Emile Ford and the Checkmates

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 10/30/1959 (26 weeks)
On a slow boat to China
  UK 3 02/05/1960 (15 weeks)
You'll Never Know What You're Missing ('Til You Try)
  UK 12 05/26/1960 (9 weeks)
Them There Eyes (with the Babs Knight Group & Johnny Keating Music)
  UK 18th 09/01/1960 (16 weeks)
Counting teardrops
  UK 4th December 8, 1960 (12 weeks)
What am i gonna do
  UK 33 03/02/1961 (6 weeks)
Half of My Heart (as Emile Ford)
  UK 42 05/18/1961 (4 weeks)
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (as Emile Ford)
  UK 43 03/08/1962 (1 week)

Emile Ford and the Checkmates were a British rock and roll band from the early 1960s.

Band history

In the early 1950s, Emile Sweetman and his family came to England from Nassau, Bahamas. He went to Paddington Technical College and learned to play guitar alongside school. He combined both by developing his own sound system, which he used in place of the usual standard sound systems during his appearances with his brothers.

They were so good as musicians that they won a Soho music label Pye Records talent competition and got a record deal. Emile called himself "Emile Ford" and his band, the "Checkmates" consisted of his two step brothers George and Dave, Ken Street, Pete Carter, Les Hart, Alan Hawkshaw and John Cuffley.

Her first single was a more contemporary version of What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For . The song was first sung by Henry Lewis in 1916 on the Broadway show Follow Me . The version by Emile Ford & the Checkmates was produced by the legendary Joe Meek and was an instant hit. In late 1959, it became a number one hit in the UK for six weeks.

After the great success, they continued trying to record new classics. An EP with the titles Red Sails in the Sunset and Heavenly reached number 1 in the EP charts. And the second single, On a Slow Boat to China , reached number 3 on the singles charts. The song had already been a million-seller for Benny Goodman in 1948 .

The band was able to place three more singles in the top 20 in 1960, including another Meek production, the number 4 hit Counting Teardrops , but in 1961 success slowly went downhill. Another singer friend, Jimmy Justice , helped Emile and the Checkmates get into the pop business. Through the same competition and the same record company, Jimmy got his first single, which was released by Ford and on which he was accompanied by the Checkmates. Justice had two top 10 hits in 1962. This year Emile Ford was able to place himself in the charts one last time with I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now , then with the advent of beat music it got quiet around him and the checkmates.

The two brothers George Dave, who called themselves Sweetman-Ford, and drummer Barry Reeves continued in the band The Ferris Wheel . Alan Hawkshaw had successes with the bands Fancy and Love and Kisses as well as solo, works as a session musician for well-known artists such as the Shadows , Barbra Streisand and Olivia Newton-John and has also composed music for television.

Emile Ford was still on the road as a singer, but it became a trend for musicians to rely more and more on their own sound systems and he, as a pioneer, switched to marketing his system and his experience. In the late 1960s he moved to Scandinavia and has lived in California since the 1990s.

What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For

The song was written by Joseph McCarthy, Jimmy Monaco and Howard Johnson. It's not entirely clear who sang it first. The American Henry Lewis, who became known in New York on the Broadway comedy show Follow Me , recorded it in 1916 or 1917 and possibly sang it in the musical. From 1917 there is a recording as a duet by the two popular US singers Billy Murray and Ada Jones , possibly also later in a Broadway show The Better 'Ole .

Other versions of the song are available from:

  • Betty Hutton (1945), Ray Peterson (1960), Debbie Reynolds (1973), The Beatles, the Johnny Otis Show, Mickey Most, Ruby Wright and others. A.

The song hit the charts again in 1987 in the version of Shakin 'Stevens . The rockabilly singer, who also specialized in cover versions, had his last top 10 hit in Great Britain.

Members

  • Emile Ford (born October 16, 1937 in Castries , St. Lucia , † April 11, 2016 in London ), singer and guitarist
  • George Sweetman, bass player
  • Dave Sweetman, saxophonist
  • Ken Street, guitarist
  • John Cuffley, drums
  • Peter Carter, guitarist
  • Les Hart, saxophonist
  • Alan Hawkshaw, pianist

swell

  1. ^ British Hit Singles & Albums , 18th Edition, Guinness World Records Limited 2005, ISBN 9781904994008

Web links