Friday, July 15, 2022

The Tremeloes - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1964-1965

Next up for my BBC project is the British band the Tremeloes. They don't seem to be that well known or respected today, but they had a long run with many hits, from 1963 to 1971. Being on the pop end of the British Invasion, the musically conservative BBC loved them, so I found enough material for five albums of their BBC studio sessions. Here's the first one.

In the beginning, they were known as "Brian Poole and the Tremeloes." Poole would leave in 1966 and the band would keep going just fine without him. For this album, all the songs are still with Poole.

I think the Tremeloes tend to get dismissed as musical lightweights for three reasons. First, the vast majority of their hits were not written by them. And second, as mentioned above, they were poppy and singles oriented, like the Hollies. That said, if you enjoy the British Invasion sound, they're right up your alley. Personally, I think there's something special about all the music of that genre and time, so I enjoy this stuff even though I don't think they're a top tier band. The third reason is that they were mainly a British success. They had lots of hits there, but only two Top Ten hits in the US.

Their early BBC recordings are included on an official album called "Live at the BBC, 1964-1967." All but two of the songs here are from that, so the sound quality is excellent. The exceptions are the first two songs. In putting together lots of BBC albums for various musical acts, I've gathered that the "Top of the Pops" radio show transcription discs that allowed lots of great music to survive with excellent sound quality began in mid-1964. Prior to that, it seems most BBC recordings have been lost. 

The Tremeloes hit it big in 1963 with a number one British hit, "Do You Love Me," as well as a number four hit "Twist and Shout." So I'm almost certain they would have had BBC sessions that are now lost. I couldn't find much to make up for that, except for a concert appearance at the NME Poll Winners Concert in 1964. (I've posted the entire 1965 concert here.) They only played two songs, but luckily that included "Do You Love Me," and they did "Twist and Shout" for the BBC later. Those two songs are unreleased, but they sound as good as you could hope for considering the time period, since they were broadcast on TV.

As you'd expect from this time period, many of the songs had BBC DJs talking over the music (all the ones with "[Edit]" in their titles). As usual, I used the X-Minus audio editing program to wipe out the talking while keeping the underlying music. 

Typically, British Invasion bands like this one did covers for the BBC that they never recorded and released otherwise. That's the case with the Tremeloes. In fact there are a whole bunch of those on this volume. "Walk Right In," "Baby Blue," "Who's That Knocking," "Twelve Steps to Heaven," "Sho' Miss You Baby," "My Baby Left Me," "Well... Alright," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and "She Said Yeah" were only done for the BBC.

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 Candy Man (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
02 Do You Love Me (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
03 Walk Right In (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
04 Baby Blue (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
05 Someone Someone (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
06 Who's That Knocking [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
07 Three Bells (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
08 Twelve Steps to Heaven [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
09 Time Is on My Side [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
10 Uncle Willie [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
11 Sho' Miss You Baby (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
12 Hands Off [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
13 After a While (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
14 My Baby Left Me [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
15 Well... Alright [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
16 Twist and Shout [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
17 It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
18 She Said Yeah (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
19 Love Me Baby [Edit] (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)
20 I Go Crazy (Brian Poole & the Tremeloes)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376833/TTREMLOS1964-1965BBSssonsVol1_atse.zip.html

It looks likely the cover photo is from 1964 or 1965, but I don't know the details.

1 comment:

  1. Very nice! Looking forward to the other Tremeloes uploads. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete