(Vocal group, 1961–2002)

A debut single, 1963’s ‘If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody’, began a two-year British chart run for this Manchester outfit. Moreover, as their fortunes subsided at home, they caught on in North America, scoring a US No. 1 with 20-month-old ‘I’m Telling You Now’, and amassing advance orders of 142,000 (the biggest in record label Mercury’s history) for a debut US album. Much of their appeal lay in trademark comic antics centred on bespectacled, geeky Freddie Garrity (vocals) – though it was noticeable that none of his ensemble’s smashes were with songs designed specifically to be funny, apart from 1965’s US-only ‘Do The Freddie’. Nevertheless, latter-day output encompassed a larger proportion of humorous material such as an entire LP of Disney film songs and 1971’s ‘Susan’s Tuba’, which was a huge hit in France if nowhere else. All roads led to the nostalgia trail, and one-shot singles like self-penned ‘I’m A Singer In A Sixties Band’ by a solo Garrity, who was writing an autobiography when he died after a long illness in 2006.

Styles & Forms | Sixties | Rock
Personalities | The Fugs | Sixties | Rock