The Dave Clark Five

Originating in North London, when  "Glad All Over" that in January 1964 knocked the Beatles out of the number one position on the UK singles chart the Daily Express headline declared: 'Tottenham Sound Has Crushed The Beatles'.

Dave Clark worked has worked as a stuntman in numerous films when he decided to form a band in 1960 to raise money for his local team Tottenham Hotspur. He bought a set of drums and learned how to play them. Clark recruited Lenny Davidson on guitar, Rick Huxley for bass, Dennis Payton on sax, and Mike Smith on keyboards and vocals. 

Their first recording was Chaquita, an instrumental which Dave Clark, who proved to be an astute businessman over the years sold the master of to Ember Records in 1962. They released it a few weeks later, but meanwhile the band had signed to Pye's Piccadilly label.  Another instrumental, First Love, was released, but made little impression. When their next single, I Know It All The Time, which featured a vocal also failed to make the charts, the Piccadilly deal was terminated.

Whilst playing a gig at the Tottenham Royal, an EMI A&R man spotted them and signed them up to the Columbia label. Their first record, The Mulberry Bush, didn't chart, but their next release, a cover of The Contour's Do You Love Me, crept into the UK Top 30, although simultaneous with this, the version by Brian Poole & The Tremeloes made No. 1.

Next came the two recordings, Glad All Over and Bits and Pieces reaching number one and number two respectively.  After the success of the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night in 1964, the DC5 released their own film Catch Us If You Can in 1965; the film was released in the United States as Having a Wild Weekend. In spite of their huge success for a period, bolstered by the movie and a television special, the major hits dried up after 1967's You Got What It Takes. The band's efforts to embrace the prevailing trend of psychedelia were not successful and they disbanded in 1970, having placed a further three singles on the UK chart that year.  

The Dave Clark Five had 19 UK Top 40 hits and placed 17 records in Billboard's Top 40. They could also boast a record 18 appearances (for a British Beat Group) on the Ed Sullivan Show.  On 10 March 2008, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

See The Dave Clark Five perform 'Bits and Pieces': http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ntuS-Aefk