
Back in 1971 Daddy Cool released their Lollipop Extended Play. The ‘A’ side was titled the ‘Jump Side’ and the reverse the ‘School Side’. The idea was to feature each of the lads vocally on one of the songs and, in one case, his instrument of choice. Now I wasn’t a big fan of their Doo Wop stuff (Lollipop was okay thanks to Hanna’s deep vocal), but this EP was a favourite of the author as Ross blew harp on two of the tracks. They had a great cover of Marvin and Johnny’s Flip (even better Live) with Ross placing the harp where the sax lines would have been and legendary drummer Gary Young providing the fine vocal. Ross loved the tenor sax and he had a crack at learning it, but he told HRR that it was just too hard to master. So instead he would develop his harmonica style by copying Lee Allan sax riffs on his ten hole tin can and hammering on Joe Houston sax blows – just repeating the same thing over and over. Repetition is your friend, my friend.

Just briefly on Marvin & Johnny – there was only one Marvin, Marvin Phillips, but there were quite a few Johnny’s (at least six) – none actually having the name Johnny! Marvin (pictured left on the photograph above) is seen here with the ‘Johnny’ who was Emery Perry. They were both saxophonists with the Richard Lewis Band. Carl Green, a one time Johnny, penned Flip and he belted out the vocal on their record. Daddy Cool had already covered a Marvin & Johnny tune on their debut album ‘Daddy Who? Daddy Cool’ – with perhaps the more familiar Cherry Pie. Interestingly they also covered a Carl Green tune on their comeback release of 2006, New Cool. The song in question is Hey Senorita, which was initially recorded by The Penguins.

The other song on the Lollipop or DCEP (Daddy Cool Extended Play) with harp was Jerry’s Jump with, new boy on the block, saxophone player Jeremy Noone. When I say “new boy” I mean for Daddy Cool. Jeremy had teamed with the lads in a previous ‘prog’ outfit ‘Sons of the Vegetal Mother’. It was an instrumental jam that originated out of the the recording session with Ross creating the main riff and then he and Jeremy fleshed out the rest. I remember researching Jeremy Noone and finding virtually nothing on him, but another name appeared on the radar, a Jeremy Kellock. Ross Wilson explained to HRR that Jeremy Kellock was attempting to avoid being conscripted for Vietnam. So he changed his surname to Noone combining the words ‘no one’! How clever. Jeremy would play on the second album, Sex, Drugs & Rock’n’Roll, however he wasn’t keen on the touring side of things and was replaced with guitarist Ian Winter for their tour of America.

Ross played in second position on both songs on the DCEP using a ‘D’ harp on Flip and a ‘C’ harp on Jerry’s Jump.




Cheers

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