Obscure Originators (42) Vandyke And The Bambis

The latest from my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records. 

See also: the full collection of over 40 Obscure Originators features. 

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Daily Mirror 16 April 1964

Doin' The Mod was released by Melbourne band The Flies in June 1965 (#23 Melbourne) with soon-to-be-famous Ronnie Burns on guitar and vocals. 

In the last months of 1964 New Zealand's Ray Columbus And The Invaders had topped the Australian charts with She's A Mod, and an earlier version of Doin' The Mod by Sydney band The Echoes had been played on local radio (#67 on 2SM's survey).

Both of these mod-themed songs originated in Britain. This was an era of competing teenage subcultures, when bad feeling between crowds of mods and rockers could turn violent. The British papers were full of stories like this one from May 1964: Holiday 'spoilt for thousands' by 'Mods' and 'Rockers' - SEAFRONT GANGS FIGHT WITH DECKCHAIRS.

In that context, Vandyke And The Bambis' original version of Doin' The Mod (April 1964) is about more than just a trendy dance. As its lyrics go, Who's that man in that leather jacket down there? Man, he's so bad. He must be a rocker. Get him out of here!

Norwich Evening News 19 May 1964 [enhanced]

Vandyke was Les Vandyke, the composer of Doin' The Mod, and it might not be strictly accurate to call him an obscurity. Anyone who read the songwriter credits on record labels would have seen his name, although it was often reduced to (Vandyke) or (Van Dyke), perhaps inviting confusion with US singer Leroy Van Dyke who had a UK hit with Walk On By early in 1962.

Les Vandyke's compositions included:
• Adam Faith's What Do You Want? (#1 UK) and Poor Me (#1)
• Eden Kane's Well I Ask You (#1) and Forget Me Not (#3)
• Applejack (#4 co-wr.Bridget De Mare) by ex-Shadows Jet Harris & Tony Meehan.

Sadly though, songwriters often went unnoticed except for some prominent artists who wrote their own material (The Beatles, Bob Dylan) and a select few whose names became better known (Jimmy Webb, Bacharach & David, Holland-Dozier-Holland). 

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1962 #8 UK

Many British pop fans would have also heard Les Vandyke singing, as Johnny Worth, on soundalike versions of current hits on the budget Embassy label. Sold only in Woolworths stores, Embassy's sales figures were off the grid as far as the charts were concerned, but they probably sold more than one might assume, possibly in the 100,000s. In a delicious twist, they included Johnny Worth covering his own compositions including What Do You Want? and Poor Me.

I'm guessing that The Bambis were a studio group employed by Les Vandyke. For a photo session they wore false joke-shop beards, and newspaper profiles of the day decline to name them.

When I wrote about them at the website, Les's son Dave emailed with a correction and the nice detail that the name of The Bambis came from his own childhood nickname.

For more about the song and Vandyke And The Bambis, see The Flies - Doin' The Mod

Coleshill Herald 24 April 1964 [enhanced]

The Flies - Doin' The Mod (Australia 1965)

Vandyke And The Bambis - Doin' The Mod (UK 1964)

Adam Faith - What Do You Want (1959, wr. Les Vandyke)

Johnny Worth (= Les Vandyke) - What Do You Want (1959, budget cover version by the composer on Embassy)

Bonus Jimmy Justice - Ain't That Funny (1962, wr. Les Vandyke)

Introducing the N.Z. Hit Parade! (March 1966)

From 25 March 1966 New Zealand Listener magazine published a national Top 20 that is sometimes cited as the first “official” NZ chart. 

It was probably no more official than the "official Top 40" of Melbourne radio station 3UZ. However, it was a well-organised chart in a prominent and respected publication, and in spite of its flaws it seems to have become the de facto chart for New Zealand at the time.

The Listener chart was compiled using coupons mailed in by readers who had filled them out with their five current favourite songs.

The ad in the Listener on 18 March 1966 went like this:

INTRODUCING
THE N.Z. HIT PARADE
Based on a Nationwide Voting Poll
YOU CHOOSE THE HITS!
Complete the coupon below and you take part in choosing
New Zealand’s Top Twenty. 

That teaser included an unnumbered list of "leading discs of the moment" for inspiration, but the next edition on 25 March published the actual N.Z. Hit Parade. A Must To Avoid by Herman's Hermits topped the Top 20, leading a list of exclusively British and American records. (True, The Seekers at #3 were Australians but they recorded The Carnival Is Over in Britain, produced by its British composer Tom Springfield.) 

