THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,547) Rick and Sandy — “Lost My Girl”
Who’s dat? Super producer to be Alexander “Sandy” Roberton gives us “driving mid to uptempo [‘65] mod beat with very fine ringing and fuzz guitar, powerful drums and an excellent lead vocal” (Bayard, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/rick-and-sandy/lost-my-girl-i-cant-help-it.p/), a “Powerhouse Dancer with a big Northern Sound & Fuzz guitar” (Vintage Vinyl Via Valves, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OKKwrWgFIdU&pp=ygUkUmljayAmIFNhbmR5IOKAlCDigJxMb3N0IE15IEdpcmzigJ06), a “pounding [number that] puts one in mind of early . . . era Pete Townshend. . . . marvel at that scything guitar and drum interplay!”(Dave Thompson, https://www.goldminemag.com/columns/well-kept-secrets-sandy-robertons-uk-folk-treasure-trove).
23Daves tells us of Rick and Sandy:
Hopes were high for th[eir first] single . . . and a slot was arranged on “Ready Steady Go” to promote the disc, but it failed to sell well. Their follow-up records “I Lost My Girl”, “I Remember Baby” and “Creation” received less publicity and subsequently were more ignored still. The final 45 “Creation” was penned and produced by the (then) rising music industry wunderkind Jonathan King, but this wasn’t enough to reverse their fortunes and turned out to be their final release. Sandy . . . and Rick (Tyekiff) went their separate ways, with Sandy going off to become a highly successful record producer . . . .
https://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2020/12/rick-and-sandy-half-as-much-cottonfields.html?m=1
Warren Huart tells us more:
Roberton was born in Edinburgh . . . and moved to Kenya with his parents when he was just six . . . . [He] returned to London in 1963, when he was 21, intent on a career in music. He formed a duo called Rick & Sandy. They found a manager in Tom Springfield, the brother of Dusty Springfield, who got them signed to Fontana, for which they record several singles. The duo then moved to Decca, and enjoyed some success with the single “I Lost My Girl[.]” Roberton also released two singles as a solo artist, a cover of Neil Diamond’s Solitary Man, on Columbia, under the name Sandy, and under the name Lucien Alexander a cover of the Bob Dylan song “Baby, You’ve Been On My Mind,” on Polydor. Despite TV and radio appearances, Rick & Sandy and Roberton’s solo singles failed to get much traction . . . .
Huart writes about the Roberton’s later career:
As a producer, artist manager, and record company owner, Roberton played a central part in the birth of the British folk movement. As a publisher he helped shape some of the most seminal albums ever made. And more than forty years ago, he was the first person to set up a major producer management company. . . . Roberton changed the way the contracts and the careers of engineers, mixers and producers are shaped. . . . the first to negotiate points. He masterminded long-term careers for a large number of top studio professionals . . . . [After the demise of Rick and Sandy,] he decided to get involved in the business side of the music industry. He went to work for Arc Music, which was Chess Records’ London operation . . . . The writers he was representing included legends like John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and many others. Roberton’s job consisted mostly of convincing UK artists to record songs from the catalogues of these companies. . . . Towards the end of the sixties, Sandy started producing, working with acts like the Chocolate Watch Band, Liverpool Scene and the Ian Anderson Country Blues Band. He formed his own company and via RCA released albums by Shelagh McDonald, Keith Christmas and Liverpool Scene. Roberton had a keen interest in the bourgeoning folk-rock scene in the UK, and discovered Steeleye Span . . . . produc[ing its] first three . . . records . . . . By the early seventies, Roberton had become one of the leading producers of the British folk-rock scene. He co-produced the famous debut album of the Albion Country Band and Shirley Collins, No Roses (1971), and produced the highly-rated debut album by the band Plainsong, In Search of Amelia Erhart (1972). Plainsong was founded by Iain Matthews, who had been in Fairport Convention and Andy Roberts, who came from The Liverpool Scene. Roberton formed long-standing working relationships with Matthews and Roberts, and he produced many solo albums by both artists. . . . By the mid-seventies he had moved into artist management . . . and together with Matthews . . . set up Rockburgh Records, on which they released records by the artists managed by Robertson, as well as by Iain Matthews . . . and others. . . . Roberton set up Worlds End Producer Management in 1980 . . . . the aim was to improve the contracts, working conditions, and careers of engineers and producers. Worlds End called itself “probably the first full-service company to ever solely represent producers, mixers and engineers,” and one of its early clients was Tim Palmer, in the early eighties an assistant engineer . . . . Working together with Roberton, Palmer went on to produce albums for Robert Plant, David Bowie, and U2. . . . Palmer recalled, “. . . . Sandy pushed for better deals and royalties for his producers and succeeded in getting them … even for mixers which was pretty unknown at that time. He basically created the genre of producer management.”
For more on Roberton, read Dave Thompson’s piece in Goldmine — https://www.goldminemag.com/columns/well-kept-secrets-sandy-robertons-uk-folk-treasure-trove.
Here are Sweden’s Lee Kings (see #1,524):
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