The Searchers are an English beat group, which emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with the Beatles, the Hollies, the Fourmost, the Merseybeats, the Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry and the Pacemakers. The band’s hits include a remake of the Drifters’ 1961 hit, “Sweets for My Sweet”; remakes of Jackie DeShannon’s “Needles and Pins” and “When You Walk in the Room”; an original song written for them, “Sugar and Spice”; a cover of the Orlons’ “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”; and a cover of the Clovers’ “Love Potion No. 9”. They were the second group from Liverpool, after the Beatles, to have a hit in the United States when “Needles and Pins” charted during the first week of March 1964. (More from Wikipedia)
More than a few British rock groups adopted band names in tribute to Buddy Holly. The Beatles in part took their insect-oriented name from that of his band the Crickets. One Manchester band of the British Invasion period simply called themselves the Hollies. Yet another British Invasion band, the Searchers took their name from the John Wayne movie of that name, The Searchers, where the Duke often said, “That’ll be the day”; the catch phrase had been adopted by Buddy Holly as the name of one of his first hits, “That’ll Be the Day”.
The Searchers is another Liverpool band that had numerous hits in the U.K., though they were less successful in the U.S.; their biggest hit songs here were remakes of “Love Potion No. 9” and “Needles and Pins”. The Swinging Blue Jeans barely missed the U.S. Top 20 with their cover of “Hippy Hippy Shake”, which was also recorded by the Beatles. Others include the Cryin’ Shames (not to be confused with the Cryan’ Shames, an American band from the same time period), the Merseybeats, the Hideaways, the Koobas (also known as the Kubas), and one of the first all-female rock bands, the Liverbirds.
(July 2013)
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The band started out with the name the Rising Sons and gained renown in the clubs around their home town of Oxford for their strong R&B sound. After going by the surprising name of the Cornflakes for a time, they entered and won a local band competition in Northampton; the prize was a recording contract with Pye Records, home of Petula Clark, the Searchers, the Kinks, Status Quo, and other prime British artists, as well as past UARB the Soul Agents. The owners of the Plaza Theatre (where the contest was held) agreed to be their managers, and at that point, they changed their name to a more promising one, the Primitives.
(May 2015)
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