by Robert Wilkinson
Today is the birthday of three greats in music history! It’s the birthday of Dave Clark, founder and drummer of the Dave Clark 5, Alan Freed, the “Father of Rock and Roll,” and drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, and Beck, Bogart, and Appice. We’ve got good dancing tonight, with a psychedelic ending!
First, Dave Clark (15 December 1942). He was the big beat of the DC 5, co-writing most of their hits with fellow Sagittarian, the great Mike Smith (6 December 1943 – 28 February 2008). Dave Clark was a pioneering producer, and a key figure in the British Invasion with tunes that rivaled the Beatles on the charts long before the Rolling Stones, Who, or Kinks ever made the international scene!
Yes, London rockers the Dave Clark Five were among the first of the British Invasion bands, and broke on the scene with our Saturday Night Attitude tune which knocked the Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” off the #1 slot on the UK charts in January 1964. Yes, they were THAT big a deal!
From wiki, “The Dave Clark Five had 17 records in the Top 40 of the US Billboard chart and 12 Top 40 hits in their native UK between 1964 and 1967. Their song “Over and Over” went to number one in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 on Christmas Day 1965… and they played to sell-out crowds on their tours of the U.S. The Dave Clark Five was the first British band of the British Invasion to tour the US, and they made 18 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show - the most of any British Invasion group.”
Unfortunately, all their live performances are lip-synched, or done to a backing track. Still, the original studio sound of these songs gives you a sense of the excitement this band generated as they battled the Beatles for the top spots on the charts spanning two continents!
For your listening and/or dancing pleasure, one of the more exciting songs ever written, the amazing “Glad All Over.” (US - #6 April 1964) Here’s another color lip synched performance from the same era of “Glad All Over.”
From Top of the Pops, their second smash hit! “Bits and Pieces” (US - #4 May 1964)
Here was an enormously popular song from their first album, a cover of the earlier hit by the Contours, the rave up “Do You Love Me”
From their second album, on Ready Steady Go, the danceable “Can’t You See That She’s Mine” (US- #4 July 1964)
Here's the "B" side to "Can't You See That's She's Mine," the beautiful “Because” (US - #3 Aug/Sept 1964)
From the 1964 movie Get Yourself a College Girl, the “A” side “Thinking of You Baby” and the “B” side “Whenever You’re Around” (UK #26, Aug 1964)
From Shindig in 1964, “Everybody Knows” (UK - #7 Nov 1967)
My personal favorite from the band, “live” on Shindig in 1964, the reverb and delay drenched call and response stone rocker, “Any Way You Want It” (US - #14 Dec 1964)
Electric blues! “Come Home” (US #14 Feb 1965, UK #16, May 1965.) Last year I had a later color version of “Come Home” but this year it's disappeared.
Here the audio-only version by the DC5 of the Chuck Berry classic, “Reelin’ and Rockin’” (US #23 Apr 1965, UK #24 Mar 1965)
“I Like It Like That” (US - #7 July 1965)
From the soundtrack of the movie Having A Wild Weekend, the bouncy “Catch Us If You Can” (US - #4 October 1965. Very Beatle influenced!)
From 1965, “Over and Over” (US - #1 December 1965)
A great rare truly live performance at the 1966 Royal Performance of “19 Days” and “Georgia On My Mind.”
Here’s an obscure double side that went to UK #50 in May 1966. The “A” side was “Look Before you Leap” and the “B” side was “Please Tell Me Why”
This is about as live as we’ll get today! Enjoy their last big US hit, a cover of the earlier Chris Kenner rocker, the Stax/Volt inspired sound of “You Got What it Takes” (US - #7 May 1967. Love those intro horns!)
The DC5 actually had two hits with the same name! This is a completely different song than their Top 20 hit in 1964, and features Lenny singing lead on “Everybody Knows You Said Goodbye” (UK #43, Dec 1967)
Here’s a great 15 minute clip from Shindig episode #19, with Billy Preston, the Blossoms, the Shindig dancers, shaking it up! The edits are choppy, but it’s still classic footage of the DC5 cranking out a medley of “Glad All Over,” “Bits and Pieces,” “Can’t You See That She’s Mine,” “the Name of the Place is I Like It Like That,” and backing Roy Clark in “Bread and Butter Man.”
This is said to be their first record, from 1962! “I Knew it All the Time,” and from 1970, their last one! “Good Old Rock and Roll”
The next two clips need time to buffer. The first is a strange 24 minute show from 1966, called TJ’s and is hosted by Sal Mineo. The intro features the DC5 doing “Zippity Do Dah”and it’s said to feature the DC5 and Phil Spector. Again, it requires a bit of buffering, so if you want to see it, be patient!
TJ’s featuring the Dave Clark Five
This one also needs buffering before you watch it. Here’s a 43 minute show called Dave Clark Five – It’s Magic
Last year I had a great PBS 4 minute clip glossing the phenomenon of the DC5, with commentary from Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Macca, Stevie Wonder, Tom Hanks, Ozzy, Dionne Warwick, Twiggy, and Laurence Olivier, who said the DC5 were “as well known as the English dictionary.” As Gene Simmons says, it was modern electric church! At the time, it was certainly more exciting than anything the religious windbags were putting out there! This year it’s nowhere to be found. Better luck next year!
