May 7, 2009

CRISPIAN ST PETERS - FOLLOW ME... (DECCA 1966) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 15 bonus




As a young man, St. Peters performed in several relatively unknown bands in England. In 1956, he gave his first live performance, as a member of The Hard Travellers. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was a member of The Country Gentlemen, Beat Formula Three, and Peter & The Wolves. In 1964, as a member of Peter & The Wolves, St. Peters made his first commercial recording.
St. Peters was signed to Decca Records in 1965. His first two singles on this record label, "No No No" and "At This Moment", proved unsuccessful on the charts. He made two television appearances in England in February of that year, featuring in the shows Scene At 6.30 and Ready Steady Go!
In 1966, St. Peters' career finally yielded a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart, with "You Were On My Mind", a song first recorded in 1964 by the Canadian folk duo, Ian & Sylvia, and a hit in the United States for We Five in 1965. St. Peters' single eventually hit #2 in the UK and was then released in the U.S. on the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records label. It did not chart in the U.S. at first, however his fourth release, "The Pied Piper", became forever known as his signature song. Under manager David Nicolson's tutelage the shy star was momentarily transformed into arrogance incarnate and astonished the conservative music press of the period by his suggestion that he had written 80 songs of better quality than those of The Beatles. Other stars were also waved aside as St. Peters announced that he was better than Elvis Presley: "I'm going to make Presley look like the Statue of Liberty . . . I am sexier than Dave Berry and more exciting than Tom Jones . . . and the Beatles are past it". Outraged readers denounced him in letters columns. However, St. Peters' comments were meant to be tongue-in-cheek as he explained in an interview by Douglas Antreassian entitled "Then and Now - Britain's Pied Piper Sets The Record Straight". St. Peters returned stronger than ever with "The Pied Piper", a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
"The Pied Piper" had been recorded in 1965 by its writers, Steve Duboff and Artie Kornfeld, as The Changin' Times, but it was St. Peters' version in 1966 that made it into a hit, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #5 in the UK. No subsequent release would ever match the success of "The Pied Piper", although its success helped boost "You Were On My Mind" into the U.S. Top 40. Thereafter St. Peters was remembered more for his idle boasts than his music.
In 1966, St. Peters released his first LP, Follow Me, which was followed by his first EP, Almost Persuaded, yet by 1970, he was dropped by Decca....[net]
Here

14 comments:

55+5 said...

Thank you Georgie,As soon as i heard "On My Mind" coming out of your player i was instantly send back in the time machine to a great place when my hormones were raging and the music was magical.

mdhjhw said...

Many thanx. Absolutely the best site with oldies. Fantastic!!!!!
The Peddlers got only old scratch lp, but now I'm in music heaven!! Thanx, thanx, thanx.....................................
Any chance for the second album by the Mindbenders "With Woman In Mind" ?????!!!!!!
take care
Andrzej

Anonymous said...

it is not very easy here in Italy find japanese prints. Maybe you can find the japanese cd version of Beatles, Rolling, Madonna and these kind of artists but surely you will never find "Fever Tree" or "Poppy Family" and so on.
Never been in Japan but I'm going there in october. And my favorite spot will be Shibuya in Tokyo (at least 30 record shops)
Thank you for posting also "not so very famous" artists.

Torlin

MisterManiac said...

Thank you for sharing this...not too familar with his work (aside from the hit single), so looking forward to hearing some more of his music.

As an aside, I have a request that might be approproate with your blog (not sure if I asked for this before, so sorry for the repetition if I'm just being forgetful):

Pink Fairies - "Chinese Cowboys"
Live CD from '87 tour released only in Japan.

Regardless, keep up the great work on this blog...always a treat to read your posts.

ge said...

this was one of the very first CD's i ever bought---having been around for & enjoyed 'Pied Piper' as a curious '60s radio hit [which many associated with the Manson slayings, Charlie as the evil Piper]
and now it is in storage with my 2400+ other CD's, far away

Gerard said...

Great upload.Thanks from Holland

GaragePunk66 said...

I can say I have never heard anything other than Pied Piper, so I am very curious to hear what else there is to this guy. Thank you for another great post.

GP66

EW said...

Thanks for this. Was wondering if you might have the recent Japanese issue of Merry Clayton's "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow"?

YankeeBoy said...

I just wanted to say 'thank you' for your time, effort and generosity. I love these Japanese pressings with all of the bonus tracks. More than once I have gone to Amazon in search of these gems. Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Georgie Hirezola said...

Thank you all for the wonderful comments......
"Pied Piper's" sound was a kind of a... "trademark" for those who happened to be teenagers in those days....
Something like the "I saw her again last night" of Mamas & the Papas, or We Five's "You were on my mind" I suppose!!
...................................
I'm always trying to fulfill your requests...
....if it's possible!
Georgie+++++

Anonymous said...

Amazing & incredible blog. Thank you so much for uploading all of those great musicians/bands [that with tages' Psychedelic, Psych Pop, Pop, etc] that including to my favourites.
But I found the link is already dead, so any chance to re-up? Could you please re-up it? (Please include Badongo.com on your Sharebee.com links). And many thanks for high-bitrate.

Anyway, sorry if my English is not good.
Greets from Yogyakarta.
Best regards,
Susanto.


PS: In fact, Indonesia is very difficult with all things that related to Rapidshare, so I hope you want to replace into another storage area network such as Badongo.com to your next files. Thanks for Previously.

Georgie Hirezola said...

The link is OK Susanto....
I guess the problem only appears in your country.....anyway I'll try to put an alternate link to some future posts...
you're the only one who has problems as far as I know!!!
George+++++++++++

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this album

Greetings from Belgium