The Hollies

One of the most commercially successful bands of the British Invasion, the Hollies produced twenty hit singles during the Sixties, a total beaten only by the Shadows and the Beatles.

The Hollies were formed in 1962.  Their membership, drawn from Manchester groups the Dolphins and the Deltas, consisted of Graham Nash on guitar, Allan Clarke, on guitar and vocals, Tony Hicks, on guitar, Don Rathbone on drums, and Eric Haydoc on bass guitar.  Rathbone was soon replaced by Bobby Elliot, while in 1966 Heycock was replaced by Bernie Calvert.

The Hollies began recording in 1963, Ron Richards signed the group after seeing them at the Cavern Club in Liverpool they relied heavily upon the R&B/early rock & roll covers that provided the staple diet for countless British bands of the time. They quickly developed a more distinctive style of three-part harmonies (heavily influenced by the Everly Brothers), ringing guitars, and songs written by both outside writers (especially Graham Gouldman) and themselves. 

Some of their best mid-'60s singles, like Here I Go Again, We're Through, and the British number one I'm Alive, passed virtually unnoticed in the United States, where they couldn't make the Top 40 until early 1966, when Graham Gouldman's Look Through Any Window made the top forty.  

Bus Stop (1966), reached No. 5 in America and  On a Carousel, Carrie Ann, and Stop Stop Stop were also big hits, providing something of an antidote to the increasingly experimental Beatles and Rolling Stones. Graham Nash,  however, was determined to develop a more edgy sound, particularly noticeable on King Midas in Reverse released in 1967.  By 1968, though, Nash felt constrained by the band's commercial orientation, and by the end of the year he left to help found one of the legendry bands of the era Crosby, Stills and Nash.

In 1969, the band released an album of Bob Dylan songs, which was received poorly by critics. The hit singles continued, whoever, most notably with He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. A modest slide in the early '70s was arrested by Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress,  made number two in the States in 1972. The timing wasn't ideal; by the time it became a smash, Clarke, who had sung lead on the single, had left to go solo, to be replaced by Swedish vocalist Mikael Rikfors. Clarke re-joined in mid-1973, and the group had one last international hit, The Air That I Breathe, which made number six in the U.S. in 1974.

In the late eighties EMI released a number of their records on Columbia, though it was the re-issue of he Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother which brought them back to the No.1 spot in 1988.

See the Hollies perform 'Just One Look' in 1964: http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=32VWELcZUMM

Visit the official Hollies' website at http://www.hollies.co.uk/index.html