Fox were a British-based pop band popular in the mid-1970s. Led by American songwriter and record producer Kenny Young, the band was perhaps best known for its charismatic Australian lead singer Noosha Fox. They had three top 20 hits on the UK Singles Chart - "Only You Can" and "Imagine Me, Imagine You" in 1975 and "S-S-S-Single Bed" in 1976, and Noosha Fox had a solo hit in 1977 with "Georgina Bailey".
The band was founded by Young, who had composed the song "Under the Boardwalk" for the Drifters in 1964. Young had worked off and on with the Australian singer Susan Traynor on one of his solo albums, Last Stage For Silverworld, where she was listed as 'Amanda' after Young had written Reparata and the Delrons' "Captain of Your Ship", which had been a UK hit.
Young then discovered Northern Irish singer Clodagh Rodgers on a television show, who had recently released the single, "Play The Drama till The End". The partnership produced hit singles over a three-year period, beginning with "Come Back and Shake Me". With this, Rodgers became something of a showcase for the group, as she recorded demos of some of the songs which would eventually surface on the first Fox album in 1975, as well as earlier Young tunes. Rodgers' husband John Morris was the first manager of the group.[1]
Meanwhile, Traynor was in a folk group called Wooden Horse, which released two albums before breaking up. After his success with Rogers, Young founded Fox with Irish singer Herbie Armstrong, recruiting Traynor as lead singer.[2] She adopted the stage name 'Noosha', a scrambled version of her own name, and a glamorous image inspired by Marlene Dietrich, wearing elegant dresses to contrast with the scruffy look of the rest of the group.
The band's self-titled debut album was released on GTO Records in 1975 to critical acclaim.[2] The lead single, "Only You Can", was originally released in mid-1974 under the title "Only You" and failed to chart, but was reissued at the beginning of 1975 with a word added to its title and was a Top 10 hit in the UK Singles Chart.[2] The follow-up "Imagine Me, Imagine You" later the same year also reached the Top 20[3] and "He's Got Magic" was a hit in some European countries such as Germany, where it reached #48.[4] The track "Love Ship" was played extensively on Radio Caroline, and was subsequently adopted as one of their theme tunes in the 1970s. Shortly after the release of their first album, Fox made a cameo appearance in the film Side by Side.
However, Noosha shared vocals with other members of the band in 1975 follow-up album, Tails of Illusion, with the songs sung by Noosha, Young, Frank, and Armstrong. The album enjoyed some cult critical acclaim but not the sales success of its predecessor; without Noosha's distinctive voice, casual listeners did not associate the songs with the band that had recorded "Only You Can".[citation needed]Roger Taylor of Queen added backing vocals to the song "Survival".
The band returned to the charts in April 1976 when "S-S-S-Single Bed" was a Top 5 UK hit,[2] and topped the Australian chart. (Bananarama did their own version of this song in 2009 on their album Viva.) Again, the band did not attempt to capitalise upon its previous success, and the accompanying album Blue Hotel (1977),[2] yielded only one further single, even though Noosha was the lead singer on all its tracks.
Noosha Fox left the band after Blue Hotel.[2] Armstrong and Young continued to work together in the band Yellow Dog.[2] Their second single for Virgin became the first hit single that Virgin Records released, "Just One More Night" making it to No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart. After a short period of success, Armstrong went on to work with Van Morrison, and Solley later joined Procol Harum.[2] Noosha launched a solo career, and her first single, "Georgina Bailey",[2] written and produced by Young, briefly entered the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart (reaching number 31) in 1977.[3]
In 1979, Noosha Fox tried to restart her solo career with a single, "The Heat Is On" (a song written by Florrie Palmer and Tony Ashton), on Chrysalis Records. A later version of the song, by ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog, was a European hit four years later. Noosha recorded several singles in the early 1980s for the Earlobe label but none were successful, and she evidently retired from the music industry, although she did not return to Australia.
Fox reformed briefly in 1980, releasing the new wave-influenced "Electro People", written as the theme music for the Kenny Everett Show in 1981.[5] The band considered a reunion in the early 1990s, but the tracks recorded at this time were unreleased until 2004, when they appeared as bonus tracks on the Tails of Illusion CD.
