One More Time (Them song)

Last updated
"One More Time"
One More Time Them.jpg
Swedish single sleeve
Single by Them
B-side "How Long Baby"
Released11 June 1965 (1965-06-11)
Recorded14 May 1965 (1965-05-14)
Studio Decca, London
Genre Soul
Length2:48
Label Decca
Songwriter(s) Van Morrison
Producer(s) Tommy Scott
Them singles chronology
"Here Comes the Night"
(1965)		"One More Time"
(1965)		"(It Won't Hurt) Half as Much"
(1965)
Audio
"One More Time" on YouTube

"One More Time" is a song written by Northern Irish singer Van Morrison, originally recorded by his band Them. Morrison wrote the song after Them's third single "Here Comes the Night" had become a top-ten hit in the UK. A soul ballad, "One More Time" was recorded at Decca Studios with producer Tommy Scott. Released as a single on 11 June 1965, "One More" time was a commercial failure, only managing to briefly crack the Melody Maker chart, but was a top-ten single in Sweden. Reception for the single was mixed, with most critics praising Morrison's vocal performance, but deeming the track to be weaker than "Here Comes the Night".

Contents

Background and recording

On 5 March 1965, Northern Irish group Them released their third single in the United Kingdom, "Here Comes the Night". [1] The single reached number two on the UK singles chart and number 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100. [2] [3] The success of the single indicated that "they might emerge as rich pop stars". [4] The follow-up to their hit would be a song written by lead vocalist Van Morrison,"One More Time" was written by the band's lead vocalist Van Morrison during a period where they were notoriously uncooperative with journalists; when Richard Green of Record Mirror asked Morrison how he wrote the song, Morrison allegedly responded with "I got a pencil and wrote it on a piece of paper". [5] Morrison considered the song a soul ballad. [6] On the contrary, according to author Clinton Heylin, Morrison "had very little idea" of how to compose a pop song, as "One More Time" lacked both the "raw rasp" of "Gloria" (1964) and the "snappy drive" of "Here Comes the Night". [7]

Them recorded "One More Time" during the last of three recording sessions for their debut album The "Angry" Young Them on 14 May 1965 at Decca Studios in London together with the tracks "I'm Gonna Dress In Black", "How Long Baby", "If You and I Could Be As Two" and "You Just Can't Win". [8] [9] The session was produced by Scottish producer Tommy Scott, engineered by Vic Smith and featured session musicians Bobby Graham on drums and Phil Coulter on piano. [8] According to Morrison, Scott had attempted to give the song a commercial touch, adding echo to his vocals, something that Morrison did not find out about until a few days after the song was recorded, when he received an acetate of the song. [10]

Release and reception

Decca Records released "One More Time" as the follow-up single to "Here Comes the Night" on 11 June 1965, [1] [11] [nb 1] a release date which coincided with the release of The "Angry" Young Them album. [12] The B-side was "How Long Baby", which had been written by Tommy Scott under the pseudonym M. Gillon. [1] [13] The single's release was shrouded in controversy amongst the band's members; guitarist Billy Harrison stated that "One More Time" didn't constitute of "single material" and that they should've released the song "(It Won't Hurt) Half as Much", which was written by Bert Berns. [9] [nb 2] Morrison stated that Berns "disappeared", prompting Scott to issue "One More Time" as a single instead. [15] Harrison instead argues the group's manager Phil Solomon decided to release the record, as the song was written by Morrison and Solomon owned the publishing rights to his songs. [7] Nonetheless, Solomon paid for a full-page ad in New Musical Express to promote the release. [10]

Despite the fanfare surrounding the group at the time, [7] "One More Time" failed to chart entirely on the Record Retailer chart. [12] Out of all the British music trade publications, it solely charted on Melody Maker's Pop 50 chart, where it reached number 48 for a sole week in early July 1965. [16] The chart failure of "One More Time" left Morrison to "lose faith in Them". [5] Harrison stated that they had found out about the single's release when the band had heard it being played on the radio. [17] Morrison instead blamed Tommy Scott's production of the song as a key reason behind the chart failure, as he had turned it into a "commercial thing" which didn't fully represent Them's style. [6] However, the song managed to become a top-ten hit in Sweden during August 1965, reaching numbers six and nine on Tio i Topp and Kvällstoppen, respectively. [18] [19] Because it wasn't a hit in the UK, Parrot Records did not give "One More Time" a single release in the US. [12] Although excluded from The "Angry" Young Them in the UK, Parrot Records replaced five songs from said album and replaced them by "Here Comes the Night", "One More Time" and "One Two Brown Eyes", giving the song its first album release in August 1965. [20]

