A 1968 album with a link to Last of the Summer Wine
I first encountered Anita Harris on TV in the 1970s when she worked as magician David Nixon’s assistant. I think I remember her in a TV pantomime and then I noticed her appear in a couple of Carry On films. More recently, I was aware that she had made records but didn’t know anything about them when I came across this album in one of the bargain bins at RPM Discs in Wingate, County Durham.
The sleeve indicated a date of 1967 and I have a theory that even some of the most staid artists got a bit groovy for one or two songs in 1967/68 with artists, producers and writers being influenced by some of the more psychedelic sounds that were around. On that basis, I thought it was worth taking a punt for £1.
The compilation seems to be Pye cashing in as Anita moved on to CBS without making an album for Pye and it brings together four singles released in 1965 and 1966 plus two tracks which appear to be otherwise unavailable. One of these - ‘Men’ was co-written by Bill Owen who is better known as Compo in Last of the Summer Wine, and is from a 1966 musical he co-wrote called ‘The Matchgirls’. I wonder whether this and the other track were recorded for a single which was never released.
What impressed me on looking at the label is that seven of the ten tracks were written by Anita and her husband Mike Margolis and I don’t imagine there were a lot of 1960s pop singers writing their own material. I’m not going to try to describe the album track by track because my powers of description are not good enough but I am very pleased with the purchase, rating it 4 out of 5, and I now have other Anita Harris releases on my wantlist.
This is 'Upside Down' from the album, co-written by Anita and her husband Mike Margolis with musical direction by Johnny Keating:
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