The First Class
Encyclopedia
The First Class was a British
pop music
studio
-based group
, put together by songwriter
and record producer
John Carter
.
John Carter and singers Tony Burrows
and Chas Mills as an outlet for material Carter wrote with his creative partner and wife, Gillian (Jill) Shakespeare. Carter was the veteran of the early 1960s beat music
, most notably Carter-Lewis and the Southerners
, a band Carter formed with fellow producer Ken Lewis. That band dissolved when Carter and Lewis began working extensively as studio singers, appearing on the hits
"It's Not Unusual
" (Tom Jones
), "I Can't Explain
" (The Who
), "Hi Ho Silver Lining
" (Jeff Beck
), "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
" (Sandie Shaw
), "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera
" (Keith West
) and "Out of Time" (Chris Farlowe
). Lewis and Carter formed a vocal harmony band, The Ivy League
, that enjoyed three top twenty hits in Britain in 1965: "Tossing and Turning", "That's Why I'm Crying", and "Funny How Love Can Be".
Carter left The Ivy League in 1966 to focus on his increasingly lucrative career as a songwriter, jingle writer and session singer and fellow studio singer Tony Burrows (from The Kestrels
) was brought in to replace Carter. Carter and Burrows soon worked together in a studio-only group called The Flower Pot Men, who scored a 1967 British hit "Let's Go To San Francisco". Over the next few years, Burrows worked extensively as a frontman for a succession of other studio-only groups. In 1970, Burrows sold eight million records under four different group names: Edison Lighthouse
("Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
"), White Plains
("My Baby Loves Lovin'"), the Brotherhood of Man
("United We Stand") and The Pipkins
("Gimme Dat Ding
"). During one memorable episode of the BBC TV show Top of the Pops
, Burrows appeared with three of those groups.
Carter and Shakespeare wrote the song "Beach Baby" in the summer of 1974 in their home in East Sheen
, South West London
, far from California
or, for that matter, any beach. Carter immediately enlisted the help of lead singer Tony Burrows and another session singer, Chas Mills, to record the song for Jonathan King
's UK Records
record label
under the name The First Class. The dense, complex production, layered vocals and wistful lyric evoked the 1960s west-coast production style of lead Beach Boy Brian Wilson
. In 1974
, at a moment when nostalgia for the 1960s was fashionable (and The Beach Boys sat atop the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with Endless Summer on 5 October 1974), the song became a hit in the UK
(where it peaked at #13), and in the U.S.
, where it peaked at #4.
The group recorded a follow-up single, "Bobby Dazzler" and material for their eponymous first album, The First Class. While there was some demand for live performances by the group, neither Carter or Burrows had the time for or interest in touring. So, a group including bassist Robin Shaw, lead singer Del John, guitarist Spencer James
(now lead singer with The Searchers
), keyboardist Clive Barrett and drummer Eddie Richards was assembled to perform a number of dates as The First Class. However, although that quintet is pictured and credited along with Carter, Burrows and Mills on the cover of the band's first album, none of the "live" quintet actually performed on "Beach Baby" or any of the album's other tracks.
"Bobby Dazzler" and later singles, "Dreams Are Ten a Penny", "Won't Somebody Help Me" and "Funny How Love Can Be" (a remake of Carter's 1965 Ivy League hit) failed to chart
. After releasing an unsuccessful second album, SST in 1976 (with a drawing of the then-new Concorde
supersonic transport airliner featured on the cover), Carter, Burrows and Mills saw no need to continue under the First Class moniker and the "group" effectively ceased to exist. However, "Beach Baby" continues to receive regular airplay on oldies radio, relegating The First Class to the status of one-hit wonder
.
Chas Mills subsequently retired from the music industry to run a restaurant in North London. Tony Burrows continued his session career although he never again had a hit single, leaving him a multiple "one-hit-wonder" and one of the most widely-heard unknown singers of his generation. John Carter remained active writing jingle
s and managing his back catalog. Carter later reflected on The First Class, "Making the First Class albums was a very happy and creative time. Who knows if we ever come up with another suitable song, maybe we will all get back together one day and record under that name again?"
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
-based group
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
, put together by songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
John Carter
John Carter (musician)
For the jazz clarinet player John Carter, see John Carter .John Carter is an English singer, songwriter and record producer.-Overview:...
.
Career
The First Class was the studio creation of the British singer-songwriterSinger-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
John Carter and singers Tony Burrows
Tony Burrows
Anthony "Tony" Burrows is a British session singer. He has been credited with singing lead on hit singles for more groups than any other recording artist, both on the UK Singles Chart and the U.S...
and Chas Mills as an outlet for material Carter wrote with his creative partner and wife, Gillian (Jill) Shakespeare. Carter was the veteran of the early 1960s beat music
Beat music
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll, doo wop, skiffle, R&B and soul...
