The Pretty Things - You'll Never Do It Baby

The same year that The Cops N' Robbers released their original composition, You'll Never Do It Baby, on the Flip-Side of a French only EP, The Pretty Things recorded the number for their second album. The number leads off side 2 of the Get The Picture LP. The Pretty Things modified the chorus structure and removed the piano and harmonica. The beat is slightly modified as well, making it less jazzy and more of a straight ahead, on the downbeat rock-n-roll number. Interestingly, The Pretty Things' drummer, Viv Prince, is not playing on this. A cat by the name of John Adler took over on this track as Viv was on his way out of the band at the time. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Cops N' Robbers - You'll Never Do It Baby

Back for a second day with The Cops N' Robbers out of the UK. As mentioned yesterday, The Cops N' Robbers, barely a blip on the scene in their heyday, are perhaps best known for composing and recording You'll Never Do It Baby, which was covered by other, more popular bands.

Here is the jazzy original in all it's funky glory. Composed by singer Brian Smith and band pianist Terry Fox, the number was only released on The Flip-Side of a French EP on Vogue Records in 1965. The composition is structurally different than other versions that followed. Specifically at the chorus (or is it a bridge?) . Where subsequent versions changed the chorus to a IV-I-IV-V structure, the original is a descending riff from the IV back to the I. Add in the fact that the dominant instrument is a piano, and you get all sorts of crispy, cool uniqueness here.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Cops N' Robbers - There's Got To Be A Reason

The Cops N' Robbers hailed from Watford, England where they kicked out only three records. Amazingly all three were also released in the US. The first on Parrot Records and the other two on Coral Records.

We focus today on the Flip-Side of their debut single. Released in November of 1964 in the UK on Decca and on Parrot in the states, There's Got To Be A Reason was the Flip-Side of the band's perfectly fine cover of the US folk/blues song, St. James Infirmary. The band, at the time of this recording was Terry Fox on keyboards, Henri Harrison on drums, Steve Smith on bass and Brian Smith on vocals. Brian Smith would soon depart the band to front a Pretty Things related band, The Fairies. The Fairies singer, Dane Stephens, would, in turn, sing for The Cops N' Robbers final single. To further complicate things, There's Got To Be A Reason was co-composed by some cat named Stephens. Dane?

The Cops N' Robbers barely made a blip in their home country and made not even a ripple here in the US. But they get credit for composing the song You'll Never Do It Baby. That song was only released on a French EP but was covered by Berlin band The Boots and UK band, The Pretty Things. More on that in a later post.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!