The Return Of THE DAVE CLARK FIVE

Original released on LP Epic BN 26104

(US, June 1964)

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE Debut Album

Original released on LP Epic LN 24093

(US, March 1964)

The Dave Clark Five's first album might seem a bit on the meager side outside of the context of the first flush of the British Invasion. At the time, though, it was a pretty exuberant slab o' vinyl that rocked pretty hard for the most part, paced by the three Top 10 singles "Glad All Over," "Do You Love Me," and "Bits and Pieces." It was a huge seller as well, peaking at number three and remaining in the charts almost as long as the albums by their chief competitors of the era, the Beatles. And it does have a few decent, though not great, original songs that don't show up on greatest hits compilations: the solid pop/rocker "I Know You," the raucous "Twist and Shout" rip-off "No Time to Lose," and the surprisingly savage instrumental "Chaquita," an inversion of "Tequila" with its snaky, growling guitar riffs and dirty sax. There's also some pure filler, like the jazzy instrumental "Time" and the infantile "Doo Dah." It certainly ranks among their best non-greatest-hits albums, which isn't as high a recommendation as it sounds, since the group's LPs weren't that good overall. (Richie Unterberger in AllMusic)

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE "Instrumental Album"

Original released on LP Capitol T6162

(CANADA, May 1966)

Issued in Canada only in mid-1966, this LP is a real oddity in the Dave Clark Five discography, indeed consisting entirely of instrumentals as the title promises. As DC5 fans know, unlike just about every other notable British Invasion band, the group often relied on instrumental filler cuts to help pad out their LPs, and 12 of them are gathered on this release. As every one of them also appears on one of the band's 1964-1966 American long-players, it's of interest only for completist collectors attracted by the rarity and artwork of the physical artifact, especially as the music is neither too good nor typical of what the Dave Clark Five were known for. Indeed, side one in particular has some surprisingly vapid easy listening numbers (sometimes with a Duane Eddy-like twanging guitar), though side two moves into more rocking if undistinguished territory, occasionally with spy movie-like motifs. It should also be noted that the LP somehow failed to include what were far and away the band's three best instrumentals: the menacing "Tequila" update "Chaquita," the weird and vicious "Five by Five," and the early-1966 B-side rave-up "All Night Long." (Richie Unterberger in AllMusic)

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: "Coast To Coast"

Original released on LP Epic BN 26128

(US, December 1964)

Any album that opens with "Anyway You Want It" already has a leg up over most of the competition around it. Arguably the jewel of the Dave Clark Five's singles output, it's a song that has aged every bit as gracefully as, say, "I Saw Her Standing There" or "A Hard Day's Night." So "Coast To Coast" opens strong and it gets better, blooming into an amazingly diverse yet consistently powerful record made up entirely of group originals. These mostly take us into the DC5's own, uniquely energetic renditions of Merseybeat-style harmonies, on "To Me" (a song that might be as fine as anything that Lennon and McCartney wrote on the Beatles' first three albums, with its exquisitely lyrical saxophone break by Dennis Payton), "I'm Left With You" (which calls to mind "This Boy" in the most favorable way), the soaring "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)" (which offers some of Lenny Davidson's most flamboyant rhythm guitar work), and the haunting "When," with its larger-than-life piano and rhythm section. Surrounding all of this surprisingly elegant songwriting, singing, and playing is some first-rate rock 'n' roll in the form of "Say You Want Me" (a close cousin of "Anyway You Want It" in sound and timbre), "Don't You Know," and "It's Not True." Had there been an actual rock press in 1964, or if the Dave Clark Five been taken more seriously sooner, "Coast To Coast" would probably be regarded today as something close to an essential British Invasion record, if, perhaps, not as seminal as, say, the Beatles "For Sale" LP, but definitely more solid and important than all but one other album: "(It's The Searchers)" by the Searchers. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: "American Tour"

Original released on LP Epic LN 24117

(US, July 1964)

One of the Dave Clark Five's finest hours, "American Tour" (so name in commemoration of their first U.S. tour - it's not a live album) is excellent from start to finish. The album encompasses slightly retrograde instrumental rock & roll, like the "Green Onions"-styled "Move On," in addition to the sophisticated pop/rock and driving garage rock of their vocal cuts. "Because" was one of the band's biggest American hits and, like everything on the album, was composed by its members. The mixture of jazzy chords, straight-ahead rock, and saxophone (which was pretty passé in 1964) is an interesting one, making the group less enigmatic than the Zombies and more obviously rooted in earlier rock traditions than the Beatles. Despite the adventurous construction of their vocal songs, they're willing to use standard chord progressions for their instrumentals. In that sense, the Dave Clark Five bridged the gap between the music of Bill Haley, the Bill Black Combo, and the Beatles in a way that few other British Invasion acts did. (Greg Adams in AllMusic)

A Session With The DAVE CLARK 5

Original released on LP Columbia (EMI) 33SX 1598

(UK, May 1964)

The group's debut LP did well in England but, as was the custom in the early days of the British Invasion, it had to be finessed into the United States. For the Dave Clark Five's U.S. debut, Epic Records wisely decided to combine the band's British singles and B-sides onto what became the "Glad All Over" album, delivering one of the label's biggest selling long-players up to that time. With that success behind them, and the public eager for more, the label then released "A Session With The Dave Clark Five" virtually intact in America, but titled "Return!". As the group's first venture in making an LP, it's not as strong as their later efforts, though it does show off their range around the sound that would make them international stars. The lack of the presence of a hit single, however, leaves it weaker than most of the group's American-released LPs. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)