Mal Ryder and the Spirits made three singles from 1963 to 1965; a fourth single came out in Mal Ryder’s name individually. The first two 45’s, “Cry Baby” b/w “Take Over”, and the Bobby Goldsboro song “See the Funny Little Clown” b/w “Slow Down” were both produced by Peter Sullivan, who was also Tom Jones’ producer in that time period. The song that Greg Shaw thought was the strongest of these songs, “Forget It” (from November 1964) is included on two CD’s that I have, English Freakbeat, Volume 1 and English Freakbeat, Volume 4. As far as I am concerned, this bouncy R&B song with gruff, throaty vocals stacks up well with all of the Primitives material that I have heard.
The 2003 CD on Castle called Maladjusted collects all or almost all of the songs by the Primitives plus some of Mal Ryder’s early recordings like “Forget It”. Besides the early singles on Pye Records mentioned already, there is an unreleased demo called “Oh Mary”, the entirety of the Italian album Blow Up, and a four-song EP that was released in France.
(May 2015)
