THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Two delightful “slightlydelic” ‘68 UK pop rock songs — the first of which started out as a jingle for a cider commerical, the second (bearing more than a slight resemblance) written about a friend who wanted to get enough from a pawnbroker to be able to visit her far away boyfriend. Both should have been hits. Of course, neither were. On the bright side, the cider was really groovy — based on the old clips up on Youtube!
1,077) Calum Bryce — “Love-Maker”
23 Daves explains:
One of the great music business myths is “If there’s a catchy pop song on a television advert, it’s sure to get re-released and become a hit”. Sadly, while adverts may give some completely mediocre tracks unfair advantages in the charts, there are other good ones which seemed to have no fair wind or music industry interest behind them at all. ”Love-Maker”, for example, is a track which positively itches with hooks. From the creeping bassline to the whistling upper melody, right down to the “Lovemaker, love maker, yeah yeah yes I would” chorus, it snakes, grooves, and seduces you into its charms. With an adapted chorus of “Woodpecker, yes I would” it soundtracked cinema adverts for the popular cider drink . . . . [As a single,] it flopped in 1968 . . . . Calum Bryce consisted of Dave Mumford on guitar and vocals, Tim Posford on bass, Mel Wayne on sax, Derick Horn on keyboards and Geoff Coxon on drums. Further work of theirs was recorded but apparently never released – however, they continued to tour for a number of years after this single’s release and appeared live on the Radio One Roadshow on a number of occasions.
http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2015/04/calum-bryce-love-maker-im-glad.html
Rocking in the Norselands pours some more info:
Back in the 60s, Bulmers were creating adverts for their Woodpecker cider yearly (sometimes twice a year), which always featured catchy bespoke music that fit the current fashions to make the advert cool and relevant. The adverts would frequently use the tagline “Woodpecker, yes I would. “By 1968, new music was needed for yet another cider cinema advert. Record producer Howard Conder got involved, secured the musicians he needed, and they all ended up co-writing the song by coming up with as many hooks and catchy elements as they could. Bulmers wanted the music to be built around the “Woodpecker, yes I would” slogan yet again, and the result was a very contemporary-sounding and groovy rock track. The advert featuring that music got very heavy rotation in cinemas (and even some TV, I believe). It turned out to be extremely popular, and “everybody” started humming the music and the Woodpecker slogan. Sometimes you manage to catch lightning in a bottle when you least expect it. . . . Conder felt it would be a shame not to explore its potential as a full-fledged pop song. He encouraged the musicians to continue working together, and advised them to start by making the music from the advert into a proper pop song and release it. He would of course produce. The band didn’t really need much persuading – they all felt that the music was too good to just end up as a jingle. They decided to become a proper band and have a go. First of all, they would obviously need to remove the cider references and write new lyrics. . . . As with the commercial, the track is positively bursting at the seams with amazing hooks. The drums start out with a slinky rhythm pattern. The bass line that comes in is very catchy and percussive. The keyboard motif will engrave itself into your brain and is one of those melodies you will find yourself whistling or humming. The voices that come in singing “Love-maker, love-maker, yeah yeah yes I would” are harmonising beautifully. So many hooks, and all of this happens just within the first twenty seconds! . . . The song grabs you from the get-go and makes you swoon with delight. . . . There was high hope that Love Maker would do well. . . . [It] was a total flop.
https://norselandsrock.com/love-maker-calum-bryce/
1,078) Barbara Ruskin — “Pawnbroker, Pawnbroker”
“The lilting, psychedelically-inclined [song] became Barbara’s debut President single in October 1968. . . . [but] the charmingly compelling [song] wasn’t a hit.” (Kieron Tyler, liner notes to the CD comp Dreambabes Volume Six: Sassy and Stonefree) Of thr self-written song, David Wells tells us that:
[“Pawnbroker” bore] a slight resemblance to the Woodpecker cider jingle of the era . . . [Barbara recalled] “I don’t recall the cider jingle, but it is possible that I’d heard it and it was somewhere in the back of my mind. The lyrics were inspired by a friend of mine who was a struggling actress. Her boyfriend was living abroad, and she was desperate to see him, so she was frantically trying to think of things she owned that she could sell to the pawnbroker and thus raise enough money to visit her boyfriend!”
liner notes to the CD comp Sometimes I Wonder: The Psychedelic Pop Sound of President
Of Barbara Ruskin, Nostalgia Central says:
Barbara Rosemary Ruskin[‘s] . . . . father died when she was still young and her mother – who worked for music publisher Lawrence Wright in Denmark Street – encouraged her young daughter to pursue her love of music, buying her first guitar. Barbara taught herself to play it, began composing her own songs and, before long, was spending her spare time performing at weddings and youth clubs. In 1964, she was offered a contract with Piccadilly Records and released her first single, a version of Billy Fury’s Halfway To Paradise, in February 1965. Barbara’s second single was one of her own compositions, You Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying (1965) – which she had written with Sandie Shaw in mind – while her third single – Well, How Does It Feel? (1965) – was recorded in the style of Sonny and Cher. In 1966, Barbara released the stomping single Song Without End but once again, the single failed to chart. Light of Love (1966) was her final single for Piccadilly before Barbara moved to Parlophone. Sun Showers (February 1967) became her first 45 for the new label, followed by Euston Station just two months later. . . . She followed it up with one of her finest singles, Come Into My Arms Again (1967), a song she wrote on the bus on the way to the studio. Barbara was then offered a role co-hosting the radio programme, Cool Britannia, on the BBC’s World Service. Pawnbroker, Pawnbroker was released in October 1968 . . . . Barbara continued releasing singles throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s . . . .
https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-b/barbara-ruskin/
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All new to me, Woodpecker Cider. I just don’t know where to go from there!
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