Let me take you down… The Beatles’ songs were so sturdy and well-crafted that artists such as Matt Monro and Ella Fitzgerald became early adopters. But from the start, John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s contemporaries had been just as likely as the older generation to mine their songbook. As the sixties continued and the Beatles ushered in the shift from pop to rock (minus the “and roll”), similarly youthful artists brought their own increasingly adventurous spins to the lads’ material. Countless various-artists collections of Beatlesongs have proliferated over the years – enough…
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da: Cherry Red Collects Complete Psych-Pop Recordings of Five’s Company, The Spectrum
In recent months, Cherry Red’s Grapefruit imprint, dedicated to the psychedelic and garage era, delivered two complete anthologies for a pair of pop-psych bands straight out of swinging London. Five’s Company was formed in the Chelsea area of London in fall 1964 by Eddie Broadbridge (lead vocals/piano/organ), Dave Jones (not that David Jones…or that Davy Jones, either, on guitar and vocals), Chris Robson (harmonica/vocals), Bob Brunning (bass/vocals) and Ian Pearson (drums). In their live set supporting such acts as The Mojos and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, they played covers of Motown…
