Just a Coincidence or did Duffy steal their
song
?
Liverpool,
23rd February
2009.During
the beat boom of the sixties many groups followed the Beatles
down to London from Liverpool to seek fame and fortune. Not
many succeeded, but there were exceptions.
The Cryin Shames were one such exception, they
were signed by the now legendary record producer Joe Meek who
saw the band as a great mix of musical and vocal
capability.
Meek
recorded a number of tracks with them
including a version of the then new Burt Bacharach
song 'Please
Stay'.
Unusually
for Burt whilst the tune was great the original lyrics were
somewhat iffy to say the least and the band set about changing
them to match the moment.
The song
charted in the UK and boys went on to the US and continued
playing to big audiences throughout 1966. The band broke up
amid some acrimony and bad management and the sixties came and
went.
Fast
forward to 2005, to
a small club in Nefyn, North Wales.
Tonight
George Robinson and his partner Kate are
topping the bill as the Cryin Shames Duo and
bringing the house down playing some of the great sixties
numbers including their hit 'Please
Stay'.
A
young up and coming singer who had watched the act all night
approached the band, and said 'Hi my name is
Duffy, I
really like your sound would you interested in forming a
backing band for my act?'. George and Katie had to say
no, as were they committed in other
directions.
Then
the coincidences began
Last
year [2008] the Biopic entitled Telstar
recounting Joe Meek's stormy life premiered in London to
rave reviews ((General release is now imminent).
The song
chosen as the film theme was the Cryin Shames' Please
Stay, but sung by Duffy, a carbon copy of the Cryin
Shames version complete with the bands own words.
George
had this to say:
"Duffy
has used our composition and tempo, and our words we rewrote
for the song. She has copied our arrangement note for note. She
has now also included the song on her Rock
Ferry album. Duffy credits the song's origin to the
genius of Joe Meek.
This is not so. The song was the creation of our band in 1966.
We did all the hard work for the song's arrangement. We
travelled down to London with the song completed, and Meek
simply recorded us playing it."
I doubt
whether Duffy recorded the song from memory
after watching us play it at her dad's club in Nefyn, more
likely she was asked to dothe song
because she is now very popular, and the film's producers
obviously felt it would add something extra to the film, but
what a coincidence it would have been, had I joined her backing
band, and recorded my own song with her. If the song is a hit
for her after the release of the film Telstar,
I wonder if she would ever remember meeting me and hearing me
sing the song at her dad's club".
Footnote:
The original surviving members of the Bumblies/Cryin
Shames have met each other again for the first time in
forty three years and will be performingat major
eventsin
Liverpool later this year.
Dave
(Original Bumblie), Charlie (Original Bumblie & Shames),
George (Original Bumblie & Shames)
The
'Shames are once again attracting a lot of interest on
Merseyside....
Thanks to Duffy.
Judge for
Yourself
Is
Duffy's version a rip off or her own
interpretation?