Graham Gouldman

Already established among the most successful songwriters Britain had ever produced, Graham Gouldman launched his solo career in 1966 after two successive band projects, the Whirlwinds and the Mockingbirds, met nothing but failure. The Yardbirds, the Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Wayne Fontana, Jeff Beck, Cher, the Shindigs, Jeff Beck, the Shadows, and PJ Proby were among the high-profile acts who recorded Gouldman material. He had turned his hand to production, handling a single for Little Frankie, while the quality of his work was such that when the Downliners Sect came to release his "The Cost of Living" as a single, they didn't even record it themselves. They just rushed out Gouldman's original demo. Gouldman's own solo career debuted in February 1966 with "Stop or I'll Be Gone"; he was also working with Friday Browne, a Manchester singer who was to be involved in several Gouldman projects, as well as having a later single, "Ask Any Woman," produced by him. In November 1966, she joined Gouldman, former Country Gentleman Peter Cowap, Phil Dermys, Clem Cattini, and future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in the High Society, an ad hoc combination whose sole single, "People Pass By," remains a forgotten classic. This same team then became the Manchester Mob and recorded March 1967's "Bony Maroni at the Hop" before Gouldman, Jones, Eddie Kramer, and Peter Noone began work on what became the songwriter's first solo album, The Graham Gouldman Thing. Largely comprising Gouldman's own versions of the songs he had written for others, the album (which would be released in America only) was prefaced with a new single, "No Milk Today" (a U.K. hit for Herman's Hermits). It flopped. A British 45, "Upstairs Downstairs," followed unsuccessful suit, and by the time the album...