by Robert Wilkinson
July 3 was the birthday of one of Australia’s greatest female vocalists in history, so for our Saturday Folk Festival, we feature the awesome music of the Seekers and the amazing voice of Judith Durham. They were so good we’re beginning early!
If you don’t know who this awesome talent is, well, she was THE voice for the Seekers, and gave us some very powerful hits back in the 60s, including “I Know I’ll Never Find Another You” and the international hit title song for the movie “Georgy Girl.” From Wikipedia:
... Judith Mavis Durham (3 July 1943 - 5 August 2022) was an Australian singer and musician who became the lead vocalist for the Australian popular folk music group The Seekers in 1963. The group (was) the first Australian pop music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States, and as of 2004 had sold over 50 million records. Durham left the group in mid-1968 to pursue her solo career.
The Seekers were too pop for the folk purists, and too folk for the pop purists, making them a distinctive sound! Besides “I Know I’ll Never Find Another You” and “Georgy Girl,” they also made “A World of our Own,” “Morningtown Ride,” “Someday, One Day” (written by Paul Simon), and “The Carnival is Over,” adapted by Tom Springfield (Dusty’s brother) from a Russian folk song.
Even though she’s also known for her later jazz work, since I have an advanced hangoutology degree from the “Kerrvert Folk City” school of music, today’s tribute will focus on her early career. I’ve found a few from back in the day!
Here’s their entire legendary 1968 farewell concert in one clip! The Seekers Farewell Show - 1968
From that show, “I Know I’ll Never Find Another You” and “Georgy Girl”
I found it again! Here’s their 1965 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show doing the great Tom Springfield hit (#19 US, #3 UK, #2 Oz) “A World of Our Own”
From their farewell show, here are the Seekers in another fantastic live offering of “A World of Our Own”
I did find this gem from The Ed Sullivan Show where they get down and hootenanny! "You Can Tell the World."
Live in the studio, here they are doing a take of "I Know I'll Never Find Another You."
In a rare score, here's a live tv performance of this tune from 1969 by Sonny James which he took to #1 on the US country charts! "I Know I'll Never Find Another You."
Last year I had their 1967 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show doing this hit, but it’s disappeared. So instead, here’s a b/w live performance at Canada’s Expo 67 of “Georgy Girl”
From the 1968 DVD The World of the Seekers, their 1965 hit “A World of our Own”
1966 was a great year for the band! Here’s a great live 1966 performance of “We Shall Not Be Moved.” Also from 1966, the music video of “Someday, One Day”
Three more from 1966! First, the music video of “Morningtown Ride” followed by live performances of “The Carnival is Over” and “Yesterday.”
From 1967, a television performance of “The Carnival is Over”
From 1966, a gag performance in period costumes with Judith on piano giving us “Whistling Rufus”
Now for some studio versions set to stills and videos!
We’ll begin with their arrangement of the Bob Dylan kiss-off classic “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right”
We’ll follow up with their version of the Bard’s apocalyptic vision from long ago, “The Time’s They Are A Changing”
Here’s their studio version set to stills of “The Last Thing On My Mind”
From 1966, a music video over their studio version of the monster Mamas and Papas hit, “California Dreamin’”
From 1997, “The Shores of Avalon”
From 2002, their version of the Bee Gees hit “Massachusetts”
And since we’ve just celebrated July 4, I found the Seekers’ version of a song that should be our national anthem, written by America’s 2nd poet laureate, Mister Woody Guthrie. For your consideration, the immortal “This Land is Your Land”
We'll close with their farewell in 1994 at the AFL Grand Final, where they give us both the official and unofficial Oz national anthems, and one of their biggest! "I Am Australian," "Georgy Girl," "Waltzing Matilda," and "Advance Australia Fair."
For the first encore, it’s back to the beginning! From the 1966 NME Awards where they won "Best New Group of 1965," here's their live performance of “I’ll Never Find Another You” and “A World of Our Own.”
For our second encore, I found this classic hour and 18 show on one clip! The Seekers 25th Anniversary Reunion Concert - 1993
The 22 minute 50th Anniversary (2014) Reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall has disappeared.
Here's the spread 60 Minutes did on the Seekers in 2012 to commemorate their 50th: The Seekers 60 Minutes Appearance
Since this birthday celebration, Judith checked out and got a gig with the greatest band not on Earth. For a good news clip celebrating her life, here's Judith Durham, Lead Singer with the Seekers, dies at 79
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July 2 was the birthday of the great songwriter and producer Tom Springfield (2 July 1934 – 27 July 2022). He wrote some of the Seekers' greatest hits, and as the driving force of the Springfields, brought his sister Dusty Springfield to the top of the charts, which was a true gift to our world. He just left the stage last Summer, so a big happy and merry goes out to Mister Dionysius P. A. O'Brien, aka Tom Springfield. If you want to hear some early Springfields music, check out the link and enjoy more of the best of the best of early 60s folk and the incredible music of Dusty Springfield!
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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