Friday, March 20, 2020

Top Six--The Teenager's Choice: Beatlemania (1964)







DOWNLOAD: Beatlemania--Artists Unknown (Top Six TSL 1; 1964)


Fake Beatles tonight.  (That sound like the title of a Broadway comedy.)  Why fake Beatles tonight?  Because fake Beatles are fun, and faked Fab Four records were pretty much an industry unto themselves, so they're a big part of sound recording history.  A big part of the underground thereof, anyway.  And because it's giving me a break from stressing.  Hope it can perform that feat for some of you, too.  This 1964 British LP, titled Beatlemania (no attempt at exploitation there), has its expected bad moments (and bad tracks, like Please Please Me), but considering the rushed nature of the product, it's fairly amazing.  As in, legitimately good overall.  It captures the George Martin production sound with much skill--maybe by accident; I don't know.  But it is by far the best Beatles copy I've yet heard--and it's a whole LPful, which is not a word, but so what.  I read someplace the name of the group that allegedly did these tracks, but of course I've been unable to re-find that info.  It may not even be true.  But I can say without Google confirmation that these guys are good--the lead guitarist, especially.  This very used copy played amazingly well with my entry-audiophile cartridge and stylus at 1.5 grams (which I did not expect), and VinylStudio did superbly on the many clicks.  The sound is bright and full.

The front jacket says (I believe) eleven shillings and one pence, which was a little over half a pound.  That was for twelve hits.  Top Six singles (with six hits, of course) were six shillings and eight pence.  In pure junk-label fashion, there are no liner notes, and the back cover contains only an unpunctuated track listing and an ad for Top Six singles.  My kind of LP!

I wonder what the L in "TSL" stood for.  "Top Six...?"  Lemons?  Laugh riots?  Hm.  Probably "Limited."  At any rate, if you can forgive the absurd moments, I think you'll find it a remarkably good effort.  And, if you don't, I still will.  Note how the mystery studio group messes up a line (actually, two) in the first number.  It's supposed to be, "When I'll say that something: I want to hold your hand."  Even as a kid, I got that, except I thought "I'll" was "I."  As did these guys, too.  Anyway, they sing it, "When I say that someday, I want to hold your hand."  Huh?  The singer is expressing a present desire, not a future one.  "I assure you that someday I'll want to hold your hand.  But only after this pandemic is over."  Anyway, the Beatles were known for doubling words: "something" shows up twice in the first verse.  It's as if these underpaid pros were rushing to junk-label deadline.  Come to think of it....

Money is maybe the finest fake of the bunch, in good part because the lead singer sounds uncannily like John Lennon.  This LP is the definition of fun.  And proof that fake hits sometimes transcended the awful-to-medium curve.  Enjoy!

UPDATE: Apparently, the drummer on this LP was Jimmy Nichol, who subbed for Ringo with the Beatles in an international tour when Ringo had tonsillitis.  Read about it here.  Some info on Top Six, too.  I'd read about this before at various sites but suspected it was an urban legend.  I guess not!

Lee

18 comments:

Buster said...

The band may have had Money and a few of the other songs in their repertoire. The Beatles didn't have a full complement of original songs at the time.

Anonymous said...

Fake Beatle Records are Fab, Lee
I found one at a yard sale as a kid, and this was before I heard the actual Beatles, so The Beetles record I got was interesting with the beat sound that
got you interested in this rockin' kind of music. I'm sure I'll like this somehow no matter how bad it is, sometimes there is something good on these records. Thanks for re-surfacing another.
No need to stress just play a record that's the ticket to ride !
Later, Sir Lee
Byron

groovylounge said...

https://www.discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-Beatlemania/release/3615908

http://rocknrolldetective.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-beatles-50th-anniversary-how-did.html

https://www.beautifulinstrumentalschannel.com/2019/06/composer-johnny-harris.html?m=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Harris_(musician)

Jim said...

Any chance the L in TSL stood for Long (as in Long Play)?

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Jim,

That could be. I'll have to look at one of my Top Six singles (I have five or six, maybe) and see what suffix they use.

Buster,

True, "Money" was standard garage band stuff. I'm surprised the Beatles never did "Louie, Louie"! It would be cool if one of these faux Fab Four groups covered Burt Bacharach's "Baby, it's You" (in Beatles style), but I doubt any such artifact is out there.

Byron,

I'm sure you'll like this one. It's much better than the fake-hits norm. I was too lazy to scour the net for any possible tidbits--just did a cursory search. But there is a story floating around that the drummer on this disc, after learning all of Ringo's licks, used them on stage. Maybe even subbed for Ringo? It has the low-probability sound of an urban legend.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Jim, You could be onto something. The singles use no suffix--just the single's number.

And I found the claim about the drummer on these sides--it's at 45worlds (weird place for an LP listing): "The drummer is Jimmy Nicol, who later experienced the real thing. In June 1964 he briefly stood in for Ringo, who had tonsillitis, when the Beatles toured Denmark, Holland, Hong Kong and Australia." I wonder. http://www.45worlds.com/vinyl/album/tsl1

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Nope--not an urban legend! Wikipedia confirms that drummer Jimmy Nichol, who plays on this LP, subbed for Ringo during an overseas tour that included Holland and Australia!! I'm guessing this is the only fake Beatles LP to ever feature an actual stand-in Beatle!!

rev.b said...

It's funny Jimmy Nichol wasn't the featured artist, since he had played with the Fabs and you'd think that would have been a selling point...

Lee Hartsfeld said...

He did his fill-in after this LP. Otherwise, I'm sure they would have had his name in big letters!

Ernie said...

This Jimmy guy is in Anthology, the third one. I just watched it. Guy seemed pretty cool for being in the biggest band in the world for a few days. :)

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Groovylounge,

Thanks for the Johnny Harris info. I knew there was another known member of this unnamed group, but (ironically) I couldn't remember his name. Thanks for the other links.

Ernie,

Cool! I saw that segment but don't remember the Nicol part.

Jinster said...

Wow! I just read about Jimmie Nichol on his Wikipedia page and go to know about this album. It's not available on YouTube, so I really appreciate that you went through the effort to record and upload it for free, you're preserving history here!

I listened to the album and it's just as you said - it's not bad, and it's definitely not amazing. But it's so interesting to hear Beatles impersonators, and from THE Beatles time period, at that! Very interesting.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Jinster,

Glad you enjoyed. While it's not a great LP, it may be the best contemporary attempts at imitating the Fab Four. It's a major cut above the other sound-alike efforts of the time, imo.

Unknown said...

Ever since I saw this post and downloaded the list of songs, I turn them on in a shuffle every once in a while. And the more I listen to it, the more I appreciate it - it's genuinely pleasurable to listen to!

The similar but funky voices of the singers, the way they get minor details wrong ("Roll over, Bay-ho-ven").. It's fun. Definitely the best Beatles impersonators I've heard.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

I agree--the best of the "fake" Beatles. This album was a major surprise to me. Glad you're loving it!

Jinster said...

Just stumbled upon this page again and tried to download the music to my phone, only to find that it's been taken down.. bummer, but at least I have a copy on my laptop :)

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Jinster,

Sorry about that--My previous file-hosting site recently decided to "ban" all of my uploads! Very inconvenient. Let me see if I still have the zip on my hard drive, and I'll upload it to Box.com first chance. Check back in a bit.

Lee Hartsfeld said...

Jinster,

The link should work now. Enjoy!