| Oh Boy! | |
|---|---|
 title screen with logo | |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Jack Good |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company | ABC Weekend TV |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 13 September 1958 – 30 May 1959 |
| Related | |
| Boy Meets Girls (1959) | |
Oh Boy! was the first teenage all-music show on British TV, airing in 1958 and 1959. It was produced by Jack Good for ITV.
Good had previously produced Six-Five Special for the BBC Television, but wanted to drop the sport and public-service content from this show and concentrate on the music. The BBC would not accept this, so Good resigned.
ABC Weekend TV allowed Good to make two pilot all-music shows, which were broadcast on the ITV network, 10.50-11.20pm, on Sunday 15 and Sunday 29 June 1958. [1] These pilots were successful, so the programme was given an ITV slot on Saturday evenings, from 6.00pm – 6.30pm, in direct competition with 6.5 Special, but starting slightly earlier. [2]
The hosts were Tony Hall, a jazz record producer and critic, and Jimmy Henney, and the artists covered a broad spectrum of music including ballads, jazz, skiffle and rock and roll. The show was broadcast live from the Hackney Empire.
Each week Oh Boy! featured resident artists plus a selection of special guests. The residents included Cuddly Dudley, who sang on 21 shows, Cliff Richard (20 shows), the Drifters (later to become the Shadows) (17 shows), Marty Wilde (17 shows) and the Dallas Boys (10 shows). Guests included Billy Fury, Dickie Pride, Tony Sheridan, Shirley Bassey and Lonnie Donegan; with occasional US stars, such as the Inkspots, Conway Twitty and Brenda Lee. [3] The solo artists were supported by a specially created house band Lord Rockingham's XI, who went on to have hits in their own right, including a No 1 single "Hoots Mon". Performers were also supported by the singing and dancing of the Vernons Girls, the Dallas Boys and Neville Taylor's Cutters
Eight episodes were re-broadcast in the US, but only three of the 38 shows (or 40 shows including the two pilots) still exist. The last of the original shows was broadcast in the UK on 30 May 1959. [4] At the end of that final show, it was announced that the programme was taking a break for the summer but would return on 12 September. [5] However, in the event it was a successor series also produced by Good, Boy Meets Girls starring Marty Wilde, which began its run on that date. [6]
The show was revived in 1979 for the retro rock and roll stars of the day. This time the show included Shakin' Stevens, Alvin Stardust, Joe Brown, Lulu, Mr. Lee Grant, Freddie 'Fingers' Lee, Les Gray, Tim Whitnall, Johnny Storm (now performing with the Johnny Storm Band), the Shades and Fumble. Joe Brown was the only one of the artists who was performing across the UK in the 1950s to appear on the 1970s Oh Boy! show. Alvin Stardust first emerged on the 1950s scene as Shane Fenton and the Fentones. The presenter of the show was "GBH", alias of Scottish actor Billy Hartman.
Following the Oh Boy! TV show, a similar series, Let's Rock, was created also by Good. The shows were broadcast across Europe and in the US in the early 1980s.
| Jack Good's Oh Boy! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Live album by Cliff Richard, the John Barry Seven, the Dallas Boys, Neville Taylor and the Cutters, the Vernons Girls, Vince Eager, Cuddly Dudley, Peter Elliot | |
| Released | December 1958 |
| Recorded | 19 & 21 October 1958 |
| Genre | Pop |
| Label | Parlophone |
| Producer | Harry Robinson |
Jack Good's Oh Boy! is a live album made up of tracks by various artists featured on the Oh Boy! TV series. The artists include Cliff Richard, the John Barry Seven, the Dallas Boys, Vince Eager, Cuddly Dudley, Neville Taylor and the Cutters, Peter Elliot and the Vernons Girls. [7]
The album was arranged by Oh Boy! musical director Harry Robinson and recorded by EMI's Norman Newell before a live audience on 19 October 1958, except for Cliff Richard's vocal tracks which were recorded two nights later by EMI's Malcolm Addey and added to the backing tracks recorded at the earlier session. The recordings were made at EMI's Abbey Road Studios. [7] [8]
Terence Nelhams Wright, known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. As a British rock and roll teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with "What Do You Want?" (1959) and "Poor Me" (1960). He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the top 5, and was ultimately one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He was also one of the first UK acts to record original songs regularly.
Ronald Wycherley, better known by his stage name Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he equalled the Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s and spent 332 weeks on the UK chart. His hit singles include "Wondrous Place", "Halfway to Paradise" and "Jealousy". Fury also maintained a film career, notably playing rock performers in Play It Cool in 1962 and That'll Be the Day in 1973.
Brian Laurence Bennett, is an English drummer, pianist, composer and producer of popular music. He is best known as the drummer of the UK rock and roll group the Shadows. He is the father of musician and Shadows band member Warren Bennett.
