The Easybeats – Live On Beat Club – Radio Bremen – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
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The Easybeats to end out the week. Somehow apropos this particular weekend, but Friday On My Mind was something of an anthem for just about everybody caught with raging hormones during the 60s.
The live performance comes by way of Beat Club from Radio Bremen in 1967. Sadly, only two songs – but it perfectly captures the raw energy this band exuded during their time together.
A lot of people (Americans) think The Easybeats were one-hit wonders. Oh no – far from it. Friday On My Mind was their 8th single and off their fourth album and they had several hits before then. However, Friday was their first International hit and was actually the first International hit from an Australian band (although the band members were from the UK, Scotland and The Netherlands and migrated as kids).
After arriving in London the band recorded a number of songs with Ted Albert at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, but these were deemed unsuitable by United Artists Records and Albert was removed as producer. The band was then teamed with freelance producer Shel Talmy, who had achieved great success with his production for the Who and the Kinks. United Artists also felt that the band’s song writing was too “unsophisticated” for the competitive UK market. The label had already released the Wright/Young composition “Come And See Her” as a single in the UK on 15 July and it had not sold well. Dutch-born Vanda, now having a stronger grasp of English, replaced Wright as Young’s song writing partner at this point.
After auditioning several titles for Talmy, “Friday On My Mind” caught the producer’s ear as the next single. The band recorded the song with Talmy at IBC Studios, London in September. “Friday On My Mind” was released in the UK on 14 October 1966. It reached #6 on the UK Charts making it the group’s first big international hit. The song charted in multiple countries: No. 1 in Australia, #13 in Canada, No. 16 in the US, and the Top 10 in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and sold over one million copies worldwide. It was awarded a gold disc.
Hit the play button and dive into 1966 for the next 8 or so minutes (sorry, short set).
