18/7/15 - Tommy Quickly - Tip Of My Tongue - 1963 / Tommy Quickly And The Remo Four - The Wild Side Of Life - 1964 / Hank Thompson - The Wild Side Of Life - 1952 / Kitty Wells - It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - 1952 / The Remo Four - Peter Gunn Theme - 1965

Song Of The Day

It’s fascinating to hear these early Lennon And McCartney compositions, whether Lennon or McCartney wrote it or whether they wrote it together, you can hear them in the other artists interpretations. Unfortunately Liverpool born Tommy Quickly didn’t benefit from having them write his first single or from having Brian Epstein as his manager. This and the next three singles failed to chart.

Late in 1964 he finally made the top 40 in the UK with The Wild Side Of Life going to No.33. After that with a follow up single that also failed to make an impression Quickly retired from the music biz and later suffered a breakdown.

The Wild Side Of life was written by Arlie Carter and William Warren and was a big hit for Hank Thompson in 1952. It also inspired Kitty Wells answer song that kept the same melody, It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, taking the blame away from women for their infidelities and pointing out that men are as likely to lead women astray as women to tempt them. It’s cynical tone was groundbreaking. Both songs were No.1 Country hits. (You probably know Status Quo’s version). Kitty Wells died in 2012 and the age of 92, Hank Thompson at the age of 82 in 2007.

Brian Epstein had signed Tommy Quickly without his band because he didn’t like them but he put them together with The Remo Four and like Billy J.Kramer’s band, The Dakotas they also made their own records. Here’s a clip of them in the mid-sixties featuring Colin Manley’s flamboyant guitar playing – Manley died in 1999.

The band also featured Roy Dyke on drums and Tony Ashton on keys, they went onto form Aston Gardener and Dyke with Kim Gardner from The Birds and The Creation. They had one Top 40 hit, Resurrection Shuffle in 1970.