Seven weeks later, in the 13 May issue, The La De Das' How Is The Air Up There became the first New Zealand record on the Listener chart, entering at #13 and going on to peak at #4.

UK record, NZ issue, NZ hit (discogs.com)

I-cannot-say-whether the readers' poll was the only source for the Listener chart or whether there were any adjustments before publication. Whatever the truth, NZ chart compiler Dean Scapolo believes that it was “not a good indicator” of what was actually selling. From April 1970 the Listener did use sales figures, but its charts were retired with the coming of official music industry charts in May 1975.

Warwick Freeman, another compiler, outlines the NZ chart scene before March 1966 when the Listener chart appeared:
❝ [New Zealanders] relied on local radio stations, television, record stores and other sources who compiled their own charts. A few of these charts were published, and in many cases lost, but others were simply written down in scrapbooks by keen listeners as the countdown was played on the radio or TV.❞

Another often-cited chart from before March 1966 was the Lever Hit Parade, a Top 8 that was sponsored by a detergent company, compiled by an advertising agency, and used by NZ’s state-owned commercial radio stations. Although its methods are not known it was not based on sales figures and probably used some kind of polling. There was also a genuinely sales-based chart published in Playdate magazine but only for a couple of months in 1960.

All of these sources have been used in compiling books of historical New Zealand chart data. Dean Scapolo’s Complete New Zealand Music Charts 1966 to 1996 begins with the Listener charts in March 1966. Warwick Freeman in New Zealand Top 20 Singles of the Sixties has additionally used a variety of sources from before March 1966 to retrospectively compile chart listings for the whole decade. 

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Sources: 1. Flavour of New Zealand’s feature on NZ charts 2. Scapolo’s and Freeman’s chart books. 3. Listener archives at Papers Past (National Library of NZ).

Related: My post about retrospective Australian charts Toppermost of the poppermost: the charts.

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Bigger in Oz (25): Oliver Cool - Oliver Cool (1960)

Bigger in Oz: tracks that were more popular in Australia than in their countries of origin.

See also: Only in Melbourne.

Oliver Cool - Oliver Cool (Paul Vance - Lee Pockriss)

Roulette single (USA) #R-4292 September 1960
London single (Australia) #R-4292 November 1960 

US charts: did not chart
Australian charts: #15 Sydney #24 Melbourne #24 Brisbane #16 Perth | #17 Australia

Co-charting Australian cover version:
Rock Martin - Oliver Cool
Rex single (Australia) RS-042 November 1960
Australian charts: #16 Perth

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We are deep into novelty record territory here. 

Who's the most swingingest boy in school?
You are!
And what's my name?
Oliver Cool!
That's right!

To me and my circle as 10-year-olds this was hilarious. 

Australians had a soft spot for jokey, gimmicky records, and Lee Pockriss often appeared in the writer credits.  He and Bob Hilliard wrote Jo Ann Campbell's A Kookie Little Paradise (1960), with its Tarzan calls and ice cream loaded with bananas in the jungle. Another well-known Pockriss-Hilliard composition is Paul Evans's whimsical Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat (1959, also a hit in the UK by The Avons). 

Pockriss and his Oliver Cool co-writer Paul Vance wrote Bryan Hyland's Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini. (The 16-syllable title is the gimmick - pretty much the main event - just as it would be three years later in the 14 syllables of Little Pattie's He’s My Blonde-Headed Stompie-Wompie Real Gone Surfer Boy which I suspect it inspired.)

Unsurprisingly, Oliver Cool is a name adopted for the performance. You can find strong views online about whether this was dancer-choreographor-actor-director Tony Mordente (1935-2024) or singer and skater Lawrence Sarapochiello (1933-2024). It appears that each used the pseudonym Larry Ellis at some stage in their career, which could explain why there is confusion, but I don't feel confident in calling it either way.

I was surprised to discover an Australian cover version of Oliver Cool that co-charted in Perth with the original. Not only that, but there is no doubt that the artist, Rock Martin, was the famous West Australian-born stage hypnotist Martin St James (1924-2015) who had an early career as a cowboy singer in a circus. 

Chart positions for this post:
Australian capital cities: Gavin Ryan's chart books. 
Australia: Grant Dawe's Top 100 Singles site.

