English Freakbeat, Volume 1 is a compilation album in the English Freakbeat series that has been issued in both LP and CD format. (More from Wikipedia)
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 relocation to Italy completely turned the fortunes of the Primitives around. Their appearances at the Piper Club turned them into stars, and they had huge record sales with their inventive Italian versions of English-language pop hits. Their first release in Italy was the major hit “Yeeeeeeh!” b/w “L’Ombra di Nessuno” (“The Shadow of None”), that is, the Rascals’ hit “I Ain’t Gonna Eat out My Heart Anymore” and the Four Tops song “Standing in the Shadow of Love”. “Yeeeeeeh!” is in the song listing on English Freakbeat, Volume 1 but is not actually on the CD.
In 1968, the Primitives released a very rare album in Italy called Blow Up; the famous film by Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni called Blow-Up had come out two years earlier. The album mostly features other Italian-language versions of American and British hit songs of the period. Their cover of the Strangeloves classic “Cara-Lin” from this album is included on the English Freakbeat, Volume 1 CD.
(May 2015)
