Europe and the aliases

I've recently become aware of several cases where anonymous hit cover versions, familiar to UK listeners, have been released in various countries on the Continent - but with fictitious names attached to them (or, at least, names of acts which are not really responsible for the recordings). These are quite interesting and worthy of documenting for their own sake (and watch this space for some international Top of the Pops aliases, at some point).

The first one to mention is from the Avenue label recordings. We are looking here at a series of EPs from Europe, probably Sweden. These are essentially straight issues of the Avenue records, but put out under the name Magnus Banck, who was a Swedish entertainer. The EPs were made in the UK for export, and the six of them are basically the Avenue EPs, AVE 68 to AVE 73 inclusive, with different labels and covers.

According to the backs of the EPs, the recording outfit is "The Hit Parade Orchestra and Singers", but of course we know them better as The Clive Allen Orchestra and Singers! Each EP is identical in format to its UK counterpart. Here, for example, is the Magnus Banck EP 6, along with AVE 73:

Another example of this kind of (mis) appropriation can be found with the mfp ...Hits... albums. These were produced by Bill Wellings, and apart from his mfp endeavours, he was also busy managing the group, John Smith and the New Sound in the mid-1960s. Come 1968 though, Smith left the act, but Wellings was not about to kill a cash cow, and proceeded to release further singles under the group name - which in fact contained cover versions! So far I have located two of relevance here:

"Birthday" would feature on the mfp album Hit Hits in 1969, but it is interesting that the label above is dated 1968. Was it recorded first, then pulled in to the LP as an afterthought? The other track pictured above, "Return of Django", would appear on mfp's Hits Again album.

As noted above, the various fictional names applied to Top of the Pops recordings will warrant a blog post of their own at some point, but while we're on the subject of European singles, we may as well look at a couple of Spanish 45s. In all cases, these are the standard Hallmark versions, with a range of group names applied:

Above: "Goo Goo Barabajagal" by Tommy Sterne and "Baby Make It Soon" by Mickey Trounce, both from Top of the Pops volume 6; "A Boy Named Sue" by Jack London and "Good Morning Starshine" by The Young Idea, both from Top of the Pops volume 7.

 Above: "Cotton Fields" / "Brontosaurus" by The Bird Watchers, and "Honey Come Back" / "I Don't Believe In 'If' Any More" by Hal Prince. All four tracks are from Top of the Pops volume 11.

Latest Avenue EP finds

Over the past few months, I've become increasingly interested in the 7-inch covers EPs which appeared (mostly) before the albums were in full swing (see here for my overview of these early releases).

The Avenue series is among the most interesting, not least because they were the first regular EP series to feature proper picture covers, some of which are uncannily like the familiar 1970s LP covers - a female model beside a list of song titles. Sounds simple, but in the day it was a design breakthrough for a record format which was still something of an experiment. Interestingly, they also used male cover models from time to time, as the standard template was being defined, something which is practically unknown on the LP releases.

And so to my three latest Avenue EPs... All three play a role of some sort in the development of the series itself, and there are some interesting points in the sleevenotes - clicking the images will enlarge them, so they can be read.


The disc below, AVE 39, was Avenue's first such release. The front cover is just a hodge-podge but it tells a little of the story on the back: 25 musicians assembled to record the EP at Wessex Sound Studios in North London, on 19 April, 1967. We also know that the Avenue series was created when the staff behind it became disillusioned with the perceived decline in standards on the Top Six EPs. Top Six appears to have ended with catalogue number 38 and here, Avenue start off with the catalogue number 39 - reinforcing the point by carrying on where Top Six left off! (To be pedantic, we should acknowledge a later Top Six EP numbered 41.)

AVE 39 - May 1967

This next one was given to me a while ago by blog regular Declan, a keen collector of Avenue and the associated Studio 33 label. Avenue had by now realised that a cover model looked the part on the front, and here they have gone for a male model, complete with flowers (well, it was 1967!) - so now you know where Morrissey got his ideas from. This was the first in a run of seven to be pressed on the Disc-A-Fran label, in an ill-fated commercial arrangement (see comments here).

D/AVE 43 - Sep 1967

The last one (for the moment, anyway), a 99p bargain from Ebay, features on the front the same photo as previously used on AVE 41 back in July 1967. It has a different coloured panel for the songs however, differentiating it at a glance - but one has to wonder why the photo was re-used. Surely photos of this nature can't have been so scarce? Maybe they just liked it! Once more the sleevenotes tell us a little about the chronology of the series, introducing for the first time, the Clive Allan Orchestra and Singers. This outfit would continue being credited until into 1969, when Alan Caddy was given top billing instead.

AVE 47 - Jan 1968

These are my latest three additions in this series - but I've still got plenty to go before I'm anywhere near completion. Expect another blog about Avenue EPs shortly - but from a completely different perspective!