The Long and Winding Road: From Beatles to Benidorm

By Vince Tracy

There must have been a time when you just could not get a certain song out of your head. Perhaps it was the last sound played at the disco or perhaps theres a certain riff in a song that haunts you? Perhaps its one of those songs which have a special meaning for you or a special person in your life? Whatever the reason we all have had musical influences throughout our life and some we have deliberately chosen whilst others have crept in because we watch television and listen to the radio. We also have been subjected to other musical influences from shops, restaurants, churches, dance halls and anyone whistling or singing near us. Why was it almost impossible to remember Shakespeares quotations when I tried to learn them for school yet I can remember words to songs without even trying to memorise them?
As someone who has made a living from playing music for others to listen to it has interested me greatly to find out whether any of the records which have made the popular music charts has had a greater influence on me than I have realized. I will also try to remember the words to the songs I heard in my younger years without using either reference books or a safety net! I will also attempt to put the music in some kind of time frame looking at what else was happening aside from the music. I will also identify how my own appreciation of music has evolved and that charts become less important with age. This will be the basis of a large part of my book. I will also try to show that I have had to show a good amount of true grit and determination in order to eventually find the job I had always wanted from my childhood days of listening to Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline. Moreover, it takes a lifetime to really see your priorities. Join me now in my musical voyage of discovery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jun 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483634586

Vince Tracy

Vince was born on Wirral, Merseyside and enjoyed the Merseybeat Years at The Cavern and Iron Door in Liverpool. He played harmonica in several groups before becoming one of the first professional disc-jockeys on Merseyside at the Cabin then Hamilton clubs. He worked freelance with the BBC at Radio Merseyside and as a professional DJ and entertainer in the North-West of England. Moving to Cornwall in the 80s Vince qualified as a teacher and ran his entertaining career alongside a teaching career. He had a daily show with Spain's national broadcaster Onda Cero and presents his cabaret shows around Benidorm, Spain. These days he travels extensively creating various podcasts and jamming with other musicians when possible.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Gillygillyossenfefferkatzenellenbogen

by the sea…

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Mum and Dad

My Mum and Dad

M ost of us who grew up in the fifties are people who have had a weird mixture of influences. Personally, I love Coronation Street on TV. I know the houses have now gone a bit up-market in the series but I grew up in Aspendale Road, Birkenhead in a little two up and two down terraced house with lots of people around me and with a passion for Tranmere Rovers and football. I can empathise with Jack Duckworth’s backyard and even his passion for pigeons. The cat curled up on the roof during the credits of that TV show is a constant reminder of the day my dad threw a bucket of water over a cat walking down the wall joining our backyard with that of our neighbour. My dad wasn’t to know the lady was pegging her clothes out and to the best of my knowledge she never spoke to him ever again!

My dad had a pushbike with a little saddle on the crossbar for me to sit on with my little legs resting on a piece of wood he’d fixed to the supporting bar. He was an insurance man at the time and was a constant whistler.

When he wasn’t whistling he was playing his violin which had two strings and a cotton reel for a bridge! He only played Irish jigs

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Dad on Violin

(I think there were two) and I used to like the violin case being opened for I knew a session would usually last a good hour and there was always lurking in the background an Irish Ceilidh at nearby St Anne’s in Rock Ferry. This would mean a full day of cigarette haze, Guinness fumes, and girls dancing with very straight backs. They would leap up in the air crashing down on the wooden floor with their very black and shiny shoes and medals rattling against each other on their costumes. I must admit they were very good and I did enjoy the music but it did go on a bit! Later in life Irish Dancing has become immortalized by Michael Flatley and the River Dance. I’ve even enjoyed great Irish dancing more recently at the fantastic Benidorm Palace. The River Dance is even featured in performances given by Father Ignatius!

