Dave Clark Five - the beginning

 The Dave Clark Five were formed in Tottenham, North London, in 1958, originally as a backing group for vocalist Stan Saxon. Splitting from Saxon, they released three singles in 1962 – two on Piccadilly, one on Ember – without managing to trouble the charts.

Signing with Columbia in 1963, they released The Mulberry Bush, with no more success. Its cause wasn’t helped by the release of the same song on Decca by a Merseyside group, The Chucks, following their success with another rocked-up nursery rhyme, Loo-Be-Loo (that made No 22, which was very creditable as established star Frankie Vaughan also recorded the song – as Loop-De-Loop – and took it to No 5). Both versions of Mulberry Bush got airplay, but neither charted and, in fact, The Chucks never had another hit.

Unlike other bands, which stuck to the “three guitars plus drums” set-up, the Dave Clark Five also featured keyboards (main vocalist Mike Smith) and saxophone (Denis Payton, who also played second guitar and harmonica). In the beat-group boom, this certainly gave them a different sound.

Their breakthrough came with their second Columbia release, a cover of The Contours’ US hit, Do You Love Me?. Again, they had competition from Decca: Brian Poole And The Tremeloes, riding high after their No 4 hit, Twist And Shout. The Poole/Tremeloes version went all the way to No 1 – the DC5 (as they became known) achieved a respectable No 30. There were differences in the two covers: Poole retained the spoken intro of the original, while the DC5 started with a roll of drums (played by Clark) and went straight into the refrain. The feel was different, too – the Clark version was altogether tougher.

Flip of the Clark record was Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, which was credited to Clark and Ron Ryan as composers, though actually it was a re-write of Camptown Races, as a new dance craze (it didn’t catch on).

The band had got their all-important chart entry, and next time out they struck gold, with two originals. Glad All Over began with another drum-roll, followed by a burst on the sax, and it kept up the momentum, with the drums prominent in the chorus. It was strong and catchy, and it took the band to No 1 in January 1964 (it displaced The Beatles’ I Want To Hold Your Hand and held the top spot for two weeks before being toppled by The Searchers’ Needles And Pins).

The B-side, I Know You, was tough, with a pounding beat. The Dave Clark Five had definitely arrived, and would go on to have lots more success on both sides of the Atlantic.

Their self-titled EP, was another success, staying in the EP charts for nearly six months (it peaked at No 3) and even making the singles chart in at least one leading music paper. The track selection was a little unusual: it opened with the first hit, Do You Love Me?, and followed with I Know You, the flip of the follow-up. The tracks on Side Two were new: a cover of The Coasters’ Poison Ivy (tackled by several other British groups, including The Rolling Stones, The Hollies, Manfred Mann and The Paramounts, who took it to No 35) and an original number, No Time To Lose (the tune of which bore a strong resemblance to Twist And Shout). It was a good EP, and its popularity makes it fairly easy to find.