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British Invasion not so original after all ...

H

hornet61

Guest
The 2nd musical British Invasion in 1964..took America by storm and changed the way musicians around the world looked to this new sound and immediately emulated it . Orchestras, Bands , combo's anywhere from 8 pieces to 30 pieces was the norm. Then came these Beatles who dared to make music with only three guitars and a drum, an occasional harmonica , or farfisa or Vox organs (A squeaky high pitched sound was the trademark of both the farfisa and Vox). What a revolutionary concept we thought and the modern Rock N' Roll band format was established. All the groups from England had the same make-up three guitars and a drum sometimes a keyboardist. The Rolling Stones, Animals, DC Five , The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pace makers, Freddie and the Dreamers , Yardbirds (Who morphed into Led Zeppelin).
Was this revolutionary????, lest we forget back in 1955 four lads from Lubbock,Tx started a band with 3 guitars and a drummer recorded a song titled "That'll Be The Day" and shot straight up to number one by the fall of 1957. The name of the group Buddy Holly (Real last Name is Holley, was mis-spelled on the record as Holly) his group's name The Crickets, similar to Beetles (added an a for Beatles).
So it wasn't so original after all, but we so enamoured of the sound we totally forgot about the Crickets....to compound the situation almost everyone of the British groups first record release's, was an original American hit formerly recorded by American artists, these are known as cover versions.....but we loved these cockney singers with their cute accents trying to sing American songs, and the rest is history. What was new, was their sound, a hybrid of British sound and culture, trying to emulated American Music, mostly R&B. I gotta say, I loved the clothes from Carnaby street..

Here are the original American versions of some famous British Invasion hits - Part one
1 Rolling Stones - Not Fade Away......first done by again Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
2 Moody blues - Go Now..original by Bessie Banks
3.Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders - Groovy Kind Of Love ...originaly done by Diane and Annita

some others -Beatles/Donnays - Devil In My Heart......Hollies/Doris Troy - Just One Look.....Sones /Irma Thomas -Time Is On My Side and many more...
 
Don't forget that the 1st UK group to have a #1 hit in the states was The Tornadoes with "Telstar"...almost 1 year before the Beatles topped the charts here.
 
For those of us growing of age in the late 50's I don't think "forgotten" correctly describes Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They remain in my library as they have for the past 50 years.

Secondly, I've read several stories over the years in which various members of the Beatles say they selected their band's name (originally the Silver Beatles) in homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

But lastly, the Crickets musical style was called Rockabilly back then - a cross between RnR and 'hillbilly' (western style) music. The Beatles were never known to play rockabilly music AFAIK.
 
desertv said:
Don't forget that the 1st UK group to have a #1 hit in the states was The Tornadoes with "Telstar"...almost 1 year before the Beatles topped the charts here.
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my comment was the 2nd British invasion..of course the Tornadoes went to Number 1, as did David Rose with the The Stripper, Mr Acker Bilk with Stranger on the Shore. all were British groups which is what I call the first British Invasion....I was just checking if some you were paying attention.
 
landtuna said:
For those of us growing of age in the late 50's I don't think "forgotten" correctly describes Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They remain in my library as they have for the past 50 years.

Secondly, I've read several stories over the years in which various members of the Beatles say they selected their band's name (originally the Silver Beatles) in homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

But lastly, the Crickets musical style was called Rockabilly back then - a cross between RnR and 'hillbilly' (western style) music. The Beatles were never known to play rockabilly music AFAIK.
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I said people forgot Buddy Holly was a pioneer in the three guitar and a drum, not that he was forgotten as an artist.
I said the same thing that the Beatles name was inspired by the Crickets and the Beatles actually started out as the Quarrymen
My comments are paying tribute to the sound of Buddy Holly and how it inspired the Beatles not a discograpghy of the Beatles vs Buddy Holly.....The Beatles did everything including a Carl Perkins ditty "Honey Don't". like the Beatles Buddy holly progressed and grew in his style beyond his hillbilly roots.
 
TheFonz said:
hornet61 said:
The Beatles did everything including a Carl Perkins ditty "Honey Don't".
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And Perkins' "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" & "Matchbox".
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It's no secret that British rock and roll in the mid-60s was inspired by American blues, R&B and rockabilly. It is U.S. roots music, plain and simple. The Stones got started playing Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf records. Eric Clapton was inspired by Robert Johnson. Rod Stewart grew up on U.S. folk AND R&B (Sam Cooke). And the list goes on and on. The Brits were playing American music that Americans had put on the shelf at the end of the 50s (when Elvis was in the Army, Little Richard found God, Buddy Holly was dead, Chuck Berry was in jail and Jerry Lee Lewis was in the doghouse). It's no wonder that kids were ready for it by '64, and it's noteworthy that many of the big British bands were much bigger here than in the UK (Kinks, Who, Moody Blues etc).
 
And don't forget about the payola scandal that had the effect of creating all those damned girl groups of the early 60's.

I remember speaking with some former classmates at a reunion long ago and we all agreed that "our" music took a huge hit from 59-63.
 
TheFonz said:
hornet61 said:
The Beatles did everything including a Carl Perkins ditty "Honey Don't".
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And Perkins' "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" & "Matchbox".
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yes, you're right ...I totally forgot about those
two
hermans hermits..first hit "I'm into something good"..original was by Earl Jean of the Cookies...
gerry and the pacemakers - "I'll be there" orginal was Bobby Darin who also wrote it.
Hippy hippy shake was originally done by Chan Romero on Del-Fi....can't remember the Brit group that did it around 64
 
I wouldn't call the handful of foreign groups/singers on the pre-64 US charts an "invasion", we also had "Volare"; "Sukiyaki"; and the "Singing Nuns" which were not British.

The charts 64-65 were a true "invasion"- most of the songs on the top charts were from Britain.
 
desertv said:
I wouldn't call the handful of foreign groups/singers on the pre-64 US charts an "invasion", we also had "Volare"; "Sukiyaki"; and the "Singing Nuns" which were not British.

The charts 64-65 were a true "invasion"- most of the songs on the top charts were from Britain.
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Uncle.......Since they were non-ingles, we will call them Illegals, oh, but wait they were instrumentals, we need to include "petite Le fleuer" by Chris barber, oh yes "Sailor, Sailor' by Lolita (all french)...........somebody hep me please...
 
tcsnrayp said:
Hippy Hippy Shake.... Swingin' Blue Jeans
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And that was a cover of a USA record by Chan Romero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlkKB1JlbFg

I remember reading an interview with one of the members of the Searchers. Many of the popular UK bands used to play American military bases where they heard those songs for the first time from club DJ's or servicemen who brought their own 45's over. And bands would raid record stores looking for American records that they could cover, the more obscure the better. The early British Invasion really thrived on cover versions of American R&B songs for their repertoire.

But bands that just did mostly covers like The Searchers or bands that relied on outside songwriters like Gerry & The Pacemakers were off the charts by '67. The bands that started writing their own material like the Beatles, Stones, Kinks and Hollies lasted.
 
hornet61 said:
...we need to include "petite Le fleuer" by Chris barber, oh yes "Sailor, Sailor' by Lolita (all french)...........somebody hep me please...
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I have a copy of "Seeman" (Seaman) by Lolita which is in German.
 
landtuna said:
hornet61 said:
...we need to include "petite Le fleuer" by Chris barber, oh yes "Sailor, Sailor' by Lolita (all french)...........somebody hep me please...
Click to expand...

I have a copy of "Seeman" (Seaman) by Lolita which is in German.
Click to expand...

Senior moment..it is in German, good catch.....
 
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