The Ladybirds were mentioned on the Wordle thread and this got me thinking about fhe pop performers who always seemed to be around very successful acts of the day, but never seemed to enjoy their own day in the sun.
My own research* revealed that The Ladybirds were present and providing vocals to many big stars in the 60s and 70s and had several lineup changes over many years. They released records under their own name and although these didn’t trouble the scorers, in every other sense they were a band – a going concern – for a very long time.
So when is a pop group not a pop group? There are countless examples of bona fide pop acts who only sing other people’s songs, so we needn’t cock too much of a snook at the fact that they had no original material. They were a group. Just for starters, can any of us imagine Benny Hill’s “Ernie” without the female voices? The answer is no, I don’t think we can. I bet there are other examples. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they pop up in very unexpected places. They could have easily provided the do-do-dos for Lou Reed. I know they didn’t, by the way.
I do know what you’re thinking – come on. they were just session musicians. But they were more than that, they were a brand and were on our TV very, very frequently on massively successful light entertainment shows to audience numbers that would have Simon Cowell hyperventilating into his Hermes man bag.
So why didn’t female groups like this get the fame enjoyed by groups like The Bachelors or, God help us, The Black and White Minstrels?
Are there others that were always there or thereabouts, never being the centre of attention but important to the sound and the performances?
*Wikipedia and everyhit.com.
There was a group called the Echoes who backed stars on UK package tours in the 1960s and I believe there were many others who, like the Echoes, never achieved any fame. The Vernons girls split into quite a few groups who provided backing vocals. The Breakaways provided backing for Freddie and the Dreamers and a couple of years later, Jimi Hendrix. I’m hoping to do a mixcloud history of these “Princesses of Wails”. My favourite of these are the utter fabulous and glorious Sue and Sunny, whose discography stretches from Schlager to Joe Cocker to T Rex to Bad Company to James Last to various sexy disco albums. Apart from Sunny’s cover of Doctor’s Orders, they never achieved any fame. Yet their sound is unmistakable on 20th Century boy or Golden age of Rock n Roll. I better stop as I could go on all night about them.
Here are The Breakaways providing the backing vocals for this brilliant song by Drimble Wedge and the Vegetation.
I didn’t know it’s the Breakaways. That whole soundtrack is fabulous
Aren’t and uncredited Flo and Eddie on T. Rex’s Electric Warrior?
My recollection is that they were credited.
The swingle singers?
I remember they reinvented themselves as Swingle 2 at one point. I think they were clever-clever singers with intricate harmonies. A bit like the Kings Singers, who also graced our screens quite regularly back then.
They’re still around.
Now known simply as The Swingles. Formed in Paris in 1962 by American jazz singer Ward Swingle (1927-2015).
I saw them perform a 20-minute set about a year before the Great Lockdown, at one of the weekly Saturday lunchtime Daylight Music concerts, at London’s Union Chapel.
A bit showbiz-slick but they were excellent.
Here’s The Swingle Singers with the Style Council on a lovely song written by Paul Weller.
Finding out that there’s someone called ‘Ward Swingle’ behind the Swingle Singers is akin to finding out (many series in) that Cafe Nervosa in ‘Frasier’ is run by a person called Nancy Nervosa (or something like that). The look on Niles’ face…
I remember them doing ‘songs’ that sounded like they were off 60s films where open top sports cars were driven around the south of France … the songs that went ‘babadabadababababa’
None more babadabadababababa than Burt Bacharach’s South American Getaway from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid soundtrack. And not a Swingle in sight.
However to answer the question, maybe many of the musicians in question valued steady and diverse work over quick fame. Maybe being seen in the background on the Basil Brush show or the Two Ronnies or Eurovision was enough. Plus no arduous touring, plus any unpleasant artists could be avoided a second time. My career in the biz was a bit like that. Touring was a pain
Shit business.