After the band
In 2007, it was reported, on BBC Radio 4's The Music Group, that Noosha Fox was working on new material. An unreleased track from that time called "Judy Blue" is available via YouTube Music.[6] In April 2011, her son Ben Goldacre confirmed that she is actively making music[7][8] but no more new material has been released.
Herbie Armstrong recently tried to find solo success, appearing on the 2011 series of Britain's Got Talent. He made it through to the live semi-finals but did not make it through to the final. In his semi-final, he appeared singing a version of Barry Manilow's hit, "Mandy".
Sheila Cecilia Escovedo, known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American singer and drummer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist for the George Duke Band. After separating from the group in 1983, Sheila began collaborating with Prince and launched a solo career, starting with the release of her debut album in 1984, which included her biggest hit "The Glamorous Life". She also saw a hit with the 1985 single "A Love Bizarre". She is sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Percussion".
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Bad Company was an English rock supergroup that was formed in London in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, drummer Simon Kirke, guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz Burrell. Kirke was the only member to remain throughout the band's entire run, while he and Ralphs were the only members to appear on every studio album. Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also managed Bad Company until 1982.
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Kenny Young was an American songwriter, musician, producer and environmental campaigner who wrote and in some cases produced hit songs for The Drifters, Ronnie Dove, Herman's Hermits, Mark Lindsay, Reparata and the Delrons, Clodagh Rodgers, Quincy Jones, and Fox, among others. His most successful and famous songs as a writer include the Grammy Hall of Fame song "Under the Boardwalk", and the Grammy Award winning song, "Ai No Corrida". From the late 1960s, he lived in the UK.
Noosha Fox is an Australian singer. She is known as the lead singer of the band Fox, who had three UK chart hits in 1975 and 1976. She also had a number 31 hit as a solo performer with "Georgina Bailey".
Tails of Illusion is the second album by pop rock band Fox released in 1975.
Brian Anthony Howe was an English rock singer, best known for replacing Paul Rodgers as the lead vocalist of Bad Company. Howe's career was jump-started in 1983 when Ted Nugent recruited him to handle lead vocals for his Penetrator album and front its subsequent world tour.
"I Only Want to Be with You" is a song written by Mike Hawker and Ivor Raymonde. The debut solo single released by British singer Dusty Springfield under her long-time producer Johnny Franz, "I Only Want to Be with You" peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles chart in January 1964.
Kenny was an English pop, rock and glam rock band that formed in London in 1974. They had several hit singles in the UK in the mid-1970s, including "The Bump" and "Fancy Pants".
Yellow Dog was a British based rock band from the 1970s, best known for their one-hit wonder song "Just One More Night".
Fox is the debut album by the band of the same name released 17 May 1975. The cover photography was by Gered Mankowitz.
"Imagine Me, Imagine You" is a 1975 song by pop group Fox. Written by the group's founder Kenny Young, it was taken from their debut album Fox. It reached no. 15 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1975, becoming the band's third highest charting single and ultimately spending 8 weeks in the chart. However, the song reached its highest chart peak on the German chart where it reached no. 7.
"S-S-S-Single Bed" is a song by British-based pop group Fox from their third album Blue Hotel. Written and produced by the group's founder Kenny Young, it became their third and final hit on the UK Singles Chart in May 1976, spending 10 weeks on the chart and reaching a peak of number four. It marked a return to success for Fox, whose second album Tails of Illusion and its single "Strange Ships" had failed to chart. The song was most successful in singer Noosha Fox's native Australia, where it reached number one for four weeks in August 1976.
"Only You Can" is a 1975 song by pop group Fox. Written by the group's founder Kenny Young, it was the band's debut single and later appeared on their debut album Fox. Initially released as "Only You" in the summer of 1974, a reissue of the single with the track retitled "Only You Can" became a No. 3 hit on the UK Singles chart in March 1975, ultimately spending 11 weeks on the chart.
Herbert Christopher Armstrong is a Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is known for his collaborations with Kenny Young in the bands Fox and Yellow Dog, and with Van Morrison in the early 1960s and again in the 1980s.
References
↑ Wilde, Diana: The Glam Rock Files. Independent September 2017. ISBN978-1549647253. Pages 62-63
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