It is truly amazing what Joe Meek produced using primitive equipment and without the financial backing of a major record label. He was a great producer whose work has stood the test of time.
Like so many incredibly talented, Joe was incredibly troubled by mental illness and drug addiction. Imagine if he'd had access to the advanced treatments we have today. What could he have accomplished? Or would he have been one of the people for whom no treatments worked?
@@OofusTwillip He was also gay at a time when it was illegal in the UK. It was legalised in the year he killed himself (1967) and murdered his landlady but there was still a stigma.
@@wesleycook7687 Meek was absolutely gay. And 304 Holloway Road was not your typical "studio" ... it was a flat being used as a "studio". The echo chamber was located in the bathroom!
This is probably the song that shifted from the 50s to the 60s. I've not found a sound sounding more modern than this, that was produced or released any earlier than this song. This song started the 60s revolution. Followed by Del Shannon Runaway. Massive turning point in history!
There was a Bryan Ferry jazz doc recently. Joe Meek was a producer of Bad Penny Blues, a British jazz hit, which Macca was very influenced by for Lady Madonna. This was when Jazz was popular in the UK, and the success might have given Joe Meek a financial boost. Which enabled his subsequent success. Meek got a piano sound on Bad Penny Blues which the composer wasn't happy with, but it was one of the key features of the thing :)
I remember being on a school trip aged 10 in July '61. We were at Heysham Head, near Morecambe and Del Shannon's Runnaway was playing EVERYWHERE. I remember trying catch the eye of a schoolgirl I fancied whilst on the areoplanes...the things one remembers 60 years later! Great days though, esp for transitional rock!
Joe Meek was one of the few music producers creating a complete new sound, still unsurpassed. When will a statue be erected in his honour? He did really not deserve such a sad ending of his days on earth.
@@theculturedthug6609 yeah he’d only have had to wait a few years before he’d have been embraced by people who like interesting music over what’s cool. Brian Wilson and Phil Spector were both considered has beens by the late 60s but then by the 70s people had already stated to appreciate their unique genius. I think the 60s counterculture just opened people’s minds to appreciate things that were eccentric and there’s been a place for those type of artists ever since
My 1st boyfriend at 15 yr old was called Johnny,wished I had stayed with him. He passed away with covid 2021 at 71 yr old, This song reminds me of him.so sad .
Holy crap wow. Talk about a song ahead of it's time. That's what I love about ballad songs like these from the 50's and 60's... You'll ALWAYS hear something you've never heard before.
I usually hate it when people say a song was ahead of its time because songs appear where they do because they are the result of the influences around them at the time. However, in this case, I have to agree. This song and its style, engineering, and even subject, was ahead of its time. I don't know why it did not get to the U.S. But just around then, the approximately five-year "Teen Tragedy" run of pop music was starting with songs like ""Moody River," 'Tell Laura," "Leader of the Pack," "Laurie," "Patches," etc.
Yes, it has been labelled as a ''morbid pop'' song, a trend in pop music of late 50s and early 60s. Although remaining pop song structure and melody, thematically those songs dealt with tragic death, usually car accident of the loved one.
John Leyton WAS the sixties. His appearance and music were the very best. He also was a movie star. By the way, all the young dolly birds in this video are grannies now. Time moves on, but greatness will always remain forever.
anne sargison I only saw the last years of the 60s, but feel blessed I did. In the summer of '69 I grew six, and I knew, there would never be a better time in my life, and I was right. If we only could go back.
There's one person who has never really got the credit they deserve for this track, and that is Lissa Gray who performed the haunting backing vocals that really made this recording what it is. There are several decent versions of this track, but only one has the Meek production sound and that girl's eerie voice. Joe Meek productions really come alive when played good and loud, and this one can still make spines tingle 54 years on. Compared to it's chart contemporaries in 1961 it must have sounded like it came from another world. Helen Shapiro was at #2 when this hit the top spot. Talk about chalk and cheese.
I wouldn't swap my past 69yrs for another 69in the future I think I lived in the greatest era ever and thank the likes of my father who risked his life for our futures,your best years are surely your teenage years and the SIXTIES had it all!!!
My dads name is Johnny and I remember this song playing when I was a child and he was going away with the army it was a Sunday morning and my mum was crying her eyes out sad but lovely memories RIP Dad love you always XXX
Yes!! I was so lucky to be growing up during those magical years. And I so grateful that 21st century technology allows us to relive them, A fabulous song which personifies the age. My thanks to whoever posted.
Joe Meek , A Genius who was a tortured soul, the music & sounds he created in that small flat was & never will be mastered. Just Brilliant, my musical era the best.!!!
I remember hearing this record playing from the house of an old 'Teddy Boy' in our street in the 60's and thinking why isn't he playing the Beatles? Only now do I realise what a terrific record this was.....
The sixties was the best decade for music,, such a genuine wealth of talent around in those days, very hard to pick a favourite but this was definitely one of the most memorable songs of that era,,,
I remember this song so well. It was the first song I ever got in to. I remember it coming on the radio and it would cut through the air like a knife. Still sounds good.
