Post by erik on Nov 20, 2021 14:25:03 GMT -5
An AM Top 40 hit from the winter of 1969-70 by a British pop group named loosely after a late 18th century novel is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
EARLY IN THE MORNING (Vanity Fare; Page One; 1969)—Amidst the growth of FM rock radio, where whole albums, more than a few of which were extremely self-indulgent exercises in psychedelia, AM Top 40 radio was still extremely important to the pop music landscape on either side of the Atlantic. One such example of this on the British side of the Atlantic was Vanity Fair, a pop/rock group in the style of the mid-period Beatles formed, ironically, during the Beatles’ mid-period in 1966. Trevor Brice, Tony Goulden, Dick Allix, and Tony Jarrett came together to form the group in Rochester, Kent, England, with the name of the group after the famous early 19th century novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (who also wrote Barry Lyndon). In 1968, they signed to British impresario Larry Page’s Page One Records, and scored a minor UK hit with “I Live For The Sun”, recorded in 1965 by the Southern California-based surf-pop group The Sunrays. Their biggest trans-Atlantic success, however, would come in 1969. The first of the two big hits they would have was the minor key AM pop hit “Early In The Morning”. Written by Mike Leander and Eddie Seago, “Early In The Morning” was recorded by the group in April 1969, and released in England in June; it reached #8 on the British charts. Although its progress was somewhat slower on the other side of the Atlantic, the song eventually did make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 around Thanksgiving in 1969, staying there for fourteen weeks, and peaking at a highly respectable #12 for the week ending January 31, 1970; it would also reach #4 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening chart. Although they would only have one other big hit, “Hitchin’ A Ride”, it too would become a sizeable hit all its own, peaking at #5 in late June/early July 1970. Both “Early In The Morning” and “Hitchin’ A Ride” would remain AM Top 40 and FM oldies standards well into the 21st century.
EARLY IN THE MORNING (Vanity Fare; Page One; 1969)—Amidst the growth of FM rock radio, where whole albums, more than a few of which were extremely self-indulgent exercises in psychedelia, AM Top 40 radio was still extremely important to the pop music landscape on either side of the Atlantic. One such example of this on the British side of the Atlantic was Vanity Fair, a pop/rock group in the style of the mid-period Beatles formed, ironically, during the Beatles’ mid-period in 1966. Trevor Brice, Tony Goulden, Dick Allix, and Tony Jarrett came together to form the group in Rochester, Kent, England, with the name of the group after the famous early 19th century novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (who also wrote Barry Lyndon). In 1968, they signed to British impresario Larry Page’s Page One Records, and scored a minor UK hit with “I Live For The Sun”, recorded in 1965 by the Southern California-based surf-pop group The Sunrays. Their biggest trans-Atlantic success, however, would come in 1969. The first of the two big hits they would have was the minor key AM pop hit “Early In The Morning”. Written by Mike Leander and Eddie Seago, “Early In The Morning” was recorded by the group in April 1969, and released in England in June; it reached #8 on the British charts. Although its progress was somewhat slower on the other side of the Atlantic, the song eventually did make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 around Thanksgiving in 1969, staying there for fourteen weeks, and peaking at a highly respectable #12 for the week ending January 31, 1970; it would also reach #4 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary/Easy Listening chart. Although they would only have one other big hit, “Hitchin’ A Ride”, it too would become a sizeable hit all its own, peaking at #5 in late June/early July 1970. Both “Early In The Morning” and “Hitchin’ A Ride” would remain AM Top 40 and FM oldies standards well into the 21st century.