Where did they get that song?

Sources of Australian Pop Records from the 50s, 60s and 70s plus some Aussie originals and some New Zealanders

Originals / Covers / Remakes / Songwriters / Chart Positions

What have they done to my song?

Melanie Safka

Obscure Originator Dept: “Youth Opportunity Program” (Back To School), uncredited singer

Of Hopes And Dreams And Tombstones was covered in Australia by R&B and blues influenced band The Purple Hearts.

When the song was on Australian radio and charting in Melbourne and Brisbane, listeners might have been surprised to learn that it came from a government campaign to keep US teenagers at school. In the lyrics, the singer is working three jobs a day because he quit school too early.

The Youth Opportunity Back-to-School Campaign distributed the single free to American radio stations with a formal message on the sleeve from Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.

The title of the project is printed on the label in place of an artist credit. That should have gone to Jimmy Fraser, whose vocals, along with the harmonica-led backing, make Of Hopes And Dreams And Tombstones sound like a perfectly credible (even groovy!) rock record of the time.

Alas! Jimmy Fraser remains unknown although I have seen it suggested that this was a pseudonym. Columbia Records did reissue the track commercially as a Jimmy Fraser single, but that was the last we heard of him, at least under that name.

The song's credibility owes a lot to the composer. Joy Byers wrote, for example, Eddie Cochran’s C’mon Everybody, several songs for Elvis Presley and (with co-writer Clyde Otis) Timi Yuro's What's A Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You).

In 2002 The Purple Hearts' Australian version provided the opening track and the title of one of Alex Palao's excellent Ace Records (UK) compilations, Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones (Beat 'n' R&B From Down Under). For me, that just about confirms its groovy status.

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