 2018.

Not bad for an outfit which rode to chart fame on what started out as Beer Mat Music (hits one two How Do You Do It? and I Like It were hardly lyrically challenging) and ended up as Kop Classics (cashing in on Carousel’s tear jerker You’ll Never Walk Alone as well as every Scouser’s theme song, Ferry Cross The Mersey).

Despite sometimes sailing close to becoming the George Formby of Mersey Beat, Marsden certainly had an ear for an anthem. Pretty much any of the band’s biggest moments could be easily sung on the soccer terraces – even Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying sounds better when swaying from side to side whilst holding your favourite club’s scarf aloft. And/or a pint.

Gerry Marsden formed the group with his brother Fred, Les Chadwick, and Arthur McMahon. And short of the occasional barbershop quartet there has rarely been a less likely looking poster boy and his mates.

It didn’t stop them rivalling The Beatles early in their career, playing the same Hamburg and Liverpool club and pub circuit. McMahon (known as Arthur Mack) was replaced on piano by Les Maguire around 1961 by which time they were reportedly using the Cammell Laird ship yard at Birkenhead for rehearsals. At least they did rehearse.

BRIAN EPSTEIN

Such was their reputation that they became the second act to be snapped up by Brian Epstein, who signed them to Columbia Records where they were presented with How Do You Do It? written by Mitch Murray and subsequently produced by George Martin – becoming the first number one by an Epstein-managed Liverpool group.

By the time of Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying, their fifth single, the group – mostly Marsden – were writing the majority of their own material. The song was given first to Louise Cordet, a singer who had previously toured with the group as well as with The Beatles. Her version was produced by former drummer with The Shadows, Tony Meehan, and released on Decca in February 1964. The group then decided to issue their own version in April that year.

It spent 11 weeks in the UK charts 12 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and was also big in Canada and New Zealand. Gerry and the Pacemakers performed the song on their first US television show, The Ed Sullivan Show in May 1964. The group’s earlier UK hit singles were then reissued in the US to follow up its success, but Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying remains their biggest hit Stateside.

Over there, their recordings were released by the small New York City record label Laurie, with whom they issued four singles without much success.

AMERICAN SUCCESS

The band’s American success was, as with various other British Invasion acts, thanks to their former rivals The Beatles.
When the Fab Four broke through in January 1964, Laurie tried again with Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying which became a big hit and prompted the label to couple How Do You Do It? with You’ll Never Walk Alone and I Like It with Jambalaya (On the Bayou), this time with some degree of success.

Despite the fact that by late 1965, their popularity was rapidly declining on both sides of the Atlantic (the original line-up disbanded in October 1966, with much of their latter recorded material never released in the UK) their legacy lives on. You’ll Never Walk Alone is still played at every Liverpool FC home match, Ferry Cross the Mersey is still a retro radio regular and the lilting nursery rhyme charm of Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying has been dusted down over years by the likes of Steve Lawrence (1964), José Feliciano (1968), Rickie Lee Jones (1989), Gloria Estefan (1994), Jeff Buckley (1998), Paul Carrack (2010), and Nellie McKay (2015).

As one (and a half) hit wonders go, The Zombies haven’t done badly.

Considering what’s left of the original band (two members – again not bad considering it’s 57 years since they first got together – will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this year (2019), it’s easy to forget their only UK Top 20 hit single was She’s Not There which peaked at number 12 in August 1964 and the best they could do after that was number 42 for Tell Her No, in February 1965.

Ironically a Santana revival of She’s Not There released in 1977 was more successful than the original version in the UK reaching number 11.

QUINTESSENTIALLY ENGLISH

It’s equally ironic that for a band which sounded (and looked) so quintessentially English, The Zombies have always been bigger in the States where She’s Not There almost made it to the top, Tell Her No wasn’t far behind and Time of the Season in 1968 ranked between one and three depending on which US chart you looked at.

