Chart entered : 29 November 1962
Chart peak : 33
As the chart celebrated its tenth birthday Russ checked in for his final hit. Russ's big year was 1959 when he had six hits including two number ones and while he couldn't keep that form up he was a regular hitmaker, buoyed up by frequent TV appearances , up to this one.
"Always You And Me" is a high kitsch classic ,aimed at the Christmas market. It's the only single of his to feature vocals and consists of Russ reading out a lyric supplied by Lionel Bart over his own tune "Concerto for Dreamers" ( a flop instrumental earlier in the year ) accompanied by Geoff Love and the boys. It starts with some rather elementary mathematics - "Take away two from three and you'll be left with one " - and goes downhill from there. Perhaps it broke some spell to hear the Conway voice muttering such profundities in the style of the speaking clock for he never troubled the charts again.
His next single in April 1963, after a flurry of EPs, was the daringly-titled "Gigolo" co-written with a couple of Italian guys, which is a decent toe-tapper with some unexpected drum splashes pepping it up. I'd say it was a cut above his usual fare. "Flamenco" is what it says on the tin ; the castanets have outstayed their welcome by the end of the disc. The track is actually from the Tommy Steele film It's All Happening swiftly re-titled The Dream Maker perhaps because the acts featured ( like Russ for example ) patently weren't "happening" in 1963.
Russ himself obviously knew what was happening because his next single was "Liverpool Pops" a medley of six Merseybeat hits spread out across both sides. I think "Please Please Me " comes off the worst but there are five other contenders.
"Gold Rush" is very busy and does suggest a Wild West saloon bar but the tune isn't particularly memorable." Conway Capers No 1" is another awful medley of recent pop hits including "She Loves You" and "Bad To Me" which interestingly are both credited to "McCartney-Lennon" on the label.
Russ plugged away in 1964 his first single a pointless re-tread of "Mack The Knife" in February. Then came "Conway Capers No 2" followed by the pseudo-classical "Concerto For Lovers" for which Russs switches to a grand.
We move on to 1965 and "Little Leprechaun" which has no Irish influences at all but sounds like background music for an episode of The Saint. "The Beggars Of Rome" does have an Italianate melody but Russ is seriously let down by Tony Osborne's orchestral accompaniment which is all over the place and the kidddie chorus bolted on at the end sounds like a last minute job. I haven't heard "I See The Moon", his collaboration with The Mike Sammes Singers.
There was a bit of a gap then to "Celebration Day" in October 1966 . I wonder what inspired that ? Russ is almost drowned out by Norman Percival's accompaniment, wedding bells and all. Then it was (sigh) "Swinging Pops Part 1" for Christmas.
After that Columbia were reluctant to release any more singles. An EP headed by "Always You And Me" came out in May 1967 and his final single for the label "Pink Piano" came out under the name The Russ Conway Sound. Perhaps he was trying to give the impression he hadn't actually played on it because it's absolutely atrocious with a punctuating noise that sounds like someone's trod on a cat and a very poorly recorded accompaniment.
Sadly Russ was incapacitated by a stroke shortly afterwards ( at 43 but he hit the booze and fags quite heavily ) and didn't record again until 1970 with an uptempo arrangement ( c/o Les Reed ) of Chopin's "Polonaise" on Chapter One. "Love Is All " sounds like a TV theme to some epic BBC drama. "Aranjuez Mon Amour" is quite good in places but unfortunately they're the bits when Russ isn't playing.
By the end of 1971 he had fetched up at Pye. I haven't heard "How Small We Are, How Little We Know". "The Boy Friend Parts 1 and 2" is a medley of tunes from the Ken Russell film ; it sounds like the sixties never happened for Russ. "Life Is Good" from 1973 is a collaboration with The Band of HM Royal Marines and sounds like the theme music for a sports programme. " Bordello" from 1974 is quite jolly and stumps me for anything else to say about it. "She " from the same year is presumably the Charles Aznavour tune and it brought his time with Pye to an end.
His 1977 single "A Welsh Melody" is on BBC Records so I'm guessing it must have been a TV theme ?
Russ's final single was in 1984 , the theme to a little known Canadian film about an amputee athlete The Terry Fox Story.
In the latter part of the eighties Russ spent some time helping his friend Joan Regan to return to performing after her stroke but he was not in the best of health himself and battled stomach cancer for many years. His last TV appearance was on French and Saunders ' Christmas special in 1994. He died in November 2000 aged 75.
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