Oliver Cool - Oliver Cool (1960)

Rock Martin - Oliver Cool (1960)

Karl Hammel Jr (1961): Summer Souvenirs and Bounty Hunter

 This follows on from my previous post Bigger in Oz (24): Paul Evans - Show Folk (1960)

 

• Karl Hammel Jr - Summer Souvenirs (Paul Evans - Jimmy Krondes) 1961, #68 Bb, #60 CB, USA,

 Karl was previously heard on:
• The Nomads - Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Krondes) 1961 B-side, #116 [Billboard Bubbling Under]

Bounty Hunter was covered by:
• Al Caiola - Bounty Hunter   (Jimmy Krondes) 1961 (B-side of Bonaza #19 USA),

It is strongly reminiscent of:
• Duane Eddy - Rebel-'Rouser (Duane Eddy - Lee Hazlewood) 1958 #6 USA. 

Rebel-'Rouser was inspired by
• Tennessee Ernie Ford - Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet (Traditional, from The Lass of Roch Royal) 1955.  

aka as ... Cash Box, 8 Jul 61 

I never forgot Karl Hammel Jr's Summer Souvenirs from hearing it on the radio as an 11-year-old, but it wasn't a hit in Australia and it seemed to disappear without trace. 

In the 70s and 80s I bought old or reissued 45s by mail order, catching up with tracks I had missed out on buying as a youngster. Summer Souvenirs was near the top of my wants list, and I scored it at a reasonable price through a mail-in record auction. 

The Paul Evans in the writer credits was already known to me from his records Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat and Show Folk, but I still knew nothing about Karl Hammel Jr (see my post, Bigger in Oz: Paul Evans - Show Folk).

Along came the Internet, and people from the music industry started to launch their own websites, often with contact details. So it was that I could email Paul Evans to express my regard for Summer Souvenirs and to find out anything at all about Karl Hammel Jr. I had a prompt and friendly reply: Paul said he remembered Karl   - nice guy - but they had lost touch and he couldn't give me much background.

 

 Karl Hammel Jr - Summer Souvenirs (1960)

 

I now find (via Discogs.com) that Paul Evans's co-writer on Summer Souvenirs, Jimmy Krondes, was the manager of a New Rochelle NY band called The Nomads, and Karl Hammel Jr was a member. 

The Nomads released one single, with both sides written by Jimmy Krondes. (This was not a band manager dabbling in songwriting: Krondes was a successful songwriter, known especially for Earl Grant's hit The End [1958, #7 USA], co-written with Sid Jacobson.)

The B-side, Bounty Hunter (February 1961), was released as an A-side in Australia in June 1961. This is a guitar instrumental that prominently features Karl Hammel Jr. At the start of the track he whistles the main theme or melody once before he is joined by the guitar which then takes over the main theme, with Karl whistling in counterpoint. (See notes by Fred Clemens at 45cat.com.) 

A cover version was released on a B-side by guitarist Al Caiola (March 1961) but without any whistling.

Whenever I came across Bounty Hunter over the years I absently thought, "Oh yeah, that's the one that sounds a lot like Duane Eddy." 

In fact (I later realised) the main melodies of Bounty Hunter and Dwayne Eddy's 1958 hit Rebel-'Rouser are almost the same.  

Bounty Hunter has a bridge after two runs of the main theme, repeated later, but Rebel-'Rouser simply repeats the melody several times. As Duane Eddy told Guitar Player, "I couldn’t think of any way to get into a bridge, so I modulated it – I moved each subsequent pass through it up by a half step." 

In confirmation of the derivative nature of pop, Eddy's inspiration for Rebel-'Rouser was Tennessee Ernie Ford's Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet (1955), a version of a much-recorded American folk song that in turn goes back to a British song called The Lass of Roch Royal. 

Disambiguation
See discogs.com for details on Karl Hammel Jr and The Nomads. I'm almost certain this is not the drummer Karl Himmel, seen in Neil Young album credits, known by several aliases including Karl Hammel. I believe these are two different Karls. 

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Clips: main themes only

Duane Eddy - Rebel-'Rouser (1958)  

The Nomads - Bounty Hunter (1961)  

Al Caiola - Bounty Hunter (1961)  

The Nomads - Bounty Hunter (1961)

Duane Eddy - Rebel-'Rouser (1958)

Tennessee Ernie Ford - Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet (1955)

                                                            

Bonus track

Al Caiola - Bounty Hunter (1961, covering The Nomads)