Shel Naylor, (real name Rob Woodward), was a singer, songwriter, and musician from Coventry who released two singles on Decca Records in the UK. Both singles were produced by Shel Talmy: the debut, "How Deep Is The Ocean" in November 1963, and a second single, "One Fine Day", in March 1964.
Rob was discovered at the age of 17 while performing as Rob Woodward at the Orchid Ballroom in Coventry. He won a talent contest that earned him £50 and a recording contract with Decca Records. His now manager, Larry Page, gave him the professional name "Shel Naylor".
On tour Rob was described in programme notes as follows: Seventeen year old Shel Naylor comes from Coventry where he worked in the car industry. He taught himself to play four instruments, piano, clarinet, guitar and ukulele when he was very young and it was the late George Formby who gave him his first ukulele. Besides being a singer he writes many songs.
He is a
very keen athlete and has run the 440 yards in record time.
Contemporary art holds a great interest for him and he spends much of
his time visiting exhibitions.
Key details about Rob's
singles:
First Single: Released November 22, 1963
("How Deep Is The Ocean" / "La Bamba").
Second
Single: Released March 6, 1964 ("One Fine Day" / "It's
Gonna Happen Soon").
Both singles were produced by
the legendary Shel Talmy. The 1964 release "One Fine Day"
is historically significant as it was written by Dave Davies of The
Kinks and featured session musicians Jimmy Page on guitar and John
Paul Jones on bass.
Shel
Talmey remembers: 'I was reminded of this record recently,
as one of the favourites I had produced, so I thought I would bring
it to everyone's attention one more time.
Although by February 1964 I had gone fully independent, I was still producing discs on behalf of Decca Records. Some of the last sessions I did at the labels studio in West Hampstead in North London was with a group of artists from the Midlands town of Coventry. This included John Goodison, aka Johnny B Great and the schoolgirl vocal trio The Orchids, both of whom I recorded on several singles in 1963.
Another Coventry
artist that I produced for Decca was born Rob Woodward, but used the
professional name, Shel Naylor (and no I don't know if he stole my
first name or not!)
I did two singles with Shel and for
the second one, I decided to feature a song by the new group I had
just signed to Pye Records - The Kinks
Even though Ray
Davies was the leader of The Kinks and the groups chief songwriter,
the track we recorded, 'One Fine Day', was written by his younger
brother Dave.
The song was a rocker in The Kinks' early
style. For the session I used Bobby Graham on drums and Jimmy Page on
guitar, so the track came out with some of the flavour of the records
I would soon produce with the group.
The single came out
in March 1964 and like the early Kinks releases, didn't go anywhere'.
The singles were reviewed by music paper critics as follows:
How Deep is The Ocean/La Bamba (Decca F11776): New boy with a violent vocal style who veritably attacks the oldie. Sings the verse first with biggish backing then roars into the evergreen lyrics. Irving Berlin never, no not never, heard his song treated in this way. But it's in the correct idiom and could easily take off into a sizeable hit status. Good backing (Charles Blackwell). Flip has had a lot of different treatments, dating back to Ritchie Valens. Shel injects a lot of fire.
Another review mentioned:“How deep is the Ocean” has been dressed up to 1963 style with a Charles Blackwell arrangement, augmenting Shel Naylor’s forceful vocal delivery. Seventeen-year-old, six foot tall Shel hails from Coventry, where he works in that city’s motor
One Fine Day/Its Gonna Happen Soon (Decca F11856): Fast beat on this rock disc which moves along at a brisk danceable pace.
Shel Naylor was managed by the manager of Coventry's Orchid Ballroom, Larry Page, who later inserted himself into The Kinks operation and would soon start to claim credit for their success.
While in Coventry Larry would, of course, promote his protege at the ballroom.
A 1963 gig for Decca Records saw Shel performing at a twang night that included Johnny B. Great and The Goodmen, The Avengers, The Chimes and The Orchids.
During 1964 a Shel Naylor gig was advertised: the 18 years old Coventry recording artist and his new group, The Goodmen (who had previously backed Johnny Goodison), are to turn the clock back to the era of rock 'n' roll. He has teamed up with them and we hope that the Goodmen play their favourite type of music.
Rob Woodward did eventually found UK chart success in the early 1970s with the group Lieutenant Pigeon who had a big hit record with an instrumental called 'Mouldy Old Dough'.
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