Yes, at my brother’s wedding the (very good) singer in the band told me that she didn’t want to be in a creative group, trying to be successful in the charts etc. She earned a good living doing such events and the job took her around the world.
A very rare case, I suspect, but I guess it was possible particularly 30 odd years ago.
20 Feet From Stardom is a good doco about just this.
The Ladybirds and other groups all stemmed from the Vernons Girls, possibly the only professional act to trouble the charts while named after a pools company. The Littlewoods Songsters (true!) probably never went pro.
The Vernons Girls wiki page is full of fascinating detail about splinter groups etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vernons_Girls
I never really understood the pools. Particularly at this time of year when the Australian results were read out. I imagined these amazing high-scoring football games.
Also, celebrating a Pools Panel “win” when games were postponed was definitely something we did.
Me neither. I understood win/lose/draw ok, but watching my dad poring over this did my head in.
One of the Vernon Girls was Vicki Brown. Long list of credits on her own, and her daughter Sam managed on similarly impressive list, until her voice crocked in late 2000s.
This is The Breakaways featuring Vicki Brown with a wonderful Burt Bacharach song.
Another Vernon Girl was Kim Wilde’s mum.
Joe Brown being the dad, then. You don’t hear him talked about much these days. That’s not a Rafferty-type joke, by the way. He’s still with us.
Joe was another light entertainment regular guest.
Recently seen flogging a Morgan in an episode of Bangers and Cash.
It’s no more than Piers deserves.
It ‘s a crazy world…
I remember buying the album The Hoople by Mott The Hoople and being intrigued by the name of the backing singers on Roll Away The Stone. They were called Thunderthighs. I also had Transformer by Lou Reed and noticed they provided the do do dos on Walk On The Wild Side. They released a single Central Park Arrest which was written by Lynsey De Paul. Here they are on Top Of The Pops enjoying themselves with Mott The Hoople.
Here’s the Blackberries with Humble Pie.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackberries
Steve Marriott threatened to kick my head in once. Somewhat deservedly.
Was there a high chair nearby?
The trio of singers who formed Arrival and then were the vocal front line for Kokomo maintained gainful, as backing singers for any number of other acts over the years, the flamboyant figure of Frank Collins usually the giveaway. Dyan Birch is now dead, sadly. Londonbeat were a vocal trio of Jimmy Helms et al, who also popped up on a lot of 80s albums, likewise individually or collectively. Maddie Bell (of Blue Mink) was, before and after, much in demand as a backing vocalist.
Dylan Birch’s lead vocal on Friends by Arrival is superb. Sad she’s no longer with us.
Paddy McHugh of Arrival and Kokomo is now retired from performing, but Frank Collins is still around and still gigging with Kokomo. Still in good voice too at 77 years old. He makes his living mostly as a vocal arranger and teacher these days. His CV as a backing singer is extensive, to say the least.
It might not fit on this thread, but I recently bought an Alison Moyet 7″ in a chazza, because the B-side is a cover of Marvin Gaye’s Hitch Hike.
It is actually performed by doo-woppers Darts, albeit with Alf on lead vox. Not what I was expecting from the big-lunged electro-pop hollerer.
I’m genuinely laughing out loud at that description!
Possibly slightly off-topic, but Sacha Distel seemed to exist solely as be-medallioned Eurotrash filler for 1970s UK TV variety shows, with just a single hit (a cover of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”) to his name, whereas in France he was quite a respected jazzer, and deserves at least a modicum of immortality for writing all-time classic choon “The Good Life”…
I had always assumed he had far more success than that. He was often a crooning’ guest on TV shows.
He promoted aftershave in a long-running TV ad. We see him relaxing in front of roaring fire and he’s stroking the hair of a woman, who is clearly about to be seduced. He says to the camera “it’s OK…she’s my wife!”
Croon guest on ITV Variety Shows when The Dooleys or Manhattan Transfer or “Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Barbara Dickson” were not availablel
20 years gone next week … time for a re-appraisal?
