The Dave Clark Five (Dave Clark centre front)
The Dave Clark Five were a British rock and roll and pop band, formed in London in 1958 and active until 1970. They took their name from drummer, leader, producer and co-songwriter Dave Clark (b.1939). They achieved initial success with the UK no.1 single "Glad All Over" in January 1964, which also reached no.6 in the US in April of the same year. They followed in the steps of The Beatles in becoming the second group of the British Invasion to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show in the U.S. for two weeks in March 1964, shortly after the Liverpool band had appeared. The group had a string of hits on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the 1960s although their popularity, and sales, failed to match those of their Merseyside contemporaries, of which they were briefly considered as rivals.
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Links to Peel[]
Peel does not appear to have ever held the Dave Clark Five in any esteem, despite the fact that they were one of the more successful "British Invasion" groups during his time working for American radio stations in the 1960s. But he may have been wary of their clean-cut image, and their music didn't seem to develop in any original way, unlike that of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Who and others. By the time Peel had joined the BBC, the Dave Clark Five's US fame had faded and they were producing all-out Radio 1-friendly pop, far removed from his musical preferences in the late sixties.
After a guest appearance at a Radio One Club show where he interviewed 'one young lady' about her music tastes, and on discovering she had never heard of Captain Beefheart and that her favourite groups were "the Trems and The Dave Clark Five", Peel wrote in his International Times: Perfumed Garden Column in November 1968, ".. how many of you know anyone who would be prepared to admit that the Dave Clark group was their favourite group", although added, "I'm not criticising the girl or the group".[1]
One of the Dave Clark Five's UK singles hits, in 1970, was a version of Chet Powers' "Let's Get Together", a song which had been a hit for the Youngbloods in the US in 1969 and was regarded as a kind of hippy anthem, but Peel never played it, either in the original version or the DC5 cover - although on the 20th anniversary edition of Top Of The Pops, hosted by Peel and Jensen in 1984, he did introduce a clip of them performing it (see below) and described them as "masters of melody".
In 1978 Peel played two different cover versions of the group's biggest hit Glad All Over, and in 1988 a version of the lesser known track No Stopping from their US album Having a Wild Weekend (1965), which featured songs from the film of the same name.[2] (See Covered below)
Peel session and underground indie rock band Sex Clark Five undoubtedly took their name from Dave Clark's pop combo.
Sessions[]
- none
Other Shows Played[]
- Top of the Pops
- 05 May 1983 (TOTP) (1000th edition) - Bits and Pieces (clip from 19-02-1964)
- 05 January 1984 (TOTP) (20th anniversary edition) - Everybody Get Together (clip from 26-02-70)[3]
Covered[]
Listing taken from the Cover Versions page of this site. Please add more information if known.
Performing Artist | Song | First Known Play
- Hush: Glad All Over 06 January 1978
- Rezillos: Glad All Over 14 July 1978
- Link Protrudi And The Jaymen: No Stopping 04 April 1988