(Derek Quinn - Alan Jones [attributed here to Randell-Robinson-Quinn])
Australia
#15 Melbourne
Single on His Masters Voice, May 1965, double-sided hit with the B-side, Summertime. Released May 1965, charted in June.
This is a slower, atmospheric version with pared-down instrumentation, a striking contrast with the upbeat Mersey-style version by Freddie And The Dreamers whose guitarist-harmonicist co-wrote the song.
Writer credits? On the original record Derek Quinn (from Freddie & The Dreamers) and Alan Jones are credited as writers. On Lynne Randell’s record, Jones has been dropped and Randell and Robinson have been added. Perhaps Robinson is the Australian arranger, as the arrangement has transformed the song into something quite different from the original. (Could it be the talented Melbourne arranger Peter Robinson from The Strangers?)
Lynne Randell (1950-2007), born in Liverpool UK, was an aspiring singer working as a hairdresser in Melbourne when she got her first big break. She toured the US on the same bill as The Monkees and Jimi Hendrix and recorded Ciao Baby (1967), her biggest Australian hit, in New York.
Further reading: The Lynne Randell entry at Wikipedia is comprehensive and well-sourced. It is especially good on the circumstances of Randell’s “discovery” in a hairdressing salon, showing that she was an aspiring singer who had already performed in public, and that she was not merely overheard singing as she worked. Highly recommended.
(Derek Quinn - Alan Jones)
UK
Original version
Recorded in January 1965, A Love Like You was released as a B-side in the USA, on Mercury. The A-side, Do The Freddie, charted in Billboard on 24 April 1965. This places its release before Lynne Randell’s Australian single.
There was also a 1965 UK single on Columbia (month unknown), pressed for sale only outside the UK.
Co-writer Derek Quinn was a member of The Dreamers, on guitar and harmonica. Quinn & Jones also wrote Freddie & The Dreamers’ Over You (1964, #13 UK).
Freddie & The Dreamers, from Manchester, were led by Freddie Garrity (1936-2006), a bespectacled zane who would break into giggles and leap about doing his own eccentric dance, celebrated in their song Do The Freddie.
They had a good run on the charts with songs that weren’t always as comedic as their stage act would suggest. These included If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody (1963, #3 UK), You Were Made For Me (1963, #3 UK) and I’m Telling You Now, a 1963 British #2 that rode the British Invasion to #1 in the USA in 1965.
Freddie is the only man I know who can sing, dance and remove his trousers all at the same time.
Michael Carreras, liner notes, What A Crazy World (1964) via 45-rpm.org.uk.
Chronology:
1. PopMusicInfo.com gives a recording date in January 1965 for A Love Like You on a single pressed in the UK for sale outside of the UK. This is Columbia DC-763, B-side of A Windmill In Old Amsterdam. Note the 3 digits, not 4 as in UK Columbia releases. It does not appear on UK discographies. See also label shot, other details at 45cat.
2. In the USA, A Love Like You was the B-side of Do The Freddie (Mercury #72428) which was released in April and appeared in the Billboard Hot 100 on 24 April. To complicate this, there were also Mercury #72428 pressings with Tell Me When as the B-side, as on the Australian release on Columbia #DO4574. (Tell Me When is a cover of the Applejacks’ 1964 hit.)
3. A Love Like You was later released in the UK on the EP Freddie & The Dreamers, November 1965.
Thanks to Staffan Olander at PopMusicInfo.
References: 1. Freddie & The Dreamers from British Beat Boom [archived page]. 2. Data at PopMusicInfo.com 3. Goldmine Price Guide to 45 rpm Records (listing of Mercury #72428). 4. Data and images at 45Cat: the UK export-only 45, the UK EP and the US single. 5. Billboard Hot 100 in April 24, 1965 edition [Google books].
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