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| From | "Billy G. Spradlin" <bgspradlin@cablelynx.com> |
| Subject | Re: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich |
| Date | Fri, 10 Jun 2005 01:28:28 -0500 |
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As with the best British Invasion bands, they show a very interesting
growth curve -- they didn't seem to stick with any one groove for long,
and did them all very well. There's some excellent drum work on most of
the early tracks, and the later tracks are some of the better highly
produced "production" singles that I've heard from the era.
They remind me a lot of the Tremeloes, a very underrated group who
recorded a lot of "good time" Pop around the same time.
>Best of all, they always seemed to have a good sense of humor. And a
>high dash of sexuality. One of my friends remembers them as being
>considered a "dirty" band at the time, mainly due to the overt sexuality
>of "Bend It," which is a very early single. Zabadak! Is the type of
>song that most bands threw on the b-side as a joke, but DD, D, B, M & T
>do it proud, sound effects, nonsense syllables, and all.
>
>
Most of thier hits are kinda gimmicky. That they werent band written
(and proably played by studio musicans) is the reason why UK critics
passed them off as "The British Monkees". DDDBM&T's hits proably helped
to create a lot of the formula for much of the UK's late 60's-early 70's
Bubblegum hits - like the Sweet's early hits like "Co-Co".
>According to the credits on the Best of, their singles seem to be almost
>exclusively written by the team of Howard/Blaikley, but I can't say that
>I'm familiar with them as a song-writing team other than through DD, D,
>B, M & T.
>
>
From what I have read online, Howard/Blaikley were a very successful UK
writer-producer team Their most well known hit in the USA was the
Honeycombs' classic "Have I The Right" - which sounds a lot like the
template for DDDBM&T's early hits like "Hold Tight". They also had thier
songs recorded by Lulu, The Marmalade and The Heard (with Peter Frampton).
Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio
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