THE FOUR PENNIES – "Juliet"

Yes, Lionel Morton was married at the time to Julia Foster, then riding high with Half a Sixpence.I think they were divorced by the time Ben Fogle came along.

Can you contact me a.s.a.p. as i have tried to get Sue”s adress for Mike iam his Nephew contact me @allyboi62@hotmail.co.uk

This and Don’t Throw Your Love Away make for two of the least remembered number ones of the mid-sixties. Never quite got Juliet, which – like Maggie May – proudly boasts a ‘B’ on its label (can’t remember the original A-side off the top of my head). It’s one of the hits – like Where Are You Now a year on – that makes me think THIS is what the sixties felt like for most people, and not All You Need Is Love. It gives the impression of having a work ethic. Julia Foster must have been impressed anyway, which impresses me.

If oldies radio is anything to go by, I would have thought that both songs were pretty well remembered.

I think of Jackie Trent’s offering as perhaps the most obscure.

I’m not trying to be controversial, just pointing out that, actually, my sister and I between us bought both this and DTYLA, so they weren’t obscure to me!

On The Rebound was a theme tune for something on Radio 1 in the late 60s. Was it Savile’s Travels? I’m sure somebody must know. Anyway, I didn’t think I remembered it when I first encountered it in Popular but when I obtained an mp3 to listen to it was very familiar in a brings-back-Sunday-afternoons kind of way. I’m pretty sure it came between Jimmy Savile and John Peel.

(Actually, now that I have had a look, everything currently waiting in the warren for the 70s I remember quite clearly. If I’d had to name the least memorable 70s single it might well be Float On which has already slipped out of Bunny’s paws.

Then again, “I Remember You” aside, one could argue that the Frank Ifield quattrain of number ones also counts, which I think is a pity…

The tendency seemed to be automatic number ones for big name acts but they haven’t gone on to become “classics” in the oldies radio sense of the term; I occasionally hear “Temptation” but that’s about it.

Again this highlights the randomness of time, popularity and circumstance which defines chart performance; plenty of Billy Fury’s hits remain fondly remembered and played but statistically his biggest hit (“Jezebel”) is probably the one least remembered these days.

Speaking of which, whatever did happen to the Wing and a Prayer Fife and Drum Corps?

Count me in as another one who remembers “On The Rebound” as a Radio One signature tune. This must have been early 1970s, as I didn’t own a radio until 1971. I’ve also got vague memories of it being used on one of the Savile shows, but no idea as to which.

(Incidentally, Savile’s Speakeasy was responsible for introducing me to the terms “gay” and “straight”, circa 1972. Quite bold for its time, really.)

As regards the Four Pennies, I’m one of the generation that had Lionel Morton as one of their regular Play School presenters. Sporting the longest hair of any of the male presenters, he struck me as being “the trendy one” – and I thought it was ever-so-ever-so cool that he was a former pop star to boot…

Or what about folk-rock godmother Toni Arthur, who was very much one of the “faces” on the London hippy scene (or so I was told by a fellow survivor)…

Lionel Morton used to pop up a lot on the Sooty and Sweep show. I think he was a mate of Matthew’s.

There was a childrens TV series called If You Were Me, which followed the fortunes of kids who went on exchanges. A kind of precursor to Wife Swap, if you will. It had a very catchy theme song with the same title sung by Lionel Morton.

Anybody else remember it? Or am I hallucinating in my old age?

Dimly…

“If You Were Me, (if you were me)
and if I were you (if I were you)….”

Re 16 Billy Fury’s highest chart position was with the ok Jealousy in 1961; Jezebel was a Marty Wilde hit from the following year, arguably his best, a raucous update of one of Frankie Laine’s best singles (1951, so pre-chart).

TOTPWatch: The Four Pennies performed Juliet on Top Of The Pops five times. None of the shows survive;

8 April 1964. Also in the studio that week were; Millie, Peter & Gordon and The Swinging Blue Jeans. Pete Murray was the host.

22 April 1964. Also in the studio that week were; Millie, Peter & Gordon, The Mojos and The Searchers. Jimmy Saville was the host.

6 May 1964. Also in the studio that week were; Billy Fury, Millie, The Fourmost and The Merseybeats. David Jacobs was the host.

13 May 1964. Also in the studio that week were; Cilla Black, Freddie & The Dreamers, Millie and The Fourmost.

27 May 1964. also in the studio that week were; Billy Fury, Freddie & The Dreamers and The Hollies. Alan Freeman was the host.

in work this week i met the original drummer of the four pennies , he used the stage name of ray davies until kinks ray davies made him use his own , nice man , northern acccent stands out in wales

As for “Juliet”: it belongs to the same sombre, close harmony folk-pop vein as the Seekers and, like them, sounds very antiquated these days yet retains a certain old-world appeal.

Considerably more interesting than “Juliet” is the Pennies’ take on Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (aka “Black Girl”) – a top 20 hit for them in the same year, and a fairly courageous effort given the song’s dark subject matter and the fact that they were decidedly not a blues band. It starts off similarly solemnly and in a rather awkward, staccato fashion, but develops into a pretty intense, full-blooded workout – these guys mean it, man! Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEDHl9L2BWY

A Blackburn number one!!! Only found that out five minutes ago.

I guess we’ll have to wait till 2010 for the next one from the town where I wasn’t born so much as I fell out, and nobody seemed to notice me.

Unless I criminally overlooked Blancmange, The Stiffs, The Burn, or :ahem: Selfish Cunt as in “My [frontman Martin Tomlinson’s] dad’s appalled by the name, he refuses to say it.” What a motley crew (for once, even by my low moral standards, no pun intended.)

Details of the BBC TV show “If You Were Me” here: http://cstonline.tv/if-you-were-me