Was 1 month old when this came out! lol Remember it a few years later when my parents played it. Stuck with me and still like it today! 60's-early 90's, the best times for music!
amazing song ! haunting ! This classic Along with Many others 'recorded in a flat in Holloway Road, London' - by the Legend JOE MEEK !!!!!!!!!!!!! Big Time Music History !!!!
Good stuff, John Leyton was also known as one of the three prisoners to escape to freedom in the movie 'The Great Escape' starring Steve McQueen. Leyton escaped in a boat with Chares Bronson. Great memories.
This is a very good song. I found it by accident on a post about tragedy songs of the late 50s and early sixties. It was never released in the states as a single. Shame.
This sort of music reminds me of a theme park in the UK, Thorpe Park. They have a certain area called Amity Cove that plays lots of oldies songs, such as this, Runaway by Del Shannon, Rhythm of the Rain by The Cascades, Walking Back to Happiness by Helen Shapiro and so many others! I love it, my friends think I'm weird for liking this sort of music but I don't really care to be honest ha.
This song used to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, so haunting. I was a wireless mech in the RAF in East Anglia during the 60s part of my service. While working on snags in the aircraft, we used to drag out the job so we could listen to Radio Caroline which was anchored in the North Sea not too far from us. They played all our favourite pop music, not like the old-fashioned crap you got on the BBC Light Programme although the Beeb was great for comedy like Beyond our Ken etc. I loved the rock n roll which came out in the late 50s, too. Nowadays there are so many pop singers, it's impossible to remember them all! I now have loads of 50s & 60s music on my laptop and I play them while the bloody soaps and "reality" shows are on.
Dear anne, I too have wonderful memories of the 60s. The music was so beautiful. I can sing along to just about every song from the 60s, 70s and 80's.... But being 71 now... I forget why I went Into the kitchen......
I remember waiting outside my local record shop to buy this particular record..wow..they were great days..great times too..thanks for posting this video
This is so good , Joe Meek was very clever , he is getting some credit for his pioneering contribution to the recording industry. John Leyton was a good singer, all the actors here were very convincing.Many thanks for uploading this classic song and video.
This is brilliantly produced. Joe Meek was undoubtedly one of the most influential and important music men ever from England. Im sure Phil Spector learnt quite a bit from him.
Quite possibly. This song does give one a replication feeling of Spector's later "Wall of Sound" technique. It's as if he heard this song and said to himself, "I've got to do that!"
@@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244Joe Meek was good but Spector was already doing his wall of sound in 1960 so Meek borrowed from him. I doubt if Spector ever heard of him. Meek probably knew that but decided to use Spector's techniques. Spector discovered the echo sounds before he with the Teddy Bears recorded his song "To Kow Him Is To Love Him"and the tape was made in the bathroom at his house. When the recording was picked up by a record company, Phil knew he had a real future. He built a small studio and added echo chambers and experimented with instruments and his employees were the singers. As time went on, the Wall Of Sound included the Righteous Brothers, the Rolling Stones and even the Beatles did tracks in his studio. He recorded Tina Turner's first solo record but didn't release it because of Ike's rage. Tina and Phil both acknowledged this and it's featured in Tina's bio movie, What's Love Got To Do With It. Too bad Leyton's record wasn't heard by Spector. He would have re-recorded it in Spector's studio and it would have been a major hit in the US. As such, it remained in England.
@@wesleycook7687 Joe Meek received a call from Phil Spector where Meek accused him of stealing his ideas. Not sure who the protagonist is however for certain Spector knew who he was.
John Lennon used the melody of an English folk song for ‘So this is Christmas’ and Phil Spectre was pleased with that idea as he had used some English folk melodies himself,just a little aside😅Even genius has it’s influences.
Beautiful song, and it hits home even more when you consider that the lyrics were changed prior to release to 'I hear the voice of my darling, the girl I love and lost a year ago' from 'I hear the voice of my darling, the girl I love who died a year ago'
My parents owned a pub in the 60s, and they had a juke box. As the songs were replaced, they kept the singles, and in the 70s, i found them, and this was one of them. You would not believe what else...a Stingray episode, Flintstones songs.
I’m 38 and remember listening to this with my sister at my nana house on record. We played it over and over. Such strong memories of my wonderful nan ❤x
I remember him from the short-lived TV series "Jericho" in the Sixties. He played Nicholas Gage, and so many girls had a crush on him! I never knew that he was a singer~not till just this moment! You really can learn something new every day, even when you're an old lady like me! *giggle*
My parents played this song often when I was a child, it depressed the hell out of me!! Started my existential angst at 6 years old!!! 😂 But it is a great song and sound and I now sing it daily to my dog! 🦝😂🦝😂
I remember listening to this in R Dorm at Clayesmore School, in the 60's - memories!!! I thought it the greatest sad song of all time - maybe I still do - not telling !
Piekne przeboje kiedys ta muzyka byla prawdziwa nadawala blasku w naszym szarym zyciu ja trafilem dopiero teraz na twoj kanal dziekuje i pozdrawiam serdecznie
