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"...Pink Purple Yellow And Red..."
The last time the hugely collectable Sixties Beat and Mod darlings The Sorrows had their lone-album-plus-singles output given a proper do over was Castle Music's brilliant "Take A Heart" 2CD set in 2006 (Sanctuary/Castle Music CMDDD 1290 - Barcode 5050749412904). That deleted and subsequently pricey digital rarity packed a huge 42-cuts including the full album in Stereo over on CD2. But years have passed and their Freakbeat legend grown even more frenzied. Time for another wallet shuffle me hearties.
This December 2021 Beat Goes On 2CD Compilation out of the UK (itself delayed from August 2021 due to COVID-19) gives us a huge 50 tracks - throwing in ten further Don Fardon solo releases including the hugely popular Top 5 hit "The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian".
Why the heat when it comes to The Sorrows? By the time you're less than five or six boombox grooves into their December 1965 debut album "Take A Heart" - a truly great Mod-Beat blaster of an LP originally on Pye's Piccadilly Records - it's easy to hear why both it and their 45-releases trade for such serious spondulicks amongst collectors. The Sorrows rocked as hard as The Kinks and were just as cool as The Small Faces, but unlike those 60ts Heroes, never got the breaks. However, both The Sorrows and Don Fardon had sizeable careers in Europe, The Sorrows singing seven foreign language versions of their spiky tunes, whilst Fardon had four French and German exclusives - all eleven included here on CD2 (very thorough).
There's a heap-ton of misery and sorrow to sort out, so once more my intrepid blue-eyed travellers to the Beat Caves of Coventry, those Bad Boys of Variety lurking with winkelpickers within (they speak several languages too you know)...
UK released 10 December 2021 - "Take A Heart plus the Pye A & B Sides and more" by THE SORROWS (including some DON FARDON solo tracks) on Beat Goes on BGOCD1442 (Barcode 5017261214423) is a 50-Track 2CD compilation of New Remasters based around their 1965 debut/only LP "Take A Heart" that plays out as follows...
CD1 (61:45 minutes):
TAKE A HEART
1. Baby [Side 1]
2. No No No No
3. Take A Heart
4. She's Got The Action
5. How Love Used To Be
6. Teenage Letter
7. I Don't Wanna Be Free [Side 2]
8. Don't Sing No Sad Songs For Me
9. Cara-Lin
10. We Should Get Along Just Fine
11. Come With Me
12. Let Me In
Tracks 1 to 12 are their debut album "Take A Heart" - released December 1965 in the UK on Piccadilly Records NPL 38023 (Mono) and NPLS 38023 (Stereo).
BONUS TRACKS:
13. I Don't Wanna Be Free
14. Come With Me
Tracks 13 and 14 are the Mono A&B-sides of their debut UK 45-single, January 1965 on Piccadilly 7N 35219
15. Baby
16. Teenage Letter
Tracks 15 and 16 are the Mono A&B-sides of their second UK 45-single, April 1965 on Piccadilly 7N 35230
17. Take A Heart
18. We Should Get Along Fine
Tracks 17 and 18 are the Mono A&B-sides of their third UK 45-single, August 1965 on Piccadilly 7N 35260
19. You've Got What I Want
Track 19 is the Non-LP Mono B-side to "No No No No", their fourth UK 45-single, August 1965 on Piccadilly 7N 35277
20. Let The Live Live
21. Don't Sing No Sad Songs For Me
Tracks 20 and 21 are the Mono A&B-sides of their fifth UK 45-single, April 1966 on Piccadilly 7N 35309
22. How Love Used To Be
Track 22 is the Mono 7" Single Mix B-side of "Let Me In", their sixth UK 45-single, August 1966 on Piccadilly 7N 35336
23. Pink Purple Yellow And Red
24. My Gal
Tracks 23 and 24 are the Mono Non-LP A&B-sides of their seventh UK 45-single, June 1967 on Piccadilly 7N 35385
CD2 (73:11 minutes):
MORE BONUS TRACKS
1. Gonna Find A Cave
2. I Take What I Want
3. Baby All The Time
4. Baby (1966 Version)
5. Nimm Mein Herz ("Take A Heart" in German)
6. Sie War Mein Girl ("We Should Get Along Fine" in German)
7. Mi Si Spezza Il Cuore ("Take A Heart" in Italian)
8. Vivi ("Baby" in Italian)
9. Verde, Rosso, Giallo, Blu ("Pink Purple Yellow And Red" in Italian)
10. No No No No (Italian Language version)
11. Zabadak
12. La Liberta Costa Cara ("How Love Used To Be" in Italian)
13. Hooky
14. You're Still Mine
15. Armchair King
16. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Tracks 1 to 4, 11 and 13 to 16 were unreleased recordings done between 1964 and 1967 first issued 2006 on the Sanctuary/Castle Music 2CD set "Take A Heart"
DON FARDON Releases
17. The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian
18. Dreamin' Room
Tracks 17 and 18 and the A&B-sides of UK a 45-single that was issued three times. First was 3 November
1967 on Pye 7N 25437, second was 8 October 1968 on Pye 7N 25475 and third was the same songs reissued 4
September 1970 on Youngblood YB 1015 - third version finally charted
and peaked at No. 3 in the UK
19. Daytripper
Track 19 is Track 2, Side 1 on a November 1967 French 4-Track "The Letter" on Vogue Records EPL 8583
20. Goodbye
Track 20 is the Non-LP B-side to "Treat Her Right", issued March 1968 in Germany on Hit-Ton HT 300158
21. We Can Make It Together
22. Coming on Strong
Tracks 21 and 22 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of a UK 45-single, 31 January 1969 on Pye Records 7N 25483
23. Good Lovin'
24. Ruby's Picture's On My Wall
Tracks 23 and 24 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of a UK 45-single, 21 March 1969 on Pye 7N 25486
25. Running Bear
26. I Need Somebody
Tracks 25 are 26 are the Non-LP A&B-sides of an April 1969 German 45-single on Vogue DV 14860
Apart from being pretty, the outer card slipcase lends these BGO reissues a feeling of event and the 20-page booklet has seriously great new liner notes courtesy of ROGER DOPSON. Photos of Lead Guitarist Pip Whitcher, Rhythm Guitarist Wez Price, Vocalist and Songwriter Don Maughn (better known of course as Don Fardon) with Bassist Philip Packham and Drummer Bruce Finley dot the text as do the Schroeder liner-notes to the Debut LP and small label shots of those Piccadilly British 45s, rare Dutch picture sleeves. Dopson waxes affectionately (and quite rightly to) of Don Fardon's moody and menacing vocal delivery combined with the biff-bang-pow guitar work of Coventry's Pip Whitcher and also tells of how Italy, Germany and other European destinations offered them a career outside of Blighty which seemed determined to ignore their myriad 7" single releases.
The new ANDREW THOMPSON Remasters are all sparkly, but I'm buggered if I can tell whether or not the actual album is all in STEREO - seems like a combo of Mono and Stereo to me. The punch out of the stand-alone MONO 45-sides is kicking, just as you would want it to be.
Although Page 2 of the booklet lists only the 'Mono' LP code of NPL 38023 as the version used for CD, the new liner notes mention that seven of the twelve on the debut album had been 45-single sides in Mono prior to the LP's December 1965 release, but also that some of those single-sides were re-recorded in Stereo for the LP. Although I admit I'm guessing here, my ears tell me that "We Should Get Along Fine" and "Come With Me" and "Teenage Letter" are among the 'Stereo' versions.
The five new cuts to the debut LP are "She's Got The Action", "How Love Used To Be", "Don't Sing No Sad Songs To Me", "Cara-Lin" and "Let Me In". Band member Miki Dallon penned two Beat and Mod corkers - "She's Got The Action" and the incendiary "Let Me In". Prime slot amongst the newcomers is The Sorrows cool cover version of The Strangeloves September 1965 US 45-single "Cara-Lin" on Bang Records B-508.
Among the re-records, I would admit that their cover of "Teenage Letter" (a Fifties R 'n' B bopper closely associated with Big Joe Turner on Atlantic Records) is lesser in Stereo somehow, but still has that wicked Harmonica solo. The Mono single cut (Track 14) is fantastic and has punchier audio. Killers amidst the Bonus Tracks are many - especially the Mod-tastic groove of "You've Got What I Want" - an August 1965 B-side to "No No No No" that outdoes The Kinks in sheer passion of attack while The Small Faces and Steve Marriott might have looked longingly at "Let The Live Live" - a cracking stand-alone April 1966 7" single telling its listeners to mellow out and let people be people. Freakbeat and Fuzz Guitar aficionados will worship at the alter of the wild "My Gal" - a ball-breaking B-side that will set your wallet back the guts of £200 - if you can find one. In fact, the mind boggles even more when you hear they did Italian language versions of both these bruising sides - Tracks 7 and 8 to you buddy over on CD2. Wow!
Among the originally unreleased 60ts material, "Gonna Find A Cave" (Track 1 on CD2) is a truly fantastic discovery and I'm sure someone is petitioning Ace Records as I speak to find a place in their schedules-heart to put it out on a Kent-Dance 45-single resplendent with their equally cool cover of the Sam & Dave classic "I Take What I Want" as its flipside. "Baby All The Time" successfully shares two lead vocals while "Baby" is a more menacing wanting-you cut that could easily have been another killer 45. Weirdo entries include the Joe Meek Telstar-sounding "Zabadak" is some foreign language that has a pretty melody and would Bob Stanley weak at the knees. "Hooky" is a slip-away and make-love-to-you dirty guitar bopper where the boys are clearly trying to channel Immediate Records 1967 Steve Marriott (feels unfinished but is cool). "Armchair King" is Pop best forgotten and their early stab at The Platters "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" feels like another band caught in getting a hit no matter what (it's not that bad, but I dare say the band would probably cringe at it now).
By
way of welcome relief comes the speaker-to-speaker taught our English to their
young John Loudermilk cover version - "The Lament Of The Cherokee
Reservation Indian" – both cool and cheesy in equal amounts. Its very
Georgie Fame Brass and Organ R&B B-side "Dreamin' Room" is a wee
bit of a flipside gem too. Even his easy-way-out cover of The Beatles' "Daytripper" is sufficiently funked up and jiggered about to make it more than a slavish copy - possibly even a Mod dancer. "Goodbye" shows Dallon's knack for a melodrama melody. But they are trumped by the very Dusty Springfield/Scott Walker feel to "We Can Make It Together" and its mega-desirable bass-driven "Coming On Strong" - another great B-side with Fuzz Guitar and wild soloing. Fardon's cruelly overlooked March 1969 7" single A-side "Good Lovin'" and the languid smoocher B-side "I Need Somebody" to the next 45 both offer a great way to go out on a fabulous twofer.
England's Beat Goes On (BGO) have treated The Ivy League, The Searchers, The Rockin' Berries, Jimmy James and The Vagabonds and Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band to these 4LPs-worth-of-material Remastered onto 2CD sets (I've reviewed a few) and they really are so damn good as comprehensive anthologies.
"Baby, can you understand, I'm your man..." Don Fardon of The Sorrows sang on the seriously great organ grinder "Good Lovin'". I hear you baby and I hope many others will too...