I remember playing ‘cup finals’ in the play street with a tennis ball. We even played with an old casing of a football stuffed with rags. My own lads don’t believe this and think it’s something I dreamed up from a medieval text. They are convinced it was a pig’s bladder! There were a lot of excited lads playing ‘headers’ in the back entry although dog excrement was the hazard of the day. We were all football crazy! As I got a bit older I was trusted to run along Borough Road until I got to Tranmere Rovers where I paid sixpence to go in the boys’ enclosure to watch old Everton stars like Tommy Egglington and Peter Farrell and Dave Hickson. They went to Tranmere to finish their playing days.

Like so many other kids I used to like cheering our goalkeeper, George Payne. We made a silly noise rising to a crescendo as he ran to take a goal kick. He had a kiosk on Dacre Hill (where there used to be the Rialto cinema). Many years later I had the thrill of meeting him in his shop when I sold him some Vick Cough Sweets. It’s a funny old world!

Back home, I didn’t realise that my mum was only a young girl learning how to be a mum. Nor, in fact, did I realise that my dad was learning his new job. I certainly didn’t realise how difficult it was for them to run our little house with me and my two sisters in it with our big old-fashioned radio keeping us in contact with the outside world. We had to wait for it to warm up before we could listen to our favourite programmes. I listened to a spooky show called ‘Journey into Space’ where Earthmen visited the Moon or Mars and heard other Earthmen singing about how they wanted to go back to the green fields of earth. We’d listen to Archie Andrews. He was a ventriloquist doll. It’s mind-boggling to think a piece of wood was talking to us! This was the magic of the radio. It was also a sign of the times. People weren’t quite as sophisticated as we think we remember.

‘Housewives’ Choice’ was a popular show and one of the presenters sang to the signature tune. That was quite daring at the time! He was Uncle Mac. There was ‘Listen with Mother’ where the presenter would say, "Hello children. Here is your music for today," in a very posh voice. When we were all sitting comfortably she would read us a story. We didn’t realise how lucky we were at the time! There I was in 2010 and I still used that intro to my show. I wonder how many of my listeners realise how old it is?

Yes, the Beeb’s presenters were talking to us with plum filled mouths offering us ‘selections of music’ on such programmes as Two-Way Family Favourites and I remember Jean Metcalf being one of the presenters who would be playing songs for people in other parts of the world. We were quite a contented lot in those days. Perhaps one of the earliest songs I remember was from 1952 when Johnny Ray sang ‘Walking My Baby Back Home’. This was a cheerful song which gave the impression that it was some big deal staying out late to walk your girlfriend home. In those days it was about as daring as you could get with a peck on the cheek being the only objective for a teenager’s first date.

Two very strange songs for a young lad of seven were 1953 hits for Danny Kaye and Guy Mitchell. I think Danny Kaye worked part-time for the Copenhagen Tourist Board as he incessantly sang the benefits of visiting wonderful Copenhagen in the charts of 1953. Kaye played the role of Hans Christian Anderson in the film and it was one big treat to be taken to the pictures to hear him sing about important issues and personalities of the day like tiny Thumbelina and the King who was in the altogether! He was a magnet for Housewives Choice and Family Favourites.

Subconsciously, I’ve always thought the more modern Danes were great. Jan Molby who played for Liverpool was probably the best in my opinion!

The other song to grab my attention was ‘Pretty Little Black Eyed Suzy’ sung by Guy Mitchell. I’ve always tended to like girls with dark eyes and blame Guy for this preference. I’ve also liked a few Susies over the years. My knowledge of how music was composed or played was non-existent around this age and I think we never had any music education in the primary school. I must be perfectly honest here and say that I only have vague memories of my primary school, St. Joseph’s in Birkenhead. Oh, we did have a Wendy House and small bottles of milk at playtime. I remember playing tick in all its forms and football in the school playground. There was glass sticking out of the top of the walls to prevent intruders climbing in and a couple of bombed sites on the way to school. Our pretty mean punishment was the cane. We really preferred not to get this punishment. I think they call this a deterrent but possibly this word is not in use any more. The top class was run by Pop Burns. There was a piano in his classroom. I think we had assemblies but I don’t clearly remember. Incidentally, Pop Burns gave me a kick up the seat of my pants for something I’d done or failed to do. When I told my dad what had happened my dad gave me a clip round the ear hole. Times certainly were a bit different!