Or when the Pasadena Roof Orchestra and the Stutz Bear Cats weren’t picking up the phone.
I thought that read Pederast Roof Orchestra for a moment
And then there were The Nolans…there were always tantalising hints of dressing-room shenanigans that could never be substantiated.
Linda Nolan and Lemmy backstage at Tiswas … allegedly
While you’re down there.
And depressingly, Coleen and Savile.
I love this thread – funnily enough I’ve been thinking about the Ladybirds for a week or so as my Auntie Winnie died recently – she was a nearly successful opera singer, appeared on tv a couple of times and had met the Ladybirds (classic line up) whilst working on a Hinge and Bracket tv special. She said how lovely they were, especially the one in the glasses. I was easily star-struck back then.
Jazz vocal sensation Norma Winstone did loads of vocal backing sessions in the 70s, usually with the likes of Madeleine Bell, Jackie Lee (‘White Horse’, ‘Rupert the Bear’ etc.), Lesley Duncan…
It’s Norma on the ‘Goodies’ theme song for instance.
Reading through the comments above, Londonbeat came to my mind. At the tender age of 24 and just starting what I choose to call “my career” in London, I was very fond of “9 A.M. (The Comfort Zone)”. I just watched it again now (at a not so tender age) and it all seems a bit overwrought.
Anyway, I seemed to remember that they (or some of them) kept appearing on other people’s records as backing singers. I have just done a bit of digging around (like @black-celebration, on Wikipedia) and found out that lead singer, Jimmy Helms and Co provided backing vocals for Paul Young, Godley and Creme, Shakespears Sister, Dead Or Alive and Deacon Blue.
Thanks to the 9AM song, I considered them an arty and intense band and thought they might carve themselves a niche in bleak, moody acapella. But then their next hit was a straightforward happy pop song about love.
The Kick Horns – formed in mid 80s with a list of credits suggested they are the go-to (or only?) Brass section for hire
https://archive.ph/20130127171407/http://www.kickhorns.com/discography-full.html
Dolly Mixture were a band in their own right, with Peel Session and everything, but for me they will always be Captain Sensible’s backing band for Wot, Happy Talk and particularly ‘Glad it’s All Over’, which had lovely minimal synth wash, dub-style bass and sparse drum clatter as instrumentation.
I was mowing the lawn yesterday and this came up on the shuffle thing. I must have taped it off the radio because I was really familiar with the lyrics. You’re right – it’s a really good song.
Wham! was quite a stable for backing singers turned artists in their own right, with first Dee C. Lee, then Pepsi and Shirley releasing records of their own.
P.P. Arnold. Yes, she has had a career stretching back more than fifty years but relatively little to show for it as the lead artist, just four studio albums and one that remained shelved for half a decade. She has sung for and with everybody.
Starting off as an Ikette, her credits include:
What’cha Gonna Do (When I Leave You)” (1966) – The Ikettes – lead vocals
River Deep – Mountain High (1966) – Ike & Tina Turner – backing vocals
“Tin Soldier” (1967) – Small Faces – backing vocals
The Art of Chris Farlowe (1967) – Chris Farlowe’s Thunderbirds – with Albert Lee and Carl Palmer
Jesus Christ Superstar (1970 album)
Looking On (1970) – The Move – backing vocals with Doris Troy on “Feel Too Good”
Rock On (1971) – Humble Pie, with the Soul Sisters, Doris Troy and Claudia Lennear
Bryter Layter (1971) – Nick Drake – chorus with Doris Troy on “Poor Boy”
The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971) – Dr. John – chorus with Mick Jagger, Doris Troy, Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, & Bobby Whitlock
Songs for Beginners (1971) – Graham Nash – chorus on “Military Madness”
Footprint (1971) – Gary Wright – with George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Mick Jones, Alan White, Doris Troy, Nanette Newman, etc.
