The Mojo Collection. Various Mojo Magazine
Billy Fury
The Sound Of Fury
Driving debut from the UK’s only decent answer to Elvis, the man who had more hits in the ’60s than The Beatles.
Record label: Decca
Produced: Jack Good
Recorded: Decca Studio 3, West Hampstead, London; January 8, 1960 and April 4, 1960
Released: May 1960
Chart peaks: 18 (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Billy Fury (v); Joe Brown (g); Reg Guest (p); Bill Stark (acoustic bass); Alan Weighell (b); Andy White (d); The Four Jays (bv)
Track listing: That’s Love (S/UK); My Advice; Phone Call; You Don’t Know; Turn My Back On You; Don’t Say It’s Over; Since You’ve Been Gone; It’s You I Need; Alright, Goodbye; Don’t Leave Me This Way
Running time: 21.53
Current CD: Decca 8449902 The Sound Of Fury: 40th Aniversary Edition
Further listening: Halfway To Paradise (1961); The One And Only (1983)
Further reading: Wondrous Face: The Billy Fury Story (Spencer Leigh, 2005); www.billyfury.co.uk
Download: Not currently legally available
Only a handful of early British rockers merit favourable comparison with their maverick American cousins. Cliff Richard, Lonnie Donegan and Johnny Kid may have had their moments, but only Billy Fury could really be considered the English Elvis. In April 1960, after a reasonably successful run of singles, Decca sent 20-year-old Fury into the studio to record a 10-inch long-player and, unusually for the times, the songs were all penned by Fury himself. (Impresario Larry Parnes had signed Ronald Wycherley [as was] at least partly on the strength of his compositional ability.) Producer Jack Good had assembled the customary crew of sheet-music-reading jazz musicians for the session, but had added the rocking young guitarist Joe Brown to the line-up. Brown had backed Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent on tour, and remembers Good’s instructions vividly: ‘The record was Jack’s take on the Sun Studio sound. He had even hired electric and stand-up bass players to double up to get Bill Black’s big slapped bass sound. He asked Reg Guest (piano) to play like Floyd Cramer and told me to do my Scotty Moore. We did a run through of each number and then a take. Practically everything was done in one go.’
The result is a powerful, varied set with loud echoes of Memphis 1954 – Since You’ve Been Gone mirrors the tempo-change tomfoolery of Elvis’s Milk Cow Blues. Elsewhere Fury’s sweet, edgy tenor is often the spit of Cochran’s. There are also hints, however, of something new. The ballad You Don’t Know exudes a peculiarly British sense of vulnerability – Fury’s Liverpudlian vowels resonating through the sparse arrangement. As Brown attests, ‘Even though we knew we were copying the Yanks, of course we brought something of our own upbringing to it as well.’
The Four Jays (hired to imitate The Jordanaires) were later managed by Brian Epstein and gained success as The Fourmost. A curiously shy star, Fury continued to have hits well into the ’60s and was charming as the self-parodic Stormy Tempest in the film That’ll Be The Day. Unfortunately, he was chronically ill throughout the ’70s and died in 1983. But amongst his many achievements was an album, which marks the moment when British rock’n’roll grew up.
Elvis Presley
Elvis Is Back!
The best rock’n’roll LP between Buddy Holly’s death and the rise of The Beatles.
Record label: RCA
Produced: Steve Scholes and Chet Aktins
Recorded: RCA Studio B, Nashville; March 20–April 3, 1960
Release date: July 1960 (UK) April 8, 1960 (US)
Chart peaks: 1 (UK) 2 (US)
Personnel: Elvis Presley (v, g); Scotty Moore (g); Bob Moore (b); Hank Garland (g, b); DJ Fontana (d); Buddy Harman (d); ‘Boots’ Randolph (s); Floyd Cramer (p); The Jordanaires (v); Bob Moore (e)
Track listing: Make Me Know It; Fever; The Girl Of My Best Friend (S); I Will Be Home Again; Dirty, Dirty Feeling; Thrill Of Your Love; Soldier Boy; Such A Night (S); It Feels So Right; Girl Next Door; Like A Baby; Reconsider Baby
Running time: 31.54
Current CD: RCA 74321906112 adds 14 extra tracks and a second disc of alternate takes
Further listening: From Nashville To Memphis – The Essential ’60s Masters Vol 1 (5 CD set)
Further reading: Careless Love – The Unmaking Of Elvis Presley (Peter Guralnick, 1999); www.elvispresley.com
Download: www.hmvdigital.com
The omens were not good on March 20, 1960, when Presley, demob happy and shorn of sideburns, arrived for his first recording session since leaving the army. The Sun-era team of Elvis, Scotty and Bill was not an option. Scotty Moore had not spoken to Presley for two years but was willing to turn up, but Bill Black was pursuing a solo career. On the other hand, DJ Fontana, The Jordanaires and Floyd Cramer were still on board. The other musicians – most of whom were on the June 1958 date that was Elvis’ most recent – were led to believe this was a Jim Reeves session. There was also a lot of business to be taken care of, not least a single (Stuck On You/Fame And Fortune) that had to be in the shops by the end of the week.
By 7am, that 45 plus four other tracks were in the can – Make Me Know It, the faintly biographical Soldier Boy, and two lascivious R&B songs, A Mess of Blues and It Feels So Right. With two weeks before the next date, Presley was whisked off to Miami for the Frank Sinatra TV Show. For the second recording date, April 3, Colonel Tom instructed that Elvis sing eight songs – all he was contractually obliged to give RCA for an LP – one of which was to be Are You Lonesome Tonight, a 1927 hit for Al Jolson, and his wife’s favourite tune. By now Presley was back into his stride, with ideas that far outstripped his pre-draft capabilities. Fever featured just bass and two percussionists separated in the stereo mix; It’s Now Or Never was mock-operatic, an adaptation of O Sole Mio; Like A Baby, Such A Night and Dirty, Dirty Feeling almost verged on the obscene. Recorded in the dark, Are You Lonesome Tonight was the ninth cut, although Elvis felt his voice wasn’t suitable. The twelfth cut, Lowell Fulsom’s bluesy Reconsider Baby, began as a jam and ended with everybody taking solos. By the time he left the studio, Stuck On You was Number 1 and Elvis had two weeks before starting work on GI Blues. A new beginning, but the end was already in sight.
Joan Baez
Joan Baez
As important as Dylan in popularising folk music in the ’60s.
Record label: Vanguard
Produced: Maynard Solomon
Recorded: Manhattan Towers Hotel Ballroom, New York; July 1960
Released: October 1960
Chart peaks: 9 (UK) 15 (US)
Personnel: Joan Baez (v, g); Fred Hellerman (g)
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