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: ****

Cadillac b/w Bad Bad Boy by The Renegades (Artone SM 25.288)

This month four non songs that charted in 1965/1966. What is a non song? In essence a song without much substance in both musical and lyrical content. The first one is Cadillac by the Renegades, a Birmingham band, who originally recorded this for Polydor in the UK in late 1964. It was basically a slow version of Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac (later covered by such luminaries as The Clash and The Downliners Sect), but without the distinctive guitar riff that made the original so appealing. The Renegades' members, Kim Brown, Dennis Gibson, Ian Mallet and Graham Johnson, just put their name under the composition as if they'd written the song, but if there ever was a case of plagiarism this was one. The Renegades somehow ended up doing a televised show in Finland and became the next beat sensation over there, bigger than The Beatles. Cadillac became a #1 hit in Finland. Strangely enough their record didn't start selling outside Finland until Swedish band The Shamrocks had covered it and they hit the Swedish Top 10. Backed by record company Polydor the Shamrocks' version started selling in Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands, although the Renegades' version was far superior. A series of cover versions of the cover version (Shamrocks covered Renegades) of the cover version (Renegades covered Vince Taylor) followed by Dutch band The Phantoms, Swedish band The Hep Stars (with Benny from Abba on organ) and Dutch band De Maskers, who arguably had the best version called Brand New Cadillac, probably not because they were aware of Vince Taylor's original, but because they'd already released an instrumental called Cadillac. But their version was not helped by the fact that they were on the same label -Artone- as The Renegades.
Rating: ****

Hanky Panky b/w Thunderbolt by Tommy James & the Shondells (Roulette RL 45.232)

Third non song is Hanky Panky by Tommy James & the Shondells. Strangely out of place American rock & roll from the pre-Beatles era when it was a hit in 1965. But it made sense since this was recorded early 1964 by a 16-year old Tommy James and his Shondells when some American bands were not aware yet that The Beatles had changed rock music forever. By the time Hanky Panky became a hit the Shondells had long since broken up and did not wish to rejoin Tommy. James then hired a Pittsburgh band named The Raconteurs to become the "new" Shondells. Hanky Panky was a Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich song, which was originally recorded by The Raindrops, but it was not much of a song. A simple twelve-bar relying heavily on the My baby does the Hanky Panky repetitiveness.
*

"All I really want to do" b/w "I'll feel a whole lot better" by The Byrds (CBS 1.947)

I don't think I bought this when it came out. It wasn't a big hit in 1965 and I think I bought it in the 1966 winter sale. I was pleasantly surprised by the B-side, which was actually better than "All I really want to do" which seemed to meander a bit. Cher's version was even ballsier. But I discovered Gene Clark with "I'll feel a whole lot better". The intro sounds a bit TOO much like "Needles & pins" by The Searchers, but it's a great song. There would be many cover versions ahead by Tom Petty and The Flamin' Groovies amongst others, but the original is unsurpassed.
Rating: ****

"Yesterday" b/w "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" by The Beatles (Parlophone HHR 138)

This was one of the "Dutch only" singles released by The Beatles. In the USA and Germany "Yesterday" had "Act naturally" on the B-side. I think these two songs, which were subsequent tracks on the non-film side of the "Help!" LP helped create the fable that Paul was the soft one and John the rocker. But for every "Yesterday" there was an "I'm down" and for every "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" there was a "You've got to hide your love away". Both were great songwriters and had every style down pat.
Rating: *****

"As tears go by" b/w "I laugh at you" by 4PK (Fontana YF 278121)

I liked this version of the Rolling Stones hit very much. I think someone gave it tome for my 14th birthday. I later found out the PK stood for Peter Koelewijn, who had been the first Dutch rock & roll star with "Kom van dat dak af" and by 1965 was a record producer. Hearing it back now I can distinguish the rather peculiar pronunciation, but at the time this sounded quite good!
Rating: ** {courtesy mza-garage}

"Till the end of the day" b/w "Where have all the good times gone" by The Kinks (PYE 7N15981)

The Kinks hardly seemed to make singles that were NOT good. I guess only "Everybody's gonna be happy" was a miss, but they were one of my favourite groups. I bought their first album when it came out in the budget Golden Guinea series, but this was their first single I owned. That was partly due to the great B-side, which could have been a hit in its own right. Until 1967 "Where have all the good times gone" was part of the repertoire of just about every "beat group" in my hometown. I didn't seem to date as quickly as other songs did. Still sounds great today.........
Rating: *****

P/w: bomber

Mr. Tambourine Man b/w I knew I'd want you by The Byrds (CBS 1.922)

So Bob Dylan could write good songs, but they could also be executed beautifully. The Byrds sounded like a cross between Dylan and The Beatles, which it later turned out, was exactly what they intended to be. Three folkies, a bluegrass mandoline player and a "beach boy" playing "beat music" inspired by The Beatles, using a Rickenbacker 12-string their lead-singer Jim McGuinn had seen George Harrison use in the film "A hard day's night". Tambourine man Gene Clark seemed a bit out of place in this band, it wasn't until later I found out what he was up to.
Rating: *****

