Hermans Hermits – 3 singles by Graham Gouldman

East West: Morrissey . . . first recorded by Herman’s Hermits to give MY BAND a hat-trick of hits from Graham Gouldman this time in 1966 with Listen People, No Milk Today and East West

No Milk Today: Joshua James & The Forest Rangers

Listen People: Steve Marcus

The Hollies – 2 more singles by Graham Gouldman

Bus Stop . . . released by The Hollies in 1966 yielding their first U.S. top ten single (No.5) after another Graham Gouldman composition Look Through Any Window had charted (No.32) earlier that year.

Cher . . . Behind The Door (1967) another one by Graham Gouldman

Tallyman . . . The Jeff Beck Group (feat. Rod Stewart & Ronnie Wood) had a minor hit (No.30) with this Graham Gouldman composition.

The Litter also released a version on their ‘$100 Fine‘ album and Herman’s Hermits ‘recorded’ an (as yet) unreleased version – below:

1967 – Bruce Springsteen recalls his first rock concert in the U.S.A. HERMAN’S HERMITS and The Who at the 2015 MusiCares MAP Fund benefit honouring Pete Townshend from 2’10” to 6’34” below:

See: my page on The Who about the trail of destruction they left

In the mid-1960’s Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber came to see me at my Manchester office to help them place a song of theirs with Herman’s Hermits.  I tried, but Mickie Most rejected it immediately.

In its original format the song was called “I Fancy You”, beginning with the simple couplet “I fancy you; I think you’re lovely”.  Its title became  “Any Dream Will Do” and with lyrics reworked Jason Donovan scored a U.K. No. 1 hit some twenty years later in June 1991 with his version.

Here is the original version by David Daltrey as recorded in 1968:

On hearing this and the other recordings for their musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat I signed them for three years to a management/development deal on a retainer of about £5/wk each.

It was the late 1960s and I took the songs to all the record companies but everytime they were rejected outright.  The other artistes on my roster at the time were disparaging about their material but from the outset I knew they had something.  Sadly I needed others to get it too.

Just after my tenure as manager was over at the end of the 1960’s they had overnight success with Jesus Christ Superstar. I remember seeing Tim Rice at the Ivor Novello Awards in the mid-70’s when 10cc was also at its creative zenith. He said he felt bad for not mentioning my input in his speech. Tim Rice and I have been good friends since.

I persuaded Sir Tim to write a song with Graham Gouldman and in the 1990’s they wrote “The Monkey and The Onion“ as a joint effort. The song is featured on 10cc’s final album in 1995 – “Mirror Mirror“:

The Monkey & The Onion:  Lyrics – Tim Rice / Music – Graham Gouldman

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Peter Noone featuring David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things

The single was written by David Bowie who featured on piano on the record and on Top Of The Pops he was prettily fitted out in a dress and a hat with flowers and it got to No. 12 in the U.K. in June 1971.

In December 1971, some six months later, Bowie released his own version for his Hunky Dory album but the endorsement of a major star (Peter Noone) and the approval of a big record company executive (Mickie Most) had been a turning point in Bowie’s career who previously had been struggling for years to go mainstream.

Tony Christie . . . Amarillo (Sedaka, Greenfield)

I first met Neil Sedaka in 1970 on a visit to Don Kirshner‘s office in New York in a quest to find the next single for Tony Christie.  One of the songs he played me was Amarillo and I took it.  In November 1971, Amarillo became a huge hit all across Europe but, incredibly, rose no higher than no. 18 in the UK.  The post-millennium reissue mimed by Peter Kay was the best selling U.K. single of 2005 selling more than 1,000,000 copies and still the song resonates to this day:

Neanderthal Man was released by Hotlegs, the pre-cursor to 10cc (but without Graham Gouldman) and reached #22 in U.S. and No. 2 in U.K. (kept off the top spot by Elvis Presley‘s ‘The Wonder Of You‘).

