Of the many British Invasion acts that stormed the charts in the wake of the Beatles, Chad & Jeremy possessed a subtlety and sophistication unmatched among their contemporaries, essentially creating the template for the kind of lush, sensitive folk-pop embraced by followers from Nick Drake to Belle & Sebastian. Chad Stuart (born in Windemere, England, on December 10, 1941) and Jeremy Clyde (born March 22, 1941, in Buckinghamshire, England) met while attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama. The two became fast friends, and after Stuart taught Clyde to play guitar, they formed a folk duo as well as a rock & roll group, the Jerks. Because he graduated a year ahead of his bandmates, Clyde relocated to Scotland and performed with the Dundee Repertory Theatre.
When the Jerks dissolved, Stuart dropped out of school, studied arranging, and wrote songs with composer Russell Franks. Clyde returned to London soon after, but in the face of an actors' strike, he resumed his music career, reunited with Stuart, and the duo landed a residency at the local coffeehouse, Tina's. Chad & Jeremy quickly earned a fan following, and in mid-1963 composer and producer John Berry signed the duo to the small independent label Ember Records. They released their debut single, "Yesterday's Gone," that autumn and it entered the U.K. Top 40. Remarkably, it would prove their only British hit of any real substance. Read on +/-
By the time their sophomore effort, "Like I Love You Today," was released in early 1964, Chad & Jeremy were headlining the West End landmark Hatchett's. Despite the increased exposure, the record flopped, and Berry bought out his Ember contract, relegating the duo's planned LP to producer Shel Talmy in the process. Soon after the release of Chad & Jeremy Sing for You, the Daily Express published a photo of a young Clyde (a graduate of the prestigious private school Eton and a descendent of the famed Duke of Wellington) in royal garb at the 1952 coronation of Queen Elizabeth.
Given the credibility afforded the working-class backgrounds of rockers like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the publicity proved a near-fatal blow, effectively branding Chad & Jeremy upper-crust nancy-boys merely pretending at careers in music. But, as the album tanked at home, Chad & Jeremy's U.S. label, World Artists, scored a Top 20 American hit with "Yesterday's Gone," followed in August of 1964 by "A Summer Song," a gorgeously nuanced and pastoral folk-pop masterpiece that cracked the Billboard Top Five. When "Willow Weep for Me" also charted in the U.S., Chad & Jeremy relocated to California and signed with the infamous manager Allen Klein, who negotiated a buyout of their World Artists contract and landed the duo a new deal with Columbia.
In late 1964, Chad & Jeremy made their American television debut on The Hollywood Palace. William Morris agent John Hartman was so impressed with their performance that he offered his representation, which resulted in appearances on the sitcoms The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show. Chad & Jeremy were television fixtures for years to come, additionally appearing on The Danny Kaye Show, Shindig, and Hullabaloo. Between tour stops and studio dates, the pace was relentless and, in the spring of 1965, Stuart was leveled by mononucleosis. When Clyde accepted a role in the London musical Passion Flower Hotel (a nine-month commitment), he and Stuart quickly recorded an LP, I Don't Want to Lose You Baby, while the latter continued his rehabilitation.
The duo maintained they were not breaking up, but rumors reached a fever pitch when Clyde failed to return to the U.S. for a scheduled Chicago performance and forced Stuart to take the stage alone with a cardboard cutout of his partner under his arm. Stuart next released a record called "The Cruel War" with his wife, Jill, while Clyde cut a John Barry-produced solo single, "I Love My Love." Neither earned much attention, and at year's end Chad & Jeremy reunited to make a new album, Distant Shores, and film a proposed pilot for NBC. The show was rejected (in favor of another project with a rock & roll theme, The Monkees) and Chad & Jeremy instead guested on two episodes of the blockbuster Batman.
Chad & Jeremy spent close to a year in the studio with producer Gary Usher to create 1967's Of Cabbages and Kings, a dense, ambitious record dubbed "a soundtrack without the film" by Clyde. The album served to alienate much of the duo's core fan base, however, and sales proved dismal. Usher nevertheless produced the follow-up single, "Painted Dayglow Smile," followed in early 1968 by "Sister Marie." Tensions between Chad & Jeremy continued, prompted in large part by the latter's burgeoning acting career, and after completing The Ark -- a project so expensive it led Columbia to terminate Usher's contract -- the duo split, although the soundtrack to the film Three in the Attic, essentially a Stuart solo effort, appeared in 1969 under the Chad & Jeremy aegis.
