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New Slade In England Version of 'How Does It Feel

 

YOU BETTER RUN B/W EVIL WITCHMAN 2/12/66

 

Regent sound studios Denmark street London, where the N'Betweens recorded their debut single 'You Better Run'
Slade, as recording artists started climbing the long arduous ladder to the number one position in the charts way back in 1966, when as 'The N' Betweens' they got some studio time with US impresario Kim Fowley, who thought that the band were destined for stardom, at the Regent sound studios in the heart of London's 'Tin Pan Alley' in Denmark Street. The band recorded half a dozen tracks for the princely sum of £13!

As a result of the time spent with Fowley, the band managed to get one of the tracks they recorded, a cover of the Young Rascals hit 'You Better Run' released on the Columbia record lable.

'You Better Run' had been a US hit for 'The Young Rascals', written by band members Eddie Brigati and Felix Cavaliere, the single had been a rather disappointing follow up to their bigger Stateside #1 hit 'Good Lovin'. It seemed a choice inspired by Fowley and his knowledge of US music. The single was never going to trouble the national pop charts, which at the time were being dominated by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and the new darling of the record buying public, Tom Jones, who was topping the chart at the time with 'The Green Green Grass Of Home'

Despite not being bought by anyone outside of the Black Country, in their local badlands the N'Betweens, facing stiff competition from another local band, Listen, fronted by a bloke called Robert Plant, who had released their version of the self same track, on exactly the same day, managed to outsell even Tom Jones!

Drummer Don Powell remembers that their version of the track proudly occupied the number one position in the local Wolverhampton charts, keeping the national chart topper, 'The Green Green Grass Of Home' by old snake hips Tom Jones off of the number one position in Wolverhampton at least! The vinyl release was backed with 'Evil Witchman' a reworking of an old Artwoods recording ' I Take What I Want'

The original single is highly sought after with fewer than 20 copies known to exist which prompted clever bootleggers in 2006 to press up and sell vinyl bootlegs of the promo version of the release. I know of two collectors who were duped into paying well over the odds for the singles believing them to be the genuine article.

Chris Selby (who else) did manage to dig up one local review from one of the local newspapers of the day, the publication, date or reviewer is unknown at this present time!

 

IN-BE-TWEENS: "You Better Run" (Columbia) Here's a new group who believe in giving their r-and-b everything they've got---it's insistent, strident, compellingly beaty, monotonously tuneless.