Another in my series of posts about tracks that were more popular in Australia than in their countries of origin. See also: Only in Melbourne.
4. Cliff Richard - Just Another Guy
(Neil Diamond)
UK 1965 (recorded in USA 1964)
Columbia single #DB 7496.
Australian charts: #5 Melbourne, #2 Brisbane,
#4 Perth (all with the A-side The Minute You're Gone)
5. Cliff Richard - Angel
(Sid Tepper-Roy Bennett)
UK 1965 (recorded in USA 1964)
Columbia album Cliff Richard, #SX 1709;
Columbia single #DC 762.
Australian charts: #6 Melbourne, #9 Sydney, #4 Brisbane,
#8 Adelaide #3 Perth.
On the British Top 40 charts you won't find either of these among the dozens of Cliff Richard hits.
In March 1965 you'll find the #1 hit The Minute You're Gone, but not its B-side, Just Another Guy. In Australia both sides charted.
In Britain Cliff's next charting single was On My Word in June, but on the Australian charts Angel is squeezed in before On My Word.
The name Neil Diamond might jump out at you here, as the writer of Just Another Guy. Cliff recorded this a couple of years before Neil Diamond charted with his own Cherry Cherry (#6 US, his first Top 40 hit) and with his composition I'm A Believer by The Monkees (#1 US), both in 1966.
Angel was written by Sid Tepper and Roy Bennett, veteran American songwriters who had written earlier hits for Cliff, including the #1s Travellin' Light and Please Don't Tease. They also wrote a lot of songs for Elvis Presley movies, including Angel: Elvis's was the original version, in Follow That Dream (1962).
Cliff recorded both Just Another Guy and Angel in Nashville in 1964, produced by Bob Morgan & Billy Sherrill, with backing by The Jordanaires of Elvis fame. Co-producer Billy Sherrill is a notable Country producer, A&R man and songwriter best known for his career-building work at Epic in Nashville with Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich . His co-writer credits include Wynette's Stand By Your Man (1968) and Rich's The Most Beautiful Girl (1973).
Just Another Guy and Angel are two of my favourite Cliff Richard songs, well-written pop songs with crisp, rhythmic arrangements and high quality production.
This was during a period in the mid-60s when Cliff showed that he was no relic from the pre-Fab era by recording some up-to-date pop records that are among his finest. Also from this period are I Could Easily Fall (written by The Shadows, December 1964, #6 UK), The Time in Between (August 1965, #22 UK) and Blue Turns to Grey, a Mick Jagger-Keith Richards composition (March 1966, #15 UK), all of which move forward from Cliff's sound of the late-50s and early 60s.
An Australian footnote: Western Australian band The Times released a rearranged, guitar-based version of Just Another Guy in November 1965.
Chart positions from Gavin Ryan's Australian chart books.
References: For details of these songs and their sessions, see the excellent Cliff Richard Song Database, which tells us that Angel as a single was intended for foreign distribution. Searching for the song titles at PopMusicInfo.com also throws up some useful release histories and other data.
5 comments:
The Angel EP was the first record I ever owned.
Rob, you showed good taste!
The first record I ever went out and bought, actually asked for it by name, was the Fleetwoods' 'Come Softly To Me'. First LP: Herb Alpert, "The Lonely Bull".
I remember The Lonely Bull. My first LP was Best of the Goons volume one. :-)
The second was "With the Beatles" I have a copy of Robert Freeman's cover photo hanging on the wall.
I discovered your blog while searching for Tamoure. The song was mentioned in David Johnston's book, The Music Goes Round My Head. I had forgotten the song, but as soon as I saw it mentioned in the book, I could sing the chorus.
While trawling through your excellent blog, I came across the reference to Johnston's book. My life is going around in circles.
We may be of a similar age! I was a Goons fanatic. I still play 'With The Beatles' and 'Please Please Me' more often than any other Beatles albums.
Tamoure page is now extensively updated (2023): http://poparchivesblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/only-in-oz-12-bill-justis-tamoure.html
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