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MANFRED MANN
 An R&B band that only played pop to get on
the charts, Manfred Mann ranked among the most adept British Invasion
acts in both styles. The fact that their range encompassed jazz as well
as rhythm-and-blues, coupled with some elements of their appearance and
presentation — co-founder/keyboardist Manfred Mann's bearded,
bespectacled presence — also made the Manfreds more of a thinking
person's band than a cute, cuddly, outfit like the Beatles, or sexual
provocateurs in the manner of the Rolling Stones. Yet, their approach to
R&B was as valid as that of the Stones, equally compelling and often
more sophisticated. They charted an impressive number of singles from
1964 through 1969, and developed a large, loyal international fandom
that lingers to this day.
South African-born keyboardist Manfred Mann, born Manfred Lubowitz in
Johannesburg in 1940, was originally an aspiring jazz player. He
performed at dances and local coffee bars in Johannesburg as a teenager,
and studied classical music at Witwatersrand University, also playing
with Hugh Masekela in a local band. His influences included John
Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Ornette Coleman, Bill Evans,
and Dave Brubeck. He felt that his musical growth would be stymied by
further work in South Africa, however, and decided to move to England in
1961, making his living as a jazz pianist and teacher, and writing
articles under the name Manfred Manne, the surname derived from drummer
Shelly Manne — he later dropped the "e" and used
"Manfred Mann" as his performing name.
Mann's preference for jazz quickly ran headlong into the growing public
taste for rhythm-and-blues that began sweeping through younger audiences
in England during the early '60s. In the course of his playing at the
Butlins resort in Clacton during 1962, Mann met percussionist Mike Hugg,
and the two soon began playing together in a band that included Graham
Bond. Hugg and Mann eventually formed their own band, the Mann-Hugg
Blues Brothers, which grew into a septet, including two saxmen and a
trumpet player. They were successful on the London club scene, playing
venues such as the Marquee and other top music spots. The band's
membership also grew to include guitarist, flautist, and saxman Mike
Vickers.
The group was still lacking a lead singer, but this deficiency was
rectified in late 1962 when they added Paul Jones, who had previously
worked with guitarist Tom McGuinness, to their line-up. By early 1963,
the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers had shrunk back to five members — Manfred
Mann (keyboards), Mike Hugg (percussion), Mike Vickers (guitar, sax,
flute), Paul Jones (vocals), and Dave Richmond (bass) — and also
picked up a manager, Kenneth Pitt, who arranged auditions for the group
with Pye, Decca, and EMI Records.
The EMI audition in May of 1963 was the one that worked, and they were
signed to the latter company's HMV label. The band was assigned producer
John Burgess, who was intrigued by the mix of jazz and r&b in their
style. It was also Burgess who decided that the group needed a shorter,
punchier name and — against the wishes of the keyboardist himself —
chose "Manfred Mann" as the band's name.
Paul Jones was one of the best British Invasion singers, and his
resonant vocals were the best feature of Manfred Mann's early R&B
sides, which had a slightly jazzier and smoother touch than the early
work of the Rolling Stones and Animals. The group's debut single,
"Why Should We Not" b/w "Brother Jack," were drawn
from their first EMI commercial recording auditin, and showed a bit of
what the band could do instrumentally — the A-side was a moody, bluesy
original that alternately featured Vickers' sax, Jones' harmonica, and
Mann's organ, while the flip was a bouncy jazz variant on "Frere
Jacques." If the group's debut showed the Manfreds' virtuosity and
cleverness, then the blues-rock follow-up "Cock-A Hoop"
heralded the arrival of a major and charismatic singing talent in Paul
Jones. Despite a lot of radio play, "Cock-A Hoop" failed to
chart. The group's luck changed late in 1963, however, when they were
asked to write a new theme song for the British television rock 'n roll
showcase Ready, Steady, Go. The result was "5-4-3-2-1," a
catchy, pulsing piece of rock 'n roll that got to No. 5 on the British
charts and became the permanent signature tune for the television
series. Shortly after the single was recorded, Dave Richmond exited
Manfred Mann's line-up and was replaced by Tom McGuinness, who switched
from guitar to bass to join the group.
The chart success of "5-4-3-2-1" and its use on Ready! Steady!
