July 20, 2011

Cannon label - Beatles hits 1963 - 1964



Like Top Six the Cannon label released six track EP's. The Cannon label was set up by Australian Allan Crawford in the early Sixties. Crawford also worked together with Ronan O'Rahilly in setting up Radio Caroline and was involved in music publishing company Southern Music. This label has become the rarest of all the budget cover labels as future star singer / songwriter / producer John Carter sang on a lot of the tracks. Carter (under contract to Southern Musci) sang in Carter/Lewis & the Southerners (with Jimmy Page on guitar) and The Ivy League, then proceeded to write/sing/produce hits under aliases like The Flower Pot Men (with his Ivy League partner Ken Lewis), Kincade (Dreams are ten a penny) and First Class (Beach Baby). He also co-wrote Mary Hopkins's Eurovision entry Knock knock who's there and sang the hit Winchester Cathedral. Between 1962 and 1964 he recorded for Cannon under such names as Frank Bacon, The Baconeers, The Bell Boys and The Sparrows, concentrating on hits by The Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers and Freddie & the Dreamers. In 2010 the RPM label released two download only albums with tracks sung by Carter (digitized from records from Carter's private collection) from which a six track Beatles compilation included here.

Rating: ****

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