Don_Krider's Full Review: History of the Dave Clark Five by The Dave Clark F...
The Beatles, four mop-top haired Liverpool natives, were atop the British charts with "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in 1963 and seemingly unstoppable as a recording group on the eve of conquering the United States in 1964.
Never a country to be easily conquered, though, the Brits offered up The Dave Clark Five from London as The Beatles first major rival. Sure, The Animals, The Rolling Stones and Gerry & The Pacemakers were making a buzz, but The Dave Clark Five were making waves against the United Kingdom shores.
Initially charting in the British Top 30 with a cover of The Contours' 1962 hit "Do You Love Me," The Dave Clark Five would knock "I Want To Hold Your Hand" out of the # 1 spot in the UK with their single "Glad All Over."
Written by drummer Dave Clark and lead singer Mike Smith, "Glad All Over" emphasized "The Tottenham Sound," as it was called, a metallic, drum-driven type of sound.
In fact, in 1964 The Beatles vs. The Dave Clark Five phenomenon crossed the ocean to the USA. The Beatles would battle The DC5 on the singles and album charts. It made good press at the time: the Liverpool long hairs vs. the London clean cuts.
Both bands were great, of course. Forgotten today, The Dave Clark Five (also known as The DC5) had 24 Hot 100 hits in the United States alone in 1964-68. In that figure they had 15 consecutive Top 20 U. S. hits between 1964-66, which is more than either The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons or The Supremes had in that same time period. In fact, notes the CD's booklet, "more than anyone, British or American, during that period save The Beatles themselves" (who hit the US Top 20 during 1964-66 with 25 singles).
Like The Beatles, The DC5 made hit films, performed before huge crowds and were a major force in television (ever the businessman, and a rich one, Clark retained the rights to the band's songs and even owns the rights to the music series "Ready, Steady, Go!").
"Glad All Over" peaked at # 6 as a single in the US, but the band's album of the same title reached # 3 in the U. S.:
"You say that you love me / all of the time / you say that you need me / you'll always be mine / I'm feeling glad all over..."
The next single, "Bits And Pieces," which had peaked at # 2 in the UK, went straight to # 4 in the USA, the second of an incredible eight Hot 100 singles by The DC5 in 1964 (including four Top 10 hits):
With a non-stop percussion and a gritty lead vocal, they sang: "I'm in pieces / bits and pieces..."
Ed Sullivan, who already had signed The Beatles to appear on his show three times in 1964, did the same with The DC5. The DC5 did the Sullivan show March 8 to pure hysteria, leading to Sullivan having them back on the show the following week. The DC5 then played Carnegie Hall on May 30, making their third Sullivan appearance the next night.
In 1964, the group had a hugely successful tour of the United States. They would tour the USA five more times in the '60s.
And, as the saying goes, "the hits just keep coming." Their cover of "Do You Love Me" went to # 11, "Everybody Knows (I Just Love You)" went to # 15, "Any Way You Want It" went to # 14 (not to be confused with the '80s hit by Journey) and "I Knew It All The Time" hit # 54.
One of the truly great Brit pop songs of all time, "Can't You See That She's Mine" rose to # 4 in 1964, full of uptempo rhythms playing beneath urgent vocals about a boy-loves-girl romance:
"Whoa! / can't you see that she's mine / we went together for a long, long time / and yet they tried so very hard to pull us apart / but we don't care what they say / we're going to keep our loving this way / but if they break us up / you know it'll only break my heart..."
The follow-up rose to # 3 that same year. The ballad "Because" is as pretty a tune from the "British Invasion" of the U. S. music scene as you'll ever hear, more in the spirit of Gerry & The Pacemeakers, Peter & Gordon and Chad & Jeremy than in the other DC5 hits of that year:
"It's right that I should care about you / and try to make you happy when you're blue / it's right, it's right, to feel the way I do / because, because, I love you / it's wrong to say I don't think of you / because, when you say these things, you know it makes me blue / give me one kiss and I'll be happy / just, just to be with you / give me, give me, a chance to be near you / because, because I love you..."
