Paramounts' Progress (1)
Extracted from NME
by Yan Friis
These excerpts from New Musical Express,
kindly selected for 'Beyond the Pale' by Yan Friis, cover all the
Paramounts' press during the first year of their recording
career, showing the lacklustre promotion that they received from
EMI and the ferocious chart competition they were up against.
Included in this page are several reviews of Paramounts' singles.
Additional research by Frans Steensma ([FS]). This is
part one of a two-part feature.
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NME,
December 6, 1963 No big reviews, but nice
mentions of The Swinging Blue Jeans' Hippy Hippy Shake
and The Merseybeats' I Think Of You.
NME Top 3
1 (-) I Want To Hold Your Hand, The Beatles
2 (1) She Loves You, The Beatles
3 (2) Don't Talk To Him, Cliff Richard
In the standard one-column EMI ad for new 45s (only
listing artist, title of song, record label and catalogue
number) we find The Paramounts' Poison Ivy on
Parlophone R5093 stuck between The Outlaws' Law And
Order and The Swinging Blue Jeans' Hippy Hippy
Shake.
The Paramounts' were mentioned in the advert by Galaxy
Entertainments: 'Solely Representing: THE PARAMOUNTS (R&B)
(Parlophone). [FS]
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NME, December 13, 1963
Main reviews on Elvis Presley's Kiss Me Quick
and Paul Anka's Did You Have A Happy Birthday.
NME Top 3:
1 (1) I Want To Hold Your Hand, The Beatles
2 (2) She Loves You, The Beatles
3 (4) Secret Love, Kathy Kirby
|
The weekly 'New from EMI'
ads placed sort of around the NME Top Thirty has
space for a nice little Paramounts / Poison Ivy-ad
with a photo. |
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NME,
December 27, 1963 Main reviews on The
Ronnettes' Baby I Love You and Brenda Lee's As
Usual.
NME Top 3:
1 (1) I Want To Hold Your Hand, The Beatles
2 (2) Glad All Over, Dave Clark Five
3 (7) Dominique, Singing Nun
On the singles review page there is a
very nice ad for The Paramounts
'POISON IVY, Parlophone Records R5093: a great
new recording from a new group, The Paramounts, see your
usual dealer now!'
Same photo as on December 13, but bigger and more
effective in this much larger ad.
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They are also reinstalled on that weekly EMI column on the
news pages, this time stuck between Mrs Mills (piano) with
Orchestra's We're Gonna Throw A Little Party (Y'All Come) and
Joe Powers' Midnight Mary.
But Derek Johnson did not give it a
mention, silly man.
And that was all the NME (or
rather EMI) did on that first single. It never charted there. I
guess that's why
NME, January 10, 1964 [FS]
On the last page a unique picture of the Paramounts ... with
Shirley Bassey
After her triumphant concert at London's Leicester Square
Odeon on Saturday, SHIRLEY BASSEY threw a midnight party. Many
celebrities were present, including Sir Joseph Lockwood, George
Martin (the
first time Gary met George?), Tommy Steele, Norman
Vaughan, Russ Conway, Matt Monro, Vic Lewis, Alan Klein and Alun
Owen (Beatles film writer). Shirley, seen above with the
PARAMOUNTS who provided the music, wished them luck with their
current 'Poison Ivy' release.
(See also The Pitt Report
by Ken Pitt (1985). Part Three, page 1:
Shirley Bassey asked me to find her a group to play at a party
she was giving on January 4 so I sent her The Paramounts, who had
been playing at the Shades Coffee Lounge, Southend-On-Sea. Two of
the boys went on to considerable success: Rob Trower as a seller
of albums and Gary Brooker as the singer on Procol Harum's Whiter
Shade Of Pale) [FS]
NME, February 21, 1964
Front page: Full page ad for Tony D And The Shakeouts' Is
It True (Piccadilly) 45.
A Derek Johnson feature called Group Sound Comes From All
Over Britain does mention The Paramounts - among hundreds of
others. Quote:
'... Parlophone's Paramounts, who recently revived Poison
Ivy, hail from Southend, which is also the home of Pye's
latest protégés, the Monotones ...'
Main reviews by Derek Johnson:
The Rolling Stones, Not Fade Away
The Crystals, I Wonder
NME Top 3:
1 (5) Anyone Who Had A Heart, Cilla Black
2 (1) Needles And Pins, The Searchers
3 (3) Diane, The Bachelors
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NME,
February 28, 1964 Front page: full page ad
for Cliff Richard & The Shadows British tour (March
28 - April 19).
