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A
TOUCH OF THIRTIES MUSIC IN THE SIXTIES
Peek
A Boo, which features in this week's John's Journey
Back In Time trip to March 1967, was the second chart
single success for one of the most unlikely groups
of the Sixties, but then it wasn't - because part
of the very essence of the Sixties was that there
seemed room for anything and everything.
A
year before, songwriter Geoff Stephens had come up
with a song called Winchester Cathedral and wanted
to record it in a 1930's style. It wasn't an entirely
new idea because the Temperance Seven had done something
similar. Their nine piece group had taken the songs
You're Driving Me Crazy and Pasadena to producer George
Martin who had turned them into a Number One and Number
Three hit respectively. The difference with You're
Driving Me Crazy was that Guy Lombardo had recorded
it already in 1930.
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Winchester
Cathedral was a new song and Geoff's dream became
reality when he assembled a group of session musicians,
recorded it and the song took off. It was a bigger
hit in the US rather than in Britain, where it went
to Number One. The sudden success led to requests
for the group to go on tour, and for that a singer
was brought in - Alan Klein who became known as Tristram,
the seventh earl of Cricklewood. An interesting point
is that Alan was not the singer on the original recording
of Winchester Cathedral. It's believed to be the vocalist
from the Ivy League - John Carter, who would go on
to the Flowerpot Men.
So
it was Alan Klein who led the group's assault on the
United States while Geoff Stephens remained back at
the UK's song writing mecca of Denmark Street.
Other
members of the group included Robert Kerr (known as
Pops), Mick Wilsher, Stan Haywood, Neil Korner, Hugh
Watts( known as Shuggy), and drummer Henry Harrison.
Peek
A Boo followed up the group's UK chart success by
reaching Number Seven in the singles charts, to be
followed by one of few chart hits to share a name
with a London Underground station.
There
are reports that following the success of Finchley
Central, here and around the world, there was an increase
of visitors to the station in search of something
reminiscent in the song.
That
was their last big hit. Two remaining single releases
- Green Street Green and The Bonnie And Clyde would
fail to make big impressions in the singles chart.
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