The Mojos

Known mostly (if at all) in the States for doing the original version of "Everything's Alright" (covered by David Bowie on his Pin Ups album), the Mojos were one of the best Liverpool groups of the British Invasion. Besides "Everything's Alright" -- a Top Ten raver in the U.K. -- they never scored any other British hits of note, though a couple squeezed into the Top 30. Bob Conrad (drums), Keith Karlson (bass), Stu James (vocals, harmonica), and Adrian Wilkinson (guitar) had first gotten together in the early '60s as the Nomads -- though based in Liverpool, they were a bit different from most of the other Merseyside bands in that their first love was American blues rather than R&B and rock & roll, preferring to cover the works of John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters to those of Chuck Berry or Little Richard. They did manage to cross paths with the Beatles on more than one occasion, as evidenced by the fact that it was George Harrison, having heard the Nomads' roadie Terry O'Toole play jazz piano at a club, who suggested they make him a member and resident keyboard player. The four became five and they occasioned sometime after that to lay down their first permanent account of their sound, "My Whole Life Through," as part of a live showcase captured for posterity on one volume of Oriole Records' This Is Merseybeat. It was sometime after this that they were forced to relinquish the Nomads name to a London band who had an earlier claim, and they became the Mojos. By then the Beatles had launched the Merseybeat boom nationwide and Decca Records -- who'd passed on the latter group -- was playing catch-up by signing any group in sight. The Mojos got a contract and were among those bands that actually deserved that honor and effort -- their debut single was consisted of "They Say...