Celebrating Dave Clark on his 84th birthday. —Ed.
The Dave Clark Five were one of the most successful and acclaimed bands of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Unlike The Beatles and many others of that time and place, however, they were not from Liverpool. The group was from Tottenham, in north London. Their big, booming, stomping, brassy and infectious sound propelled them to seven top-ten UK singles and eight top-ten US singles.
The DC5’s unique sound centered around Clark’s pounding drums, Mike Smith’s full-throated voice and wide-ranging keyboard styles, and Denis Payton’s honking sax. The group was rounded out by guitarist Lenny Davidson and bassist Rick Huxley. Huxley also played harmonica and all four members, other than Smith, supplied bracing backing vocals. Unlike most of the groups of the British Invasion, their sound did not center around guitars. They were the first British group after The Beatles to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and they were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
The group disbanded in 1970, but Dave Clark, who was the group’s manager and producer, has always curated the group’s legacy with aplomb. Among his many other activities through the years are acquiring the rights to the seminal British music television show Ready Steady Go! and, in the 1980s, he wrote and produced the 1986 theatrical musical Time.
There have been excellent collections of the group’s music on CD and vinyl, but the latest reissue is the best yet. The group’s debut U.S. album Glad All Over, originally released in 1964 and one of four albums released by the group in the U.S. that year, has been reissued on white vinyl in glorious mono, from the original master tapes from BMG.
British groups of the period covered many American R&B classics of the ’60s, but the DC5’s cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Do You Love Me,” which closes out side one, is almost as significant as the cover of the Isley Brothers song “Twist and Shout” covered by The Beatles. The other big hits here are the title track and “Bits and Pieces.”
“Crying Over You” is a heartfelt ballad not on the original album. “Chaquita” is an instrumental that, although credited as written by Dave Clark and the DC5’s lead vocalist Mike Smith on the label, sounds like a reworking of the 1958 song “Tequila” by The Champs.
Future releases will not have three big hit singles on one album like this reissue. Later songs like “Because,” “I Like It Like That,” “Over and Over,” “Any Way You Want It,” and “Having A Wild Weekend,” however did either hit the charts or receive heavy airplay.
“No Time To Lose,” “Doo Dah,” and “She’s All Mine” have been dropped from the original running order of the album the way it was released in 1964 and “Crying Over You,” “3406,” and “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To” have been added to this reissue.
The album was pressed in Poland and has excellent sound quality, but a reissue this well-executed should have included a polyvinyl sleeve. After all these years, it is hoped that now all the group’s US albums will be reissued.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B