NME Top 3:
1 (1) Anyone Who Had A Heart, Cilla Black
2 (3) Diane, The Bachelors
3 (7) Bits And Pieces, Dave Clark Five
In the EMI weekly one column ad on the news pages,
stuck between Tony Rivers And The Castaways' I Love
The Way You Walk and The Sapphires' Who Do You
Love we find The Paramounts' Little Bitty Pretty
One (Parlophone R5107).
And under the headline 'More single reviews by Derek
Johnson' the Paramounts finally get their review:
Paramounts
Sooner or later the Paramounts are going to register in
the charts, and it could well be with Little Bitty
Pretty One (Parlophone).
There's a tremendously pungent sound to this one, with
a walloping beat and background hand-clapping.
A shouting r-and-b vocal set to a solid twist beat
hallmarks the medium-paced A Certain Girl.
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On the back of the NME The Roy Tempest Organisation Ltd.
('Europe's largest band agency') has a half page ad name-checking
their clients. Under the headline 'Forthcoming Ballroom &
Concert Attractions' we find among others: Big Three, Carter-Lewis,
Georgie Fame, Fourmost, Four Pennies, Freddie & the Dreamers,
Eden Kane, The Kinks, John Leyton, The Merseybeats, The Mojos,
The Rolling Stones and ... The Paramounts.
| NME, March
6, 1964 NME Top 3:
1 (1) Anyone Who Had A Heart, Cilla Black
2 (3) Bits And Pieces, Dave Clark Five
3 (2) Diane, The Bachelors
Small ad on the NME Top 30 page for The
Paramounts' Little Bitty Pretty One with photo (from
the same session as the Poison Ivy-ad).
|
 This is part of the shot (on the roof) that was
shown in its entirety in the insert (top right left inner
page) in the Paramounts' compilation Whiter Shades Of
R&B (1983) [FS]
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NME, March 13, 1964
Quite big ad for Little Bitty Pretty One on page 3, but
no photo this time. 
Main reviews by Derek Johnson:
The Beatles, Can't Buy Me Love
The Bachelors, I Believe
NME Top 3:
1 (1) Anyone Who Had A Heart, Cilla Black
2 (2) Bits And Pieces, Dave Clark Five
3 (7) Little Children, Billy J. Kramer
Biggest news story: The Beatles being No 1, 2, 3 and 4 in
America.
NME, July 10, 1964
Main review by Derek Johnson:
Manfred Mann, Do Wah Diddy Diddy
NME Top 3:
1 (1) House Of The Rising Sun, The Animals
2 (7) It’s All Over Now, The Rolling Stones
3 (5) Hold Me, PJ Proby
The EMI one-column ad on the news pages:
The Paramounts’ I’m The One Who Loves You
(Parlophone R5155) stuck between Margo And The Marvettes’
Say You Will and Norman And The Invaders’ Stacey.
On the news pages, a piece on forthcoming Lucky Stars
Summer Spin shows on ABC-TV called
BEATLES 'LUCKY' WITH SEARCHERS
…The original bill for July 25 has been scrapped. The
line-up now consists of Freddie and the Dreamers, Kenny Lynch,
Sandie Shaw, Tony Scott, the Interns, Christine Holmes, the
Paramounts and Danny Adams and the Challengers, with Adam Faith
as compere…
And on the 'More Singles by Derek Johnson' page:
PARAMOUNTS
Curtis Mayfield’s compositions rely mainly on their
beaty insistence and soulful feel, and the Paramounts’ waxing
of his I’m The One Who Loves You (Parlophone) sure
has both qualities, though there’s not a very pronounced
melody. A pounding twister in the r-and-b style, it’s a solo-voice
showcase with background humming and occasional chanting. The
tempo speeds up even more for It Won’t Be Long.
Mediocre material, lacking the earthiness of the top side, but a
competent performance.
NME, July 17, 1964
Front page: full page ad for The Searchers' Some Day We're
Gonna Love Again 45 - and their It's The Searchers LP
- both on Pye.
Main reviews by Derek Johnson:
It's Only Make Believe, Billy Fury
The Crying Game, Dave Berry
She's Fallen In Love With The Monster Man, Screaming Lord
Sutch
NME Top 3:
1 (-) A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles
2 (2) It's All Over Now, The Rolling Stones
3 (1) House Of The Rising Sun, The Animals
New From EMI ads on the NME Top Thirty page:
The Paramounts, I'm The One Who Loves You, Parlophone R5155,
white letters on black, but no photo this time.
