The Merseybeats / The Merseys: I Stand Accused - The Complete Merseybeats and Merseys Sixties Recordings

​Details Album

Tracks:

Disc One
The Merseybeats
1. It’s Love That Really Counts
2. The Fortune Teller
3. I Think Of You
4. Mister Moonlight
5. Long Tall Sally
6. I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry
7. Shame
8. You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover
9. Don’t Turn Around
10. Really Mystified
11. Milkman
12. Hello Young Lovers
13. He Will Break Your Heart
14. Funny Face
15. The Girl That I Marry
16. Fools Like Me
17. My Heart And I
18. Bring It On Home To Me
19. Lavender Blue
20. Jumping Jonah
21. The Things I Want To Hear (Pretty Words)
22. Wishin’ And Hopin’
23. Last Night (I Made A Little Girl Cry)
24. See Me Back
25. Don’t Let It Happen To Us
26. It Would Take A Long, Long Time
27. I Love You, Yes I Do
28. Good, Good Lovin’
29. Soldier Of Love
30. I Stand Accused
31. All My Life
32. Our Day Will Come
33. Nur Unsere Liebe Zahlt (It’s Love That Really Counts)
34. Nur De Allein (I Think Of You)
​
1-2 Single, Fontana Tf 412, Released August 1963
3-4 Single, Fontana Tf 431, Released December 1963
5-8 Ep, Fontana Te 17422, Released March 1964
9-10 Single, Fontana Tf 459, Released April 1964
11-20 From The Album The Merseybeats, Fontana Tl 5210, Released June 1964
21 Not Originally Released, Recorded 1964
22 Single, Fontana Tf 482, Released July 1964
23-24 Single, Fontana Tf 504, Released October 1964
25-26 Single, Fontana Tf 568, Released May 1965
27-28 Single, Fontana Tf 607, Released September 1965
29 Not Originally Released, Recorded Late 1965
30-31 Single, Fontana Tf 645, Released December 1965
32 From The Album This Is Merseybeat Vol. One, Oriole Ps 40047, Released July 1963
33-34 Single, German Fontana 269 310 Tf, Released June 1964

Disc Two
The Merseys And Beyond
1. Sorrow
2. Some Other Day
3. So Sad About Us
4. Love Will Continue
5. Rhythm Of Love
6. Is It Love?
7. The Cat
8. Change Of Heart
9. Penny In My Pocket
10. I Hope You’re Happy
11. Lovely Loretta
12. Dreaming
13. Honey Do
14. It Happens All The Time
15. Sorrow (Alternative Version)
16. Nothing Can Change This Love
17. Do Me A Favour
18. Just To Be With You
19. Sweet Day
20. Take Me For A Little While
21. Make Me Your Number One
22. Bumper To Bumper
23. Scrape My Boot
24. Cool It
25. Mark Of Her Head
26. Hello Memories
27. Pretend
28. So How Come (No-One Loves Me)
29. All I Have To Do Is Dream

1-2 Single, Fontana TF 694, released April 1966
3-4 Single, Fontana TF 732, released July 1966
5-6 Single, Fontana TF 776, released November 1966
7-8 Single, Fontana TF 845, released June 1967
9-10 Single, Fontana TF 916, released March 1968
11-12 Single, Fontana TF 955, released July 1968
13-14 Crackers single, Fontana TF 995, released January 1969
15 Not originally released first version, recorded early 1966
16 Not originally released, recorded 1966
17 The Kinsleys, not originally released, recorded 1964
18-19 Johnny Gustafson single, Polydor BM 56022, released August 1965
20-21 Johnny Gustafson single, Polydor BM 56043, released January 1966
22-23 Johnny & John single, Polydor BM 56087, released June 1966
24-25 The Quotations single, CBS 3716, released September 1968
26-27 The Quotations single, CBS 4376, released July 1969
28-29 The Merseybeats, not originally released home demos, recorded December 1962
​
WEBSITE ARTIEST :
The Merseybeats