, most notably Carter-Lewis and the Southerners
Carter-Lewis And The Southerners
Carter-Lewis and the Southerners were an early-1960s rock band formed by the Birmingham-born musicians Ken Lewis and John Carter .Carter and Lewis were initially songwriters...
, a band Carter formed with fellow producer Ken Lewis. That band dissolved when Carter and Lewis began working extensively as studio singers, appearing on the hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"It's Not Unusual
It's Not Unusual
"It's Not Unusual" is a song written by Les Reed and Gordon Mills, first recorded by a then-unknown Tom Jones after having first been offered to Sandie Shaw. Jones recorded what was intended to be a demo for Shaw, but when she heard it she was so impressed with Jones' delivery that she declined the...
" (Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
), "I Can't Explain
I Can't Explain
"I Can't Explain" is a song by the English rock band The Who, written by Pete Townshend, and produced by Shel Talmy. The song was issued as a single in December 1964 in the United States and on 15 January 1965 in the United Kingdom.-Background:...
" (The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
), "Hi Ho Silver Lining
Hi Ho Silver Lining
"Hi Ho Silver Lining" is a rock song, written by American songwriters Scott English and Larry Weiss and first released as a single in March 1967 by The Attack, followed a few days later by Jeff Beck. Because the Beck version charted first, the song is most often associated with him...
" (Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
), "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me
" Always Something There to Remind Me" is a song written in the 1960s by songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David.-First charting versions:...
" (Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw is an English pop singer, who was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. In 1967 she was the first UK act to win the Eurovision Song Contest...
), "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera
Grocer Jack (Excerpt from A Teenage Opera)
Excerpt from "A Teenage Opera" is a 1967 single by Keith West, produced by Mark Wirtz. It was a big hit in Europe, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. The single was part of a bigger "A Teenage Opera" project....
" (Keith West
Keith West
Keith Alan Hopkins, better known by his stage name, Keith West was the lead singer of Tomorrow, a 1960s psychedelic rock band. West composed most of the band's songs...
) and "Out of Time" (Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe is an English rock, blues and soul singer. He is best known for his hit single "Out of Time", which rose to #1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1966, and his association with Colosseum and the Thunderbirds.Outside his music career, Farlowe collects war memorabilia.-Career:Inspired by Lonnie...
). Lewis and Carter formed a vocal harmony band, The Ivy League
The Ivy League (band)
The Ivy League are an English vocal trio, created in 1964, who enjoyed two Top 10 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart in 1965. The group's sound was characterised by rich, three-part vocal harmonies.-Career:...
, that enjoyed three top twenty hits in Britain in 1965: "Tossing and Turning", "That's Why I'm Crying", and "Funny How Love Can Be".
Carter left The Ivy League in 1966 to focus on his increasingly lucrative career as a songwriter, jingle writer and session singer and fellow studio singer Tony Burrows (from The Kestrels
The Kestrels
The Kestrels were a vocal harmony quartet from Bristol, England, most notable as the group through which the songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway first met and started composing jointly...
) was brought in to replace Carter. Carter and Burrows soon worked together in a studio-only group called The Flower Pot Men, who scored a 1967 British hit "Let's Go To San Francisco". Over the next few years, Burrows worked extensively as a frontman for a succession of other studio-only groups. In 1970, Burrows sold eight million records under four different group names: Edison Lighthouse
Edison Lighthouse
Edison Lighthouse was a UK pop group, initially a studio-only assemblage that served as a vehicle for session vocalist Tony Burrows and songwriter/record producers Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason, are best known for their 1970 UK chart-topper and million-selling record, "Love Grows ".-Career:The...
("Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
"Love Grows " is a popular song by "one-hit wonder" Edison Lighthouse. The single hit the number one spot on the UK singles chart on the week ending on 31 January 1970, where it remained for a total of five weeks.- Song profile :...
"), White Plains
White Plains (band)
White Plains were a British pop music group, that existed from 1969 to 1976.-Career:White Plains evolved from the late 1960s pop/psychedelic band The Flower Pot Men, composed of Tony Burrows, Pete Nelson, and Robin Shaw together with Neil Landon . The band was primarily a studio project led by John...
("My Baby Loves Lovin'"), the Brotherhood of Man
Brotherhood of Man
Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s, most notably by winning the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with "Save Your Kisses for Me"....
("United We Stand") and The Pipkins
The Pipkins
The Pipkins were a short-lived novelty duo, best known for their hit single "Gimme Dat Ding" , which reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Charts and #9 on the U.S. charts in 1970...
