• 191

    Saturday 30 March 1963


    Panel: Jimmy Henney, Hattie Jacques, Eric Sykes, Margaret Whiting


    Producer: Neville Wortman


    Records played:
    Call Me B’wana – Bob Hope (United Artists) MISS
    The Boy I Used To Know – Jan Burnette (Oriole) MISS
    Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine – Frank Ifield (Columbia) HIT
    Keep On Dancing – Brian Poole & the Tremeloes (Decca) HIT
    It Looks Like They’re In Love – Cleo Laine (Fontana) HIT
    Manana Pasado Manana – Acker Bilk (Columbia) HIT
    My Love – Christine Campbell (Parlophone) MISS
    On Broadway – Drifters (London) HIT
    My Little Baby – Mike Berry (HMV) MISS


    Margaret Whiting had million seller with Billy Reid’s Tree In The Meadow

     

  • 204

    Saturday 29 June 1963, 6.35-7pm

    (Recorded 22 June, 8.30-9.15pm)


    Panel: Catherine Boyle, John Lennon, Caroline Maudling, Bruce Prochnik


    Producer: Neville Wortman


    Records played:
    Southend – Cleo Laine (Fontana) MISS
    B side was Watch Your Step
    So Much In Love – The Tymes (Cameo Parkway) MISS
    JL: “I thought it was Rolf Harris at first, and then I thought, It’s the Drifters.”
    Devil In Disguise – Elvis Presley (RCA) HIT
    JL’s harshest criticism
    John Lennon doesn’t like Elvis Presley – so what?
    NME, 26 July 1963
    The Click Song – Miriam Makeba & Harry Belafonte (London) MISS
    JL: “If it was in English, it’d mean even less. It’s intriguing because it’s foreign.”
    On Top Of Spaghetti – Tom Glazer (London) MISS
    JL: “I can’t stand these ‘all together now’ records. I prefer Little Eva’s Old Smokey Locomotion.”
    Flamenco – Russ Conway (Columbia) MISS
    JL: “I like pianos but not pub pianos playing flamenco music. Didn’t sound anything like flamenco.”
    First Quarrel – Paul & Paula (Philips) MISS
    JL: “I liked their first record because I liked the octave singing, her singing one above him. This second wasn’t worth bothering about. This had Jim in it. American records are always about Jim and Bobby and Alfred.”
    Don’t Ever Let Me Down – Julie Grant (Pye) MISS
    JL: “I thought ‘Ah, one of those with an intro, but the intro was enough.”


    Photo of smiling Bruce Prochnik in Radio Times, looking about 14. He had played the title role in Oliver! on Broadway
    Caroline Maudling was stepping in for Zsa Zsa Gabor
    Caroline was Reginald Maudling’s daughter and was in Frankie Vaughan film, It’s All Over Town.
    Katie Boyle was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest

    John Lennon did a Johnny Mathis, giving negative reviews of every disc. He voted all but one a Miss. Didn’t harm his career though.

    Producer Neville Wortman: “I had John Lennon on before the rest of the Beatles. A music publisher told me that John Lennon would be a marvellous guest so I rang him and he came in and had lunch with us at the Television Centre with his leather jacket and it was a marvellous lunch in which he spoke about everything. It was a cinch to have him. A lot of people came up from Liverpool and elsewhere for that show. The Shepherd’s Bush Empire was besieged. That is when I thought this is going to be something much bigger than I thought it was. John Lennon was a great panellist as he didn’t care what he said. He stood from the rest of the panel that day.”

    The Beatles were playing in Abergavenny that night but they didn’t have to take the stage until 10.30pm at the Town Hall Ballroom. John Lennon was flown by helicopter from London at a cost of £100 and touched down at the the Penypound football ground at 9.50pm. They played to 600 fans and then stayed overnight at the Angel Hotel.

     

  • 117

    Saturday 28 October 1961


    Panel: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bunny Lewis, June Marlow, Jimmy Young


    Producer: Johnnie Stewart


    Records played:
    You’re Only Young Once
    –Fabian (HMV)
    It Was A Lover And His Lass – Cleo Laine (Columbia)
    Bristol Stomp – Dovells (Columbia)
    Let True Love Begin – Nat ‘King’ Cole (Capitol)
    Midnight In Moscow – Kenny Ball (Pye)
    Tall Dark Stranger – Rose Brennan (Philips)
    Take Good Care Of My Baby – Bobby Vee (London)
    I Never Had A Chance – Ricky Valance (Columbia)


    Zsa Zsa Gabor billed as “special guest” – quite a change from Sam Costa
    Spin-A-Disc: Under The Moon Of Love, Let True Love Begin, True True Love (Frankie Avalon) – with Peter West

    Zsa Zsa Gabor insisted that all the men on the show should wear a dinner jacket, and David Jacobs said, off the top of his head, that dinner jackets were never worn before 6.45 at Buckingham Palace.