From 1964 we have here pioneering UK 'Mod' Rockers, Cliff Bennett And The Rebel Rousers. This group actually predated the Mod movement forming in the late 50's even predating The Beatles by a year or two. Cliff and his band started releasing records in 1961, working initially with the famed cult producer Joe Meek. Beatles Manager, Brian Epstein later became their manager as well. Cliff Bennett And The Rebel Rousers had the chance to open for The Beatles during their last European Tour in 1966. During that time, Paul McCartney let Cliff Bennett cover his song "Got To Get You Into My Life" which Cliff Bennett had some success with. This storming little number ("She Said Yeah") was released around the same time as The Rolling Stones equally 'satisfying' (see...A pun there...) version of the same song. Cliff and his band might have the upper hand on this version with some nice rollicking horns added to the mix. I've uploaded this version my Edsel Records reissue LP of the original record which seems to preserve the original Mono. A great little example typifying the 'first wave' of what became known as the British Invasion. Cliff and his band could have been bigger, he had the talent (a great white soul rocker), but image-wise, didn't seem to fit in with the younger, longhaired 'rebel' look of The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, etc. and that might have hurt them in the visual department but they were a classy lot. A look and sound like this today would be heralded as retro-genius. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Cliff Bennett. He recorded under his name and under different guises well into the mid-70's. A deeper look into his discography should reap many rewards and that is just what I plant to do this year.
I found this 45 at a local San Bernardino 'antique shop' run by a friendly old-timer. The guy has tons of 45's and I of course gladly looked through them. Wound up picking about a dozen records, some LP's included and this 45 was among them. I recognized the song as being performed by L.A. Rockabilly revivalist Pearl Harbor who does a storming version in her set (I've seen her 3 times in the past year). Now some info on Eileen Barton. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she began her career singing on radio at age 15 and had her own program "The Eileen Barton Show" in the 1940s. She is best known for the apostrophic hit tune, "If I Knew You Were Coming, I would've Baked A Cake" (1950). At 8 years old Eileen had her own daily radio program on WMCA in New York called Arnold's Dinner Club, where she would plug songs, singing five or six songs per show. She was also a radio actress on programs like NBC's Death Valley Days: Eileen signed with Coral Records, a subsidiary of Decca, in 1951. Her first Coral release was a cover of Johnny Ray's Okeh hit, "Cry" (Coral 60592). Despite Ray's popularity, Barton's version did remarkably well; "Cry" reached the Top 10 and remained on the charts for three months. During 1954 as the rock 'n roll juggernaut was gathering steam, Eileen Barton still managed to chart three times during the year. Her last charted effort was a good one with the song "Sway" (the flip side was "When Mama Calls") on #61185. The Coral release was a top 20 seller and spent six weeks on the charts. As the buying power of teenage America took over the recording industry, Eileen Barton's career as a pop music recording artist faded as did many others due to the massive changes in the trend of modern music. As a show business veteran since the age of three, she had a nice run during the first half of the decade of the fifties. "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked A Cake" is her signature song and her's alone, and for a time was a true icon of American popular music. Eileen Barton passed away peacefully in her West Hollywood, California home on June 27, 2006, succumbing to a recurring bout of ovarian cancer.
