RPM Records Round-Up: Spotlight on Maureen Evans and The Avengers

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

From the United Kingdom to Germany, Sweden and New Zealand: in the final months of 2016, Cherry Red's RPM label continued its international tour of great lost pop and rock with a quartet of new releases. In Part One of this two-part Round-Up, we'll look at two of those titles!

Maureen Evans' The Sixties Recordings collects 31 songs from the Welsh-born vocalist's recordings for the Oriole and CBS/Columbia labels between 1960 and 1968. Evans began her career as a teenager in Waldini's Gypsy Band, and soon the popular impresario was guiding her solo career. At Embassy Records, Evans covered songs by Connie Francis, Peggy Lee and even Peter Sellers (once another young talent in the employ of Waldini's), and in 1960, she moved to the Oriole label. At Oriole, Evans recorded her television specialty, a version of the standard "What a Difference a Day Made," and scored a Top 30 hit with "The Big Hurt," Miss Toni Fisher's recent U.S. pop hit. She also brought her youthfully winsome vocals to songs popularized by The Paris Sisters (Phil Spector and Larry Kolber's "I Love How You Love Me" and Carole King and Gerry Goffin's "He Knows I Love Him Too Much") and Little Peggy March (Earl Shuman and Sherman Edwards' "John, John") but had her biggest hit with the girl group stylings of "Like I Do." The adaptation of Ponchielli's classical "Dance of the Hours" melody was introduced by Nancy Sinatra earlier in 1962 and subsequently recorded by Teresa Brewer. (The same tune was appropriated by Allan Sherman in 1963 for "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.") Maureen's "Like I Do" went to No. 3 in the United Kingdom.

Late in 1964, Evans moved to CBS Records as the label bought out Oriole. Evans released four singles (eight sides) for CBS between 1965 and 1968, all of which are included here. CBS largely surrounded her vocals with plush, classy orchestral arrangements on songs such as David Gates' "Never Let Him Go" (first sung by Jody Miller in the U.S. and later reinvented by Gates himself as "Never Let Her Go"), Lor Crane and Bernice Ross' brassy Petula Clark-esque "Somewhere There's Love," and the dreamy "All the Angels Sang." She even tackled country on her final single, "I Almost Called Your Name," which was backed with the big balladry of "Searching for Home." RPM's collection boasts new liner notes by Maureen as told to compiler Andy Davis. Unfortunately discographical annotation for each track is lacking in the otherwise-fine booklet. Although it's incomplete as to the Oriole sides, this long-overdue and lovingly-curated collection showcases the breadth of the talented and big-voiced Evans' recordings. Simon Murphy has remastered all tracks on this essential collection for any fans of '60s girl-pop.

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

Moving over to New Zealand, RPM has offered the compilation Everyone's Gonna Wonder from the heroically-named psych-pop band The Avengers. (The name was so popular from the Diana Rigg-starring television show, not even considering the Marvel Comics super-team, that these Avengers weren't even the first New Zealanders to adopt the name!) Dave Brown, Eddie McDonald, Clive Cockburn and Ian Davis formed the band in 1966 under the auspices of entrepreneur Ken Cooper, initially adopting suits and bowler hats in the style of the television Avengers' John Steed. After earning success on the live circuit, The Avengers signed with HMV Records in early 1967. The band's first single, Chris Malcolm's "Everyone's Gonna Wonder" b/w The Addrisi Brothers' "Take My Hand," was issued on HMV in New Zealand and reached No. 7 on the Pop chart. It was subsequently pressed on Jubilee in the United States and Parlophone in the United Kingdom. On the strength of the striking production, just mysterious enough for the burgeoning psychedelic era, the U.S. MGM Records label offered to sign The Avengers, but the group turned MGM down.

Malcolm's pretty, harmony-laden "The Only One in My Life" was released in New Zealand as The Avengers' second single, and peaked at a still-impressive No. 10, but soon the songwriter left the band's circle for greener pastures. Their follow-up was plucked from sessions for their still-in-progress album Electric Recording: a cover of Harry Nilsson's quirky "1941." It made it all the way to No. 6. Their biggest success came with their fourth single, Irwin Levine and Ritchie Adams' "Love - Hate - Revenge." The song, introduced by The Del Satins and covered by the pre-Deep Purple band Episode Six, went to No. 2 in late summer 1968. Their hit streak continued unabated when "The Days of Pearly Spencer" peaked at No. 4 that December.

All of the above singles are naturally included on this compilation, as well as subsequent A-sides such as Joni Mitchell's "Night in the City" and the Clive Cockburn original "Love is a One-Way Ticket." In 1969, lead singer-guitarist Dave Brown was sidelined by a hernia operation. John Pugh, who had worked in a number of Australian bands, was drafted to replace him, but Pugh didn't click with his bandmates, and Brown took his eight-week hospital stay as a chance to reevaluate his life. Upon Brown's decision, The Avengers broke up. Everyone's Gonna Wonder preserves the best of the band, including their 1969 final album Medallion in full. The colorful 16-page booklet lacks a discography but has copious, detailed liner notes. (Neither the liner notes nor the remastering are credited.) The 27 beguiling tracks here, including three rare radio spots, show a versatile band finding their own psychedelic, orchestral pop sound.

Both of the above titles are available now from Cherry Red's RPM imprint. Watch this space for Part Two of our RPM Round-Up!

Maureen Evans, Like I Do: The Sixties Recordings (RPM RETRO 982, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)