However there were some real gems in the top 20 at that time: Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey Birds and the Bees- Jewel Akens The Clapping Song - Shirley Ellis Tired Of Waiting For You - The Kinks Nowhere To Run - Martha and the Vandellas I Know A Place - Petula Clark.
Pretty decent song in my opinion. No way in the world it's a novelty (although Do the Freddie is a bit closer). However I could probably think of 52 better songs from 1965 that could have each spent a week at the top of the chart. Have we hit I'm Henry VIII yet? That's a novelty, and I'm Telling You Now blows it away. I otherwise prefer Herman's Hermits ...
Henry The VIII has to be the worst.Your right about FatD being better.I heard Henry.. a bit back on an oldies and said to myself.My God what were people thinking?Don't tell me it hit Number 1!
Looking at the Billboard top 20s for the two weeks, the first week is middle-of-the-road but the second has a few gems: Silhouettes The Last Time Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter I'll Never Find Another You Both charts have Tired of Waiting by the Kinks and Can't You Hear My Heartbeat by Herman's Hermits.
I liked Henry VIII for the very first time I heard it, but it got old really quickly and stayed that way. As I said, I otherwise enjoy Herman's Hermits.
Yup. Hacks. Garbage. I remember hearing - and being annoyed - by this caterwauling crap on oldies radio when I was a kid. Surprised this terd didn't plop out of some ***hole until '65, though - it sounds like The Beatles circa '63...
Wow - I've got to admit that I never knew I'm Telling You Now was so reviled. It's certainly not a great art record, but it's fairly innocuous fare and has been a staple of my playlists since I've made playlists. People seem outright offended that a pop record would emulate other successful pop records. Coming at "oldies" from the perspective of 1980s discovery, it never struck me as being more offensive or lightweight than standard fare of the time (The Birds and the Bees, This Diamond Ring, Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter, The Name Game, Catch Us If You Can, I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am, etc). It's not something I seek out, but it's not something that I skip when it comes up on shuffle, either. Gerry Marsden and Dave Clark, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
At least Dave Clark ROCKED. I don't see why he'd be thrown in with Gerry Marsden and Freddie Garrity.
I don't know that either I Like It Like That or Catch Us If You Can, DC5s contributions to 1965's Top 100, can really be classified as CapsLock "ROCKED." Note that I like - within reason - songs by all of the three (Freddy, Gerry, Dave) mentioned here. But I think this huge quality gap between singles of the three is largely imagined or based on things that happened before or after. As stand-alone songs, I'm Telling You Now, I Like It Like That and Ferry Cross The Mersey are of roughly equal quality.
I don't mind if the song isn't an annoying pile of crap. This is just dumb garbage - and already-dated garbage at that. Well, they can't all be winners . . . even in '65.
I don't agree. The DC 5 had their pop "side" - witness "Over & Over," "Because" or most of their album cuts. Those songs are on a par with Freddie & the Dreamers or Gerry & the Pacemakers. On the other hand, they had much better tracks like "Glad All Over," "Bits & Pieces," "Reelin' & Rockin'," "Anyway You Want It," and the two songs you mentioned that are right in that Nuggets/Pebbles garage-rock vein. That is how I've mainly viewed the DC 5. Those other two bands were just dripping sugar all the way. As for Freddie, I do have singles of "Do The Freddie" and "I'm Telling You Now," but I never dug them enough to buy an entire album. I never cared for Gerry & the Pacemakers at all.
One of our cats is named in honor of Freddie, and he enjoys hearing me sing "Do the Freddie" to him at times. Glad to see this lighthearted group made a splash, albeit a short one, in the USA.
YMMV of course, I've been enjoying both for more than 50 years. I find it easier to be critical of stuff that was foisted on people starting in the 70s than anything through about 1968.
I always have liked "I'm Telling You Now," and I'm really surprised at the negative reaction here. It's lighter than air and a little silly, sure, but so what?
BTW, based on the silly price being asked for this one @ Amazon, I'm happy to say that my own copy was purchased upon its initial release.
I think people view "I'm Telling You Now" as a "novelty record" because a) Freddie was a great big geek and b) the band's choreography was so goofy. Divorce the song from those visuals and it's simply a standard pop song - nothing "novelty" about it at all...
And I can assure you that The Freddie is loads of fun to dance! U R right, this is no novelty song, it's great British pop.
Oh this was all kinds of fun. If you were learning to play guitar about that time (a lot of people were), the song was easy to play. When I saw them on TV, I knew they weren't out to change the world, but have the same kind of fun the Coasters had. "Do The Freddie" was a scream. Everyone at school did it for a week, about the same length of time, the mashed potato.
As someone not alive at the time, I would argue the "Mashed Potato" had a much longer afterlife as a dance than did the "Freddie". I've heard of the "Mashed Potato" independent of a song, but I've only heard of the "Freddie" due to the one song...