The album charts were also hit hard by The DC5 in 1964: "Glad All Over" going to # 3, "The Dave Clark Five Return" hitting # 3 and "American Tour" reaching # 11.
The hits continued in 1965. The year began with "Come Home" reaching # 14, followed by "Reelin' And Rockin'" (a cover of the Chuck Berry hit)which peaked at # 23. What? No Top 10 hits?
As if to calm any Epic Records fears of waning popularity, The DC5 next produced three Top 10 hits in a row, each successive single charting higher than its predecessor: "I Like It Like That" went to # 7, followed by "Catch Us If You Can" which hit # 4 and their first U. S. # 1, "Over And Over."
Easily one of the catchiest, fun pop songs of the mid-'60s, "Catch Us If You Can" is a rocking masterpiece, with typical powerful drumming by Clark:
"Here we come again / catch us if you can / time to get a move on / we would yell with all our might / catch us if you can..."
On their only # 1 hit, "Over And Over," The DC5 returned to the sound of "Glad All Over" and "Bits And Pieces":
"Well I went to a dance just the other night / everybody there was dead / I said over and over and over again / this dance was gonna be a drag / ... / all at once it happened / the prettiest in the world / I said won't you come over and talk to me / and be my girl / ... / she said she was sorry / and I was a little bit late / she would wait and wait and wait for her steady date..."
The album charts of 1965 also buzzed with the hit long-playing vinyl of "Coast To Coast" climbing to # 6, the soundtrack to their film "Having A Wild Weekend" reaching # 15 and "Weekend In London" peaking at # 24.
The arrival of harder-edged British acts such as The Who led to some decreased popularity in 1966. This was also the year of The Monkees emergence as a chart-dominating act. The DC5 scored no Top 10 hits that year, but they still had noteable hits with "At The Scene" at # 12, "Try Too Hard" at # 12, "Please Tell Me Why" at # 28, "Satisfied With You" at # 50 and "Nineteen Days" at # 48.
Epic Records released a "hits" collections in 1966 which charted very well, however: "The Dave Clark Five's Greatest Hits" went to # 9. The LP "I Like It Like That" reached a respectable # 32.
This was followed by "More Greatest Hits," which went to a lackluster # 103 on the Top 200 chart in Billboard magazine. Other 1966 albums faired poorly as well: "Satisfied With You" reaching # 127 and "5 By 5" peaking at # 119.
In 1967, at the height of the Summer of Love and with The Beatles at their peak creatively with "Sergeant Pepper", The DC5 started the year poorly with the single "I've Got To Have A Reason" peaking at # 44.
The DC5 came back strongly with their next single, their final Top 10 hit, "You Got What It Takes." The song went to # 7:
"You don't drive a big fast car / you don't look like a movie star / and all your money / we won't get far / but, baaa-by, you've got what it takes..."
The DC5 weren't after social commentary. They were perfectly happy producing good little pop records. As Clark says in the CD booklet, "I knew the sort of sound we wanted. It was like being a conductor: build it up here, slow it down there, change it before they get bored."
By year end, the band would launch four more Hot 100 hits, including the Top 40 single "You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby" (# 35).
"Everybody Knows," released at the end of 1967, peaked at # 43 in early 1968, their final chart hit in the U. S.
The group made two films in 1965, "Get Yourself A College Girl" and "Having A Wild Weekend" (released as "Catch Us If You Can" in England). "Having A Wild Weekend" is noteable because the director picked by Clark himself for the film was John Boorman, a then-unknown who later directed such films as "Point Blank," "Deliverance" and "Excalibur."
Missed opportunities in the music business are famous. Clark made a few mistakes. Offered a further three-film deal, he declined. Then Hollywood offered the group a U. S. TV series in 1966, which, after Clark rejected the idea, became "The Monkees".