Here’s a score! It’s a 23 minute concert from July 1965 at San Carlos, CA! The sound quality is poor, since it’s obviously a bootleg. Enjoy the energy anyway, since it’s live! The Dave Clark 5 Live in 1965 – San Carlos CA
For our closer, a great live technicolor performance clip from London 1964 of their first two huge hits! “Glad All Over" and "Bits and Pieces”
For our encore, we’ll close with the song that brought us here. This is original period footage of the mania that accompanied the British Invasion! One mo’ time, with major league attitude, the song that introduced the DC 5 to the world, the rocking “Glad All Over”
Our second encore is a long audio only compilation of all their hits and a lot more, with over a hundred videos of tunes! For your enjoyment of this legendary group, here’s The Very Best of The Dave Clark Five
Our third encore is an unexpected find! It’s a 3 hour and 24 documentary titled The Beatles Versus the Dave Clark Five It seems to include some of the PBS special mentioned above with musicians commenting on the phenomenon of the “back and forth” going on in 1963-1965 about who was better, The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, or the Rolling Stones. Yes, it was made into a BIG DEAL back in the day. Anyway, if you’re into a blast from the past, check it out!
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Though I don’t have time to do a full tribute for this musical legend this year, we'll still celebrate his birthday! Yes, it's the birthday of the legendary Alan Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965), DJ, creator of “juke box movies,” and generally considered the Father of Rock and Roll, since he coined the term and broadcast it to the world! Thanks Alan, for bringing it to the airwaves and igniting a youth revolution! If you want to see some of what he contributed, please check out the birthday tribute to Bill Haley, where I have several clips from Alan’s jukebox movies. As Chuck Berry was another of his favorites, you can also find 3 more clips from those movies in Chuck Berry’s 2018 birthday celebration in the archives.
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It’s also the birthday of the great Carmine Appice (December 15, 1946), classically trained musician who attained fame through his percussion work with Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, and Beck Bogart and Appice, as well as many others. I saw the VF in 1967, and they were most def different than any other band going back then! From Wikipedia, “The band has been cited as "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal." Vanilla Fudge also is known to have influenced other major bands such as The Nice, Deep Purple, Yes, Styx, and Led Zeppelin.”
We’ll kick things off with their signature tune that got the world’s attention! For a brief taste of this man’s enormous talent, here’s an original live performance (I believe on The Ed Sullivan Show) in 1967 of their breakthrough classic, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” Here’s the original 6:49 studio version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”
Live on The Ray Antony Show shot in sepia tones, here’s another great live performance in 1968 of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” while this is from the Beat Club in 1968, a shorter live performance of the 2:44 radio version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” From the same Beat Club gig, a live performance of the Sonny and Cher hit also from their first album, “Bang Bang”
Live in 1969 on The Ed Sullivan Show, cranking out their version of the Junior Walker classic! “Shotgun”
Back at the Beat Club in 1969, here’s a great live b/w video of VF giving us “Some Velvet Morning”
From their first album, the studio version of “Take Me For A Little While” and “Ticket To Ride”
We now take you into some rare 1968 psychedelic footage of the band intercut with strange images doing the title tune for the second album, and “The Beat Goes On”
Also from their second album, one of my favorites! This would have gotten the composer’s attention, since I’m sure he would have “rolled over and told Tchaikovsky the news….” “Moonlight Sonata/Fur Elise”
From their third album, Renaissance, (produced by the legendary Shadow Morton), four amazing tunes! First, the opener, the building swirling pounding “The Sky Cried/When I Was A Boy” which we’ll follow with the haunting “That’s What Makes A Man.” We now groove with their version of a Donovan tune they took into some very strange zones! “Season of the Witch” and we’ll close with another from that album, the very Led Zeppelin-esque “Where is My Mind.”
From January 1, 1969, The Vanilla Fudge live at the Fillmore West cranking out their version of “Like A Rolling Stone”
From their newest album, Spirit of ’67, their unique way of giving us the Who standard “I Can See For Miles”
From the same album, the same treatment to some classics! First, Stevie Winwood’s wailing organ masterpiece “Gimmie Some Lovin’” which we’ll follow with the Stones’ classic “Ruby Tuesday” and finish with their take on the Procol Harem signature tune, “Whiter Shade of Pale”
From 1973, a b/w blurry live performance video of Beck, Bogart, and Appice cranking out the Stevie Wonder tune “Superstitious” and from what looks to be the same gig in Santa Monica, their take on the Grateful Dead classic, “Morning Dew”
From Oct 2010 at BB King’s in NYC doing a benefit for Little Kids Rock, Vince, Mark, and Carmine cranking out “Take Me For A Little While.” From the same gig, “Season of the Witch” and “Eleanor Rigby”
The 2011 version of Vanilla Fudge with 3 of the originals giving us a live performance of the Zombies’ classic “She’s Not There”
From 2012 in Irving Plaza in NY, the Fudge giving us their version of the Curtis Mayfield classic, “People Get Ready”
Here’s a 2012 performance by Cactus with Carmine holding court on drums cranking out “Evil”
We’ll close this brief section with another 2012 appearance by Carmine in a live performance of the Led Zeppelin classic, “Black Dog”
For the encore, Vanilla Fudge in Germany in 2014 cranking out an 8+ minute version of “Ticket To Ride”
For our second encore, live at the Sept 2016 City Folk Festival in Ottawa Festival, Vince, Mark, and Carmine in a full one hour show! Vanilla Fudge Live in Ottawa 2016
© Copyright 2019 Robert Wilkinson
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