Clyde turned to acting full-time and appeared alongside Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones in the long-running stage production Conduct Unbecoming. Stuart, meanwhile, signed on as music director for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, followed by a stint as a staff producer with A&M Records. Chad & Jeremy reunited in 1977 to record a handful of unreleased demos, and five years later, they signed to RCA's Rocshire subsidiary to release a comeback LP, Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde. The record went nowhere, but their partnership continued, first in a London production of Pump Boys and Dinettes and then as part of the 1986 "British Invasion II" package tour. Chad & Jeremy continued touring intermittently well into the 21st century.
Given the credibility afforded the working-class backgrounds of rockers like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the publicity proved a near-fatal blow, effectively branding Chad & Jeremy upper-crust nancy-boys merely pretending at careers in music. But, as the album tanked at home, Chad & Jeremy's U.S. label, World Artists, scored a Top 20 American hit with "Yesterday's Gone," followed in August of 1964 by "A Summer Song," a gorgeously nuanced and pastoral folk-pop masterpiece that cracked the Billboard Top Five. When "Willow Weep for Me" also charted in the U.S., Chad & Jeremy relocated to California and signed with the infamous manager Allen Klein, who negotiated a buyout of their World Artists contract and landed the duo a new deal with Columbia.
In late 1964, Chad & Jeremy made their American television debut on The Hollywood Palace. William Morris agent John Hartman was so impressed with their performance that he offered his representation, which resulted in appearances on the sitcoms The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show. Chad & Jeremy were television fixtures for years to come, additionally appearing on The Danny Kaye Show, Shindig, and Hullabaloo. Between tour stops and studio dates, the pace was relentless and, in the spring of 1965, Stuart was leveled by mononucleosis. When Clyde accepted a role in the London musical Passion Flower Hotel (a nine-month commitment), he and Stuart quickly recorded an LP, I Don't Want to Lose You Baby, while the latter continued his rehabilitation.The duo maintained they were not breaking up, but rumors reached a fever pitch when Clyde failed to return to the U.S. for a scheduled Chicago performance and forced Stuart to take the stage alone with a cardboard cutout of his partner under his arm. Stuart next released a record called "The Cruel War" with his wife, Jill, while Clyde cut a John Barry-produced solo single, "I Love My Love." Neither earned much attention, and at year's end Chad & Jeremy reunited to make a new album, Distant Shores, and film a proposed pilot for NBC. The show was rejected (in favor of another project with a rock & roll theme, The Monkees) and Chad & Jeremy instead guested on two episodes of the blockbuster Batman.
Chad & Jeremy spent close to a year in the studio with producer Gary Usher to create 1967's Of Cabbages and Kings, a dense, ambitious record dubbed "a soundtrack without the film" by Clyde. The album served to alienate much of the duo's core fan base, however, and sales proved dismal. Usher nevertheless produced the follow-up single, "Painted Dayglow Smile," followed in early 1968 by "Sister Marie." Tensions between Chad & Jeremy continued, prompted in large part by the latter's burgeoning acting career, and after completing The Ark -- a project so expensive it led Columbia to terminate Usher's contract -- the duo split, although the soundtrack to the film Three in the Attic, essentially a Stuart solo effort, appeared in 1969 under the Chad & Jeremy aegis.
Clyde turned to acting full-time and appeared alongside Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones in the long-running stage production Conduct Unbecoming. Stuart, meanwhile, signed on as music director for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, followed by a stint as a staff producer with A&M Records. Chad & Jeremy reunited in 1977 to record a handful of unreleased demos, and five years later, they signed to RCA's Rocshire subsidiary to release a comeback LP, Chad Stuart & Jeremy Clyde. The record went nowhere, but their partnership continued, first in a London production of Pump Boys and Dinettes and then as part of the 1986 "British Invasion II" package tour. Chad & Jeremy continued touring intermittently well into the 21st century.
1964 LP Yesterday's Gone (US World Artists WAM-2002)Chad & Jeremy's debut U.S. album took its title from their first Top 40 hit, which combined two currently popular trends: folk music and British Merseybeat rock & roll. The album, which also contained their sole Top Ten hit, "A Summer Song," and a third Top 40 hit in "Willow Weep for Me," suggested that they were closer to folk than rock. The two sang calmly and carefully over restrained arrangements usually pegged to an acoustic guitar, with pleasant strings and a reined-in rhythm section. As such, the duo seemed less a true British Invasion act than a middle-of-the-road pop team effectively using the "Invasion" tag to get across.
