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HOW
THE LITTLE ARROWS NEARLY REACHED THE TARGET !
Many
people cringe now when they hear Little Arrows by Leapy
Lee but back in 1968 it sold more than three million
copies around the world, hitting the top spot in eighteen
countries.
But
it never made No.1 in the UK….it was held off by
the Beatles and Hey Jude. When the Beatles began to
lag, Leapy Lee hoped to make it, but he was leapfrogged
by the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin with Those Were The
Days.
Leapy
Lee went on to have two more Number Ones in Australia
and South Africa though in Britain he would only have
one other hit, a No.29 song called Good Morning.
Born
in Eastbourne in 1942 as Lee Graham he first got the
nickname Leapy at school.
Leapy
Lee was a good friend of Ray Davies of the Kinks and
legend has it that he could have recorded Sunny Afternoon
before the Kinks decided to record it themselves. However
they did him a favour when ray wrote King Of The Whole
Wide World for him and got his brother Dave and one
or two others to play on it.
Several
years after his hit, Leapy got another "fifteen
minutes of fame" when TV viewers got glimpses of
his life at home on the Balearic island Majorca in the
series Passport To The Sun.
The BBC 1 documentary gave a fly on the wall account
of Leapy's life at Santa Ponsa.
Leapy
Lee still performs his hit as part of the Flying Curry
Circus at Son Ferrer just outside Santa Ponsa. He line
up alongside singer Margo on stage to give diners a
nostalgic night out.
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