The story of the band Fancy began with Chip Taylor's "Wild Thing."  Captivated with Jimi Hendrix's fiery take on the classic popularized by The Troggs, producer Mike Hurst (The Springfields, Cat Stevens, Shakin' Stevens, Showaddywaddy) began to imagine the song as sung by a woman.  He dialed up both the sex and the funk for a slower, breathier, and more salacious version of the pop-rock staple.  Guitarist Ray Fenwick, bassist Mo Foster, drummer Henry Spinetti, keyboardist Alan Hawkshaw, and Hurst on background vocals supported lead singer Helen Caunt, a former "Penthouse Pet" and reported ex of Rod Stewart's.  Hurst's reimagining paid off when "Wild Thing" - credited to the studio group he christened Fancy - was picked up in the U.S. by Atlantic Records' Big Tree imprint and shot to No. 14 on the Hot 100 in September 1974.  An album was needed, as was a real band.  That story is chronicled on Fancy's The Complete Recordings, a new 3-CD set from Cherry Red's Lemon imprint.

Hurst assembled Foster, Fenwick, and drummer Les Binks as well as a new lead singer.  Annie Kavanagh, a stage performer (Jesus Christ Superstar) and session vocalist, replaced Helen Caunt for the album that would also be called Wild Thing.  (Caunt's original "Wild Thing" did make it to the LP.)  The album is featured on the first disc of The Complete Recordings.  For the LP, Hurst and Fenwick composed a clutch of originals in the glam-pop vein, with heavy rock guitars, stomping beats, lithe bass, and over-the-top vocals.  They scored a second U.S. top 20 hit with the sultry "Touch Me," outright lascivious whereas "Wild Thing" had been steamily suggestive, but the most enduring track might have turned out to be the funky "Feel Good."  It's been sampled over 100 times, most notably in The Beastie Boys' "3-Minute Rule" from their 1989 breakthrough Paul's Boutique.  Still, there was more to offer on Wild Thing.  Fenwick took the lead vocals on the pub rock-styled "Move On" and the brassy, Bo Diddley-inspired "Between the Devil and Me."  Two covers rounded out the tunestack: a spirited run through the Dave Bartholomew-penned Elvis oldie "One Night" and a sassy revival of Leiber and Stoller's "I'm a Woman," best known in Peggy Lee's definitive rendition.  The presentation here is rounded out by three bonus cuts: "Fancy," the Caunt-led flipside of "Wild Thing;" the subsequent B-side "Bluebird" (a pretty instrumental ballad written and led by Ray Fenwick, and utterly unlike anything else on the disc); and a brief, new recording of the country-flavored instrumental "Sidewinder," also written by Fenwick.

Despite their initial success at Atlantic/Big Tree, Hurst moved Fancy to Arista in the U.K. and RCA in the U.S. for Fancy's second and final album.  ("Atlantic really had no interest in marketing us," he opines in his liner notes.)  The 1975 LP was titled Something to Remember in the U.K. and Turns You On in the U.S., with the latter edition receiving an appropriately risqué cover too.  It opened with "She's Riding the Rock Machine," a punchy Hurst/Fenwick number with a lengthy instrumental prologue introducing the album's new brass section.  (John Cameron provided the orchestral arrangements sprinkled throughout.)  It compares favorably to contemporary work from outfits such as Average White Band.  Kavanagh cut loose on the vocal while Fenwick's guitar provided the taut central riff.  It didn't sound like "Wild Thing" or "Touch Me," however, which might have diminished its chances when released in edited form on 45 RPM.

A heavier, altogether bluesier sound characterized Something to Remember including a dramatic cover of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Her" (reinvented as "I Was Made to Love Him") with thunderous guitar and slashing strings and a sizzling glam take on Martha and The Vandellas' "You've Been in Love Too Long."  Both featured gutsy leads from Kavanagh, although one wishes the mixes had been rather more aggressive to match.  Mose Allison's "Everybody's Crying Mercy" offered a more-low key blues.  Fenwick and Hurst's own songs kept the proceedings eclectic - possibly too eclectic - once again, with the rollicking, autobiographical "The Tour Song" in a proto-disco vein.  Five bonuses have been appended to this disc: the non-LP side "Music Maker," and single versions of "I Was Made to Love Him" and both parts of "She's Riding the Rock Machine."  Mo Foster's new recording of "Driving Home" (an amiable country-and-western instrumental) completes the disc.

The third and final disc of The Complete Recordings premieres on CD a 1974 Memphis radio interview as well as five newly-discovered live recordings from the famed Ronnie Scott's in London recorded in June 1975.  The live tracks aren't studio quality but are nonetheless listenable as the band cuts loose with a more rough-hewn, less studio-slick sound with significantly extended versions of their studio tracks.

"Was Fancy a pop band or a real rock band?" asks Mike Hurst today.  "We knew the answer, but the trouble was the media and the record company didn't."  He continues, "We had started as a pop whim [but] had metamorphosed into a full-blown rock act."  Fancy covered a wide range of musical ground - rock, pop, blues, funk, disco, glam, and soul - in just two albums.  Context to their fascinating story is provided not only in Hurst's essay but in another by Mo Foster concentrating on their touring years in which they supported a wide range of acts including Steppenwolf, Earl Scruggs and His Family, The Guess Who, and 10cc.

The three discs are housed in mini-LP replica sleeves; these are stored with the 20-page booklet within a clamshell case.  Oli Hemingway has remastered.  In Fancy, it's possible to hear hints of artists from Vanilla Fudge to Blondie.  The music on The Complete Recordings is ripe for (re)discovery.

Fancy, The Complete Recordings (Cherry Red/Lemon CDLEMBOX241, 2021) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Wild Thing (Antic K 51502, 1974 (U.K.) / Big Tree BT 89502, 1974 (U.S.))

1. Wild Thing
2. Love for Sale
3. Move On
4. I Don't Need Your Love
5. One Night
6. Touch Me
7. U.S. Surprise
8. Between the Devil and Me
9. I'm a Woman
10. Feel Good
11. Fancy (Atlantic (U.K.) single K 10383-B, 1973)
12. Bluebird (Arista (U.K.) single 32-B, 1975)
13. Sidewinder (previously unreleased new recording)

CD 2: Something to Remember/Turns You On (Arista ARTY 102, 1975 (U.K.) / RCA Victor APL1-1482, 1975 (U.S.))

1. She's Riding the Rock Machine
2. I Was Made to Love Him
3. You've Been in Love Too Long
4. Something to Remember
5. Everybody's Cryin' Mercy
6. The Tour Song
7. Stop
8. Music Maker
9. I Was Made to Love Him (Short Version) (Arista (U.K.) single 15-A, 1975)
10. She's Riding the Rock Machine (Single Version) (Arista (U.K.) single 3-A, 1975)
11. She's Riding the Rock Machine Pt. 2 (Instrumental) (Arista (U.K.) single 3-B, 1975)
12. Driving Home (previously unreleased new recording)

CD 3: Let's Go On Somewhere (previously unreleased)

1. The Tour Song
2. She's Riding the Rock Machine
3. Everybody's Cryin' Mercy
4. I Was Made to Love Him
5. Love for Sale
6. Radio Interview (WLYX Memphis, USA - December, 1974)

Tracks 1-5 recorded at Ronnie Scott's, Soho, London, UK, June 26, 1975​