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| "Bad Penny Blues" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Humphrey Lyttelton And His Band | |
| B-side | "Close Your Eyes" |
| Released | 1956 |
| Recorded | 20 April 1956, IBC Studios, London |
| Genre | Jazz [1] |
| Label | Parlophone ER 4184 |
| Songwriter(s) | Humphrey Lyttelton |
| Producer(s) | Joe Meek for Denis Preston |
"Bad Penny Blues" is a fast instrumental blues written by Humphrey Lyttelton and recorded with his band in London on 20 April 1956.
It was originally released as Parlophone ER 4184 and became a hit record in Britain at the time.
It was the first British jazz record to get into the Top Twenty, and stayed there for six weeks. Its success was very much due to the very catchy boogie piano riff, played by Johnny Parker and brought to the front by producer Joe Meek. Paul McCartney based his piano part for the Beatles' song "Lady Madonna" on this riff. [2]
The official producer of the record was Denis Preston, who employed Meek as engineer. George Martin was head A&R man of Parlophone at that time, but was not involved in the actual recording.
"Bad Penny Blues" was featured in Mike Figgis' film Red, White & Blues and is on the soundtrack CD of that film.
It was a popular and regular feature of Lyttelton concerts, sometimes played with accompanying riffs by the band. It was recorded again by Lyttelton with Elkie Brooks in 2002, with lyrics added, on their album Trouble in Mind .
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton, also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family.
Sir George Henry Martin was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatles' original albums. Martin's formal musical expertise and interest in novel recording practices facilitated the group's rudimentary musical education and desire for new musical sounds to record. Most of their orchestral and string arrangements were written by Martin, and he played piano or keyboards on a number of their records. Their collaborations resulted in popular, highly acclaimed records with innovative sounds, such as the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band—the first rock album to win a Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Parlophone Records Limited is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parlophone Company Limited, which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a jazz record label. On 5 October 1926, the Columbia Graphophone Company acquired Parlophone's business, name, logo, and release library, and merged with the Gramophone Company on 31 March 1931 to become Electric & Musical Industries Limited (EMI). George Martin joined Parlophone in 1950 as assistant to Oscar Preuss, the label manager, taking over as manager in 1955. Martin produced and released a mix of recordings, including by comedian Peter Sellers, pianist Mrs Mills, and teen idol Adam Faith.
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