The album the third hit came from, Odessey and Oracle (it was a sleeve designer’s spelling mistake!) is still ranked number 100 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and is still selling barrow loads as a cult classic.
So where did She’s Not There and the then strangely named Zombies come from? Well, the band (not the only ones to be originally called The Mustangs) was formed in that hotspot of British pop – St Albans.

Yes, forget Mersey Mop Tops, Manchester Beat Boys, Brummy Blues and even London Band Wagon Jumpers – The Zombies with their sixth form looks and choirboy voices hailed from a small city with Roman roots, medieval abbey wall paintings, Verulamium Museum and the Blacksmiths Arms (where the band first met).

Three members of the original band, Rod Argent, Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy, first got together to jam in 1961. Argent wanted to form a band and initially asked his elder cousin Jim Rodford to join on bass but he was already in a successful local band, The Bluetones, so declined, but offered to help Argent start up (and would later decide to join in 2004 when the band reformed). Colin Blunstone and Paul Arnold joined the other three to form the band in April 1962, while all five members were at school.

CHORISTER

Both Blunstone and Grundy hailed from nearby Hatfield and both sang in the choir there at St Etheldreda’s Church..Argent was a boy chorister in St Albans Cathedral Choir. They held their original rehearsals at the Pioneer Club using equipment lent to them by The Bluetones. They met outside the Blacksmiths Arms pub in St Albans (where a commemorative plaque still stands) before their first rehearsal and gained their initial reputation playing the Old Verulamians Rugby Club in the same city.

It was Paul Arnold who came up with The Zombies name.

Argent explained in a 2015 interview: “I knew vaguely that they were: sort of, you know, the Walking Dead from Haiti and Colin didn’t even really know what they were. Paul came up with the name. I don’t know where he got it from. He very soon left the band after that. I thought this was a name that no one else is going to have. And I just liked the whole idea of it. Colin was wary, I’m sure, at the beginning, I know, but I always, always really, really liked it.”

POP HISTORY

The rest is pop history. After allegedly winning a beat-group competition sponsored by the London Evening News, they signed a recording contract with Decca and recorded She’s Not There. Rod Argent built the lyrics from a John Lee Hooker song, whose title – No One Told Me – became a part of the opening phrase of She’s Not There: “Well no one told me about her , the way she lied. Well no one told me about her, how many people cried.”

And then again in its second verse: “Well no one told me about her, what could I do? Well no one told me about her, though they all knew.”

Add to that a repeated pre chorus and a similarly echoed chorus and that’s your lot. Short and sweet but it worked wonders.

Following a 29 April 1964 performance by The Zombies at St Albans Market Hall, Argent played the one verse he had so far written of the song for Ken Jones who was set to produce the band’s first recording session. Jones encouraged Argent to write a second verse for the song, intending for the band to record it.

Argent recalls: “I wrote the song for Colin’s range”—referring to Blunstone’s choral pitch: “I could hear him singing it in my mind.”
It later turned out that the real inspiration behind the song was Argent’s first love, Patricia, who called off their wedding weeks before and broke his heart.

HULLABALOO

Like many other British Invasion groups, The Zombies were sent to the United States to tour behind their new hit single. Among their early US gigs were Murray the K’s Christmas shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre, where the band played seven performances a day.
On 12 January 1965 the band made its first in-person appearance on US television on the first episode of NBC’s Hullabaloo and played She’s Not There and their next single Tell Her No to a screaming, hysterical audience full of teenage girls.

Not bad for a band whose debut single was described (and almost dismissed) by authors and music journalists (though not by Argent himself) as jazz rock, beat and pop rock.

So considering the band boasted two future multi hit makers in its line-up – Rod Argent who went to become a bit of a prog rock god and Colin Blunstone who was the nearest thing the UK got to having its own Art Garfunkel – what went wrong?
It would appear their first record label, Decca, had other fish to fry – namely The Rolling Stones. Did no-one tell The Zombies about them?