The Merseybeats, later The Merseys, waren dikke vrienden met stads- en tijdgenoten The Beatles en dus mee verantwoordelijk voor de “merseybeat” die de wereld zou veroveren. The Merseybeats moesten zich wel met een bescheiden rol tevreden stellen. Op scène speelden ze ruige R&B (type ‘Fortune Teller’) en onvervalste rock’n’roll (type ‘Long Tall Sally’), maar voor hun singles kozen ze steevast ballades. Goed gezien, want ‘I Think Of You’ haalde in 1963 de Engelse top vijf, meteen hun beste notering. Wellicht kent u ook hun versie van ‘Wishin’ and Hopin’, goed voor de top twintig. Helaas, na enkele singles, een EP en een langspeler, was het liedje in 1966 uit. Stichters Bill Kingsley en  Tony Crane probeerden het dan als duo en noemden zich The Merseys. Het was meteen raak met de Top 10-hit ‘Sorrow’, later gecoverd door David Bowie. Hun volgende singles bleven trouw aan de merseybeatformule, maar die was verleden tijd en ook The Merseys hielden het in 1968 voor bekeken.
Op deze verzamelaar van Cherry Red staat alles wat beide groepen hebben uitgebracht, inbegrepen een singletje als Crackers, een huisdemo, een opname van The Kingsleys, en zo meer (zie “Details album”). Maar ook dit: Johnny Gustafson van The Big Three maakte een tijdje deel uit van The Merseybeats en hij is hier aanwezig als solo-artiest, in duo met Merseybeat-drummer John Banks en The Quotations. Dat werk, vaak van eigen makelij, klinkt veel moderner, hoewel niemand daar toen om gaf. Later zou Gustafson bij Quartermass en Roxy Music de bas hanteren.
Op deze compilatie vind je helaas niets van The Liverpool Express, een latere groep van Merseybeat-medestichter Bill Kingsley. Maar goed, tussen die dik zestig opnames zitten veel fraaie nummers die het herontdekken waard zijn.
Bij deze dubbele cd hoort ook een mooi geïllustreerd boekje met een nieuw geschreven verhaal over beide groepen, een kenmerk van de meeste Cherry Red uitgaven. Radio 68  speelt een selectie op zondagen 23 en 30 mei en dinsdagen 25 mei en 1 juni.

Eddy Bonte 

Liverpudlians The Merseybeats, later to develop into The Merseys, were good mates with The Beatles and regulars at The Cavern. Although their stage repertoire consisted of tough R&B (‘Fortune Teller’) and straight rock’n’roll (e.g. ‘Long Tall Sally’), ballads were chosen for their singles. It worked, as ‘I Think Of You’ hit the no. 5 spot and subsequent releases (e.g. ‘Wishin’ And Hopin’) also made the Top Twenty. In 1964 co-founder Bill Kingsley left and by 1965 commercial success had dried up. The next year, Merseybeats founders Bill Kingsley and Tony Crane formed the duo The Merseys, taking their first single straight to the Top 20: ‘Sorrow’, years later to be covered by Bowie.
Regretfully, The Merseys stuck to the Merseybeat format which had become obsolete. Even Pete Townshend’s ‘So Sad About Us’ couldn’t turn the tide. By 1968, it was all over but both groups left us an impressive collection of covers and self-penned tunes that are worth discovering. Rather re-discovering, as many a release sank without a trace.
Cherry Red brings together all their recordings, plus some long-forgotten and never before released oddities: a Merseys 45 released under the name Crackers, one track by The Kingsleys (Bill Kingsley’s band), a home demo, etc.  (see “Details Album”). The Liverpool Express (another band put together by Kingsley) is not featured here, but bass-player and song-writer Johnny Gustafson is – and prominently so. Gustafson was in The Big Three before replacing Kingsley in The Merseybeats and releasing records under his own name, as Johnny and John (viz. Merseybeats drummer John Banks) and with The Quotations. I must say that these tracks sound more modern and more original than much of the later stuff by The Merseys.
A nicely illustrated booklet with a new essay accompanies this Cherry Red release. Radio 68  plays choice tracks on Sundays 23 and 30 May, as well as on Tuesdays 25 May and 1 June.