Chart entered : 22 May 1968
Chart peak : 6
Number of hits : 11
Now we seem to be rushing headlong towards the seventies. With The Marmalade we can discern the first wisps of what Lena Carlin calls "The Fog", that period in music largely ignored by radio ( at least since Terry Wogan retired from the breakfast show in 2009 ). Their run of hits was almost over by the time I got interested in pop so I might be missing something important but it seems to me that apart from being the first Scottish band to top the charts ( with a Xeroxed cover version ), The Marmalade have no USP. They are the harbinger of Christie, New World, Matthews Southern Comfort and all those other mysterious bands from the early seventies who could have gone around the supermarket unmolested even at the height of their success.
The band had a lengthy history before this single. They evolved out of the interestingly-named Gaylords ( apparently a Chicago street gang ) formed by Pat Fairley , a 6 string bass or rhythm guitar player and his friend Billy Johnston in Glasgow in 1961. Shortly afterwards William "Junior " Campbell joined on his fourteenth birthday replacing the original lead guitarist. The band went through a succession of lead singers until Thomas McAleese with the stage name Dean Ford joined in 1963 with the stipulation that his name went out front. Johnston also left replaced by Bill Irving on bass. Ray Duffy on drums completed the line up that was offered a recording contract with Columbia in early 1964.
Dean Ford and the Gaylords's first release was a cover of Chubby Checker's US hit "Twenty Miles" in April 1964, a competent beat pop item in the style of The Hollies. It apparently sold very well in Scotland but didn't break through anywhere else. Their second single "Mr Heartbreak's Here Instead" co-written by Benny Gallagher ( of ...and Lyle fame ) was released in November. This also sounds like the Hollies apart from some abrasive harmonica ; there's a certain spiky quality to the whole song which probably didn't improve its chances. At this point Irving left and was replaced by Graham Knight. The band then went off to Germany in the early part of 1965 before releasing a cover in June 1965 of Shirley Ellis's recent US hit "The Name Game" which is in the same annoying vein as The Clapping Song. In January 1966 Columbia released their last single for the label as just The Gaylords although Ford was still on board. "He's A Good Face" was written by the US team Al Kooper and Irwin Levine and is a decent Byrds-impersonation although the song is a bit too wordy.
With their Columbia contract now up and still unknown outside Scotland the band decided to relocate to London and change their management to Peter Walsh's Starlite Artistes on the recommendation of the Tremeloes. They also agreed to change their name to The Marmalade. Walsh got them a new deal with CBS and their first single was "It's All Leading Up To Saturday Night" in September 1966. It's a good song about weekend anticipation predating Norman Cohn's famous piece with a decent tune that borrows a little from For Your Love and could easily have given them their first hit. It wasn't to be though and Ray Duffy decided to quit the band , return to Scotland and get married. Alan Whitehead, a former postman took his place.
The band's next single "Can't Stop Now" in Februrary 1967 was another flop despite getting some extra exposure in a BBC play The Fantasist . It's another goodie with an urgent arrangement from Mike Smith that fits the lyrics including brass stabs that recall ( though the record predates) the Pearl and Dean theme. Shortly afterwards they began a long residency at The Marquee and were in demand as a support act for the likes of The Who, Traffic and Gene Pitney.
Their next one , "I See The Rain ", in August 1967, is generally recognised as a lost pyschedelic classic. It was their first self-written A-side a collaboration between Junior and Dean with a strong Hendrix influence in the heavy guitar sound . Hendrix reportedly loved it. It was a number one hit in Holland but still couldn't do the business over here. "Man In A Shop" from November is another Junior song and is a bit too close to a Sgt Pepper pastiche for comfort.
With as many flops in their new incarnation as the old the band came under real pressure from CBS to record more commercial material. After rejecting Everlasting Love they settled on this song by Artie Schroeck and Jet Loring which is very much in the same vein as the Love Affair song with Keith Mansfield's sweeping string arrangement moving things along behind Dean's accomplished vocal. It's a good song but having heard some of their earlier material it's a shame they had to compromise so much to crack the charts.
In my student days, I used to frequent a very good record store in Aldershot and got to know the owner fairly well. Shortly before my graduation, he was spinning a disc by a band called the Gaylords (presumably the ones mentioned here, as they were in the Merseybeat fashion of the '64 period) and upon my laughing at their name, began saying "Well, the funny thing about the name is...", at which point he had to leave to join his wife in a car waiting outside. I never got a chance to return and hear the rest of the story!
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