Down the Road (1973) – Stephen Stills’ Manassas
Down to Earth (1974) – Nektar
Cry Tough (1976) – Nils Lofgren
Playmates (1977) – Small Faces
The King of Elfland’s Daughter (1977) – Bob Johnson and Peter Knight – sings “Witch”
“Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (1980) duet with Andy Gibb
Electric Dreams (1984) – lead vocals on “Electric Dreams”
So (1986) – Peter Gabriel – chorus on “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time”
Shining, Real Life, Real Answers (1987) – The Dolphin Brothers
30 Seconds to Midnite (1989) – Steve Marriott
Street (1991) – Nina Hagen
3am Eternal (1991) – KLF – vocals on the ‘Stadium House’ version
Amused To Death (1992) – Roger Waters – chorus on four songs
Long Agos And Worlds Apart – A Tribute To the Small Faces (1995) – Various Artists – lead vocals on “Understanding” with Primal Scream
Portraits of Bob Dylan (1999) – Steve Howe – lead vocals on “Well, Well, Well”
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) – Oasis
In the Flesh – Live (2000) – Roger Waters
Flickering Flame: The Solo Years Volume 1 (2002) – Roger Waters
Five in the Afternoon (2007) – Dr. Robert
Seven Psychopaths (2012) – Original Soundtrack – features “The First Cut Is the Deepest”
Poison Vine (2025) – Cast
Mention of Doris Troy makes me think of another fabulous, black female singer who deserved more. She was one of The Sweet Inspirations with Cissy Houston and her two Warwick nieces.
I was just at this very moment going to ask why we had got so far down the thread without mentioning PP. I’d even prepared a similar list of songs and acts she’d contributed to, but not quite as well formatted as yours, Tig.
Additions from Wikipedia:
duet with Rod Stewart on the single “Come Home Baby”; the original version of Cat Stevens’ song “The First Cut Is the Deepest”; she toured with Eric Clapton; she began working with leading British reggae band Steel Pulse and returned to the charts in both the UK and Australia on the hit 1983 cover version of the Staple Singers “Respect Yourself”, recorded with British electropop group Kane Gang; she worked with a number of noted British acts including Boy George; a tour with Billy Ocean; sang for The Beatmasters on the retro-styled Acid House hit “Burn It Up”; Graham Parker; joined Altern 8 on their single “E-Vapor-8”; Ocean Colour Scene, Chaz Jankel; Geno Washington and Jimmy James; Maddy Prior, Jerry Donahue, Dave Swarbrick, and Thea Gilmore; The Fratellis
Amazing that she had such range and duration – apparently a live album released in 2024…
One more – I co wrote and produced this for Top Billin’ , later to be called Definition of Sound. I was told the record company had booked a singer for the choruses, and in walked P P Arnold. The guys sung to her what they wanted and after a try, I shyly asked if she could bung it up an octave. Deep world-weary sigh, and she did this, in one take with adlibs
Still on top form when I saw her at Pontefract library a couple of years ago here demonstrating the stag.
Still touring
Sue and Sunny were on Joe Cocker’s With a little help from my friends. Their unmistakable tones are also on this
The Ladybirds were also notable for Maggie Stredder and her glasses, They were regulars on the Benny Hill Show. Here’s surely their silliest moment. Reggae fans look away….
Watching the Live Aid footage reminded me that Tessa Niles and Helena Springs used to crop up all over the place – they were backing Bowie there, but have also worked with, apparently, ABC, Eric Clapton, Kiri Te Kanawa, The Rolling Stones, Annie Lennox, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Kylie Minogue, The Police, Take That, Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Morrissey–Mullen, Snowy White, Tom Jones, Marillion, Fish, Pet Shop Boys, Buddy Guy, B*Witched, Victoria Beckham, Nick Carter, Living in a Box, Cliff Richard, Mike + The Mechanics, Zucchero, Status Quo, Robbie Williams, Bill Sharpe, Gary Numan, Wham!, Andrew Ridgeley, Dusty Springfield, The The, Jimmy Nail, Cher, Cabaret Voltaire, Seal, Liza Minnelli, John Denver and The Escape Club.
