Thank Your Lucky Stars | |
---|---|
Genre | Music Variety |
Presented by | |
Judges |
|
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 8 |
No. of episodes | 250 |
Production | |
Producer | Philip Jones [1] |
Production locations | Alpha Studios, Birmingham |
Production company | ABC Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 1 April 1961 – 31 December 1966 |
Thank Your Lucky Stars was a British television pop music show made by ABC Weekend TV, and broadcast on ITV from 1961 to 1966. [2] Of all the show's presenters, Brian Matthew is perhaps the best remembered. Many of the leading pop groups of the time performed on it. As well as featuring British artists, it often included American guest stars.
It would appear from the surviving footage that the bands mimed their latest 45. Occasionally a band was allowed to do two numbers (possibly the A-side and B-side sides of their latest single or an EP or LP track); bands of a higher status such as The Beatles or The Rolling Stones would sometimes play up to as many as four numbers.
A typical 1961 programme listing included The Dale Sisters, Adam Faith, John Leyton, The Brook Brothers, Geoff Goddard and Dion. [3]
Audience participation was a feature of Thank Your Lucky Stars, and the Spin-a-Disc section, in which a guest DJ and three teenagers reviewed three singles, was a feature of the show. Generally, American singles were reviewed. It was on that segment that Janice Nicholls appeared. She was a former office clerk from the English Midlands who became known for the catchphrase "Oi'll give it foive" which she said with a strong Black Country accent. After she was dropped from the show she trained as a chiropodist and ran a practice in Hednesford in Staffordshire. Billy Butler was another reviewer. [4]
The Beatles' second national television performance was on the programme, the first being on children's programme Tuesday Rendezvous on 4 December 1962. The first theme song was by Peter Knight & The Knightriders and, later on, "Lunar Walk" by Johnny Hawksworth was used.
The show ended on 25 June 1966, after two thousand artists appearances. The Musicians' Union was not in favour of such shows because, until the change of policy in 1966, the songs were mimed.[ citation needed ]
The vast majority of Thank Your Lucky Stars shows are lost. Only a small handful are known have survived in full, as well as incomplete segments from other shows. [5]
The Generation X song "Ready Steady Go!" referred to the show in its lyric: "I'm not in love with Juke Box Jury/I'm not in love with Thank Your Lucky Stars". [6]
List of notable events in music that took place in the year 1966.
Gerry and the Pacemakers, were a British beat group prominent in the 1960s Merseybeat scene. In common with the Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, and were recorded by George Martin. Their early successes alongside the Beatles were instrumental in popularizing the Merseybeat sound and launching the wider British beat boom of the mid-1960s.
The Fourmost are an English Merseybeat band that recorded in the 1960s. Their biggest UK hit single was "A Little Loving" in 1964.
Helen Kate Shapiro is a British pop and jazz singer and actress. While still a teenager in the early 1960s, she was one of Britain's most successful female singers. With a voice described by AllMusic as possessing "the maturity and sensibilities of someone far beyond their teen years", Shapiro recorded two 1961 UK chart toppers, "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness", when she was just 14 years old.
Juke Box Jury was a music panel show which ran on BBC Television between 1 June 1959 and 27 December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series. The American series, which was televised, aired from 1953 to 1959 and was hosted by Peter Potter, Suzanne Alexander, Jean Moorhead, and Lisa Davis.
"Paperback Writer" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, the song was released as the A-side of their eleventh single in May 1966. It topped singles charts in the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, West Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Norway. On the US Billboard Hot 100, the song was at number one for two non-consecutive weeks, being interrupted by Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night".
Ready Steady Go! was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light entertainment programme different from the low-brow style of light entertainment transmitted by ATV. The programme was produced without scenery or costumes and with a minimum of choreography and make-up. Allan recruited a fellow journalist, Francis Hitching, as producer. Hitching became a major figure in light entertainment in the 1960s. Robert Fleming was the first director, followed by the documentary director Rollo Gamble, then Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Daphne Shadwell and Peter Croft.
"Please Please Me" is a song released by the English rock band the Beatles. It was their second single in the United Kingdom, and their first in the United States. It is also the title track of their first LP, which was recorded to capitalise on the success of the single. It is a John Lennon composition, although its ultimate form was significantly influenced by producer George Martin.
Brian Matthew was an English broadcaster who worked for the BBC for 63 years from 1954 until 2017. He was the host of Saturday Club, among other programmes, and began presenting Sounds of the 60s in March 1990, often employing the same vocabulary and the same measured delivery he had used in previous decades.
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.
Thank Your Lucky Stars is a 1943 American musical comedy film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser, with a slim plot involving theater producers. The stars donated their salaries to the Hollywood Canteen, which was founded by John Garfield and Bette Davis, who appear in this film. It was directed by David Butler and stars Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S.Z. Sakall.
The Music of Lennon & McCartney is a 1965 British television special honouring the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the English rock band the Beatles. It was produced by Granada Television and aired on that station on 16 December 1965 before receiving a national broadcast across the entire ITV network, of which Granada was a part, the following evening. The programme mainly consisted of other artists miming to their recordings of Lennon–McCartney songs, interspersed with scripted commentary from Lennon and McCartney. In addition, the Beatles performed both sides of their current single, "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out". Peter Sellers performed a comedic interpretation of "A Hard Day's Night", in the style of stage actor Laurence Olivier's portrayal of Richard III.
Tuesday Rendezvous was a British children's television show which was transmitted on Tuesdays (obviously) and Fridays (oddly).
English Freakbeat, Volume 3 is a compilation album in the English Freakbeat series, featuring recordings that were released decades earlier, in the mid-1960s.
The Interns were a Welsh pop group, who performed under that name between 1964 and 1967. They issued four singles in the UK.
This is a list of British television related events from 1966.
James Radcliffe was an American soul singer, composer, arranger, conductor and record producer.
The Dale Sisters were an English vocal trio, who had limited chart success in the early 1960s. They are best remembered for their recordings of "Heartbeat" and "My Sunday Baby ", both of which became minor hits in the UK Singles Chart. Other songs they sang included "Billy Boy, Billy Boy", "Road to Love" and "All My Life". Their work, when they were billed by their alternative name of The England Sisters, was arranged by John Barry.
Lyn Cornell, sometimes billed as Lynn Cornell is an English pop and jazz singer. She is best known for her membership of The Vernons Girls, The Carefrees and The Pearls, having had at least one chart hit with each group, and as a solo artist with a Top 30 UK hit to her name.
Miming in instrumental performance or finger-synching is the act of musicians pretending to play their instruments in a live show, audiovisual recording or broadcast. Miming in instrument playing is the musical instrument equivalent of lip-syncing in singing performances, the action of pretending to sing while a prerecorded track of the singing is sounding over a PA system or on a TV broadcast or in a movie. In some cases, instrumentalists will mime playing their instruments, but the singing will be live. In some cases, the instrumentalists are miming playing their instruments and the singers are lip-synching while a backing track plays. As with lip-synching, miming instrument playing has been criticized by some music industry professionals and it is a controversial practice.