Turn on an American oldies radio station today and it shouldn’t be too long before you hear The American Breed’s “Bend Me, Shape Me,” a Top 5 hit in 1968. Across the pond, however, the song unequivocally belongs to Amen Corner. The Welsh outfit didn’t last long, but in a jam-packed two year period, Amen Corner produced six hits and three albums on two labels: Deram and Immediate. The Deram years have just been collected in full on RPM’s new Round Amen Corner: The Complete Deram Recordings. The 19-track anthology brings together the entire Round Amen Corner LP as well as six non-LP single sides on one CD.

Decca had established the Deram label as a home base for its “hip” young artists, and Amen Corner fit the bill. The large band was able to create a full sound on record thanks to the combined power of Andy Fairweather-Low on lead vocals, Dennis Bryon on drums and vocals, Clive Taylor on bass and vocals, Derek “Blue” Weaver on Hammond organ and vocals, Mike Smith (replacing Malcolm David) on tenor sax, Alan Jones on baritone sax and Neil Jones on lead guitar. Signed by executive Noel Walker on the strength of Fairweather-Low’s impassioned live performance of “Gin House Blues” at Oxford Street’s Tiles Club, Walker had a more pop-oriented direction for the band in mind. Their R&B and blues credentials weren’t in doubt, though. The band had jammed with Jimi Hendrix, and supported the blazing guitarist on the same Royal Albert Hall bill as Pink Floyd, The Move and The Nice!

Like The American Breed, Amen Corner made its name with “Bend Me, Shape Me,” written by the American team of Scott English and Larry Weiss. (With Richard Kerr, Scott English would later have his biggest songwriting success with Barry Manilow’s “Mandy.”) The No. 3 hit paved the way for Round Amen Corner, the group’s 1968 debut long-player. The album featured the band’s diverse repertoire, from familiar pop covers to original material.  Hit the jump to find out more, including the complete track listing and order link!

Blue Weaver (later an important collaborator of Barry Gibb) brought his swirling Hammond organ to a groovy update of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender,” while the driving Darrell Banks soul classic “Our Love (Is in the Pocket)” was similarly reinvented as up-tempo blue-eyed soul. Philadelphia is a long way from London, but that didn’t stop Amen Corner from rearranging the music and lyrics of The Soul Survivors’ hit “Expressway to Your Heart,” written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. The Easybeats’ “Good Times” was given a shot of energy with Andy Fairweather-Low’s wailed lead vocals. Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were represented with “Can’t Get Used to Losing You,” and the new take on the Andy Williams hit again showed the group’s flair for reinterpreting familiar pop material. The talented frontman contributed a couple of songs of his own, the whimsical “Judge Rumpel Crassila” and the up-tempo “I Am An Angel (But I Can’t Fly).” (Another three Fairweather-Low compositions can be heard among the new collection’s bonus tracks.) Debut single “Gin House” (the song that had so impressed Decca) was also included on the album.

Within months of the release of Round Amen Corner, the band decamped for new management and Andrew Loog Oldham’s swinging Immediate label. (They joined The Small Faces there, another former Decca group who had broken ties with controversial manager Don Arden, perhaps better known today as the father of Sharon Osbourne!) Immediate teamed Amen Corner with Who producer Shel Talmy and “(If Paradise Is) Half as Nice” scored the group another success. Decca tried to capitalize on the song by reissuing Pomus and Shuman’s “The World of Broken Hearts” as a single in its slow, proto-prog arrangement, but unlike with the Small Faces, there wasn’t enough material in the can for another competing LP.

After two albums for Immediate, Amen Corner split. In John Reed’s excellent, lengthy liner notes for RPM’s new anthology, Fairweather-Low is quoted as believing that “Amen Corner split partly because of a lack of credibility. We didn’t write the songs and you could feel that musically things were changing and leaving us behind. Though Alan Jones and Mike Smith departed to pursue other avenues of interest, the remaining band members evolved into Fair Weather, a short-lived band (1970-1971) known for the U.K. No. 6 hit “Natural Sinner.” Fairweather-Low himself continued to make music first as a solo artist and then as a compatriot and sideman to artists including Eric Clapton and George Harrison. Remastered “from the original tapes” by Paschal Byrne, Round Amen Corner: The Complete Decca Recordings is available now from Cherry Red’s RPM label. Amen!

Amen Corner, Round Amen Corner: The Complete Decca Recordings (RPM Retro 910, 2012)

1. Bend Me, Shape Me
2. Judge Rumpel Crassila
3. Love Me Tender
4. Our Love (Is in the Pocket)
5. Something You’ve Got
6. I Am Angel (But I Can’t Fly)
7. Expressway to Your Heart
8. Good Times
9. Let the Good Times Roll/Feel So Good
10. Can’t Get Used to Losing You
11. Lost and Found
12. Gin House
13. I Don’t Wanna Discuss It/Amen
14. I Know
15. The World of Broken Hearts
16. Nema
17. Satisnek the Job’s Worth
18. High in the Sky
19. Run, Run, Run

Tracks 1-13 from Round Amen Corner, Deram LP 1021, 1968
Track 14 from Deram single DM136-B, 1967
Tracks 15-16 from Deram single DM151, 1967
Track 17 from Deram single DM172-B, 1968
Tracks 18-19 from Deram single DM197, 1968