Review: Billy Fury - We Want Billy! (1963)
Tracks: 1) Sweet Little Sixteen; 2) Baby Come On; 3) That’s All Right; 4) Wedding Bells; 5) Sticks And Stones; 6) Unchain My Heart; 7) I’m Moving On; 8) Just Because; 9) Halfway To Paradise; 10) I’d Never Find Another You; 11) Once Upon A Dream; 12) Last Night Was Made For Love; 13) Like I’ve Never Been Gone; 14) When Will You Say I Love You.
REVIEW
Well, at least this was a semi-interesting project — allowing Billy one last chance to burn down whatever little of the «fury» was still left in the old barnyard. Perhaps the sound is too clean and tight to sound precisely like a real live album from the real early 1960s, but according to sources, it was indeed recorded live at Decca Studio No. 3, in front of a small (but still annoyingly loud) audience — hence, We Want Billy! may be counted as the second live album by a UK pop-rock act of any importance (the first one was, of course, Cliff Richard’s Cliff from several years back). Of course, both these efforts should be distinguished from «the first truly important live album by a UK pop-rock act», which may or may not have been Five Live Yardbirds a year later — produced in worse sound quality, but in an actual club environment with people coming to actually soak in and enjoy the music rather than just scream their heads off at their pretty idols.
The most interesting detail here is that Billy is being backed by the Tornados — who actually served as his touring band for much of 1962-1963, despite having made a name for themselves with ‘Telstar’ and other Joe Meek-produced whacky «sci-pop» instrumentals. If you have already heard any of them, you will quickly distinguish Roger LaVern’s trademark cosmic organ and Alan Caddy’s metal-ringing lead chords — both of which are quite refreshing to hear in the context of a long chain of well known classic rock’n’roll and R&B tunes; after which, approximately halfway through the album Billy switches gears and gives us a long medley of his «sweeter» hits.
Given the tight and limited confines of Decca’s studio, the screaming girls are nowhere near as overwhelming as if we were at Shea Stadium or Madison Square Garden, but it is not quite clear which is actually better — an evenly spread screaming background of tens of thousands, to which your ears eventually get accustomed, or singular howls and yelps of dozens that come and go completely at random. (The funniest moment is ʽWedding Bellsʼ, where all the major screaming fits are triggered by the chorus of "wedding bells are ringing in my ears..." — supposedly, were polygamy to be allowed, Billy could have walked right out of that studio prouder than a Turkish sultan).
Anyway, the rock’n’roll part is passable and sometimes even a little inventive. For instance, ʽThat’s All Right (Mama)ʼ starts out as slow country, spiced up with organ flourishes, then gradually accelerates, turning only about halfway into the classic Elvis version: a somewhat clichéd way, perhaps, for us today to symbolically appreciate the roots and sources of the rockabilly craze, but still a viable artistic move in 1963 when not yet an entire decade had passed since Elvis inaugurated that practice at Sun Studios. Meanwhile, ʽJust Becauseʼ subtly develops, with a key change, out of a short «clap your hands» R&B baby-jam (curious, but unnecessary — Billy can do a passable Elvis, but he is no single-handed match for the Isley Brothers). The two Ray Charles tributes (ʽSticks And Stonesʼ and ʽUnchain My Heartʼ) are duly charged with emotion and stuff and further prove that Billy Fury was the biggest promoter of Uncle Ray’s genius across the Atlantic; unfortunately, you’d have to have a throat (and an ego) the size of an Eric Burdon or a Joe Cocker to do Ray true justice — Billy, on the other hand, isn’ much of a soul singer.
The balladeering part, unfortunately, is quite skippable: the only reason to listen to these songs in the first place is a willingness to take them in as «pop confections» — the strings, the harmonies, the meticulously rehearsed notes and modulations. In this quasi-live context, though, even a really good song like ʽHalfway To Paradiseʼ becomes limp and unconvincing (and the idea of recreating the five-note string motif with pseudo-martial drumming does not work), not to mention all the lesser ones, whose titles all speak for themselves.
Still, in the overall context of Billy’s post-Sound Of Fury career, We Want Billy! is a relatively high point, and a much better swan song than the self-titled album — the arrival of the Beatles and those who followed in their footsteps pretty much put the man out of business, despite a few more minor chart entries in 1964-65, yet at least he faded away on a relatively respectable note, rather than continuing to pollute the artistic sphere with fluff. His later years were unstable and plagued with health problems, ultimately leading to an early death in 1983, yet surely that kind of obscurity was still preferable to what happened, say, to Elvis in his twilight years.
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