I also played in goal for the St Josephs football team. I remember being beaten 10-0 by Claughton Road. To be fair to myself I never could reach the crossbar. I remember my mum buying me a pair of football socks that were green with a white turnover. This was pretty chic at the time! I also remember how much I enjoyed my dad coming up to Mersey Park to have a kick around with us. He was a pretty good left-footed player who had represented his regiment in the army. He had a friend, Joe Stead, whose two lads, Denis and Peter, would also join in the kick around. These were happy times.

I was also an altar boy at St Joseph’s Church in North Road. I liked being on the roster for funerals. We used to get a tip but I don’t think I really understood the sadness involved at the time. I didn’t like it when the coffin was lowered into the ground. However, I liked the trip up to Landican Cemetery in the black limousine. It never crossed my mind that my parents would one day be buried there! I enjoyed the music in the church and I especially liked the big occasions when the choir pulled out all the stops.

The pop charts were compiled from sheet music until the early fifties and only would have reflected the taste of those people who bought sheet music.

Needless to say, I didn’t buy sheet music and my only access to the world of popular music was through a huge old radio we kept on the sideboard. There was the Light Programme, The Home Service and the Third Programme. If my dad was out on Sunday night at the Mens’ Club we called up 208 Radio Luxembourg.

Chapter 2

How Much is that Doggie?

T he Top Twenty began in Britain in October 1954 and I’d have been about eight. Five songs in that first chart terrorized my impressionable little mind. Lita Rosa had a love of small dogs with waggly tails. She obviously counted her pennies and sang the question ‘ How Much is that Doggy in the Window ?’ I certainly wasn’t aware that she was from Liverpool and that she was the first Liverpool lady to hit number 1. Surprise, Surprise! Sorry Cilla!

Despite the recent war with Germany the Oberkirchen Children’s choir sang the ‘Happy Wanderer’ to number two for 26 weeks in the charts. This was a song by kids who used to love roaming the countryside with knapsacks on their backs. As we didn’t have a car and we never went into any countryside anywhere the words didn’t have a great relevance for me! I wonder whether or not I had seen a cow at this time in my life although we did pass Mr. Warren’s pigs on the way to school. I considered this to be the highlight of my day! It was even better if we could see the pigs feeding from the trough.

Billy Cotton was light years ahead of everyone involved in Neighbourhood Watch. He yelled ‘Wakey, Wakey’ every weekend with his Band Show and extolled the virtues of ‘Friends and Neighbours’ in his hit song that year. The radio does have great powers of communication as most people of my own age will immediately recall his battle cry.

I suppose I can thank Doris Day for my early interest in geography as she sang of the ‘Black Hills of Dakota’ and I regarded her and Rock Hudson as the perfect couple for many years. The word gay meant happy as I learnt it and people’s sexuality was not a subject for public debate or public opinion. The other artiste to educate me in geography was Max Bygraves. He introduced us all to… . Gillgillyossenfeffercatsanellabogen by the sea. To be perfectly honest I still have never checked on a map to see whether this place exists. If Max said it existed then I trusted him implicitly. I can better understand how we need to protect our children by having had such personal blind faith in so many everyday things.

Bill Haley and his Comets were at number 1 in 1955 with ‘Rock around the Clock’ and I have to be honest—I didn’t have the freedom of the town at the age of 9. In fact, I remember the tune firstly from listening to Radio Luxembourg when my dad went out to St Joseph’s Mens’ club on a Sunday night to play snooker. He used to win a chicken for the family’s Christmas Dinner every year. Sadly, I never saw him play. Now that my dad is dead I harbour this as one of my biggest regrets in life. There were thousands of kids like me who had strict parents. We all listened to Radio Luxembourg under the bed sheets but on red alert in case our parents came home early. My memories include advertisers like Horace Bachelor who came from Keynsham, near Bristol. He even taught us how to spell the name of the town. There was also Cyril Lord who very kindly sold carpets at prices people could afford. We also could join the Ovaltinees if we wanted to be happy girls and boys. We could even sing the song! Maybe it was because we didn’t have immediate access to Oh Boy and the Six Five Special TV shows!

