Original released on LP HMV CLP 1802
(UK, October 1964)
The Swinging
Blue Jeans were near the top of Liverpool's
rock & roll bands, although Americans who've only heard their
pile-driver-textured Top 30 version of "Hippy Hippy Shake" (utterly
unrepresentative of their sound or range) might wonder at that statement. This
album provides the evidence - ironically, with a little better choice of
material, it would rate very close behind the "With the Beatles" LP
as a fresh and brilliant piece of music-making, and even as it stands, it's not
too far behind. In order to fully appreciate "Blue Jeans a' Swinging",
you have to put yourself back in 1964. Liverpool and the rest of the north are
filled with acts that can thump away hard, or harmonize pleasingly, but only a
handful that can do both, and even fewer that can do both well, and most of
those, apart from the Beatles, can't decide if they want to be the Everly
Brothers or Chuck Berry. the Beatles knew that with a little care, they could
be both - and based on the evidence on this album, The Swinging Blue Jeans
were of the same mind and had the talent to pull it off. "Blue Jeans a' Swinging" features punchy, crunchy rhythm guitar, jangling lead guitar, some pretty raw
singing by all four bandmembers alternating with decent harmonizing. There are
also a few offbeat song choices, starting with the opening track, "Ol' Man
Mose". Their cover of "Save the Last Dance for Me" is a credible
rendition of a contemporary Drifters hit, and their versions of "Lawdy
Miss Clawdy" and "Long Tall Sally" are solid pieces of rock
& roll. Their Buddy Holly-like versions of the Hank Marvin-Bruce Welch
songs "That's the Way It Goes" and "Don't It Make You Feel
Good" have enough hooks that either could've been a single and a hit; the
ballad "All I Want Is You", dominated by the quartet's harmony
vocals, sounding even more like Holly. The band reaches back further than the
Shadows, covering, "It's All Over Now", an offbeat lament written by
Wally Whyton of the Vipers Skiffle Group-this is their "Ringo Starr
number", slightly goofy, with a vague country-ish tint. Even the one
original here, a group composition called "It's So Right", is a good
rock & roll number with acceptably clever wordplay. Only their version of
the Boudleaux Bryant "Some Sweet Day" seems flaccid and second-rate. That
flaw aside, this is one of the best rock & roll albums of its era to come
out of Liverpool. (in AllMusic)