Namesakes #64: Unit 4

During last week's post tracing the history of bands called The Sweet, we discovered that the band most famous for using that name started out calling themselves Unit 4. Ernie then suggested a post devoted to that particular namesake. Always up for a challenge, I began to wander the dusty corridors of discogs... with no idea of what was awaiting me.

UNIT 4 #1

In 1962, Brian Parker, David 'Buster' Meikle, singer Tommy Moeller (the brother of Whistling Jack Smith) and Peter Moules came together as Unit 4, apparently choosing the name because it represented the fourth and final segment of Pick of the Pops, the bit that featured the Top 10. Soon after, they were joined by Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit, meaning that there were now six of them. Unit 6? Too obvious! Let's call ourselves Unit 4 + 2 to point out we've got a couple of Johnny Come Latelys on board who were never part of the original ensemble and probably won't make anything of themselves.

Russ Ballard would go on to become the lead singer of Argent. He also wrote New York Groove by Hello, So You Win Again by Hot Chocolate, You Can Do Magic by America, No More The Fool by Elkie Brooks and Since You've Been Gone by Rainbow. 

Bob Henrit was also a founding member of Argent, and later replaced Mick Avory in The Kinks. Keith Moon named Henrit as one of his favourite drummers. 

I'm only telling you all this to save Ernie the job.

I tried to find something Unit 4 recorded as a foursome, but couldn't. Which means I'm going to have to go with their huge 1965 Number One. It doesn't seem fair on the other contenders this week to put them up against one of the best pop songs of the 60s. But that's the way the cookie crumbles. Cue cowbell...

UNIT 4 #2

Also in 1962, another band took the name Unit 4. Their original line-up was Chris Wright, Jan Frewer, Jim Searle and Alfred Fripp, none of whom would go on to join The Sweet or Deep Purple. Realising someone else had nabbed their name first, they then switched to calling themselves Wainwright's Gentlemen, after which Mick Tucker and Ian Gillan would join, preparing the way for both The Sweet and Deep Purple. No audio exists from their Unit 4 days, so here's one of the few surviving recordings of Wainwright's Gentlemen...

   

UNIT FOUR #3

A reggae instrumental from 1976, this was the b-side of Discipline by The Prophets. It's the same tune, just without The Prophets singing over the top.

UNIT FOUR #4

Another instrumental, this one categorised as "Jazz, Funk / Soul, Folk, World, & Country, Stage & Screen" by discogs, but it sounds more like an ELO b-side to me. The opening track of an album called Danciing Grass, released in 1980. I couldn't find any of the other tracks, but I didn't look very hard.

UNIT 4 #5

Lut Van Den Bulck, Myriam Dockx, Marleen Robeyns and Karin Cornelis became the Belgian Unit 4 in 1980. Discogs tells me they only recorded 4 songs (I'm guessing one a year as they packed it in by 1983), but I was lucky enough to find one of them on the web of lies. Not bad for what it is.

UNIT4 #6

Japanese ensemble from the late 90s. This is a lot more listenable than I expected a song called "Go Pumpin'" to be. (I presume it's about filling your car up with petrol.)

UNIT 4 #7

I might not have included this, except that Ernie recommended it last week.

Mother always told me, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. ("Leave saying the bad things to George," she said.) Actually, she didn't. My mum loves having a good whinge. Still. This is 8 1/2 minutes long, so George - you don't have to listen to the whole thing! I managed about 15 seconds in total, in small bursts, skipping forward to see if anything interesting might happen. (It didn't.)

UNIT 4 #8

How about we close with some Israeli jazz? Any takers?

I have no idea why so many bands have chosen this particular moniker (and there were a couple more lost to the sands of time), but I hope at least one of them has brightened your morning...

Namesakes #63: The Sweet

My dentist always tells me not to have too many Sweets. Don't tell my dentist about this week's Namesakes!

THE SWEET #1

We'll start with a 1967 soul stomper featuring US garage rock guitarist Bobby Howard. 

THE SWEET #2

Discogs tells me this is not The Sweet you might think it is... instead, it's an "unspecified and unknown rock group, performer of tracks “The First Cut Is The Deepest” and “Summer In The City” falsely attributed to the 1970s glam rock group The Sweet on various compilations."

THE SWEET #3

And now for The Sweet we've all tasted from time to time (our old pal John Medd is addicted). Lots of Namesakes to this one. The band who would eventually become started out calling themselves Unit 4... until they became aware of another band with that name, changing instead to Wainwright's Gentlemen. It was at this point that they were joined by the late Brian Connolly (not to be confused, though I'm sure it has happened, with the comedian Brian Conley). They then changed their name to The Sweetshop... only to discover that someone else was also using that name, so they shortened it to The Sweet. After which they became the only band to use that name... 

