Meet the Searchers

by The Searchers

Overview

The Searchers' debut LP doesn't sound quite like any other album they ever issued. All of their Pye Records albums were rushed, but not like this -- faced with an extraordinarily popular hit right out of the box in the guise of "Sweets for My Sweet" (which rose to Number One on the U.K. charts), the group cut 11 more finished tracks in one day, drawn from the best part of their stage act. The music was as raw and basic a Liverpool sound as anything heard this side of the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me (also recorded in one day), which this record paralleled, not only in sound but one key song selection, closing with "Twist and Shout" (albeit not in as striking fashion as John Lennon's raw performance). The attributes that the Searchers would build on, spirited playing, good harmony singing behind smooth lead vocals, and crisply defined lead and rhythm guitars, are all present in as stripped-down a form as they would ever be heard. The range of material reflects the personal tastes of the members, mostly early Motown ("Money (That's What I Want)" and other American R&B ("Farmer John," "Stand By Me"), and even one recent American folk hit, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," which may well have marked the first time a band with electric guitars, bass, and drums had applied those instruments to a folk song, thus anticipating folk-rock by some two years. The tendency is to dismiss this record as an early effort by a group that quickly went on to do much more interesting work; in point of fact, along with the Beatles' debut album, Meet the Searchers is just about the best single document that one can find of what rock & roll in Liverpool was about, and it's played with so much spirit that one suspects it might've done well as a reissue during the late-'70s "power pop" boom. ~ Bruce Eder

Product Details

Release Date:	03/31/2023
Label:	Beat Goes On / Bgo
UPC:	5017261020093
Rank:	60744

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Searchers   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Tony Hatch   Producer
Traditional   Composer
Berry Gordy, Jr.   Composer
Bert Russell   Composer
J. Mayo Williams   Composer
Chris Curtis   Composer
Cole Porter   Composer
Chuck Berry   Composer
Earl "Speedo" Carroll   Composer
Don Harris   Composer
Ellie Greenwich   Composer
Ben E. King   Composer
Doc Pomus   Composer
Janie Bradford   Composer
James Smith   Composer
Dewey Terry   Composer
Pete Seeger   Composer
Jerry Goldstein   Composer
Jerry Leiber   Composer
Mike Stoller   Composer
Mort Shuman   Composer
Phil Spector   Composer
Bert Berns   Composer
Don Everly   Composer
Don "Sugarcane" Harris   Composer
Jeff Barry   Composer
Lester Vanadore   Composer
Phil Medley   Composer
Jerry Ross   Composer,Composer
Richard Gottehrer   Composer
Billy Guy   Composer
J. Smith   Composer
B. Feldman   Composer
Ivy Rorschach   Composer
Crummy Flags   Composer
Christopher Crummy   Composer