Puckett recalls aborted movie in Manila
In 1968, Gary Puckett and his band called the Union Gap took the song Young Girl to No. 2 in the US CashBox charts and No. 1 in the UK with a million record sales in two months. The refrain was a haunting rebuke of an older pop idol to an adoring teen-aged groupie, saying, “Young girl, get out of my mind, my love for you is way out of line, better run, girl, you’re much too young, girl.”
Puckett brought three other singles Woman, Woman, Lady Willpower and Over You to the Top 10 ladder, topping The Beatles in record sales that same year. The four singles were all certified gold discs or million sellers. In 1969, Puckett had two more gold discs in Don’t Give
In To Him and This Girl Is A Woman Now. In all, he collected six gold discs and five Top 10 singles with sales of more than 10 million records.
In 1974, Young Girl was re-issued in the UK and went to No. 6. That year, Puckett went to Manila to appear in and write the musical score for the movie Dynamite, Live and In
Concert. In the June 8, 1974 issue of Billboard, it was written in the column Inside Track that “producers went with Puckett after deciding against casting an actor to play a rock idol.”
The movie starred Puckett as Joey, the leader of a successful world-renowned rock band. His co-star was Craig Palmer as Ty, the comic relief.
Puckett said he went to Manila twice during a six-month period in line with the movie contract but the film was never released. “The movie company was owned by a Filipino family,” said Puckett after performing in a show called Sixties Gold at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford, an hour’s train ride from London, last week. “I stayed at Urdaneta. I loved Manila but unfortunately, the budget to finish the movie ran out. I never even got to perform in Manila. Maybe, someday, I could go back and do a show.”
Puckett is now 74. His voice has mellowed with age and isn’t as forceful as before but with the ballads he popularized in the ‘60s, the tone is perfect. At the Sixties
Gold show, Puckett wore his typical Union Army-like long coat at the start but took it off as he warmed
up. He sang only six songs, sharing the bill with The Searchers, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, P.J. Proby and Wayne Fontana. Puckett opened with Lady Willpower then moved to Over You, Don’t Give In To Him, This Girl Is A Woman Now,
Woman, Woman and capped it off with a rousing rendition of Young
Girl with the audience of 1,000 singing along.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea if Puckett could tour Manila with The Searchers who are due for a return concert next year. On Nov. 6 to 13, Puckett and The Searchers will perform in a Rock The Boat cruise out of Brisbane, Australia, with Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, The Fortunes, The Troggs and Badfinger. The Searchers usually include Young Girl in their set list. Puckett said he was invited by The Searchers to join the Sixties Gold cast and didn’t hesitate to fly over from his home in Florida.
Puckett has been busy performing with 19 shows last June, 10 last July and 23 last August. He’s in fine form and if ever he returns to Manila, Puckett will no doubt revisit old friends whom he met here in the 1970s.
As for The Searchers, they, too, are looking forward to making another tour of Manila. Their first visit was in 1966 when they performed in four sold-out shows at the Araneta Coliseum and also did two concerts in Subic and one in Clark. The band returned in 2004 and has since come back once more. Frontman and bassist
Frank Allen, 72, said The Searchers would come back to Manila in a heartbeat. Lead vocalist Spencer James, 63; guitarist and founder John McNally, 75; and drummer Scott Ottaway, 44, make up the rest of the band.
At Dartford, The Searchers sang 14 songs starting with Sweets For
My Sweet. They sang Sugar And Spice, What Have They Done To The Rain, Love Potion No. 9, Someday We’re Gonna Love Again, Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya, Saturday Night Out, Count The Tears, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Don’t Throw Your Love Away, Somebody Told Me You’re Crying, Needles And Pins and When You Walk In The Room.
Fontana, 70, was the curtain raiser. Wearing a hat to hide his baldness, he belted out Game Of Love, Um Um Um Um Um, Pamela, Pamela and A Groovy Kind Of Love. He struggled with his stamina, admitting he was breathless in the middle of his brief act. But his voice quality wasn’t poor. He joked about his age and weight. Back in the ‘60s, Fontana fronted the band Mindbenders which later metamorphosed into 10 CC.
Proby, 77, was second in the bill and came out strong with Stagger Lee, accompanied by a female saxophonist. Then, he sang Lonely Weekends, Three Steps To Heaven, Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya, Somewhere and Hold Me. Proby, silver-haired and bearded, said Barbra Streisand, Matt Monro and Johnny Mathis never charted with their version of
Somewhere but his rendition went to No. 6 in the UK. The now portly Proby showed up wearing rings on six fingers, three in each hand.
Poole, 74, made an appearance with two of the Tremeloes, drummer Dave Munden, 72, and guitarist Len (Chip) Hawkes, 70, as a singing trio. None played an instrument. They took turns singing lead vocals starting with Poole on Twist
And Shout. Their other songs were Here Comes My Baby, Call Me No. 1, My Little Lady, Silence Is Golden and
Do You Love Me.
The stars of the ‘60s are now mostly in their 70s and they’re still going strong. “The fact that they’re still driven by that same youthful energy which took them into the charts is worthy of celebration,” said Roy Bainton in his article The ‘60s — Much More
Than A Memory. “These are real, live legends. They provided the soundtrack to all the important happenings in our lives. Good music goes on forever.”