SWEET #4

...although it didn't stop New York DJ and producer Richie Santana from dropping the definite article and using the alias Sweet for some bootleg mixes like this one in the late 90s.

Which Sweet could you suck on all day... and which one do you spit out immediately?

Neverending Top Ten #3.9: Saturday Morning Football

Saturday morning football was allowed to re-open this week, and the snow came with it. It was freezing up at the pitch, but a pretty spectacular view, nevertheless.

In the three months since he was last allowed to play, Sam seems to have somehow developed new skills. He scored three goals on Saturday... that's three more than I ever scored in my whole life. What I like about this particular group of young footballers is that there's none of the aggressive dads on the side-lines shouting, "come on, my son!" and treating their off-spring like the next Beckham. Maybe that'll change when he joins the league proper next year, but it's all pretty relaxed at the moment.

Here's a song Sam's been quite taken with when I included it on a car compilation recently. Probably one the Cancel Culture mob would massacre if they got their hands on it, cultural appropriation and all that. Sigh. I feel old just typing that...

Hot 100 #16

I've got your picture for next week sorted, said Charity Chic. I have an album by a band called 16 Horsepower.

And you know what? I thought I did too. But it appears to have disappeared from my music library. Anyway, thank you for the reminder.

The biggest problem about the Number 16 on our countdown was summed up by Lynchie that many suggestions might be "a bit dodgy - older men singing about mid-teen girls."

In more cynical / enlightened / post-Glitter & Saville times, we may now find these songs creepy... but part of me thinks they were never actually meant that way. Oh for a return to innocence...

Chuck Berry - Sweet Little Sixteen

B.B. King - Sweet Sixteen

Well, maybe that one's a bit creepy. But this one, from Brian, is pure as the driven snow...

Johnny Burnette - You're Sixteen

Of course, Ringo managed to made it very creepy...

Ringo Starr - You're Sixteen

I think this is the case with a lot of these songs, actually. There's the sweet, innocent version...

Neil Sedaka - Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen

(Rigid Digit adds "One from the man who started Madchester by recording at Strawberry Studios.")

And the Call Operation Yew Tree version...

Neil Diamond -  Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen

On the other hand, we get the male version...

Craig Douglas - Only Sixteen

And the female version...

The Supremes - Only Sixteen

Is one sweeter than the other? You decide.

Brian threw this one in the ring...

For the third week in a row, let's give Stray Cats a shot with Sixteen Candles. It was used during the closing credits of the movie.

Stray Cats - Sixteen Candles

Now I didn't have that one in my own collection. I did have the original though...

The Crests - Sixteen Candles 

As well as this, which is the same in name alone...

Danielle Dax - 16 Candles

And while we're on the subject...

Fall Out Boy - A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More "Touch Me" 

Then there are the age 16 that don't even try to be innocent. The Swede was the first to suggest this...

Iggy Pop - Sixteen

And Rigid Digit was quick to add this one...

Kiss - Christine Sixteen

Here's someone else you wouldn't let your 16 year old anywhere near...

Billy Idol - Sweet Sixteen

Of course, some 16 year old girls can be shameless. Take this Rodgers and Hammerstein classic suggested by Rigid Digit...

Sixteen Going On Seventeen from The Sound of Music

For your information though, Charmain Carr was 23 when that was filmed. Which takes us back to a point I raised last week. (Go look it up yourself, it takes me long enough to write all this stuff down once without going back and reading it again.)

And if you think that was scary, try this...

Soft Cell - I Am Sixteen Going On Seventeen

More shameless sixteen year olds can be be found here...

The Heavy - Sixteen

At least Travis understand the dangers of getting involved with young girls...

Travis - U16 Girls

I met a girl in L.A

The million dollar kind

She was all for all or nothing

She was open all the time

But when I called her number

Her mother's on the line sayin'

You've no business

As god's my witness

With a child as young as mine

So make sure that she's old enough

Before you blow your mind

She may look like she knows enough

But look in her eye

And if so

Let her go

You'll let her down in style

Looking back on being 16 is something that gets harder as the years go by. There are a few songs written from that perspective, and C was the first to offer this very popular suggestion, saying, So good, in so many ways, and no dodgy lyrics about young girls! First heard when I was still 14 and sixteen sounded old...

The Buzzcocks - Sixteen Again

An' I wish, I was sixteen again

Then things would be such fun

All the things I'd do would be the same

But they're much more fun

Than when you're twenty wo' wo' wo' wo' wo' one

C then recalled another one on similar lines: Ooh and let us not forget... 