Same page also has ads for The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (with
photo), The Barron-Knights' Call Up The Groups (with photo)
- and the Decca ads on same page: The Rolling Stones' It's All
Over Now (with photo) and PJ Proby's Hold Me (with
photo).
Then, surprise surprise, quite big ad (the whole bottom of
page 11) for Paramounts / I'm The One Who Loves You with
cut-out photo of each member's head - all smiling.
(Placed just above this is a striking ad for Screaming Lord
Sutch' new 45 (with the tempting words 'Horror + R & B') -
the Lord pictured with exploding hairdo and screaming mouth.)
NME, July 31, 1964
Derek Johnson's main review: It's For You, Cilla Black
Ad for The Paramounts single on the NME Top Thirty page
NME Top 3:
1 (1) A Hard Day's Night, The Beatles
2 (2) It's All Over Now, The Rolling Stones
3 (7) Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Manfred Mann
And maybe I should mention that all the
main booking agents / companies have their weekly ads on the
second to last page of the NME. There has been one ad for
weeks now (and for weeks to follow) that states the following:
Galaxy Entertainments, 62 Oxford Street, W.1 are 'solely
representing' The Paramounts, The Outlaws, The Prestons, Gene
Vincent, The Druids, The Problems. (On October 23, 1964, The
Problems disappears from the ad, their place taken by the not-so-famous
The Blobs, as shown below. On November 27, 1964 the list is
extended with The Wayfarers.)
And the NME keeps ignoring The
Paramounts. They show much more interest in Brian Epstein's new
signing, The Rustiks. Whatever happened to The Rustiks?
NME, October 9, 1964
Front page: Full page ad for The Beatles' British autumn tour
- with guest stars Mary Wells, Tommy Quickly, Sounds
Incorporated, Michael Haslam, The Remo Four, The Rustiks and Bob
Bain.
Main reviews by Derek Johnson:
Is It Because, The Honeycombs
Sha La La, Manfred Mann
Any Way You Want It, Dave Clark Five
NME Top 3:
1 (2) Oh, Pretty Woman, Roy Orbison
2 (1) I'm Into Something Good, Herman's Hermits
3 (3) Where Did Our Love Go, The Supremes
And at last some Paramounts stuff. Derek Johnson reviewing
their new single:
Leiber-Stoller revival time
Formerly recorded by the Coasters, the PARAMOUNTS
inject a fiery, pungent shake beat into Bad
Blood (Parlophone). The recording manager is
to be congratulated for producing such a biting,
pithy, all-happening sound, right in keeping with
topical trends. The various vocal gimmicks are
ear-catching, but I doubt if the material is
sufficiently different. Maurice Williams,
composer of Stay, wrote Do I. The
tempo here is similar to the 'A' side, but the
beat is not quite so vigorous.
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NME,
October 16, 1964 Front page: Full page EMI
ad for the following 45's:
Sha La La, Manfred Mann
Dancing In The Street, Martha and the Vandellas
Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Major Lance
The Boy I Used To Know, Andee Silver
Main reviews by Derek Johnson:
Baby Love, The Supremes
All Day And All Of The Night, The Kinks
Losing You, Dusty Springfield
Leave Me Be, The Zombies
Don't Bring Me Down, The Pretty Things
NME Top 3:
1 (1) Oh, Pretty Woman, Roy Orbison
2 (12) Always Something There To Remind Me, Sandie
Shaw
3 (3) Where Did Our Love Go, The Supremes
On the news pages Paramounts are featured in the
standard EMI one column ad: The Paramounts, Bad Blood,
Parlophone R5187 stuck between Ron Grainer and his
Orchestra's The Girls That Boys Dream About, Jimmy
Shand and His Band's Hollyrood House (medley).
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By now it is obvious that
EMI has lost their faith in The Paramounts. Advertising is down
to a minimum.
What is more strange is the fact that
the NME never mention them on the news pages, not even in
those small snippets where they put an endless list of unknown
bands being on tour around in Britain.
Every week NME mentions at least
one hundred different names (like The Hummelflugs; remember them?)
on the two news pages. It is as if The Paramounts doesn't exist -
or never play live.
In the NME Poll winners for 1964
(published on December 11, 1964, The Paramounts only would have
needed 142 votes to catch the No. 15 spot in British Vocal Group-section.
They didn't.
So leaving 1964 (The Beatles' I Feel
Fine topping the charts) the future certainly looked grim for
The Paramounts.