Fact #83887
When:
Short story:
UK pop idol Dave Berry
records his biggest hit, The Crying Game, for Decca Records in
London, UK. Session guitarists on the track are Jimmy Page, later to find
global success with Led Zeppelin, and the estimable Big Jim Sullivan.
Full article:
Geoff Stephens (songwriter) : I wrote The Crying Game around the end of 1963. In those days, as with most of my peers, the accent for writing songs nearly always revolved around getting a good title. I just don't know how this title arose, except that it was during a concentrated writing session when my mind was fully engaged in coming up with something special title-wise. Of course, there was the lovely September Song which carried the line referring to "the waiting game", so perhaps subconsciously I may have got some inspiration from there.
Having demo'd the song, it didn't grab any record companies' immediate interest but we all felt that it was going to happen sometime. Eventually, Mike Smith who was then the A + R man at Decca Records, said to me one day in the pub at the end of Denmark Street that his wife kept telling him that he should cut it, so he produced it with Dave Berry. This recording featured the inimitable sound of Big Jim Sullivan, using the revolutionary 'wah-wah' guitar sound.
Dave Berry : I had the acetate from Geoff Stephens. He gave me The Crying Game at the Ready, Steady, Go! studios, but I didn't really think it was me. About 18 months went by and my guitarist, Alan, kept harping back to it, so I called Mike Smith at Decca and we arranged to record it, with those marvellous guitar parts from Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page. They didn't have any problems switching their musical style, so that was a good influence on me.
Geoff Stephens : Shortly after it became a hit in the UK, I received a nice letter from the novelist, John Braine, who'd had great success with his novel Room At The Top. He wanted to use The Crying Game as the title of the book he was then working on, and I was very naturally happy to agree. The opening verse was printed on the flyleaf.
(Source : not known)
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Having demo'd the song, it didn't grab any record companies' immediate interest but we all felt that it was going to happen sometime. Eventually, Mike Smith who was then the A + R man at Decca Records, said to me one day in the pub at the end of Denmark Street that his wife kept telling him that he should cut it, so he produced it with Dave Berry. This recording featured the inimitable sound of Big Jim Sullivan, using the revolutionary 'wah-wah' guitar sound.
Dave Berry : I had the acetate from Geoff Stephens. He gave me The Crying Game at the Ready, Steady, Go! studios, but I didn't really think it was me. About 18 months went by and my guitarist, Alan, kept harping back to it, so I called Mike Smith at Decca and we arranged to record it, with those marvellous guitar parts from Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page. They didn't have any problems switching their musical style, so that was a good influence on me.
Geoff Stephens : Shortly after it became a hit in the UK, I received a nice letter from the novelist, John Braine, who'd had great success with his novel Room At The Top. He wanted to use The Crying Game as the title of the book he was then working on, and I was very naturally happy to agree. The opening verse was printed on the flyleaf.
(Source : not known)