Tessa Niles on her own is a good shout; she’s absolutely a Zelig. There were many, many attempts to kickstart a solo career for her in the early 80s – she had it all – except good songs. Her voice was perfect for backing vocals – pitch-perfect and not too much character. She was good at looking like she was having fun, which was quite a talent when having to mime to dreadful old shite on TotP and so on.
Her autobiography is full of very boring stories about some of the people she sung with. I suppose this is the mark of a professional – never upstaging or bad-mouthing anyone.
You definitely don’t bad-mouth anybody who might give you some work later on.
Unless they are such utter see-you-next-tuesdays that you’d rather be out of work than in their company.
When you couldn’t afford The Swingle Singers, you’d send for The Mike Sammes Singers, who in the sixties did everything from the theme to “Stingray” for Gerry Anderson to The Beatles for “I Am The Walrus” and slabs of the “Let It Be’ LP. In between were sessions for commercial jingles and backing vocals for everyone who was anyone.
To paraphrase Facebook clickbait, Mike’s end was a sad one. Trunk Records’s Jonny Trunk tells the story – it’s sobering stuff.
https://www.trunkrecords.com/releases/biscuits_06/biscuits.php
The theme for G Anderson’s “The Secret Service”
Weren’t they the Sing Something Simple joy bringers, on a Sunday night on the radio, probably 2? My fathers diligently took himself off to the kitchen for 30 minutes every show, seemingly enjoying the glutinous cack outpoured.
Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you?
Probably because of my age I actually have a bit of a soft spot for The Cliff Adams Singers’ “Sing Something Simple”, even owning a couple of CDs picked up in charity shops. If I’m in the right mood they can be quite soothing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Adams_Singers
This is partly because of the great Jack Emblow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Emblow) who was their long time accompanist on accordion and always worth listening to. Here he is in a very different setting:
I saw Jack perform with the Spirit of Django group on Sunday 22 September 1996 but can’t remember anything about it (except the date).
Jack Emblow also played on All You Need Is Love. Here’s J Lennon playing Jack’s accordion.
Photo David Magnus.
Didn’t he stay for Charlie Chester too? I hated Sunday nights. School in the morning and Radio Fucking Soapbox.
Charlie Chester! His show was easy-listening organ music and I simply can’t fathom why anyone would voluntarily listen to an hour of that.
Pedant here!
His 2-hour “Sunday Soapbox” radio show started in 1969 (I think) and ran until around ’96. It was broadcast from Birmingham even though he lived in Kent.
It wasn’t easy listening organ music. It was a mix of poetry, pathos & kindness, and Norrie Paramour! Take a listen:
In times when we had less choice he attracted around 4 million listeners, apparently.
Cripes… As to my Pa, Lord knows, I’d done a double Van Gogh by then, most weeks.
Always get the Mike Sammes Singers and the Cliff Adams Singers mixed up. Both were highly-professional choirs-for-hire getting similar work.
When Duke Ellington performed his Sacred Concert at Coventry Cathedral in February 1966, the Cliff Adams Singers were featured. The concert was filmed for TV and partially telecast (all but two pieces) at the time. A recording of the entire thing was finally released in 2018.
This is the part featuring the Adams Singers and baritone soloist George Webb.
There is a long YouTube clip of the televised section of the concert available.
Looking for something else i came across this Sandy Denny’s Rendezvous has the following as backing singers.
Benny Gallagher & Graham Lyle – backing vocals
Sue Glover & Sunny Leslie – backing vocals
Kay Garner & Clare Torry – backing vocals
The Ladybirds – backing vocals
That’s a motherlode of bvs. This from approximately the same time has various uk backing vocal legends taking a bow. Many of them at the same time were singing of Euro disco recordings by Cerrone and Giorgio Mororder