Cliff Bennett - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1965

I must admit that before I started working on my big BBC project, I'd never heard of Cliff Bennett, so don't feel bad if you haven't heard of him either. But the BBC loved him: this is the first of four albums of BBC studio sessions he did. 

I'm American. I suppose the odds of knowing about Bennett is much better if you're British. In the 1960s, the British music industry had a problem. The British public discovered soul music around 1964, and fell for it in a big way. Suddenly, it seemed every British band was doing soul covers. But very few vocalists had an authentic sounding, talented soul voice. Steve Winwood was one. Cliff Bennett was another. As such, he caught the attention of Brian Epstein, the manager for the Beatles, who also became the manager for him and his group, the Rebel Rousers, in 1964. He soon had a Top Ten hit in Britain, "One Way Love." But that was the only big hit he had for the time period of this album, though he had a couple more minor ones.

Here's his Wikipedia page, if you want to know more:

Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers - Wikipedia

The vast majority of songs here are soul covers. What I like is that he avoided most of the usual suspects, the songs that it seemed practically every British band was doing at the time. It's also interesting that he was flexible enough to cover a Bob Dylan song, "Maggie's Farm." But, as far as I know, he and his band didn't really do originals at this point.

Nothing here has been officially released, but everything sounds great due to BBC transcription reels surviving in pristine condition. Typical of the era, lots of the songs had BBC DJs talking over the music. That's why so many of the songs have "[Edit]" in their titles. But I did the usual thing of using an audio editing program to wipe the talking while keeping the music.

This album is 51 minutes long.

01 Don't Put Me Down like This (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
02 One Way Love (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
03 You Make Me Happy [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
04 I'll Take You Home (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
05 Getting Mighty Crowded (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
06 I Can't Stand It (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
07 Do You Love Him [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
08 Ain't That Loving You Baby (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
09 [Ain't That] Good News [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
10 Three Rooms with Running Water (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
11 Baby, Baby, Baby (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
12 Try It Baby (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
13 Crazy 'bout My Baby [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
15 Do the Boomerang (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
16 I Have Cried My Last Tear (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
17 Maggie's Farm [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
18 Out of Sight (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
19 Waiting at the Station (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
20 My Sweet Woman [Edit] (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
21 Shake and Fingerpop (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)
22 Who's Cheatin' Who (Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15206079/CliffBen_1964-1965_BBSessionsVolum1_atse.zip.html

It seems Bennett isn't that well remembered today, even in Britain, because I didn't find many good photos of him. This was the best I could come up with, from 1964. However, most of the guys in it had their eyes closed or were not looking at the camera. Bennett, in the middle of the bottom row, had his eyes closed. I found another photo of him with his eyes open and pasted that in, using Photoshop. I also used Photoshop to make the two guys on the left look at the camera. That left the guy on the bottom right with his eyes closed. I decided to let him be.