Other number one songs from 1955 included the wailing country song Rose Marie. The singer was Slim Whitman and Rose Marie was the love of his life. Whether he was Slim in the dieting sense I’m not too sure. However, the popular Alma Cogan sang in praise of her lovable ‘Dreamboat’ to balance things up. She was so smitten by her guy she was prepared to sail the seven seas for his love. This was at a time before the Wrens were allowed in the navy and Alex Rose and Francis Chichester had become famous.

Mitch Miller sang about the Yellow Rose of Texas for the next hit. Despite working in an Horticultural College in later years I never did see that particular hybrid. Meanwhile Frankie Laine searched for Cool, Clear Water for his number 2 hit. Alma Cogan had a problem with the dancing skills of Eskimos for her number 6 hit. Her advice was ‘Never do a Tango with an Eskimo.’ She was proven right as, to date; no Eskimo has ever appeared on Come Dancing, Strictly Come Dancing or Celebrity Come Dancing. If I were an Eskimo I would feel pretty miffed at the stick I have been given over the years and I would like to clear my conscience by adding that I have no axe to grind with any Eskimo anywhere in the world.

Also in this year, another lady, Rosemary Clooney, who also had an early version of Shaking Steven’s hit ‘This Old House’ concerned herself, and the whole nation, with the positioning of dimples on babies with her number six hit ‘Where will the baby’s dimple be?’ The nation sang about a whole range of different places where a baby could find a dimple. There was just a little twinkle in her eye when she told us that it could be hidden by a safety pin! Family Favorites found it superb for congratulating fathers in the services in Germany. The song shows we were living in a time with far less sexual pressure through music. It was quite simplistic. The prodigious feats of the RAF were immortalized by their own band reaching number eighteen with the ‘Dam Busters March’. This was a stirring number which builds up to a crescendo and was a hot favourite with the BBC. As we had no television I just heard the music and didn’t really get into the war connotations. In fact, I still felt fearful when sirens sounded and hated passing air-raid shelters even though I hadn’t lived in the war years. Hitler surrendered when he saw me coming!

Mario Lanza had a huge hit with ‘I’ll walk with God’. Years later a cover version was made by Harry Secombe. For his efforts he was knighted and sent around the country singing hymns. Not necessarily in that order. It is sometimes easy to overlook how well Harry Secombe converted from Goon to presenter of religious programmes on TV.

So, we’ve got as far as 1956 and my tenth birthday. The whole nation had grown up listening to the Goon Show and singing ‘Ying Tong Yittle I Po!’ What it was all really about we’ll never be certain but it has influenced commoners and princes alike. Did it really surprise us to learn that Prince Charles, the future King of England, used to wander around Buckingham Palace singing the Ying Tong song? Perhaps all the royal family joined in the chorus? Maybe they are human after all!

The number one hits included ‘Sixteen Tons’ with the very deep voice of Tennessee Ernie Ford. Whilst his creaking bones might not be as quickly remembered he also hit number three with the Ballad of Davy Crockett who ‘killed him a bear when he was only three’ and who ‘returned home once his politicking had been done’. Many people will know the words to that song.

A very big number one hit song which was later covered by Diana Ross (amongst others) was that of the iconic teenager Frankie Lymon and his song ‘Why do fools fall in love?’ which certainly stood the test of time. He was to die in tragic circumstances as indeed were so many from the world of entertainment.

Another living legend who appealed to the ten year old of 1956 was Robin Hood whose idea of an equal society seems to have stayed with me throughout my life. Although he stole from the rich it was clearly backed up in song and pictures and on television screens that the riches he redistributed had been stolen from the poor by a rather nasty Sheriff who lived in Nottingham. Maybe this was a very subtle form of Communism? It’s not an idea that has been readily acknowledged but as psychologists and sociologists have dissected so many other parts of my childhood why should this theory not be put forward?

