107 Hello Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1

Chart  entered : 23  January  1964

Chart  peak : 5

Number  of  hits :  17 *

( * Guinness  is  completely  wrong  to  lump  in  the  Earth  Band  hits  when  the  two  groups  only  ever  had  one  member  in  common; Mull  of  Kintyre  isn't  listed  under  The  Beatles  is  it  ? )

A band somewhat strangely named after one of their number - though they had initially had the post-fix "and the Manfreds" before their A&R man insisted on the shorter name. Still, it was a naming trick later used by Pub Rock non-hit makers Brinsley Schwarz.

I digress: this song could actually be one of my first memories of music, as a re-recorded version (not by the band, I assume) was used in advertisements for a chocolate bar of the same name in the early 1980s. I don't remember if the product was any cop, but the song certainly stuck in my mind.

Manfred Mann (real surname Lubowitz) himself was born and raised in South Africa, with a background in jazz. The capital in the late 50s/early 60s had a happening blues scene, and Mann eventually found himself in a band signed in 1963, a period where record labels were all trying to grab the next big thing following the Beatles explosion.

Their first two singles "Why Should We Not?" (a jazz influenced sax-led instrumental) and "Cook-a-Hoop" (which sounds like a second division Stones) went nowhere fast, until "5-4-3-2-1" put them right into the top 10.

It was originally recorded to act as the theme to the ITV show "Ready Steady Go!", an attempt to rival BBC's "Top of the Pops" with a more edgy approach, including go-go dancers and a young host who dressed in hip "Mod" fashions.

Like the Stones' debut hit, this is a blues-sounding number that comes and goes under two minutes, dominated by the vocals and harmonica playing of Paul Jones - it's also an infectious number that improves immeasurably on the preceding single. Unusually for the blues-rock outfits of the time, the hit was self-written by Jones, Mann and drummer Mike Hugg. Lyrically, it's pretty much nonsense: vague lyrics of battles, a line of "uh-huh, it was the Manfreds!" and the top-notch hook of the title.

As with many groups of the time, personal changes were a way-of-life, and by the time we get to the Manfreds "goodbye" entry, they'll be a quite different outfit.

 

D. C. Harrison