Like a rolling stone Part 1 b/w Like a rolling stone Part 2 by Bob Dylan (CBS 1.952)

Stupidity number???????? I bought this single when it had just been released. That was the version with "Like a rolling stone" cut in two parts and dispersed over two sides of a 7" single. The second pressing came out with the complete song on the A-side and "Gates of Eden" on the flipside. A friend of mine bought that second edition and laughed at me: he had twice as much music for the same money! I later sold or swapped my original, not realizing this Part 1 / Part 2 version would become a collector's item.......
Revolutionary music entering the Top 10 with Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ. But where was the cut exactly on the original single?
Rating: *****

Catch a falling star b/w Only friends by Françoise Hardy (Vogue HV 2013)

I actually didn't own this record at the time (1965), it was my sister's. But I bought a copy a few years ago. My sweet Lord: what a woman! Which boy born between 1945 and 1955 didn't at one point dream that Françoise Hardy would fall in love with him? Or jerked off to her pictures? We were ALL in love with her. And then she started singing in English as well, this wonderful "yeh yeh girl". A very charming French accent that worked particularly well on "Only friends" (which I remember being the A-side, but maybe that's because I played it all the time). Alas, she married Jacques Dutronc, the lucky bastard, and left millions of men wondering of what might have been if ONLY they'd been FRIENDS with Françoise.
Rating: ***

Lucille b/w Now decide by The Rivets (Star-Club Records 148 510 STF)

During the summer sale of 1965 I was on holiday abroad and ultimately ended up in a department store in the city of Lörrach in the south of Germany where they had a discount record sale. The Germans were really slow in following trends in those days. I wanted to buy the latest Beatles single "Help!" which had been a number one when I left home, but it hadn't even been released in Germany yet! I went back to the camping with a cheap "live" LP by a group called The Ravers full of covered 1963/1964 hits and a single by German group The Rivets. The latter cost me just one Deutschmark and it contained a nice version of Little Richard's "Lucille" done Everly Brothers style, but more "beat". And it was of course on the Star-Club label, which I associated with The Beatles in their Hamburg-days.
The Ravers later turned out to be a group called The Tonics, who used the pseudonym to record for the cheapo TIP label. Amazingly the LP I bought in 1965 (and which I later bought again for a huge sum in order to digitize it) was released on cd: "Twist mit den Ravers"!
Rating: **

Ticket to ride b/w Yes it is by The Beatles (Parlophone R 5265)

Easter 1965 brought the Easter school report and a new Beatles single. Luckily my marks were just good enough to scrape together enough money to buy "Ticket to ride". This single has probably the ugliest picture sleeve ever to be designed for a Beatles 45. It was a kind of press release with typed text and without a picture of the band. Some fanatics will even claim this was not a "picture sleeve" but an "art sleeve", designed by the art department of the record company without the addition of a picture of the artist(s).
A friend of mine later got the "Help!" album and I was amazed to learn from the credits on the back that the lead guitar in "Ticket" was played by Paul McCartney. I tried to imagine how George Harrison must have felt when this happened. But no doubt George played the song's main riff on his chiming 12-string Rickenbacker.
The flipside was "very close" harmony, my father even claimed it was sung flat. In a 1970s interview George Harrison sang the first line of his part and suddenly the harmonies made a lot more sense to me.
Rating: ****

Love is strange b/w Man with money by The Everly Brothers (Warner Bros WB 5649)

The Everly Brothers were the first to stir my interest in pop music. "Till I kissed you" in 1959 cemented my love for harmony vocals. Although The Beatles never mentioned them as an influence I always thought they were heavily influenced by the Everly's. "Love me do" sounded like a rejected Everly track to me when I first heard it and the Fab Four's "yeah yeah" seemed like a straight cop from "Temptation" to me. The brothers kept making good records, but they also recorded a lot of schmaltz like "Ebony Eyes". In the mid-Sixties they released a trio of fabulous singles: "That'll be the day", "The Price of love" and "Love is strange". I bought the latter, mainly because it had such a great B-side in "Man with money", which later became part of The Who's repertoire. They also released three very good albums around the same time: "Rock 'n Soul", "Beat & Soul" and "Two Yanks In England". But then they came up with "Its all over" and they sounded old hat again.
Rating: ****

No reply b/w Rock And Roll Music by The Beatles (Parlophone HHR 136)

The Americans always "milked" albums for singles and unlike the UK many countries on the European continent copied the American releases. This happened with the single "Eight days a week"/"Baby's in black". Soon after that this one was "released by public demand": the great opener of the latest Beatles album "Beatles for sale". Of course it went straight to #1.
Rating: *****

I feel fine b/w She's a woman by The Beatles (Parlophone R 5200)

So at Christmas 1964 my grandfather sent me some Canadian dollars and I was able to buy the new Beatles single. After the beautiful "A hard day's night" trilogy the picture sleeve was a bit of a let down: a very "old" picture of the band (looks like late 1962) and a hazy one at that. But the music was all the better: from the feedback intro of I feel fine to the rave-up fade-out of She's a woman.
Rating: *****