Tales From The Cut-Out Bin: The Searchers "Love's Melodies" (Sire, 1981)
Welcome to a new feature I’m going to try out here on my Substack New Dimensions, where I focus on good (and sometimes great) albums that perhaps have been neglected over the years and are in need of some reappraisal from having spent too long lurking in the record browsers back in the day, and still now….hence Tales From The Cut-Out Bin!
I thought I’d kick things off with an album I’ve been listening to a lot lately, The Searchers album Love’s Melodies, released in 1981 on Sire Records (SRK 3523). My newfound interest in the album came about because I spent the past week putting together a tribute to Seymour Stein (and his brilliant Sire label) for my weekly radio show (Anything Goes, which airs Fridays at 4 PM on WESU 88.1 FM, shameless plug). Whilst putting the show together, I delved deep into the Sire catalog, which, considering the man who ran it, is not surprisingly chock-full of great (and in many cases) obscure releases.
For it’s first ten years, Sire eschewed signing many American artists, instead focusing on licensing and/or signing European and UK acts, in the hopes of introducing these new and/or obscure talents to listeners (and a fresh audience) on U.S. shores. For it’s first couple of years (Sire started in 1968), the label mostly struck out commercially, focusing more on underground (read: soon-to-be-cult) albums by such esoteric artists as the Deviants and Twink. Great, ahead of their time albums, but not exactly stirring up much in sales. Seymour likely licensed these on the cheap, since it wasn’t like any other Stateside label was going to take a chance on these records, which didn’t do much better upon their original release in England. (Out of all their foreign signings from this era, probably the label’s biggest hit was “Hocus Pocus” by Dutch jazz-rock group Focus, which became a Top 20 hit in the U.S. in 1973.)
It wouldn’t be until 1976, however, and the stirrings of new music in a downtown club called CBGB’s that really put Sire Records on the map. With his ear towards catchy sounds, and a love of original music, Seymour Stein quickly signed up such scene denizens as Talking Heads, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and of course, the Ramones. But also in keeping with his interest in what was happening overseas, Stein was in-tune with the new sounds in such ‘far-away’ lands as Australia, signing the Saints and Radio Birdman, and Ireland, signing the Undertones. (Speaking of Derry’s finest: as the story goes, Seymour was on his way to a showcase gig for the Searchers when he heard radio DJ supreme John Peel playing this song called Teenage Kicks….he quickly directed his driver to turn the car around and head to Derry to sign these kids….and the rest is history.)
One of Seymour Stein’s gifts-slash-talents was an encyclopedic knowledge of all things music. If it had to do with rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, jazz, soul, pop….you name it, Seymour probably knew the song, the artist and label it was originally released on. And perhaps it was in keeping with this mindset when he decided to see what the Searchers were up to. For those who don’t know their music history, the Searchers were formed in Liverpool way back in 1959, before Merseybeat was a gleam in anyone’s eye. Core members Mike Pender (lead vocals and lead guitar) and John McNally (rhythm guitar and backing vocals) specialized in rock ‘n’ roll covers of top hits of the day, reved-up the Merseybeat way. Once the Beatles hit American shores in early 1964, the Searchers quickly became big in the States, with their cover of Jackie DeShannon’s Needles and Pins peaking at #13 on Billboard Hot 100 in March of ‘64, making them and the Swingin’ Blue Jeans (with ‘Hippy Hippy Shake’) the first two fellow English groups to have hits on the Beatles tails (some more trivia for you today!)
Despite a strong push from their American label, Kapp Records, the group never really had much follow-up success here, remaining bigger in Britain (where they recorded for Pye). By the end of the sixties, the Searchers had faded from view even in their homeland, though they would continue to record new material up to the dawn of the new decade, none of which did much sales action, leaving the group to focus on the lucrative live cabaret circuit.
Fast forward to 1979: Punk came and went, and now skinny ties and new wave are all the rage. Not oblivious to the sea change in music, Pender and McNally, along with longtime bassist Frank Allen, kept plugging away at cabaret and club gigs, until Seymour Stein approached them with the offer of a new album. “When the Sire offer came up, it sounded like a project we needed to take quite seriously” Allen remembered “It was quite apparent that financial investment would be substantial, at least compared to what we were used to, and that for the very first time we would be spending a considerable amount of studio time under the guidance of a modern producer”*
Indeed this was the case (the producer in question being longtime studio veteran Pat Moran), and the resulting output was 1979’s self-titled Searchers. A good album, it introduced the group to a new audience, with covers of then current songs by Bob Dylan and Mickey Jupp. Suddenly, this sixties beat group sounded, well, current. In the midst of all these skinny tie power pop groups, the Searchers fit perfectly, especially when you consider just how many of those upstart groups were likely influenced by their sixties records (and those of their contemporaries). These Liverpool lads didn’t have to drastically change their sound either, just some light tweaks and a well-selected batch of tunes made it work.
Happy with the results, Sire asked the Searchers to go back in the studio the following year, with an ear for keeping the same formula. This time, producer Moran would be paired with U.S. producer (and Sire favorite) Ed Stasium, with an eye for pulling the sound towards an American-friendly touch. “I think that Seymour [Stein] felt that Ed [Stasium], having worked with the Ramones, would bring an extra energy to the recording, and indeed he did” Allan recalls.
While the sound might have been slightly tweaked, the general formula stayed the same: record great, catchy, hook-laden tunes. With songs coming in from all types of writers, the band had plenty to work with (and it shows). The brilliant title track, a re-working of the old Ducks Deluxe number, come across vibrant and catchy as can be, brimming with pop goodness and smart hooks (seriously, how was this not a hit?) Elsewhere the album features revamped version of Moon Martin’s Sick and Tired, John Fogerty’s Another Saturday Night and, perhaps most surprisingly, Big Star’s September Gurls. And unlike other groups who would perhaps cover a Big Star or Alex Chilton tune simply for hipster cred, the Searchers weren’t even familiar with the group! “September Gurls was on a demo, I think, and we loved it. It’s heritage meant nothing to us; it was simply a terrific song we felt we could do justice to” Allen recalls, and while I still prefer the original (you really can’t top perfection), the Searchers put in a damn great version, doing Chilton and co. proud, in my opinion.
Overall, Love’s Melody is a gem of an album, bridging a mix of power pop and driving, catchy rock, from a group that no one expected it from. I’ve got a certain type of fascination with fifties and sixties groups and singers who tried to go new wave and current in the 1980s - there’s loads of examples, and they tend to fall flat on their face, trying too hard. The Searchers were an exception, however, mostly because they didn’t have to change much - they always had an ear for good songs and were a tight band - this winning formula should have put Love’s Melody on the map Stateside, but it wasn’t to be (in England, the album was released with different artwork under the title Play For Today).
In any case, it found itself relegated to the cut-out bins, and the Searchers would soon be dropped from the Sire roster; after signing to the PRT label in 1983, and recording an album’s worth of (then) unreleased new material, their primary focus would be on the oldies circuit, which they’ve toured for the past several decades.
For those who dig power pop and new wave, pick up a copy of Love’s Melody the next time you see it for a couple of bucks (or look for it on iTunes), and you’ll be greeted with a collection of catchy, hook-laden tunes that will have you wondering why it wasn’t a smash hit back in 1981.
(all quotes in this piece are taken from the excellent liner notes of The Searchers’ Another Night: The Sire Recordings double-CD set, released by Omnivore in 2017.)
Great idea for a regular feature! I know (and used to own) their first Sire LP, but I’m completely unfamiliar with this one.