("Gimme Dat Ding
Gimme Dat Ding (song)
"Gimme Dat Ding" is a 1970 popular song sung by "one-hit wonder" The Pipkins, written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. Released as a single, it is the title track of an album by The Pipkins on EMI Columbia, the song also appeared on a compilation of the same name, which The Pipkins shared with...
"). During one memorable episode of the BBC TV show Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, Burrows appeared with three of those groups.
Carter and Shakespeare wrote the song "Beach Baby" in the summer of 1974 in their home in East Sheen
East Sheen
East Sheen, also known as 'Sheen', is an affluent suburb of London, England in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It forms part of the London post town in the SW postcode area....
, South West London
South West (London sub region)
The South West is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of London Borough of , Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth. The sub region was established in 2008. The south west has a population of 1,600,000 and is the location...
, far from California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
or, for that matter, any beach. Carter immediately enlisted the help of lead singer Tony Burrows and another session singer, Chas Mills, to record the song for Jonathan King
Jonathan King
Jonathan King is an English singer, songwriter, impresario and record producer. He is also the author of three novels, Bible Two and The Booker Prize Winner , and Beware the Monkey Man , and an autobiography, 65 My Life So Far .King first came to prominence as an...
's UK Records
UK Records
UK Records was launched in 1972 by Jonathan King to distribute his own releases and some other artists. The abbreviation UK stands for "United King". The label was distributed at first by Decca Records and, after 1976, by PolyGram...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
under the name The First Class. The dense, complex production, layered vocals and wistful lyric evoked the 1960s west-coast production style of lead Beach Boy Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
. In 1974
1974 in music
-January–April:*January 3 – Bob Dylan and The Band kick off their 40-date concert tour at Chicago Stadium. It's Dylan's first time on the road since 1966.*January 17...
, at a moment when nostalgia for the 1960s was fashionable (and The Beach Boys sat atop the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with Endless Summer on 5 October 1974), the song became a hit in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(where it peaked at #13), and in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where it peaked at #4.
The group recorded a follow-up single, "Bobby Dazzler" and material for their eponymous first album, The First Class. While there was some demand for live performances by the group, neither Carter or Burrows had the time for or interest in touring. So, a group including bassist Robin Shaw, lead singer Del John, guitarist Spencer James
Spencer James
Spencer Frederick James is an English singer and musician. He has been the lead singer of veteran pop band The Searchers since 1986. James was also a member of the one-hit wonder band The First Class that scored a #4 hit with the song "Beach Baby".-Career:James grew up in Hayes, Middlesex...
(now lead singer with The Searchers
The Searchers (band)
The Searchers are an English beat group, who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Fourmost, The Merseybeats, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
), keyboardist Clive Barrett and drummer Eddie Richards was assembled to perform a number of dates as The First Class. However, although that quintet is pictured and credited along with Carter, Burrows and Mills on the cover of the band's first album, none of the "live" quintet actually performed on "Beach Baby" or any of the album's other tracks.
"Bobby Dazzler" and later singles, "Dreams Are Ten a Penny", "Won't Somebody Help Me" and "Funny How Love Can Be" (a remake of Carter's 1965 Ivy League hit) failed to chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. After releasing an unsuccessful second album, SST in 1976 (with a drawing of the then-new Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
supersonic transport airliner featured on the cover), Carter, Burrows and Mills saw no need to continue under the First Class moniker and the "group" effectively ceased to exist. However, "Beach Baby" continues to receive regular airplay on oldies radio, relegating The First Class to the status of one-hit wonder
One-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...
.
Chas Mills subsequently retired from the music industry to run a restaurant in North London. Tony Burrows continued his session career although he never again had a hit single, leaving him a multiple "one-hit-wonder" and one of the most widely-heard unknown singers of his generation. John Carter remained active writing jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s and managing his back catalog. Carter later reflected on The First Class, "Making the First Class albums was a very happy and creative time. Who knows if we ever come up with another suitable song, maybe we will all get back together one day and record under that name again?"
Album discography
- 1974 The First Class
- 1976 The First Class SST
- 1978 Going First Class (compilationCompilation albumA compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
) - 1996 The First Class (compilation on See For Miles Records)
- 2005 Summer Sound Sensations (compilation on RPM Records)
See also
- One-hit wonders in the UKOne-hit wonders in the UKThis is a list of artists who have achieved one #1 hit on the UK Singles Chart and no other entry whatsoever on the chart. The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles uses this definition of "one-hit wonder", which is a controversial term with various other proposed definitions.-Methodology:A hit is...
- One-hit wonders in the United StatesOne-hit wonders in the United StatesA one-hit wonder is a Top 40 phenomenon; the combination of artist and song that scores huge in the music industry with one single, but is unable to repeat the achievement...
- List of performers on Top of the Pops