成人快手

by Bob Stanley of

The Hollies were no slouches as songwriters, though you'd be forgiven for thinking they never wrote any of their own songs until 1967.

were no slouches as songwriters, though you'd be forgiven for thinking they never wrote any of their own songs until 1967. Prior to that, Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash wrote under the mysterious collective name of L Ransford – which transpired to be the name of Graham Nash's grandfather, L Ransford Nash. According to Graham Nash, they simply thought Clarke/Hicks/Nash "was too long, so let's just make something up."

Unlike the Beatles and the Stones, the Hollies continued to look to outside writers once they had established themselves, and to fellow Mancunian Graham Gouldman more than anyone. He came up with songs like Look Through Any Window (no.4, 1965) and Bus Stop (no.5, 1965) while travelling between Manchester and London: “They had separate compartments then” Gouldman explained recently, “a great environment for working.”

By 1968, Gouldman's knack of writing hits had begun to fail him (of course, he would pick it up again with 10CC in the seventies). While still writing hits of their own like Jennifer Eccles, the Hollies weren't too proud to look elsewhere and picked up Tony Hazzard's Listen To Me. Hazzard had first managed a Top 20 hit with Herman's Hermits' You Won't Be Leaving in 1966, succeeded with Lulu's Me The Peaceful Heart and Manfred Mann's Ha Ha Said The Clown in 1967, and was a big enough name by 1968 to have a crack at Eurovision – Cliff Richard recorded his The Sound Of The Candyman's Trumpet but, sadly, it got less votes than Bill Martin and Phil Coulter's big, brassy Congratulations.

reached no.11 and everyone seemed very happy. Graham Nash thought that Tony Hazzard could be the group's replacement for Graham Gouldman, their own house songwriter, but Nash left the Hollies while Listen To Me was still on the chart. Hazzard's next effort for them was called Hey Mrs Housewife; complete with a cheeky pinch from the theme from Housewives' Choice, it ended up being a single for the Swinging Blue Jeans instead. What happened? It was rumoured that Allan Clarke's wife was none too happy with some of the lyrics (“He wants to be a bachelor... memories take pride of place in your fella's mind”). With the Hollies away on tour so much of the time, you couldn't really have blamed her for feeling uncomfortable.

Both Hazzard and the Hollies kept on producing hits, though, so no one was left feeling too short changed. Yet it would have been good to hear them have a go at Hazzard gems like and , 1969 hits for Manfred Mann and the Tremeloes respectively.