175

Saturday 1 December 1962

(Recorded Nov 23)

Panel: Arthur Askey, Johnny Mathis, Janette Scott, Helen Shapiro

Producer: Neville Wortman

Records played:
Keep Your Hands Off My Baby – Little Eva (London) HIT
Go Away Little Girl – Ray Bennette (Decca) MISS
Me And My Shadow – Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr (Reprise) MISS
Jingle Bell Rock – Chubby Checker and Bobby Rydell (Cameo Parkway) MISS
Merry Christmas You Suckers – Paddy Roberts (Decca) MISS
He’s Got Love – Tommy Steele (Decca) HIT
Tell Me Again In The Morning – Anne Shelton (Philips) MISS
Tom Hark – Jimmy Powell (Decca) MISS

Askey paid 30g, Mathis the same.

Mathis highly critical of Tommy Steele disc in particular, resulting in a backlash.

Marty Wilde: “I liked watching JBJ more than being on it. You had to give opinions. Johnny Mathis gave opinions on some British artists and it did him a lot of harm. If you were a DJ you had to be careful too. If you were a singer, then the show was the kiss of death. If I had knocked the Beatles, it would have done for me, so I had to be more tactful. At the end of the day, people put their hearts and souls into making records and to hear them cut to shreds must have been terrible. I did knock a record, Wipe Out, by the Surfaris. I thought it was dreadful and I got such abusive letters that I knew I’d never do it again. Never tell the truth.”

Cracked Bob Hope: “For his next record, Tommy Steele is dedicating Come Outside to Johnny Mathis.”
NME, 4 January 1963

Producer Neville Wortman: “I didn’t think that Johnny Mathis was going to be controversial at all. He was doing a BBC show for Yvonne Littlewood and I thought that he would be understanding and polite about the records. We all called him the African Queen (laughs). He started to let go, particularly on Tommy Steele, much to the shock of everyone really, that an American should be criticising our singers in this way.”