That'll Be the Day: Five Dozen Dodgy British Cover Versions (2-CD)

by Various Artists

2015 two CD collection of truly dismal British cover versions of American hits. Back 1957, Larry Page - aka The Teenage Rage - had been responsible for perhaps the most maligned, infamous UK cover of them all, viz: his spectacularly bizarre reading of The Crickets' 'That'll Be The Day'. In microcosm, Page's cover of 'That'll Be The Day' perfectly depicts everything that was wrong with the UK record industry at that time. Clueless record companies, A&R men and arrangers who hadn't the remotest idea what they were up to, and session musicians who had neither the feel nor interest in what they were playing. Many of the artists featured on this set were actually excellent singers, but were routinely lumbered with lame arrangements and even lamer session muso's, and so it was they who ended up with copious egg-on-face, looking and sounding ridiculous. The classic example was perhaps Cliff Richard, who was given Tommy Sands' banal 'Schoolboy Crush' to cover for his first release; the disc was an utter dud, but fortuitously, 'Move It' was on the flip, and the rest is history. In much the same boat were Mike Berry (whose debut, 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow', was arranged in the wrong key for him) and a slightly lesser extent, Adam Faith - although has anyone ever sung flatter than John Leyton on 'Tell Laura I Love Her'? The likes of Terry Dene, Wee Willie Harris, Vince Eager and Terry Wayne were appallingly served by their record companies, all four being far, far better singers than their early 45s suggest - as the fact that they're still bloody good live performers, nigh on sixty years on, readily affirms. In much the same category were Nelson Keene, the eternally underrated Jimmy Justice and in particular, the late Duffy Power.