Chart entered : 23 September 1972
Chart peak : 2
Number of hits : 13
It's difficult to know where to start this one as we've covered some of the threads of this band's genesis before ( particularly in The Mindbenders posts ).
Let's start with Graham Gouldman if only because he was at one time a resident of Rochdale. He was actually born in Salford in 1946 and by his early teens was playing in bands around Manchester. He settled into one called The Whirlwinds which got a regular spot at the local premises of the Jewish Lads Brigade. In May 1964 HMV let them cut a single , a version of Buddy Holly's "Look At Me" which has a nice surf guitar solo but is otherwise regulation beat group fare. The B-side was written by an even younger Jewish teen Laurence "Lol" Crème who played in a rival outfit The Sabres with drummer and school friend Kevin Godley.
The Sabres never got to make a record so Kevin was ripe for the picking when Graham dissolved The Whirlwinds and formed The Mockingbirds. They had a deal with Colunbia already lined up but the label didn't like Graham's first offering , "For Your Love" and so their first single was "That's How ( It's Gonna Stay)" . This pleasant but utterly generic beat pop item stiffed but even before the follow-up was released, "For Your Love" became a huge hit for The Yardbirds and thereafter Graham's prowess as a hot young songwriter completely overshadowed anything he did with his own band.
In May 1965 they released "I Can Feel We're Parting" which sounds a lot like The Hollies with a nice wistful melody. When that flopped they moved to Immediate and released "You Stole My Love" in October. Written by Graham it was arranged by Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith and that band's manager Giorgio Gomelsky. Unsurprisingly it sounds a lot like The Yardbirds ( who later recorded it themselves ) and benefits from having a young Julie Driscoll on backing vocals, In February 1966 he put out his first solo single on Decca "Stop! Stop! Stop ! " , not The Hollies song but a mod stomper with an impressive bluesy vocal from Graham. The next band single was on Decca with "One By One", written by "Wayne" ( ? ) . It's another upbeat track decrying the pressure to conform although they're now sounding a bit dated. Their final single "How To Find A Lover" was written by Peter Cowap and released in October 1966. It's an enjoyable psychedelic-tinged pop ditty but the game was up for them.
Just a month later Graham and Cowap re-emerged as High Society with the former's song "People Passing By" which I haven't heard. They changed their name to The Manchester Mob for a rock and roll medley "Bony Maronie At The Hop" which suffers from over-polite vocals and very bad timing. Graham was then persuaded to record as a solo artist and his February 1968 single "Upstairs Downstairs " presaged an album "The Graham Gouldman Thing." The single is excellent, a bittersweet tale of lovers crossing paths in an apartment building with some telling oboe work. Whether intentionally or not the album serves as a postscript to the first phase of his career as it contains re-workings of some of his biggest hits for others such as "For Your Love" and "No Milk Today". It's worth a listen for the inventive arrangements of John Paul Jones although Graham's indifferent voice is a bit wearing over eleven tracks. It went unreleased in the UK until the CD era due to the single's failure.
These were the circumstances which led to Graham accepting the invitation from Eric Stewart to join The Mindbenders which we covered earlier. What I didn't mention then was that Eric also persuaded him to invest in the studio he was developing in Stockport. This decision would have an impact on the Manchester music scene that lasted well beyond 10cc's hitmaking days.
When The Mindbenders wound themselves up Graham was at a loose end. He had few takers for his songs with his nemesis Clapton apparently God. What he did have on the table was an offer from bubblegum supremos Kasenetz and Katz to churn out some songs for them in New York so off he went. Graham became a transatlantic nomad flitting between New York and Stockport seriously over-worked. On one visit to the studios- now named Strawberry- he found his old pals Lol and Kevin who'd been keeping out of mischief at art college and along with Eric they helped him record a song "Sausalito" which came out in the US under the banner of The Ohio Express and carrying a completely undeserved production credit for Kasenetz and Katz.
Graham then pitched the idea that he could record much more cheaply at Strawberry with the help of his buddies rather than pay New York session fees and got a three month deal in December 1969 which helped finance the development of the studio equipment. It's almost impossible ( a project for the future perhaps ) to track everything they put out in this period and beyond under a variety of silly names. Lol has said he has no idea how many records they churned out. The most important was "Neanderthal Man" by Hotlegs which Graham was not directly involved in as he was back in New York at the time. It's little more than a heavy drum pattern with a vocal chant low in the mix behind it but Philip's Dick Leahy thought it had hit potential and it was an enormous hit worldwide reaching number 2 in the UK in 1970.
Their subsequent releases - of singer-songwriter type material - were not successful although one , "Umbopo" recorded under the name Doctor Father attracted the attention of Neil Sedaka . He and Graham met at a party and the upshot was that he came over to England ( where he had been performing at nightclubs in the late sixties ) to record a couple of albums with the guys at Strawberry and successfully revived his recording career. After that , with Graham now back in the UK on a more permanent basis, the quartet decided over a meal in a Chinese restaurant to eschew studio anonymity and constitute themselves as a proper band who would tour.
They originally approached Apple with a song called "Waterfall" but it was rejected as uncommercial. They changed tack and started plugging "Donna" instead, a Godley/Creme song earmarked as a possible B side. Eric knew Jonathan King and invited him up to Strawberry to hear it. King instantly recognised its potential and signed them up to his UK label under the name 10cc , apparently the average volume of semen produced in ejaculation although you'll still read King's covering story of a poster in a dream he had.
"Donna" is a doo wop pastiche which references the earlier song of the same name by Ritchie Valens and the Beatles' Oh Darling from Abbey Road. It's perfectly indicative of 1972 , a song recalling the first age of rock and roll produced in a state of the art studio with fat glam rock guitars and a falsetto vocal from Lol mimicking the recent spate of child stars. The latter feature is counterpointed by a very lugubrious second vocal from Kevin in the role of a continuity announcer. The band's denim-clad, smirking appearance on Top of the Pops indicated it wasn't to be taken too seriously but didn't adversely affect the record's performance. Irony was in !!
Here's Lena's take 10cc
I thought the "joke" with the bandname is (was?) that 10cc is "above average"... I remember this as there was a radio documentary about them years ago called "Well Above Average".
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