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 by The Purple Hearts, a respected Australian band with R&B-blues influences. It charted in Melbourne and Brisbane in 1966.

When the song was on Australian radio, listeners might have been surprised to learn that the original version was recorded as part of a 1965 US government campaign. The aim was to encourage teenagers to stay in school, unlike the singer who is working three jobs a day and regrets quitting 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.

Perhaps surprisingly, given its origin, the record is a convincing piece of mid-60s popular music that was later adopted by Britain's Northern Soul movement.

Some credit for the song's credibility goes 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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