EMI America Records was launched in 1978 by EMI Records as a companion US label to EMI's Capitol Records. It absorbed Liberty Records in 1984. In the late 1980s, EMI America was consolidated with Manhattan Records to form EMI Manhattan Records, which later became known as EMI USA and then simply as EMI in 1990, then part of EMI Records Group North America (ERG) in 1992, when the then-Thorn EMI acquired Virgin Records America. Since 2013, this organization of labels has been under Universal Music's Capitol Music Group while the reissues of recordings have been distributed by former sister label Capitol Records.
Marty Wilde, is a British singer and actor. He was among the first generation of British pop stars to emulate American rock and roll, scoring several 1950s and 1960s hit singles including "Endless Sleep", "Sea of Love" and "Bad Boy". During the late 1960s to early 1980s, Wilde continued to record and, with Ronnie Scott, co-wrote hit singles for others including the Casuals' "Jesamine" and Status Quo's "Ice in the Sun". He is the father of pop singer Kim Wilde and co-wrote many of her hit singles including "Kids in America" with his son Ricky. He continues to perform and record.
The Shadows were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre-Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard from 1958 to 1968, and have joined him for several reunion tours.
Six-Five Special is a British television programme launched in February 1957 when both television and rock and roll were in their infancy in Britain.
Jack Good was a British television producer, musical theatre producer, record producer, musician and painter of icons. As a television producer, he was responsible for the early popular music shows Six-Five Special, Oh Boy!, Boy Meets Girls and Wham!!, the first UK teenage music programmes. Good managed some of the UK's first rock and roll stars, including Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Jess Conrad and Cliff Richard.
James George Tomkins, known professionally as Big Jim Sullivan, was an English guitarist.
The Vernons Girls were an English musical ensemble of female vocalists. They were formed at the Vernons football pools company in the 1950s in Liverpool, settling down to a sixteen strong choir and recording an album of standards.
The Grimleys is a comedy-drama television series set on a council estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England in the mid-1970s. It was first broadcast by Granada TV for ITV in 1999, following a pilot in 1997, and concluded in 2001 after three series.
Clemente Anselmo Agustino Cattini is an English rock and roll drummer of the late 1950s and 60s, who was a member of The Tornados before becoming well known for his work as a session musician. He is one of the most prolific drummers in UK recording history, appearing on hundreds of recordings by artists as diverse as Cliff Richard and Lou Reed, and has featured on 42 UK number one singles.
"Move It" is a song written by Ian Samwell and recorded by Cliff Richard and the Drifters. Originally intended as the B-side to "Schoolboy Crush", it was released as Richard's debut single on 29 August 1958 and became his first hit record, reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. It is credited with being one of the first authentic rock and roll songs produced outside the United States. "Schoolboy Crush", written by Aaron Schroeder and Sharon Gilbert, had already been recorded in the US by Bobby Helms. Cliff Richard and the Drifters recorded their own version, which was intended to be the A-side of their debut single. However, when producer Jack Good heard "Move It", he insisted that Richard would have to sing that if he was to appear on Good's TV show Oh Boy! On the planned single, "Move It" was flipped to be the A-side and it went to number 2 in the charts, starting Cliff Richard on a career which included British hits through six decades.
Ian Stuart Colman was an English musician, record producer and broadcaster. Allmusic noted that he "has an impressive catalogue as a record producer and much of Shakin' Stevens success can be attributed to Colman". Over the decades, Colman worked with a diverse array of musicians including Billy Fury, The Blasters, Cliff Richard, Phil Everly, Alvin Stardust, The Jets, The Inmates and Little Richard.
Lord Rockingham's XI was a group of British session musicians, led by Harry Robinson (1932–1996), who had a No. 1 hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1958 with "Hoots Mon".
Boy Meets Girls was a UK popular music TV show which was launched in September 1959 replacing the earlier show Oh Boy!.
The John Barry Seven was a band formed by John Barry in 1957, after he abandoned his original career path of arranging for big bands.
British rock and roll, or sometimes British rock 'n' roll, is a style of popular music based on American rock and roll, which emerged in the late 1950s and was popular until the arrival of beat music in 1962. It was important in establishing British youth and popular music culture and was a key factor in subsequent developments that led to the British Invasion of the mid-1960s. Since the 1960s, some stars of the genre, most notably Cliff Richard, have managed to sustain successful careers and there have been periodic revivals of this form of music.
Cuddly Dudley, born Dudley Heslop, was a Jamaican-born British rock & roll singer who came to fame on the Oh Boy! TV series, and is noted for being "Britain's first black rock & roller".
From a Distance: The Event is a live album by Cliff Richard, released in 1990 by EMI. The album was recorded in June 1989 at Richard's "The Event" concert, held at Wembley Stadium in London.
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