The Sweet - The Six Teens

And then there was this chuck of wish-fulfilment from Rigid Digit...

The Dictators - Sixteen Forever

Which led me to recall this...

The Casket Girls - Sixteen Forever

And this...

Green Day - 16

Every time I look in my past

I always wish I was there

I wish my youth would forever last

Why are all these times so unfair?

The Swede also nominated this one. Brian added: It was No. 15 on my Festive 50 for 2019, and indie couple Amelia and Rob deserve a moment on top of the heap.

A new band to me, but one that immediately went on the Check Out pile...

The Catenary Wires - Sixteen Again  

The Swede also offered this from an old favourite of his...

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Sixteen Years

I'll throw in this lovely "remember being 16" song from my favourite album of the 21st Century...

The Indelicates - Sixteen

Let's go to town and switch the magazines

Drink milkshakes until we're sick

Oh oh, it'll be so funny

Oh oh, it'll be so funny

If we don't do it now then someone else will

Oh oh, it'll be so funny

Oh oh, it's the power not the money

This scene is the scene to be seen in

Not that the scene is what we'd be seen with

We just wanna be 16 (16) 16 (16)

Even though we're 23

And then this...

Calexico and Iron & Wine - Sixteen, Maybe Less

And then there's this one from The Big O (via Rigid Digit) which offers some timely "enjoy it while it lasts" advice to 16 year olds everywhere....

Roy Orbison - You'll Never Be Sixteen Again

It's worth pointing out that 16 can be a terrible time in your life. Luckily Swiss Adam brought up this, a strong contender from my own shortlist...

The Replacements - Sixteen Blue

Brag about things you don't understand

A girl and a woman, a boy and a man

Everything is sexually vague

Now you're wondering to yourself

That you might be gay

Your age is the hardest age

Everything drags and drags

You're looking funny

You ain't laughing, are you?

And on the same subject...

Andrea Carroll - It Hurts To Be 16

Janie Black - Lonely Sixteen

The Ronettes - What's So Sweet About Sweet Sixteen?

Hello Saferide  - X Telling Me About The Loss Of Something Dear, At Age 16

And last but not least in this category... surely the saddest song about a 16 year old ever?

Townes Van Zandt - Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls

Putting aside age-related songs then, what else did you have for me?

Lynchie returned to a fine offering from a few weeks back...

Tom Waits - 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six

The Swede offered...

Green on Red - Sixteen Ways 

Anomoanon - Sixteen Ways 

Johnny Osbourne - Lend Me the Sixteen

Brian added...

Josef K - 16 Years

The Decemberists - 16 Military Wives

The Brilliant Corners - Sixteen Years

Jim in Dubai came up with a couple of lesser-known belters...

The Jazzateers - Sixteen Reasons

The Passage - Sixteen Hours

And Charity Chic returned to remind us all of...

The Jayhawks - Sixteen Down

The Flatlanders - Number Sixteen

OK, time to scrape the barrel / hard-drive before we get to this week's winner...

Tom Verlaine - Sixteen Tulips

(That might be worth a post of its own one day soon.)

Animals That Swim - Sixteen Letters

Jack White - Sixteen Saltines

Paul Kelly - Song From The Sixteenth Floor

Pop Will Eat Itself - Sixteen Different Flavours Of Hell

Rainbow - Sixteenth Century Greensleeves

The Stylistics - Sixteen Bars

Manic Street Preachers - Sorrow 16

Whiskeytown - 16 Days

Kate Jackson - 16 Years

Shakespear's Sister - My 16th Apology

Sunny Sweeney - 16th Avenue

The National - Conversation 16

That has to be the strangest video I've seen in a long time, featuring some reasonably big name actors, in some kind of bizarre SNL sketch that doesn't fit the song at all.

Anyway... the winner. Which will probably be obvious by now. It was first suggested by Lynchie, then seconded by Swiss Adam, though I'm sure a few others would have given it consideration.

Have you ever heard the Stevie Wonder version?

Stevie Wonder - 16 Tons

George can have that for his Wednesday covers feature over at CC's place if he likes.

Here's the original, a classic Hate Your Job tune, of which... as you know... I have a special interest in recent times...

You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt

Saint Peter don't you call me, 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company store

Which brings us to #15. Your suggestions, please.

Saturday Snapshots #56 - The Answers

Picture this - a Sunday morning without any answers to Saturday Snapshots. No need to Call Me OR go Atomic... they're here!