By 1968, the band had also decided to stop touring (The Beatles had already done the unthinkable by stopping their tours in 1966, but their recording success had continued). For The DC5, this coincided with an end to U. S. hits by the band, but they continued to be extremely popular in Europe through 1970 when the band broke-up. One of their tunes during this period was "Here Comes Summer," a great sendup of The Beach Boys' sound with some wonderful harmonies.
Lead singer Mike Smith would later record with former Manfred Mann vocalist Mike D'Abo, while Clark would go into production. In the '80s, Clark co-wrote and produced a musical in London called "Time." He directed Sir Laurence Olivier (in his final theatrical performance) in the stage production, which broke box office records in London with ticket sales passing the million mark.
Clark also produced "Time - The Album," a double LP featuring performances by Olivier, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Cliff Richard, Julian (son of John) Lennon, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Stevie Wonder and Ashford & Simpson. The album produced a Top 5 British hit for Olivier with his narration of "The Theme From Time."
Clark also produced Freddie Mercury, co-writing two songs for Mercury, "Time" and "In My Defence," which have achieved sales of over three million copies.
Clark was wise enough to buy the rights to the British series, "Ready, Steady, Go!" in the '70s. That '60s series had every major British and American rock act of the decade on it. He produced a series of television specials (aired in the U. S. on The Disney Channel from 1989-91) and videos based on the series.
These days, Clark has refused to reform the group. He has turned down offers of millions of dollars to tour as The DC5 because "we can't better what we've done. I'm not worried about failure, but I've already done it. I'll leave it to the exciting new acts."
The album:
Two CDs with over two hours of music. A fantastic, photo- and information-packed 32-page CD booklet. Liner notes by Ken Barnes of Rolling Stone magazine fame.
This 1993 Hollywood Records release was to be re-released by Rhino Records in May 2001 (info is at http://www.rhino.com/features/61482p.html?P= ). It features a slimline jewel box that holds the booklet and both CDs. The album is listed with CriticsChoice.Com, but as yet not listed as available from CDNow.Com or Amazon.Com, although they will probably also carry the title. It can also be ordered through Rhino, or by special order through your local music retailer.
The tracks include singles, album tracks, soundtrack songs and songs that were B-sides of singles which were not previously released on any album. A total of 50 songs from a band that sold more than 50 million records in their time:
"Glad All Over," "Bits And Pieces," "Do You Love Me," "Can't You See That She's Mine," "Because," "Don't Let Me Down," "Any Way You Want It," "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)," "Any Time You Want My Love," "Thinking Of You Baby," "Whenever You're Around," "Little Bitty Pretty One," "Crying Over You," "Don't Be Taken In," "When" and "Reelin' And Rockin'."
Also, "Come Home," "Mighty Good Loving," "Hurting Inside," "Having A Wild Weekend," "'Til The Right One Comes Along," "Catch Us If You Can," "I'll Be Yours My Love," "I Am On My Own" and "I Need Love."
Also, "Try Too Hard," "All Night Long," "Look Before You Leap," "Please Tell Me Why," "Somebody Find A New Love," "Satisfied With You," "At The Scene," "I Miss You," "Do You Still Love Me," "Nineteen Days," and "I've Got To Have A Reason."
Also, "I Like It Like That," "Over And Over," "You Got What It Takes," "Doctor Rhythm," "Small Talk," "Concentration Baby," "Everybody Knows," "Inside And Out," "At The Place," "Best Day's Work," "Maze Of Love," "Here Comes Summer," "Live In The Sky" and "Everybody Get Together" (a U. S. hit for The Youngbloods as "Get Together").
On the web:
International Friends of the Dave Clark Five Official Fan Club at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Theater/9169/index2.html .
The Dave Clark Five USA Page at http://www2.rpa.net/~theboltons/DC5main.htm .
Rhino Records DC5 Page at http://www.rhino.com/features/61482p.html?P= .
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