Tony Worsley - Velvet Waters (1965)

Bruce Gillespie - Velvet Waters (1960)

(William Plunkett - Dorothy Dodd)
 Australia
Original vocal version
#16 Sydney #20 Brisbane

Velvet Waters, first recorded as an instrumental by The Megatrons (1959), may be better known in Australia as a song by Tony Worsley (1965) with words by the Australian lyricist Dorothy Dodd. The lyrics were written for Bruce Gillespie who recorded them first, in 1960.

♫ Listen at YouTube

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Dorothy Dodd’s lyrics
Bruce Gillespie and his manager Lyall Richardson had unsuccessfully sought lyrics to The Megatrons’ Velvet Waters when Sydney disc jockey John Laws was playing it as a background theme on 2UE. After contacting Laws and finding that the tune was available only as an instrumental, they went to Jack Argent at music publishers Southern Music, taking with them an acetate of the Megatrons track acquired from Laws.

As a result, Dorothy Dodd was commissioned by Southern Music to write the lyrics for Gillespie’s Velvet Waters. Dodd is best known for writing the standard English lyrics to Granada, recorded by Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Frankie Laine, among others.

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Gillespie’s recording was made independently in Sydney and released by HMV, one of several record companies that were approached. Personnel on the session – mainly Sydney jazz musicians – included Mike Nock (piano), Peter Beasley (guitar), Freddie Logan (bass), Chris Karan (drums, later with The Dudley Moore Trio), and Abe Jensen (vibes). Vocal group The Delltones were paid £5:00 each for the session. (“Just pay us; don’t put our name on it,” said one Delltone.)

The B-side of Velvet Waters was Teen Age Love, Gillespie’s only songwriting credit (an unidentified Maurice is credited as co-writer), but it seems that all the loving care went into the A-side.

Bruce Gillespie (b.1941), an Anglo-Indian, came to Australia from Mount Abu in northwestern India when he was fourteen. He started singing as a teenager with dance bands in his home city of Melbourne, at venues such as the Coburg Town Hall. This was in the late 1950s, the era of the 60-40, a variety dance program that mixed old-time with current dance styles.

Gillespie left home for Brisbane to appear in the Theatre Royal’s variety shows, then Sydney where he was contracted by Sammy Lee to appear at his Latin Quarter nightclub in Pitt Street.

At this time, Gillespie also appeared on TV music shows, mainly on Johnny O’Keefe’s Six O’Clock Rock but also on Bandstand and Teen Time. Because of his voice and appearance, Gillespie was often asked to sing current hits by such black American stars as Sam Cooke and Brook Benton.

He released a further single on HMV, In All The World / Look Over The Hill (1960). He then recorded two singles in Melbourne under the direction of Bruce Clarke at W&G: Jenny, Oh Jenny / They Really Don’t Know You (1960) and M’magine Me Thinking / Two By Two (1960).

Bruce Gillespie made no further recordings, but he built a succesful career as a club singer in Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, including five years based in the Phillipines. In 1978 he left music for other business pursuits, and by the early 2010s he was living in retirement in Queensland.

At YouTube: Bruce Gillespie sings Look Over The Hill on Six O’Clock Rock, 1960, introduced by Johnny O’Keefe.

References: 1. Bruce Gillespie, conversation with me, June 2011. 2. Singles discography in ScreenSound Australia’s First Wave. 

Further reading: 1. Profile of Bruce Gillespie in Australian Women’s Weekly’s “Teenagers’ Weekly” pages in 1960 [Trove archive]. 2. The story of Dorothy Dodd’s ‘Granada’ lyrics, Sydney Morning Herald column by Tony Withers from 1961 [Google News Archive]. 3. Dorothy Dodd, article at Wikipedia, has some interesting links to further reading..

Thanks to Bruce Gillespie.

The Megatrons - Velvet Waters (1959)

(William Plunkett)
 USA
Original version
#51 USA

Single on Acousticon March 1959, then on Audicon in May when the label changed its name. It was also released on Laurie for distribution purposes. Laurie reissued it in 1965.

Released in New Zealand on Top Rank, but not released in Australia.

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Instrumental by New York studio band, one of whose members was William Plunkett, composer of Velvet Waters. Jazz saxophonist and session musician Heywood Henry is credited on the single for his clarinet solo, and may have been responsible for the session.

Heywood Henry (1913-1994, full name Frank Haywood Henry, aka Haywood Henry or Frank Henry) was a member of The Erskine Hawkins Orchestra from the 1930s through to the 50s, and sometimes substituted in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He became an active session man from the 50s, and played on numerous rock, pop and jazz records. See the entry at AllMusic Guide where Scott Yarrow calls him “one of the finest baritone saxophonists of the swing era”. He played, for example, on sessions for Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Billy Holiday, Big Maybelle, James Brown, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Mickey Baker of Mickey & Sylvia.

Mike Rashkow, producer and songwriter recalls: Henry was a regular first, second or third call Baritone Sax man during my few years in the NYC studios… I saw him on a lot of dates – low key guy, very professional. (Spectropop, 25 Sept 2004.)

Sylvia of Mickey & Sylvia recorded with the Heywood Henry Orchestra in 1951 as Little Sylvia: see label shot from Brian Lee’s Mickey & Sylvia page [archived].

Although the Megatrons record wasn’t released here, it was played on Australian radio.

John Laws on Sydney station 2UE used it as a theme, as did Melbourne disc jockey Peter Smith on his ABC Radio show Hit Parade on 3AR. As it played, Smith would mischievously remind his listeners that they couldn’t buy the record locally. (This is Pete Smith who went on to be a star of commercial TV on the Nine Network.)

Although Australians could not buy the Megatrons’ record, a New Zealand version by Garth Young & Trio worked as a substitute for some fans in Adelaide where it charted modestly (see above).

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From Melbourne, Bruce R. Gillespie adds:
Gerald Murnane, Australian writer, wrote his story “Velvet Waters”, the lead story in his 1990 collection “Velvet Waters”, based on a memory of hearing the Megatrons version of the tune played continually over the loudspeakers at a beach resort in the early sixties. This was the year when Stan Rofe and Keith Livingstone played it as a continual theme during their summer program on [Melbourne radio station] 3KZ, when they DJed all day every day for several weeks.

– Bruce R. Gillespie, editor of Scratch Pad at eFanzines.com (not Bruce Gillespie the singer)
     

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References: 1. Frank Haywood Henry at Discogs.com. 2. Haywood Henry biography by Scott Yanow at All Music.

Thanks to Tony Watson, Mike Rashkow, Country Paul and Bruce R. Gillespie for additional information.

Label shot by Richard Coffelt.