I'm going to call this one a draw between Charity Chic and Lynchie, because even though Lynchie got half a point more than CC, Charity Chic was typing his answer to Number 4 at the same time as Alyson, who beat him to it by seconds. (To be fair, he then beat her to Number 2 by seconds. What a close match!) Plus, CC got Number 9 and Number 5, which were definitely the hardest to identify this week.


10. The clue's in the picture... and in the pack.

Wink Martindale - Deck of Cards

Lynchie called this "one of the most horrible songs to grace the pop charts", but it's one I remember Terry Wogan playing in my youth (with his own little wink as he did it) and I'll always have a special fondness for it, despite... or perhaps because of... the supreme cheese. I even found myself listening to a whole album of Wink's earnest talky songs the other day...

"And friends, the story is true. I know... I was that soldier."

9. Put your tongue between your lips and blow - you'll be a star by tomorrow!

The Raspberries - Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)

8. "One Spider-Man is enough!" says can of rotations.

A tin of turners. A tin a' turner.

Tina Turner - We Don't Need Another Hero

7. Scouse lads lose the first day of the war while chasing a runaway lass.

A lad in Liverpool in Liverpool is a La, minus the D from D-Day.

The Las - There She Goes

6. Basil Brush flees Jelly Baby.

The Sweet - Fox On The Run

5. Three times Trio's lady (and Kenneth's, carry on) doesn't like Medium Wave.

Trio sang Da Da Da.

Kenneth Williams did Carry On.

Medium Wave was AM. If you don't listen to AM, you probably prefer FM.

Dar Williams - FM Radio

4. Where Gary Numan's friends live, with help from a whirlpool subsidy.

Whirlpool = eddy.

Subsidy = grant.

Gary Numan's friends are electric.

Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue

3. Snoop, Nate & Bonzo can't play out this evening, says their mum.

Three dogs' mama's told them not to go out at night.

Three Dog Night - Mama Told Me Not To Come

2. Photoshop can cheer you up.

Photoshop alters images.

Altered Images - I Could Be Happy

1. Chubby Snorer, at home on the stove. Can't change that.

Chubby Snorer is an anagram.

Home on the range.

A range is a stove.

Can't change that?



One Way Or Another, Saturday Snapshots will return next week. And it'll be our Halloween Special, so get up nice and early!

Hot 100 #68

"American noise-punk duo" '68 welcome us to the number 68 on our countdown... and they sound like this.

Most people identified this week's obvious winner, but we had a few other interesting suggestions too...

The Swede suggested Roland Kirk & Jack McDuff - Doin' the Sixty-Eight, which is the kind of jazz I can just about handle, so yes, pretty cool.

Lynchie & Rigid Digit both offered up Seasick Steve - Barracuda 68, which sounds like ZZ Top in the very best way possible.

Dubai Jim went down the band route and suggested The Mai 68s with Totality For Kids, which is definitely worth a click, particularly as it seems to come from an album called Some Hearts Are Paid To Die.

Martin once again offered a couple of tracks he wasn't that into... Pink Floyd - Summer '68 and Chicago - Questions 67 & 68... before settling on the obvious choice. Saves me the job of suggesting those two as they were both in my library.

Rigid Digit also offered Blink 182 - 6/8... which I might have to save for My Top Ten Time Signature Songs... if I ever do that.

Lyrical offerings included the following...

The Sweet - The Six-Teens...

But sixty-eight was sixty-eight,

no matter what they say...

Apparently John Medd has that on a T-shirt!

Fair play - I've never heard that before, guys, but I loved it.

Other lyrical 68s culled from my own collection included...

Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard... "was Detroit in '68"

Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman... "Frankie came home in '68 and me I took this job"

Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno... "Back in '68 in a sweaty club..."

All fine tunes, but most everyone agreed that there could only be one winner this week. As C put it, "all other possible suggestions have been completely obscured from view by their hair".

This is the second and probably final appearance by The Alarm in this countdown. Wonderfully awful video for your enjoyment too...




67 next week. Nothing as obvious as our last two entries... unless you know different.

My Top Ten Quiz Show Songs

It's time to spin the wheel, double your money and decide whether it's deal... or no deal.

I tried to avoid referencing quiz shows that were obviously named after songs - such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire... Two Tribes, Holding Out For A Hero and The Great Pretender (really: google them if you don't believe me). Thank you for reading. You're so much better than the audience we had last week.  


10. The Fat Boys & The Beach Boys - Wipeout!

On TV, Wipeout was a pretty non-descript gameshow hosted by Paul 'not a lot' Daniels, then Bob 'Joke Book' Monkhouse. It's musical cousin is much more impressive though...

