DAVE CLARK FIVE DISCOGRAPHY

and CAREER OVERVIEW

A Note on the Discography

Regarding the release dates of the albums, we have only tentative dates at this time and have not been able to locate reliable Month/Date information. We will supply these as we find them. We have listed the USA albums only, but will eventually add the British releases.

USA ALBUMS (important work in color)

1964 : Glad All Over (early 1964) * Dave Clark Five Return * American Tour * Coast to Coast (Dec. 64, or Jan. 65). 1965: Weekend in London * Having a Wild Weekend * I Like it Like That (Late 1965, or early 1966). 1966: Try Too Hard * Greatest Hits * Five by Five (not to be confused with the British LP release 5X5=Go) * Satisfied with You. 1967: You Got What it Takes. 1968: Everybody Knows.

The Dave Clark Five elbowed and bare-knuckled their way through the British Invasion as if a fortune teller told them they had only a few years to live. As a drummer, Clark was an unusual leader for a rock band. He set up his drums at the front of the stage and performed vivaciously. He sang with enthusiasm. Looking at the song credits it would appear that Clark wrote prolifically, but according to the rest of the band this was contractual, and his actual participation in songwriting was minimal. Keyboard player Mike Smith seems to be the catalyst for the sizable Dave Clark Five song deluge, with other credits going to guitarist Lenny Davidson, and sax player Denny Payton. Rick Huxley was the bass player. On the recordings, the drums are noticeably well-recorded, and turned up a notch higher than on many British Invasion albums. Clark's vocal lines are punctuated with flashy drum fills - drums provided in very many instances by British drum legend Bobby Graham. Song bridges are not resorted to often, in favor of up-tempo verse/chorus patterns that tend not to dwell on emotion, getting right to the point, then ending. After an album or two of this the enthusiasm begins to irritate.

The Dave Clark Five jumped at their moment in the spotlight and wrung that moment dry. Clark, himself, seems to have been a canny business man. But much of the music was cops, steals, and references to better work as the band ran rock and roll and r&b templates down a song-writing assembly line in a rushed fashion before the next new model was put out by somebody else. Here's a song that sounds like the Beatles, now let's go for the Who's "My Generation" (on "It'll Only Hurt for a Little While" complete with attempts at Entwistle's bass breakdowns); here's a little Presley, here's the "I Can't Turn you Loose" horn line, and here's a little "Jennifer Eccles." Keep going. Don't stop now. How about a strangulated Screaming Jay Hawkins meets Fat Domino vocal workout on "Blueberry Hill." Falsetto hell becomes a part of the usually fool-proof "Stay." Somebody needed to give the Dave Clark Five the same kind of advice you give to a person suffering an anxiety attack: "Slow down, boys. Breathe."

If even the Monkees - an example of fake British Invasion on the American side - seem slightly better than the Dave Clark Five, it's because the record companies in America boosted the Monkees' status by spicing their albums with songs by very talented songwriters. The lack of guidance by some of the British record companies is horrifying in comparison. Even though the Glad All Over LP would be a gigantic hit for Epic, nothing very long lasting resulted from the impact.

The Dave Clark Five flooded the 1964 - 1966 market with so much product based on a concept of what was happening during one brief time period, that the band ends up being a quintessential case of arrested development. The 1967 albums don't sound that much different than the 1964 albums. The band was unable to respond to the pop/rock/British Invasion marketplace as it changed on a daily basis. Unlike many other bands, you don't hear the echoes of Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, "Like a Rolling Stone," the Byrds, Rubber Soul, Aftermath, the Jefferson Airplane, "Rain," etc. A relaxed, sprawling, stereophonic suggestion of growth never materialized. An over-extension of unvarying product made them seem colorless.

Even so, it comes as a surprise that the Dave Clark Five are increasingly left out of Rock and Roll review anthologies. For one brief shining moment the band was touted by squares everywhere as successors to the Beatles. I remember with what glee my brother told me the Beatles were just a fad and nobody would know who they were in a few years. The Dave Clark Five were reassuring to Moms everywhere as better things to come in the lives of their children. Although if I asked my own Mom today, she might very well say: "The Dave Clark who?"

NOTE:

We are basing this article on the USA releases since those are the LPs at hand. A comparison to the track listings of the British releases suggests that although the track listings and release dates are different, the end result for the Dave Clark Five is essentially the same. In other cases - the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, for instance - the differences in the British vs. American releases add to or subtract from an important part of the overall effect and deserve to be commented upon. In this case, we feel the American releases give a solid impression of the Dave Clark Five. The British release 5+5=Go has been mentioned as a superior Dave Clark Five release, and we will incorporate that into the discussion at hand when we obtain a copy of the record.

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