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"The Game of Love" | ||||
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Single by Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders | ||||
from the album The Game of Love | ||||
B-side | "Since You've Been Gone" | |||
Released | January 22, 1965 (UK) February 1965 (US) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:04 | |||
Label | Fontana | |||
Songwriter(s) | Clint Ballard Jr. | |||
Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders singles chronology | ||||
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"The Game of Love" is a 1965 song by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, released in the United States as "Game of Love".
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Game Of Love" | C. Ballard Jr | 2:04 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
2. | "Since You've Been Gone" | Eric Stewart, Glyn Ellis, Bob Lang | 1:55 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Game Of Love" | C. Ballard Jr | 2:04 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
2. | "One More Time" | Stewart, Ellis | 2:06 |
The song reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 week of April 24, 1965 and No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1965.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
"The Game of Love" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Tex Pistol | ||||
from the album Nobody Else | ||||
B-side |
| |||
Released | 1987 | |||
Genre | Pop, rock | |||
Label | Pagan Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Clint Ballard Jr. | |||
Producer(s) | Ian Morris | |||
Tex Pistol singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Game of Love" at NZ on Screen |
The song was covered in 1987 by New Zealand musician Ian Morris, under the stage name Tex Pistol [13] and released as "The Game of Love".
Morris was looking for a "more commercial" follow up to his Tex Pistol debut single "The Ballad of Buckskin Bob". He had begun work on a cover of The Underdog's "Sitting In The Rain" when advertising music collaborator Jim Hall suggested "The Game of Love" as a good song to cover. Morris "immediately knew how it would sound". He credits its success to "a combination of technology of the time and a good simple song". [14]
The song is notable for its unusual drum sound. Morris had been working on the audio for a card ad at the time. His curiosity piqued by a supplied video clip of a racecar going over a hill, Morris recorded the sound, sped it up, and mixed it with a clip of a snare drum. [15] [16]
The song also features Callie Blood, Morris's later collaborator on advertising jingles, on backing vocals.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Game of Love" | C. Ballard Jr |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
2. | "Boot Heel Drag" (12" release only) | ||
3. | "W.11 to Whangaroa Bay" | Morris |
The song went to number 1 on the New Zealand music charts. [17] According to Morris's brother Rikki Morris, the song was a surprise hit and so the 500 pressed copies sold out, meaning that the single hit number one but could not remain there. [16]
The reworking of the song gave Morris a 1987 RIANZ award for best engineer and a nomination for best producer. The song was accompanied by a video by then-teenager Paul Middleditch that was also nominated for best video and is now considered one of the highlights of New Zealand 80s music-video making. [18]
The Mindbenders were an English beat group from Manchester, England. Originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana, they were one of several acts that were successful in the mid-1960s British Invasion of the US charts, achieving major chart hits with "The Game of Love" in 1965 and "A Groovy Kind of Love" in 1966.
Jennifer Patricia Morris is a New Zealand-Australian singer-songwriter. Her first success came with New Zealand band the Crocodiles, who had a top 20 hit single with "Tears". Re-locating to Sydney in February 1981, she was a backing vocalist for various groups and formed a trio, QED, in 1983.
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Glyn Geoffrey Ellis, known professionally as Wayne Fontana, was an English rock and pop singer best known for fronting the beat group the Mindbenders, with whom he recorded the hit singles "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" (1964) and "The Game of Love" (1965). After leaving the Mindbenders to pursue a solo career, Fontana had further UK successes including "Pamela Pamela" (1966). Despite legal issues in the 2000s, he continued to perform on the 60s nostalgia circuit until his death.
Clinton Conger Ballard Jr. was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. He wrote two Billboard Hot 100 number one hits. The first was "Game of Love" by Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders in 1965. The second was the 1975 hit, "You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt. He wrote two UK number one singles, recorded by Jimmy Jones and The Hollies.
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"It's Just a Little Bit Too Late" is a song written by Clint Ballard Jr. and Les Ledo, which was originally recorded by Clyde McPhatter in 1963. A British beat group named the Druids would release their version in 1964 before the definitive version by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders was recorded and released as a single in 1965. Their version was the second of three songs by Clint Ballard Jr. that the group recorded together with "The Game of Love" and "She Needs Love". Their rendition of the song reached number 20 in the UK's Record Retailer but failed to emulate the success of their previous single "The Game of Love", only reaching number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100.
...when they came out firing with "The Game Of Love," a blue-rock ripper...