Originally recorded by The Surfaris, this 1987 remake teamed the famed hip hop-opotamuses with the legendary Beach Boys - and apparently it was all the Beach Boys' idea. Originally due to be recorded with Run-DMC, they were obviously hoping for a Walk This Way style crossover... and they got one. A novelty record, to be sure, but such a joyously fun one, it can't help but bring a smile to your face.

9. Sparks - Beat The Clock

Beat The Clock was an American gameshow that also featured for a number of years as part of ITV's Saturday Night At The London Palladium. That was before even my time. I was, however, fond of Mark & Lard's version on Radio 1 20 years ago... it even featured this Sparks track as its theme tune. Named after the American gameshow, Ron & Russell roped Giorgio Moroder in to produce this one. You can tell from the beat.

8. Greg Kihn Band - Jeopardy

Jeopardy is one of America's longest running game shows. Despite various UK versions (on Channel 4, ITV and Sky), it never really took off over here.

Greg Kihn's biggest hit (#2 in the states, though it only made #63 in the UK) benefitted from a bizarre, MTV-bait music video in which Kihn gets wedding day jitters and his bride shows her true colours (she's Skeletor's ugly sister). Then things get really weird. I'm guessing MTV broke a lot of US hits in 1983, songs that never received the same exposure on UK TV.

Weird Al Yankovic's parody of the song ties it even more closely to its gameshow namesake... and Greg Kihn even pops up to rescue Weird Al at the end of the video.

7. The Divine Comedy - Mastermind

Neil Hannon's specialist subject is crafting lush pop gems with arched eyebrows and twisty moustaches. He's started: I hope he never finishes.

6. The Sweet - Blockbuster (s)

You could argue that this one is a bit of a cheat, but how else am I going to shoehorn this classic glam stompathon into one of my Top Tens?

The TV show is notable - musically - for two other reasons. Firstly, Stuart Maconie's widely believed urban legend that Blockbusters host Bob Holness played the saxophone solo on Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street. And secondly, Half Man Half Biscuit's top tune Hedley Verityesque in which Nigel Blackwell confesses...

But I don't want anymore
Stark German film noirs
And I could well do without
The hand-clapping sequence at the end of Blockbusters...

I'd like a P, please, Bob.

5. Saint Etienne - You're In A Bad Way

Although it's not as obvious as the rest of the songs in this chart, this deserves consideration for actually mentioned a game show in its lyrics (not just sharing a name) and also: being great. When Sarah Cracknell's boyfriend gets home from work, he puts the TV on and gets his kicks watching Bruce on the old Generation Game. He needs to get his priorities right...

4. Tavares - Whodunit? 

You have to be of a certain age to remember Whodunit?: a crimebusting Cluedo-esque panel game quiz show that ran in the 70s, originally hosted by Shaw Taylor, then Edward Woodward, and finally Jon Pertwee (the host I vaguely recall).

While it's pretty easy to forget the show, no one should ever forget this top disco hit of a similar vintage in which the Tavares brothers (Ralph, Pooch, Chubby, Butch & Tiny) enlist the aid of a roll call of fictional detectives (including Sherlock Holmes, Ellery Queen, Kojak, Dirty Harry and McCloud... well, it was the 70s) to solve the mystery of "who stole my baby?" The problem was: everyone in the room looked shady...

3. Sleeper - Sale Of The Century

And now, from Norwich (!), it's The Quiz of the Week!

This week's Top Three relive the glories of Britpop with three of the genre's finest bands.

For many young men in the mid-90s, the big questions wasn't Blur or Oasis... it was Justine or Louise. Me, I've always been a Louise man.

2. Shed Seven - Going For Gold 

For those of us who grew up with Kylie & Jason era Neighbours, Henry Kelly's Going For Gold was the show we left the TV on for. A few years later, Rick Witter and chums paid homage with this, one of the best lad-rock tunes of the Britpop era.

If you ask me, Noel Gallagher lies awake at night wishing he could have written a song as uplifting as Going For Gold.

1. Pulp - Countdown

Of course, Pulp were around long before Britpop. And this is one of their very best songs from a time when very few people had heard of them. For many years, I carried around in my wallet a little clipping from an interview with Jarvis where he explained what this song was about, "feeling like you're standing on a launchpad, waiting for your life to finally take off". Why I did that, I don't really know. You do some pretty weird things when you're young and lonely and seemingly without hope.

Countdown is one of the longest running gameshows in the world - although the UK version (originally featuring the late Richard Whiteley and Carol 'I'm in Mensa, me' Vorderman) is still a bairn compared to the French original which has been on TV since 1965.




Those were my top quiz show songs... which is your Winner Takes All... and which one was Pointless?

Would you like to phone a friend?