THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,304) John Carter — “Conversations (In a Station Light Refreshment Bar)”
An unreleased joyous gem of a demo by Ivy Leaguer and UK songwriter extraordinaire John Carter (see #1,201). Forget San Francisco, let’s go to a station light refreshment bar!
Tim Sendra writes:
One of the leading tunesmiths of the ’60s and ’70s English pop scene, John Carter was responsible for writing big hits and timeless classics like “Can’t You Feel My Heartbeat” by Herman’s Hermits, “My World Fell Down” by Sagittarius, and the Music Explosion’s “Little Bit o’ Soul[]” . . . . the Ivy League’s “Funny How Love Can Be,” the Flowerpot Men’s “Let’s Go to San Francisco,” and “Beach Baby” for First Class. Typified by harmony vocals, simple melodies and, during the psychedelic era, very soft Baroque arrangements, the songs and productions Carter was a part of helped define the sound of English pop during his heyday. . . . Carter began writing songs at the age of 15 with classmate Ken Lewis. Inspired by the first wave of rockers . . . they worked up a batch of songs and in 1959, left their hometown [of Birmingham] for London . . . . find[ing] a publisher right away . . . . In 1960, they moved over to Southern Music and . . . began singing . . . under the name Carter-Lewis. . . . [and then] Carter-Lewis & the Southerners . . . . Between 1961 and 1964 they issued seven singles . . . . [t]heir sound was firmly rooted in the tradition of the Everly Brothers . . . . Though . . . a popular live act, the two songwriters quickly figured out that it made more sense financially to stay behind the scenes instead. Carter in particular exhibited no interest in becoming a pop star . . . . They soon shifted to cranking out demos . . . . [With] Perry Ford, [they] started . . . the Ivy League in late 1964 . . . . [W]hen the Rockin’ Berries turned down the song “Funny How Love Can Be,” the group released it themselves and had a Top Ten hit. Their sound was pitched somewhere between Del Shannon and the Beach Boys . . . . Carter left the band to head back to the . . . studio . . . with new [writing] partner Geoff Stephens. Along with songs penned for the Ivy League . . . the pair had hits with Manfred Mann, Mary Hopkin, the New Vaudeville Band, and Herman’s Hermits. Carter even ended up singing lead vocals on “Winchester Cathedral[.]” . . . [H]e was also working in the studio with a pair of songwriters, Robin Keen and Mickey Shaw, who he had signed to his newly formed music publishing company. Every week the pair would meet with Carter and play him the songs they had written. He’d pick his favorites and they would assemble a crack team of musicians to record them. Though they continued to work in this fashion for almost two years, they only issued one single, 1966’s “White Collar Worker,” [as] the Ministry of Sound. . . . Lewis left the Ivy League in 1967 and paired up with Carter again. . . . “Little Bit of Soul” [became a hit] . . . . [as did t]heir soft psychedelic confection “Let’s Go to San Francisco” . . . . Once again, Carter and Lewis decided not to go on the road and hired a band to go out and perform as the Flowerpot Men . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-carter-mn0000222625#biography
Released as a ‘68 single by A.P. Dangerfield (thanks to Huw Thomas and Gary Orchard):
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