The British Invasion #3

 

The British Blues Bands

The London based groups were more into Blues and had a more harder sound and image. The  London Blues bands were definitely carrying the rebellious bad boy image that early rock and roll artists like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis had conveyed back in the 50’s while playing  the music of older Rhythm and Blues artists like B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters Willie Dixon going back to Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson.

By Mid 1964 within the British Invasion, the Beatles only competition in terms of songs were the Animals, Manfred Mann and the Kinks, not necessarily the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones would later have a competition brewed up by the media and intimated by their management of a bad boy nature of the Stones .

In terms of performances, The Rolling Stones were a powerful force to reckon with in 1964 many of their early hits were covers and songs written for them by other song writers (such as “I Wanna Be Your Man” written by Lennon and McCartney). The Stones could really rock a crowd and their bad boy image was played up by their rough and ready dress down appearance. The Stones/Beatles competition in terms of songs would not truly start in America until after the number one hit ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction‘ in 1965.

 

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones had many notable singles and b-sides in 1964, they were:

“Not Fade Away” released March 6 reaching #48 in the US backed by “I Wanna Be Your Man”; “It’s All Over Now” released July 25th reaching #26 in the US backed by “Good Times, Bad Times”; “Tell Me” released August 1st reaching #24 the first Jagger/Richards penned single backed with the Willie Dixon cover “I Just Want To Make Love To You”; “Time Is On My Side” released October 17th reaching the US top ten at #6 and “Heart Of Stone”  released December 19th reaching #19.

The Stones also had 2 hit gold albums released in the US by London Records in 1964: England’s Newest Hit Makers The Rolling Stones released May 30th reaching #11 in the US and 12×5 released October 17th reaching # 3 in the US. 

 

The Animals

The Animals busted on the American scene in mid 1964 with two notable singles: “‘House of the Rising Sun” released June 19th reaching #1, a mysterious haunting blues tune anonymously written in the mists of Americana backed with the Ray Charles “Talkin’ Bout You” and “I’m Crying” written by the lead singer Eric Burdon in September reaching #19.

 

Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann would release a great garage rock, bad boy song previously released by the American vocal group The Exciters “Doo Wah Ditty Ditty” released Aug 3rd and reaching #1 in the US for 2 weeks and “Sha-La-La” released late in 64′ and reaching #12 in the US.

 

Them

Them a Belfast Ireland group marketed as British Invasion with Van Morrison would release a song that would gradually become a rock and roll standard, being covered by Jimi Hendrix and The Doors.

“Gloria” July 6th as a b-side to ‘Baby, Please Don’t Go’ would only reach #102. “Gloria” would be re-released as an A-side single twice, first in 1965 reaching #93 and then again in 1966 reaching #71.

 

The Zombies

The Zombies released their debut single on July 24th called “She’s Not There” written by Rod Argent it went to #2 on the US charts.  They would go on to place more songs in the charts in the coming two years 1965 and 1966.

 

 

The Kinks

The Kinks originally a Rhythm & Blues band from London would close 1964 with the twin rockers: “You Really Got Me” released Aug 26th reaching #7 and heavily influencing Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Punk. Built on power chords (perfect 5ths and octaves) the song listed as #82 on the Rolling Stone 500 most influential rock songs of all time; “All Day and All of the Night” similar to ‘You Really Got Me released Dec 9th also reached #7 in the US. It was rumored that Jimmy Page was a session man for this single but as it turns out Jimmy played on the b-side ‘I Gotta Move’. Both of these initial hits were written by Ray Davies, one of the more accomplished British band songwriters of the 60’s.

 

Much of the British invasion was in the slow process of dressing down such as Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones with his “Time Is On My Side” performance in what looked like a sweatshirt and the again with ‘Around and Around’, Mick & Charlie tie-less on their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.