Mickie Most Presents English In-Groups

This is one of those weird acquisitions from the time in my life when my policy was to buy nearly anything from the British Invasion. Being a huge fan of The Animals and pretty fond of the best Herman’s Hermits songs as well, I would have recognized that their producer in common was called Mickie Most, so if I saw a record titled “Mickie Most Presents English In-Groups,” yeah, I was pretty likely to scoop it up. Mostly I hoped I’d find some revelatory group that I’d be enamored of and no one else would ever have heard of.

Unfortunately, that’s not quite how it turned out. This sampler of songs from bands on Most’s roster includes some very predictable “bait” tracks from Herman’s Hermits (Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” and “Mrs. Brown, you’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”) and The Animals (the uncut House of The Rising Sun” and, again, Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me”). Solid and familiar to anyone with an AM radio back in 1966 when this was released.

Then there were two tracks each from three other bands no one had heard of: The Symbols, The Cherokees, and The Moquettes.

The Symbols put out a number of singles, mostly covers of American hits, and by the time this compilation came out they had already been let go by their label. Here they’re represented by “Don’t Go,” a dated sound that had been the B side of a single, and a Goffin-King song, “You Are My Girl.” I didn’t end up pawing through the bins looking for more, and in fact their only album was a best of compilation in 1968.

The Cherokees, which had disbanded around the time this came out, are also represented by a B side (“I’ll Never Turn My Back On You,” which is just a drag , and another song, “Rejected,” that must have been rejected by their producers, as it wasn’t on any other release. They had six singles released and that was it.

The only band on here that stirred any interest was The Moquettes, who turned in a lively little romp called “Right String Baby, But The Wrong Yo-Yo.” I had no idea when I bought this record that this song had been recorded by all sorts of others, including Carl Perkins and Gerry and the Pacemakers. Originally written by Piano Red, an alias for William Lee Perryman, it dated back to 1929. This version is great fun. Their other song, “You Came Along,” is also fun, and had I ever run across a Moquettes record I’d probably have picked it up. But I didn’t, and no wonder: Discogs indicates this was their only single, released in 1964.

Mickie Most was the real deal. He discovered The Animals and got them recorded, worked with Herman’s Hermits and the Nashville Teens, produced Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman,” produced The Jeff Beck Group, and much more. He was even responsible for Kim Wilde.

I’m sure I bought this in 1979, maybe 1980, definitely at Desert Shore Records in Syracuse. The Moquettes songs made it onto compilation tapes back in the day, but this album is more of a novelty piece and rarely gets played. It’s nothing great, and by 1966 I wonder if just saying a band was English was still enough to generate sales.

I’m curious whether there was ever another anthology record where the common thread among the groups was their producer, or that carried the producer’s name.

And yes, I file this one under “M,” in this case for Mickie. I mean, where else am I gonna put it?