#1 for weeks of December 22 and 29th, 1962 and January 5th, 1963.
The Tornadoes were the second British band to have a US #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Just like Acker Bilk who was the first with "Stranger On The Shore", The Tornadoes hit was another song which is atypical of what we think of when 1960's British pop music comes to mind. Actually, this song is atypical of anything else at the time and may as well have come from outer space!
The Tornadoes were a mainly instrumental group who also acted as backup for British singer Billy Fury. While most of the group's individual members names won't ring any bells to people, it is worth pointing out that drummer Clem Cattini was later a respected British session musician who was even briefly considered by fellow session man Jimmy Page to play drums in his new group which would later be known as Led Zeppelin.
Producer and songwriter Joe Meek was an established English record producer who worked with a number of artists over the years including many of the "Freakbeat" variety (The British equivalent of garage rock). Unfortunately by 1967, he wasn't in a good frame of mind anymore and took his own life in a murder-suicide. One could also give him the title of the British Phil Spector due to his tragic genius.
As mentioned, this song sounds like nothing that came before or after. In fact, that intro and outro sounds more like a psychedelic rock record recorded in the summer of 1967 as opposed to a song recorded in the summer of 1962! Due to this record being recorded around the same time as the Telstar satellite, they certainly captured the mood of launching into outer space.
The main body of this song consists of two main soloing instruments, one being a clavioline keyboard, which gives the songs its very space age theme. The other is the reverb-heavy electric guitar which is what made me go from appreciating this song to really loving it. While this song today certainly sounds like a product of the 1960's, it was so far ahead of its time that I could easily have seen it recorded as late as 1969 around the time of the moon landing.
The Tornadoes had a select few hits that managed to chart, although they would never again chart at #1. One important song of theirs to note is one of the last songs Joe Meek recorded for them in 1966 called "Do You Come Here Often?" Because of the song's dubbed-in dialogue section towards the end featuring two gentlemen engaged in a romantic conversation, the song is considered the first openly gay single. For that groundbreaking achievement, The Tornadoes certainly deserves recognition.
Final Verdict - A groundbreaking and way ahead of its time instrumental song. Just by these re-listens of it I have really grown an appreciation for the tune. It's never boring, it's nicely arranged, and I'm sure you'll enjoy multiple listens of it, like I did.
Coming Up Next - 1962 Reflection.
Until Next Time - I'm Dr. Rock, taking you to outer space.
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