Upon release, "One More Time" received primarily mixed reviews in the British music press. Writing for Disc Weekly, journalist Penny Valentine wrote that the song was reminiscent of the the Rolling Stones covering a Solomon Burke song. [21] She notes that Morrison "sings insinuatingly" as if he had "hot potatoes in his mouth". [21] Although she writes that the song is professionally performed, she believes the backing and lyrical content to be uninspired, which didn't strike her as "being as good as their earlier disks". [21] She noted that the song was "very slow indeed". [22] In New Musical Express, critic Derek Johnson stated that Morrison "generated much more soul" compared to his "British contempories". [23] He noted it to be a "slow-pounding beat ballad", praising Morrison's vocals for their "immense" and "heart-searching feeling". [23] However, Johnson believed "One More Time" didn't strike him as a hit in the same way as "Here Comes the Night" did, but believed it to become a hit. [23] Norman Jopling and Peter Jones of Record Mirror believed Morrison's vocal performance to be raucous with a "vocal whack", though believes the short spoken word section detracts from the performance. [24] They also praise Harrison's guitar playing and the drums as "reasonably well controlled". [24]

Personnel

According to the essay Them Studio Sessions. [8]

Charts

Weekly chart performance for "One More Time"
Chart (1965)Peak
position
Sweden (Kvällstoppen) [19] 9
Sweden (Tio i Topp) [18] 6
UK (Melody Maker Pop 50) [16] 48

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Catalogue number Decca F 12175. [12]
  2. ↑ Harrison got his will through as "(It Won't Hurt) Half as Much" was released as Them's fifth single on 27 August 1965. [14] However, by that point Harrison had left the band. [7]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Morrison 2015, p. 9.
  2. ↑ "Them". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 24 January 2025. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
  3. ↑ Tracy 1987, p. 5.
  4. ↑ Rogan 2005, p. 125.
  5. 1 2 Rogan 1984, p. 41.
  6. 1 2 Rogan 2005, p. 126.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Heylin 2004, p. 105.
  8. 1 2 3 Anon. (2016). "Them Studio Sessions". Prof. Stoned. pp. 5–6. Archived from the original on 2 May 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
  9. 1 2 Morrison 2015, p. 14.
  10. 1 2 Rogan 2005, pp. 125–126.
  11. ↑ "New discs from Dusty, Adam, Them" (PDF). Record Mirror . 5 June 1965. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 May 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2025– via WorldRadioHistory. All three discs are released on June 11. Van Morrison, Them's lead singer, penned the group's newie "One More Time".
  12. 1 2 3 4 Tracy 1987, p. 6.
  13. ↑ Rogan 2005, p. 143, 520.
  14. ↑ Morrison 2015, p. 10.
  15. ↑ Morrison 2015, p. 5.
  16. 1 2 "Melody Maker Pop 50". Melody Maker . 3 July 1965. p. 2.
  17. ↑ Heylin 2004, p. 109.
  18. 1 2 Hallberg & Henningsson, pp. 374, 445.
  19. 1 2 Hallberg 1993, p. 434.
  20. ↑ Rogan 2005, p. 593.
  21. 1 2 3 Valentine, Penny (12 June 1965). "THEM are not as good this time". Disc Weekly . p. 11.
  22. ↑ Valentine, Penny (12 June 1965). "THEM are not as good this time". Disc Weekly . p. 11. quoted in Rogan (2005 , p. 125)
  23. 1 2 3 Johnson, Derek (11 June 1965). "Them's new smash" (PDF). New Musical Express . p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 May 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2025– via WorldRadioHistory.
  24. 1 2 Jopling, Norman; Jones, Peter (12 June 1965). "A raucous slowie from Them" (PDF). Record Mirror . p. 9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2025– via WorldRadioHistory.

Sources

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