Johnny Sandon & The Remo Four

Contemporaries of the Beatles, along with other Liverpudlian rockers like Gerry & the Pacemakers and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, the Remo Four were lost to the darkest corners of Merseybeat history, with only See for Miles' 1992 compilation The Best of Tommy Quickly, Johnny Sandon, Gregory Phillips & the Remo Four – a disc featuring singers the group backed, along with a handful of their tracks – being the only reissue to surface until Bear Family's 2010 Smile!, Peter Gunn…And More. Only one of the songs on that 1992 disc – a cover of “Peter Gunn” – is on this 2010 CD, which contains the entirety of their 1967 LP Smile!, released only in Germany, and singles surrounding the album.

Founded in 1957 by John McNally (guitar/vocals), the Searchers were originally one of thousands of skiffle groups formed in the wake of Lonnie Donegan's success with "Rock Island Line." …

Founded in 1957 by John McNally (guitar/vocals), the Searchers were originally one of thousands of skiffle groups formed in the wake of Lonnie Donegan's success with "Rock Island Line." …

Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat (after bands from Liverpool and nearby areas beside the River Mersey) is a pop and rock music genre that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s. Beat music is a fusion of rock and roll (mainly Chuck Berry guitar style and the midtempo beat of artists like Buddy Holly), doo-wop, skiffle and R&B. The genre provided many of the bands responsible for the British Invasion of the American pop charts starting in 1964, and provided the model for many important developments in pop and rock music, including the format of the rock group around lead, rhythm and bass guitars with drums. The Beat Of The Pops - excellent selection of beat tracks.

Billy J. Kramer's Listen is one of the more important non-Beatles Liverpool albums of its era, and also one of the better ones. Additionally, it's almost as much a tribute to George Martin's skill as a producer as it is to anything that Billy J. Kramer or the Dakotas brought to the sessions. It shows off the mixture of driving beat, heavy guitars, and emotionally expressive, American-style vocals that characterized the sound of the city, along with the lyrical balladry that the Beatles (especially McCartney, in Martin's hands) had added to the formula. Only a tiny handful of the tracks, such as "Sugar Babe," "Great Balls of Fire," and perhaps "Da Doo Ron Ron," really qualify as a classic, thumping Liverpool rockers, shouters with a heavy bass and raw vocals…