More Deram U.K. Mod/R&B

THE QUIK-King Of The World/ My Girl U.K. Deram DM139 1967

The Quik are a U.K. 60's mod/r&b band best known for their amphetamine/mod/Hammond & horns dance floor smash "Bert's Apple Crumble", a record I have never had the pleasure of owning. Indeed I've never even seen a copy for sale and only ever saw it spinning round and round to enthusiastic dance floors thanks to DJ's Tony Sanchez and Ty Jesso, respectively. It was their debut as Deram DM121 backed by a freakbeat/soulful version of The Rascals "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" (simultaneously covered in the U.K. as an A-side by The Tribe).

The band's second Deram offering (their third and final was covered here in an earlier blog) "King Of The World" is interesting. It's not as frantic as "Bert's.." and not nearly as "freakbeat" as it's follow up. Essentially it starts out as a fairly pedestrian low key affair with some soulful vocals backed by sax, then a bit of organ: think "Georgie Fame light". The vocalist reminds me alot of the late Tony Cassady of the U.K. Decca r&b legends The St. Louis Union. This doesn't last for long because at about 1:25 into it we get the party sounds and the Hammond starts wailing in the same key as "Bert's..", then brings it back down a bit with the organ playing an almost fairground type thing while it turns into a march resorting back to the original pace and then wailing again! Zooom! No doubt this caused some dancefloor confusion with these insane timing changes and probably explains why not only is this not a fave Quik 45 among DJ's I've known and but also perhaps explains why it is the least expensive of their three offerings! But despite all that I think it's a great tune to listen to, dancing to it is an entirely different matter...............

I am rarely a fan of U.K. covers of American 60's soul numbers. Usually the more obscure the original is the better it seems to be, so it would be ill advised in most cases to cover "My Girl". Georgie Fame covered it by way of Otis Redding's stellar take on his 1966 Lp "Sweet Things" with pretty good results. The Quik tackle the same source for their side B and it's just plain pointless. Hamfisted, lifeless and just dead boring. Add it to the long list of unnecessary versions of "My Girl".

Neither side have been comped anywhere and I imagine we won't see Decca cracking open their Deram vaults for goodies like "King Of The World" any time soon.

"King Of The World" on YouTube for your ear pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9AIrLWtAzY