The Dave Clark Five - Across Canada

By rights The Dave Clark Five should be mentioned in the same sentence as The Beatles and Rolling Stones when it comes to the best bands to ever come out of England. There was a time Dave Clark had managed to do what his contemporaries had failed to do. Control their publishing. From the earliest days of the Dave Clark Five, Dave Clark was the band's manager, producer and publisher. Every song, whether he was part of the song's creation or not, he was listed as co-writer and publisher. While The Dave Clark Five was in name a band, it was Dave Clark and four salaried employees.

However, as time marched on, and make no mistake it marches along whether you keep in step or not ... The Dave Clark Five slowly faded from the public eye. When the burgeoning market for CDs was starting to take hold, and bands were re-issuing their back catalogues Dave Clark was being a hold out waiting to cash in on the CD boom ... meanwhile The Beatles who held out for a while started releasing their material first in mono, then stereo, then boxes, and the remasters and on and on. Dave Clark was still waiting for the perfect moment ... and then the moment was gone. Any demand that may have been pent up slowly dissipated and eventually like an old helium balloon there was nothing to keep things floating.

By the time people were able to satisfy any demand, The Dave Clark Five were relegated to the sidelines. What should have been, became a never was, and a glorified trivia question.

"I'll take forgotten bands for 100 Alex."

"Which UK band between 1963 and 1969 had 14 songs crack the top 40. Including a number 1 single that knocked The Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" out of the top spot?"

I've always kind of wanted a DC5 record, and just haven't stumbled upon anything. However as fate would have it my buddy Paul was getting rid of a couple of boxes of old records, and I managed to save a small pile of records. What I will refer to as my Paul Pile. Across Canada featured the same track listing as the 1964 US release Coast to Coast. Paul White is credited with Canadian Production and was pretty much responsible for A&R with Capitol Records Canada and helped break The Beatles, and as fate would have it The Dave Clark Five. Paul White was instrumental in creating the "6000" series that was instrumental in bringing the British Invasion to our shores. The one I have is T 6103 which is a mono release. The record is over 60 years old and you can tell this spent a lot of time being played. It's still in pretty decent shape and for me any crackle and pop just added to the feeling of discovery.

The album contained 11 tracks, with only 4 cresting two minutes in length. The band was on a mission and they weren't wasting time. The songs were produced by Adrian Clark, which was the nom de plume of ADRIAN Kerridge and Dave CLARK.

In the studio the band was supported by session players. Vocalist Mike Smith sang, and Lenny Davidson played guitar and Denis Payton would also play sax. However Dave himself was usually in the control room, and often bassist Rick Huxley was watching from the sidelines.

The band's sound was huge and the drums were front and centre courtesy of Bobby Graham. A lot of the UK bands, including The Early Beatles would be loosely categorized as having the "Merseybeat Sound." In contrast The Dave Clark Five came up with what they called the "Tottenham Sound" which was centred on being loud, booming and aggressive.

Listening to the songs on Across Canada, you get the sense this was competing with The Beatles and Herman's Hermits, and The Dave Clark Five was killing it. However, as time marched on bands like The Dave Clark Five stayed in their lane and really never evolved ... whereas The Beatles and The Stones were willing to adapt. However for one glorious moment they were all part of a connected Venn diagram where they were lumped into the centre of what was going on.

This collection opens with "Any Way You Want It," which feels like the faders were pushed to 10. The sound is on the verge of breaking up and the use of delay on Mike's voice was awesome. If the intent was to try and capture the feeling of "Glad All Over" the band did what it set out to do. This is the longest song on the record coming in at about two and a half minutes, and frankly it is the centrepiece of the collection.

The other song that caught my attention was "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)" that was more of a mid tempo pop song where Mike's vocals carry the song. The song would end up being a hit in Canada and the US. The only complaint is the song is too short. Less than two minutes. The more I play this the more things start to gel ... it is pretty infectious. I'll stop highlighting tracks and just say this was way better than I had figured it would be.

To my ears listening now trying to distinguish between Mersey and Tottenham is a bit like trying to split hairs. They sort of sound the same. Admittedly there was something cool about the DC5 but at this point it's not an insult to jump it all into a blender now and say it sounds like the early '60s.

Still for most of the decade The Dave Clark Five was a big deal ... then Dave Clark himself forgot that being out of print was being out of sight, and being out of sight is out of the public eye and it didn't take long for people to forget.

In fairness not everyone forgot, and the band's aging stalwart fans successfully lobbied to have them on the ballot for the RRHOF and in 2008, months before Mike Smith, the co-writer and vocalist for the band, passed away, they were inducted by Tom Hanks. No doubt most people in the room wondered who they were.