Del Juliana - Never Like This (1964)

(Barry Gibb)
 Australia
Original version

Surf-style single on RCA, a ‘song the Bee Gees gave away’, produced by David Mackay.

At the same sessions Del Juliana recorded another Barry Gibb song, Boy On The Board, that was never released.

The B-side of Never Like This is a version of the Ray Charles 1959 hit What’d I Say (#9 USA).

Pop-rock singer Del Juliana (1942-2012, b. Delores June Giuliani) was born and grew up in Maroubra, New South Wales, where she also lived as an adult. She released two singles and was a familiar solo artist on TV pop shows. She passed away in Sydney in August 2012 (see Vale Del Juliana at the Support Act website).

Del Juliana has gone down in history as the singer who almost supported The Beatles on their 1964 Australian tour. Whether she pulled out or was overlooked is unclear, but her place seems to have been taken by Johnny Devlin.

According to Teenagers’ Weekly, 16 October 1963, Del Guiliani (as her name is still spelt there) was signed to Channel 7 Sydney in 1962 on a five-year contract after she had appeared on Sing Sing Sing, the program that had replaced the Johnny O’Keefe Show from October 1962.

In their book Behind the Rock, Jon Hayton and Leon Isackson tell the story of how their band The R’Jays (soon to be The Rajahs) booked Del Juliana to appear with them at the Snowy Mountains Hotel in Cooma early in 1964. She appeared at a 2002 memorial concert for Dig Richards.

See also Del Juliana’s 1964 single (I Say) You’re Driving Me Crazy with I Was A Fool For Leaving.

At YouTube: Del Juliana singing Mockingbird with Johnny O’Keefe, some time before his hit version with Margaret McLaren.

References: Joseph Brennan’s Gibb Songs for 1964. Cook, Bilyeu, and Hughes, The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb (via Google Books).

Teenagers’ Weekly reference from Zbigniew Nowara. When Del Guiliani/Juliana joined Sing Sing Sing it was being compered by Lionel Long, but Johnny O’Keefe took over as compere early in 1963 when he returned after illness (Damian Johnstone, The Wild One).

Suggestion from Fred Hill.

Thanks to Belinda and ‘jargonise’ at MusicPopHits (now defunct MSN group). Thanks also to Steven Richards for further information, and to Rob for straightening out my maths.

Correction from Roger Walter, thanks very much.