The Searchers - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1963-1964

I'm working my way through the BBC sessions of virtually all the big names in British music in the mid- and late 1960s. (There are a few exceptions like the Dave Clark Five, which only did one BBC session, probably because their drummer wasn't very good and had to be replaced on studio recordings by a session drummer.) As I start finishing with the 1960s, I'll move into the 1970s. Next is the Searchers. There's enough for three BBC sessions albums, so here's the first one.

The Searchers were a much bigger deal in Britain than they ever were in the US. As an example, they have three number one hits in Britain, and two more that just missed, while they only had one top ten hit in the US. Since they were big stars in Britain for much of the 1960s, it makes sense that they recorded a bunch of BBC sessions. I assume they had frequent BBC sessions from mid-1963 onwards, when they had their first number one hit in Britain with "Sweets for My Sweet." 

However, it seems most of their BBC sessions from 1963 and 1964 have been lost. This isn't too surprising, since most BBC sessions from those years have been lost in general, unless they're from really big names like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. In fact, the one BBC session of theirs from 1963 that has survived comes from a BBC Beatles special. All of the songs on it were saved due to Beatles fans. Other than that one session, nothing seems to have survived until late 1964.

So, to make up for that, I looked for other TV or radio appearances the band did, to try to fill the gap. Luckily, I found one really great source. The band played live in Sweden in early 1964, and this has been saved with excellent sound quality and released officially. So nine of the songs here are from that.

Tracks 1, 2, 13, and 14 are from BBC studio sessions, but they haven't been officially released. The bootleg versions here sound pretty good though. Track 12, "Don't Throw Your Love Away," is also unreleased, and comes from a live concert. That leaves just the last two songs, which are BBC studio sessions tracks from an official live album called "BBC Sessions."

I ended up finding versions of most of their big early hits, but not all. One key miss is the song "Sugar and Spice," which was a number one hit in Britain for them in 1963. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Sweets for My Sweet (Searchers)
02 Da Doo Run Run (Searchers)
03 Farmer John (Searchers)
04 Money [That's What I Want] (Searchers)
05 Ain't That just like Me (Searchers)
06 Let the Four Winds Blow (Searchers)
07 Ain't Gonna Kiss Ya (Searchers)
08 Some Other Guy (Searchers)
09 Alright (Searchers)
10 Needles and Pins (Searchers)
11 What'd I Say (Searchers)
12 Don't Throw Your Love Away (Searchers)
13 Love Potion No. 9 (Searchers)
14 Red Sails in the Sunset (Searchers)
15 When You Walk in the Room [Edit] (Searchers)
16 This Feeling Inside (Searchers)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271698/TSearchrs_1963-1964_BBSessionsVol1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo shows the band at the British TV show "Thank Your Lucky Stars" in Birmingham in 1964.