The Sorrows 1965
by Pete Clemons
The recent loss of bass player, and founder member of Coventry band The Sorrows, Phil Packham, has had me delving into the bands fascinating past. Phil himself was incredibly proud of his achievements. And rightly so as The Sorrows hold the distinction of having had the first LP release by a Coventry band. The album, titled ‘Take a Heart’, contained the hit single of the same name along with earlier singles along with other original tunes and was released toward the end of 1965. Make no mistake, this was seen as a big deal at that time.
It had been a complete turnaround in fortunes for The Sorrows. Weeks before the album’s release it looked all over for the band due to legal rifts being dragged out. Their debut 45 ‘I Don’t Wanna be Free’ had been reported as lacking originality. It really was touch and go for the band. ‘We were fed up and began to doubt if we would ever make it’ said the bands lead singer Don Maughn (later Fardon) at the time.
But then, after the low key release of the single ‘Baby’, ‘Take a Heart’ was released. In the UK, advance sales of 15,000 copies made it a chart certainty. And so it happened as the record almost cracked the top 20.
The follow up to the ‘Take a Heart’ 45, ‘You’ve Got What I Want’, totaled 10,000 plus in advanced sales. This was sufficient for it to get a top 50 placing. The Sorrows were convinced that it would be more successful than ‘Take a Heart’ which was, later on in 1965, released in the U.S. and thirteen other countries.
During the week of the L.P. release lead singer, Don Maughan, gave a frank an honest interview about each track on the record, giving some surprising and forthright comments. As a point of interest, that same week the ‘Take a Heart’ LP was released the single of the same name reached number 2 in Japan and number 4 in Poland.
Here are some of the comments from Don’s interview:
Baby: Don said ‘I still like this one a lot. People say to me that Baby is better than Take a Heart. You see what the right plugs can do. Baby was equally ambitious but the plugs weren’t there and it failed to get off the ground’.
No No No No: Don said ‘Pip Whitcher our lead guitarist and I wrote this one. We've now got our own music publishing firm you know. It’s called PipDon’.
Take A Heart: Don groaned ‘Take it off, this bores me now. But don’t get me wrong. This has enabled us to put down the deposits on nice houses of our own. I'm bored of it now, but very grateful’.
She’s Got the Action: Don laughs ‘Miki Dallon, who wrote our hits, penned this one. But it’s known as a filler, just thrown in to fill the L.P. up. Honestly, it is really shocking. Sounds as if we made it up as we went along’.
How Love Used to Be: ‘This is an unusual quieter side to The Sorrows’ says Don. ‘It’s different to our usual belters. Restrained, even gentle. At first I had my doubts but now I feel very pleased with this. That odd guitar sound is Pip and Wes (Price) playing in very close combination. At first I wanted to have strings and things behind us on this but John Schroeder, our recording boss, said no’.
Teenage Letter: Strangely there were no comments against this.
Side two begins with I Don’t Wanna be Free – The Sorrows first disc: ‘This sounds dated now and lacks originality. Too like The Kinks’ says Don. At first I liked it but now I don’t blame people for not buying it’.
Don’t Sing Me No Sad Songs: ‘This is very unusual for The Sorrows, the most surprising track on the album. It is on the controversial Bob Dylan kick with folksy half sung, half spoken vocalising’.
Caralin: ‘This drum dominated track is the cover of an American hit by The Strangeloves. I am pleased with this one too. Nice recording quality on the drums. Without being big headed I think it is as good, if not better, than the American original’.
We Should Get Along Fine: ‘Pip and I wrote this. Okay at first, it drags now’.
Come With Me: ‘Another we wrote ourselves. That imitation of Donald Duck is by bass player Phil Packham. It is the best part of the track. It was the ‘B’ side of our first single and really sounds like a ‘B’ side too’.
Let Me In: ‘There is a row over this one’ says Don. ‘It is the best number on the L.P. but we all reckon John Schroeder has wrecked it by over recording. It sounds like a hundred guitars all playing at once. We were going to make this a single until we heard the recording quality. A great pity because the number itself is very strong’.
Don and Phil both left The Sorrows during 1966 and a whole new chapter began for the band that in itself was fruitful. Thanks for the memories guys.
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