Kim Fowley always wanted to be where the action was, so he relocated for a period of time to London by late 1963. One of the first fruits of his sojourn there might have been a rollicking cover version by Bo and Peep of the Sonny James/Tab Hunter romantic ballad “Young Love” that was released on Decca Records in 1964 not long after Fowley arrived in the UK. The long-time Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham was on hand, and it is clear from the record that the studio was jammed with people. Rumored to be among those participating in the recording are Mick Jagger (and perhaps other Stones), Gene Pitney and Kim Fowley. The song is included on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP and the English Freakbeat, Volume 6 CD.
There is no question that Kim Fowley was there for the peculiar flip side of the Bo and Peep single, “The Rise of the Brighton Surf”, which is included as a CD bonus track on English Freakbeat, Volume 6. Andrew Loog Oldham and Kim Fowley are listed as the, uh, songwriters; and that is Fowley doing the vocalizing on a reworking of “The House of the Rising Sun” as a paean to the English coastal resort town of Brighton with lyrics that (as Greg Shaw says in the liner notes) appear to have been made up on the spot.
(January 2015/1)
