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: ****

Baldheaded woman b/w Lonesome town by The Hep Stars (Polydor International 421 007)

Dutch band the JayJays had released a single in January 1966 comprising two songs from the Kinks' debut album: Baldheaded woman b/w So mystifying. I managed to get both songs in the 1966 winter sale on two separate singles by Swedish band the Hep Stars. Their star was lead singer Svenne Hedlund, but little did I know it would be their keyboard player Benny Andersson who would rise to world fame in the 1970's with Abba. In hindsight their version of Baldheaded woman was a bit lame. The b-side, a Ricky Nelson song later covered by Paul McCartney, showed they were better at ballads.
Rating: **

No response b/w So mystifying by The Hep Stars (Polydor International 421 014)

Again a bit of a lame cover compared to The Kinks' original (I actually went out and bought the Kinks debut album when it was released in the budget Golden Guinea series to get the originals of Baldheaded woman and So mystifying). Later in 1966 the Hep Stars had an international hit with Sunny girl, written by Benny Andersson. That was clearly more their niche.
Rating: **