Gary Miller hit number ten with Robin Hood and the song made a brief return in 1992 as the music for a very clever advert for Shredded Wheat. I’ll bet whoever dreamt up the advert was a fan of Robin of Sherwood as a child.

Poverty provided a theme for Carl Perkins when hitting number ten with ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ I read somewhere that he was standing in the Dole queue wearing his best pair of blue shoes made of suede when someone trod on them. According to the book I read Carl Perkins then scribbled a song on a piece of cigarette paper and here I am still singing and playing the song.

The Platters reached number five in this year with ‘The Great Pretender’ also covered by the late Freddie Mercury. This is a superb single describing how people have to pretend to others that things are really going well when deep inside they are hurting badly. The Platters reached number with ‘Only You’. This is a fine song which any hot-blooded male could sing to the girl of his dreams telling her with great sincerity that she would answer all his prayers and make his dreams come true.

Elvis was beginning to make his mark in Britain and he hit number eleven with that beautiful song ‘Love me Tender’. Anyone who still doubts the quality of Elvis’ singing voice should go to their local Karaoke bar and try to put as much feeling into this song as Elvis did. He implored his fans and he had the good looks to go with it. ‘Love me Tender’ was a song which had a tenderness both in its lyrics and in the way Elvis presented it. His other big hit in this year was ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ which reached number ten. The song combined the imagery of a building with the feelings of someone who had been jilted by a lover. Whilst Elvis had the hotel Fats Domino preferred the fresh air for his number six hit. He found his thrill on Blueberry Hill. Staying with nature we’ve had Apple records, Orange equipment, Bananarama and Pineapple studios. With Blackberry Way by the Move, Strawberry Fields with the Beatles, The Honeycombs and the Jam itself fruit has certainly been well promoted by the music industry.

The last song which has stayed with me from this year is Little Richard’s ‘Rip it up’. It was fast and frantic rock and roll and the words didn’t really mean too much. It was mainly the speed of the music and the atmosphere the record generated. In all the years I have tried to get people to jive to this number only the fittest survive the first few bars before getting too sweaty and needing to retire to the bar.

At school I was preparing for the dreaded 11 plus exams and I was playing for the school football team. We were still drinking school milk from little bottles and my mum was still making us take Cod Liver Oil. The school wall still had bits of glass sticking out of the top so you couldn’t climb over and I had to walk over the bombed buildings on my way to school. We didn’t have a car. We didn’t have a television and it was an novelty to have a holiday. We were all ‘deprived’ around this time. I was eating plenty of bread and treacle and I was probably as fit as a fiddle. I wasn’t worrying about pensions, mortgages and ill-health. I wasn’t even worrying about my parents. I was blissfully unaware of the Suez Crisis but very aware that Russia invaded Hungary in this year.

Rock ‘n’ Roll was in its infancy, Elvis was on the march and in the charts with Heartbreak Hotel and the first Eurovision song contest took place. I had never met a Hungarian person but I knew I felt sorry for them. Little did I realise that many years later I would have Hungarian friends.

Chapter 3

Kisses Sweeter than Wine

U ntil the age of eleven, it would seem that the music in my life had been chiefly from songs aimed at the opposite sex. Most of the songs were sung by males. I was in the top class at junior school and I would soon be taking my eleven plus examination to see whether I would join the elite at the local grammar school. In the big wide world, The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1—the world’s first artificial satellite. I didn’t get too excited nor did I know Fortran had been introduced as the first high-level computer-programming language. Nine black students were barred from entering a formerly all-white school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Although President Eisenhower had to use troops to secure their entry I was blissfully unaware of colour prejudice. In this year of 1957 The Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community which is probably why I can live in Spain today—and Britain tested its first Hydrogen bomb.