By William Ruhlmann
By William Ruhlmann
- Chad & Jeremy - A Summer Song • 1964 US#7
- Chad & Jeremy - Now And Forever
- Chad & Jeremy - Dirty Old Town
- Chad & Jeremy - Like I Love You Today
- Chad & Jeremy - September In The Rain
- Chad & Jeremy - Yesterday's Gone • 1964 US#21
- Chad & Jeremy - If She Was Mine
- Chad & Jeremy - Willow Weep For Me • 1964 US#15
- Chad & Jeremy - Only For The Young
- Chad & Jeremy - Too Soon My Love
- Chad & Jeremy - The Truth Often Hurts The Heart
- Chad & Jeremy - No Tears For Johnny
1965 LP Sing For You (US World Artists WAM-2005)- Chad & Jeremy - My Colouring Book
- Chad & Jeremy - What Do You Want With Me? • 1965 US#51
- Chad & Jeremy - From A Window • 1965 US#97
- Chad & Jeremy - If You've Got A Heart
- Chad & Jeremy - No Other Baby
- Chad & Jeremy - Donna Donna
- Chad & Jeremy - The Girl From Ipanema
- Chad & Jeremy - Four Strong Winds
- Chad & Jeremy - Only Those In Love
- Chad & Jeremy - You Know What
- Chad & Jeremy - Sleep Little Boy
- Chad & Jeremy - My How The Time Goes By
1965 LP Before And After (US CBS CS-9174)- Chad & Jeremy - Before And After • 1965 US#17
- Chad & Jeremy - Why Should I Care
- Chad & Jeremy - For Lovin' Me
- Chad & Jeremy - I'm In Love Again
- Chad & Jeremy - Little Does She Know
- Chad & Jeremy - Tell Me Baby
- Chad & Jeremy - What Do You Want With Me
- Chad & Jeremy - Say It Isn't True
- Chad & Jeremy - Fare Thee Well (I Must Be Gone)
- Chad & Jeremy - Evil-Hearted Me
- Chad & Jeremy - Can't Get Used To Losing You
1965 LP I Don't Want To Loose You Baby (US CBS CS-9398)- Chad & Jeremy - I Don't Want To Lose You Baby • 1965 US#35
- Chad & Jeremy - Should I
- Chad & Jeremy - The Girl Who Sang The Blues
- Chad & Jeremy - Funny How Love Can Be
- Chad & Jeremy - The Woman In You
- Chad & Jeremy - Mr. Chad & Jeremy - Tambourine Man
- Chad & Jeremy - I Have Dreamed • 1965 US#91
- Chad & Jeremy - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
- Chad & Jeremy - Baby Don't Go
- Chad & Jeremy - There But For Fortune
- Chad & Jeremy - These Things You Don't Forget
- Chad & Jeremy - I Don't Want To Lose You Baby
1966 LP Distant Shores (US CBS CS-9364)- Chad & Jeremy - Distant Shores • 1966 US#30
- Chad & Jeremy - Ain't It Nice
- Chad & Jeremy - When Your Love Has Gone
- Chad & Jeremy - Homeward Bound
- Chad & Jeremy - The Way You Look Tonight
- Chad & Jeremy - Morning
- Chad & Jeremy - You Are She • 1966 US#87
- Chad & Jeremy - Everyone's Gone To The Moon
- Chad & Jeremy - I Won't Cry
- Chad & Jeremy - Early Mornin' Rain
- Chad & Jeremy - Don't Make Me Do It
1967 LP Of Cabbages And Kings (US CBS CS-9471)- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Reat In Peace
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - The Gentle Cold Of Down
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Busmans Holiday
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Can I See You
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Family Way
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Ill Get Around To It When And If I Can
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Prologue
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Decline
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Editorial
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Fall
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Epilogue
1968 LP The Ark (US CBS CS-9699)- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - The Emancipation of Mr.X
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Sunstroke
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - The Ark
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - The Raven
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Imagination
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Painted Dayglow Smile
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Pipe Dream
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Transatlantic Trauma 1966
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Sidewalk Requiem, Los Angeles, June 5th and 6th
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Pantheistic Study for Guitar and Large Bird
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - Paxton Quigley's Had the Course
- Chad Stuart And Jeremy Clyde - You Need Feet
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6 berichten:
What a wonderful post! I really enjoyed this and also the album covers are splendid!!!
I am married to John Hartmann btw ;)
C&J are still going strong and still recording and releasing music. In fact they just released a new digital single on their website last week.
It is called "You Are She", and is an acapella re-arrangement of their 1966 hit from the 'Distant Shores' LP, together with two all-new b-sides - "Dragon Wanted" and "Another Time".
It is at http://www.chadandjeremy.com
Thanks Valerie for your kind words. I've seen your work and I think you're an outstanding artist. My regards to you and your husband.
Hi Bernardo! This is a wonderful place you have, i will link to you if that is cool :D i will have John link to you too cause i do his links ;) you are a really good writer and i love how comprehensive your postings are with all of the amazing covers! I am a fan and you now have a big fan in Cali :D
Such awesome album covers!
Jeremy Cushing
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