Elton John . . . Neanderthal Man (Stewart, Godley, Creme).  Always a fan of innovative music Elton recorded covers of new sounds and Neanderthal Man (Hotlegs) is on Reg Dwight’s Piano Goes Pop:

In 1973, Elton John founded The Rocket Record Company named not after Neanderthal Man, but his signature hit Rocket Man.  In 1974 he signed Neil Sedaka and released his comeback album Sedaka’s Back to a receptive U.S. audience with original recordings from Solitaire (1972) and The Tra-La Days Are Over (1973) both engineered and recorded by Eric Stewart at Strawberry Studios with the nascent 10cc as session musicians on tracks like That’s When The Music Takes Me . . . and Love Will Keep Us Together . . .

. . . whose subverted title, inspired Joy Division‘s iconic hit Love Will Tear Us Apart, recorded at Strawberry Studios in 1980.  This mash-up using Captain & Tennille‘s cover version of Love Will Keep Us Together (U.S. #1 in 1975), demonstrates why some people think the inspiration wasn’t just limited to the title, but maybe the whole song?

GG / 06 . . . Son of Man (about the evolution of Hotlegs into 10cc)

• Q: Eric?
• A: Yeah!
• Q: How did you actually form the band?
• A: Well . . .
• . . . the B-side we were knocking off [Oh! Darling] turned into something good [Donna – the proposed B-side to Waterfall].  Donna was 10cc’s first single reaching No, 2 in the U.K. in 1972.

On hearing Donna, Jonathan King (founder of U.K. Records) released it as 10CC’s first single declaring it a smash, his prophecy fulfilled when it peaked at No.2 in the U.K. charts in September ’72:

Their follow-up Rubber Bullets had opening lyrics inspired by Elvis Presley‘s ‘Jailhouse Rock‘ which had just been re-released in the U.K. reaching No. 6 in Dec 1971.   The BBC thought Rubber Bullets was inflammatory with The Troubles in Northern Ireland and limited airplay but in spite of that the song still hit No.1 on the U.K. charts:

Queen – When Peter Grant and I offered to manage Queen

On 28th Dec 1973 Queen supported 10cc at the Top Rank Club in Liverpool where one of the songs performed was ‘Jailhouse Rock‘:

A couple of years later the opportunity arose to manage them when they found themselves rudderless without a manager.  So I put together a fantastic proposal with my old friend Peter Grant who by then managed Led Zeppelin – you can read all about it in my book, I’m Into Something Good: My Life Managing 10cc, Herman’s Hermits & many more!

The Things We Do For Love was the only 10cc song that reached a higher chart position in the U.S. than the U.K.  It was released in 1977 two years after Godley and Creme left the band.

[Beyonce’s] Destiny’s Child/10cc: Independent Woman/Dreadlock Holiday by 2ManyDJs 2003 album As Heard on Radio Soulwax Part 2:

10cc’s final No.1 was Dreadlock Holiday (1978)

The Social Network (Facebook Movie)

3 the Hard Way . . . Hip Hop Holiday (1994)

Godley and Creme . . . Cry (1985) was an international hit with faces morphing into each other using simple soft-edged wipe transitions.

This visual effect was later refined using digital coding in Michael Jackson’s Black or White (1991) by ‘Thriller‘ director, John Landis, an old school friend of the late Andrew Gold, co-founder with Graham Gouldman of Wax, who I managed from 1983 to 1990’s.

The Worst Band In The World (1973).   10CC was christened by  U.K. Records owner Jonathan King who in a dream saw “10cc – The Best Band In The World” on the hoarding of the Hammersmith Odeon.  That was the cue to subvert it to “The Worst Band In The World” . . .

J Dilla’s final album Donuts [2006] is his magnus opus, a masterpiece. Two 10cc covers Johnny Don’t Do It (as Waves) & The Worst Band In The World (as Workinonit) feature on his highly-rated album.

The Roots & J Dilla . . . Workinonit

10CC . . . Old Wild Men (1973) was released about 50 years ago and was a prophetic look at what they might (and perhaps have) become!

Diddy‘s . . . Old Man Wildin’ (2015) was first released in December on the deluxe edition of his October mixtape/album MMM, and the track featured Jadakiss and Styles P.

In January 2016 it was remixed so as to feature fellow New Yorkers French Montana and Manolo Rose.

Kelsey Lu – I’m Not In Love | Euphoria [sub-titled (legendado)] – 2019

10CC . . . Art For Art Sake (live).