Doris Day was showing a resignation to accept whatever life would have to offer her in ‘Que Sera Sera’. She even translated it for us as ‘Whatever will be will be and the future is not ours to see’. Anne Shelton, on the other hand, was far more domineering with her song ‘Lay Down Your Arms and Surrender To Me’. How was I to know that I would interview her niece who would have written a tribute book to her beloved auntie in 2007? You’ll find this page on my website www.vincetracy.com.

Johnny Ray was not too bothered with the weather. He was Just walking in the rain. Both Tommy Steele and Guy Mitchell were having a bad time as they never felt more like ‘Singing the Blues’. I still like singing this song. Love was such a big issue and Brylcream Boy, Tab Hunter, sang about Young Love.

For sheer power and emotion with a grin thrown in for good measure it was hard to beat the high kicking Frankie Vaughan who was not, strictly speaking, the first to put the Garden of Eden on the map. His song tied in a Biblical reference to the current mood of love which was certainly displayed time and again in the charts.

I first met the great Liverpool comedy impressionist, Paul Melba, when I was compering in the early 1970s at the Hamilton Club in Birkenhead. Paul became a valued member of my broadcasting team and a great personal friend. He does a terrific impression of Frankie Vaughan and speaks about him with great fondness as a man who was worthy of greater accolades for his work. He not only sang but acted in Hollywood. His work for the Boys Clubs in Liverpool is legendary and Paul is right. Frankie Vaughan deserved a greater recognition for what he achieved.

Diana, sung by Paul Anka, hit the top in this year and has always remained a firm favourite. This was the original toy boy song as Anka admitted in his song that the Diana in question was much older than he was.

Another popular lady in this year was Buddy Holly’s ‘Peggy Sue’. He hit number six on the UK chart and it was probably the first time that a pop star wearing Joe 90 specs had stuttered to the British charts. Buddy Holly also hit number three with the classic ‘Oh Boy’. The whole nation could quote "All my life I’ve been waiting tonight there’ll be no hesitatin’, oh boy, when I’m with you, oh boy’. Not content with his own success his backing band, The Crickets also had a number one with ‘That’ll be the day’. Buddy Holly influenced many fine artistes and none more so than Hank Marvin of the Shadows and The Hollies from Manchester. Meanwhile, Elvis was lurking with his own number one ‘All shook up’. To be fair to Elvis he knew all about the power of love and was prepared to ask for help and advice as he was, it seemed, ‘itchin’ like a bear’ and ‘all shook up’. At least, recognizing the symptoms is halfway towards a cure whereas his biggest rival at that time was a much smoother operator.

Pat Boone was the all-American guy while Elvis had called himself a punk. Pat Boone had two very smooth hits in this year. Firstly, he turned his talents to writing "Love Letters in the Sand and was rewarded with a number two hit. He followed this with a smoother song April Love "which hit number seven. Both he and Frankie Vaughan had a hit with "Kisses Sweeter than Wine." Next, take the simple drinking of a cup of tea and trace the delivery of tea back to its origins. No. It didn’t always come in little bags and chimpanzees only drank tea in adverts. Nowadays, we can laugh at the early Skiffle groups but it was really inventive to use the tea chest to produce the musical instrument as, indeed, the same can be said of the humble washboard. If you don’t believe me read about Lonnie Donegan. Thousands of would-be guitarists can trace their influences to Skiffle-and the main man was Lonnie Donegan.

‘Cumberland Gap’ and ‘Puttin’ on the style "both hit number one and helped the cheeky smile of Lonnie Donegan become a major memory for many Britons. There won’t be many older Brits who cannot give you an odd verse of a Lonnie Donegan hit. On my show in the Summer of 2007 we had been investigating the Merseybeat Phenomenon and it would seem that the influence of Lonnie Donegan at the Cavern was pretty heavy. He used to run Skiffle nights at the Cavern before the Beatles came on the scene as the Quarrymen. There are many pages and podcasts on my website to reflect this fact. Possibly as a result of this "The last train to San Fernando" placed Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys at number two in the same year—"If you miss this one you’ll never catch another one bee de bee dee bom bom to San