(* and the Blue Flames )
Chart entered : 17 December 1964
Chart peak : 1
Number of hits : 13
It's interesting that in the Popular thread Georgie Fame , the commenter Tooncgull describes him as "too posh for rock n roll" since the former Clive Powell is an impeccably working class Lancastrian who previously worked in a cotton mill and a Butlin's holiday camp. I guess his subsequent marriage to the divorced wife of a jazz-loving ( at least until Fame started bonking his wife ) aristocrat has given rise to a false impression.
In 1959 Clive went to London and fell in with Lionel Bart and Larry Parnes who gave him his new handle ( much to Clive's displeasure ). Clive went out on tour with the rest of Parnes's stable and played with Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent too. He ended up a member of Billy Fury's backing band the Blue Flames and when they were sacked in February 1962 for being too jazzy he took charge of the group himself. Initially the vocalist was Earl Watson who also played sax but when he left Georgie took on the vocal duties as well.
The group played many clubs in London but got a three year residency at the Flamingo Club in Soho frequented by many American GI's, a source for new American jazz and R& B records. They got their own first chance to record in August 1962 when they backed Perry Ford ( later of The Ivy League ) on his single "Baby Baby" a brash R & B number with a prominent jazzy organ calling into question Georgie's account that he was inspired to buy a Hammond by Green Onions ( not released until the following month ). In 1963 they put out two singles on the tiny R & B label "Stop Right Here" and "J A Blues ". I've only heard the latter which is a sax-led instrumental with some of the most pedestrian organ playing I've ever heard on a record.
The band got a new deal with Columbia in 1963 who put Georgie's name out front and unusually released the album "Rhythm And Blues At The Flamingo" produced by ousted Drifter Ian Samwell before any singles. The first of these was Rufus Thomas's "Do The Dog" recorded live. The first minute is ordinary but when the band cut loose it's an exciting racket. The follow-up "Do-Re-Mi" has got a good groove and a decent cover of "Green Onions " on the flip.
Well that was less painful than I was expecting because I loathe "Yeh Yeh". I think Georgie's singing is always horrible and combined with all that hipster ambience , well covered in the thread, it's one of my least favourite sixties number ones.
But it's a significant one because we've now reached a personal watershed. All subsequent records discussed here first charted during my lifetime until advised otherwise by D.C., my son or whoever. Contemporary recollections will of course be a while in arriving.
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