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Fact #155182

When:

Short story:

John Fred and His Playboy Band hit the Billboard Singles Chart No1 slot in the USA with Judy In Disguise (With Glasses).

Full article:

If John Lennon's diction had been just a bit clearer, John Fred and his Playboy Band might never have scored their US No1 hit, Judy In Disguise (With Glasses).

"I just brought Sgt Pepper's home," remembers Baton Rouge born songwriter John Fred Gourrier, "and we had a job that night in New Orleans. I was in my room shaving. When it (Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds) came on, I thought he was saying 'Lucy In Disguise With Diamonds'. That's the first time it hit my mind, those Beatles were so clever!" On looking at the album cover, however, John Fred was deeply disappointed to find that he had misheard the title.

Described at the time in Flip magazine's Groovy Guide To The Groups as "eight outtasite musicians who have the grooviest brass sound this side of Herb Alpert", John Fred and his Playboy Band had started its recording career auspiciously in 1959, when they were signed to the Montel label. "We went down to Cosimo's studio in New Orleans and recorded Shirley with Fats Domino's band," says Gourrier. "That day, Fats was recording Whole Lotta Lovin and Little Coquette. After he got through recording that, I just went right in with his band."

Although Shirley, written by Gourrier and fellow Playboy Tommy Bryan, later provided a UK top ten hit for Shakin Stevens, it limped no further than No82 in the Billboard chart, and none of their subsequent 14 singles did significantly better, but the group's live reputation established them as an act that could command $1250 a night in Louisiana and Texas.

Around the time Gourrier heard Lucy In The Sky, he had a distinctive bassline in his head that he was keen to use, but he lacked a song to fit it into until, "We were playing in Florida, and all the girls at that time had big sunglasses. One of the guys was hustling this chick. She took off these glasses, and she could stop a clock." It was all the inspiration Gourrier and co-writer Andrew Bernard needed. The bassline came together with the mis-heard Beatles lyric to produce a whimsical psychedelic parody entitled Beverly In Disguise (With Glasses).

While still working on the lyric, Gourrier idly switched on the tv. "At the time, The Monkees were on tv, and the show was presented by Yardley and Playtex. I was sitting there, writing words, and they said something like 'Cross your heart with a living bra.' So I just wrote that down too."

After substituting Judy for the more unwieldy Beverly, Gourrier and Bernard took the song to the band who took an instant dislike to it. With their roots in southern r'n'b, they regarded it as a disposable slab of bubblegum pop. Nevertheless, Gourrier pressed on, arguing that it was really a satire on rock'n'roll, and within a few days the band was ensconced in a back of the house studio owned by engineer Robin Hood Brians' in Tyler, Texas, putting the track together.

Over the years he'd spent in studios, John Fred had become increasingly interested in record production, and rightly saw Judy In Disguise as an opportunity to cut loose with a kitchen sinkful of unusual sounds and ideas, including a sitar, orgasmic vocal ejaculations, New Orleans piano licks and a jaunty string arrangement courtesy of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, ending the whole concoction with a heavily treated spoken coda, 'I guess I'll just take your glasses'.

The band hated that too, and even Gourrier was realistic about Judy's merits. "It was originally recorded for our Agnes English album, and I never even thought of it as a single," he told NME in 1968. "I won't say it's our best effort - the song's not that good, even though I did write it."

Within a fortnight of release in November 1967, however, airplay was bulleting, and by mid-January it was a certified million seller, easily seeing off a rival version cut by Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes. Unfortunately for Gourrier, it was his band's first and last shot at international acclaim. When the follow-up, Hey Hey Bunny, appeared in March 1968, Record Mirror's single reviewer noted that it was "Fast, frantic and lacking almost everything that made Judy In Disguise good."

John Fred's most significant achievements after 1968 included producing Irma Thomas' Safe With You album in 1979 and running his own Sugarcane record label as well as the publishing company John Fred Music.