Go! gave the band a secure commercial berth in England, and their two
follow-up singles charted easily. It was a couple covers of obscure girl
group songs, "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" (the Exciters) and "Sha
La La" (the Shirelles), that broke the group internationally —
"Do Wah Diddy Diddy" reached number one in the States, and
"Sha La La" just missed the Top Ten. The Paul Jones lineup
never duplicated this success, although "Come Tomorrow" and
"Pretty Flamingo" were smaller hits. From 1964 to 1966, they
took the approach of playing gutsy pop/rock on their singles (including
the original version of "My Little Red Book") and soul and
R&B on their albums, with occasional detours into jazz, Dylan (their
cover of his then-unreleased "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" was a
big British hit), and competent original material. This sharp difference
in the content of their singles and albums resulted in a split in their
audience, and occasional confusion on the part of fans, who bought
Manfred Mann's albums expecting to hear songs like "Do Wah Diddy
Diddy," and, instead, found blues and jazz numbers represented much
more than pop-rock. Listeners who paid close attention to "Do Wah
Diddy Diddy" might've recognized unusual touches such as the kettle
drums over the choruses, and anyone who flipped it over might've gotten
the hint from its B-side, an jazz-blues jam called "What You Gonna
Do?" An organ and harmonica-driven piece, it was as hard and
threatening as "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" was upbeat and cheerful.
Where "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" and the later "Sha La La
La" were covers of girl-group songs, Manfred Mann's debut
long-player, cut in early 1964, had a very different orientation,
comprised of songs associated with Cannonball Adderley, Ike & Tina
Turner, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Howlin' Wolf, among others, and
hard, bluesy originals such as the Mann-Jones authored "What Are
You Gonna Do."
Still, driven by their reputation and some superb R&B singing by
Paul Jones — who was a genuine rival to Mick Jagger in those days —
the group's debut LP, The Five Faces of Manfred Mann made it all the way
to number three on the British album chart. The group did seem to make
the leap from a single to and album act — their EMI LPs and EPs all
sold well, charting high despite the fact that the sound on them wasn't
quite like any other British Invasion act.
Manfred Mann played blues-based rock, but in contrast to most of the
other British bands of the era, the guitar didn't always figure
prominently in their sound. Mike Vickers was as likely to be playing a
sax (and he really played, rather than just honking along in the manner
of rock saxmen of the period such as Dennis Payton of the Dave Clark
Five), or even a flute as an electric guitar; and Mike Hugg also played
the vibraphone, an instrument usually far removed from rock 'n roll. Yet
despite the fact that these guys had obviously all studied music, they
made a hard and heavy r&b sound, and flexed their musical muscles
accordingly — check out Vickers' guitar break on their version of
Willie Dixon's "Hoochie Coochie Man," or Mann's pounding piano
on Muddy Waters' "Got My Mojo Working." What's more, they
could write credibly — not hits in the manner of Mick Jagger and Keith
Richards, but album tracks like "I'm Your Kingpin,"
"Without You," and "Don't Ask Me What I Say" held up
very nicely alongside the Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Bo Diddley
repertory on the album.
One quirk in the group's history was their virtual absence from America,
apart from a three-week tour late in 1964, despite their charting four
singles (including the No. 1 "Do Wah Diddy Diddy") in the U.S.
during 1964-66. The band found America, with its vast distances as well
as its distance from England, too wearying a market to deal with for the
money being offered, and concentrated instead on Europe. They opened
several important doors by touring such Eastern Bloc countries as
Czechoslovakia, in a time when American and western European rock &
roll was usually considered a prime manifestation of capitalist
decadence.
Despite their popularity and a steady stream of successful singles, EPs,
and LPs, all wasn't well within the quintet. Each member of the group
got to express himself, at least on their EP and album tracks, but by
1965 there was a sense that Vickers, Jones, McGinness, and Hugg were all
becoming known simply as "Manfred Mann," especially on their
singles. None of that would have been so bad if the sound on those
singles had represented anything other than the group's most commercial
manifestation, and Manfred Mann hadn't also been the name of a walking,
breathing bandmate — though Mann himself had never wanted the group to
use his name.
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
11 September 1964 The Five Faces of Manfred Mann 15 October 1965 Mann
Made 9 September 1966 Mann Made Hits 21 October 1966 As Is 13 January
1967 Soul of Mann 23 February 1968 Up The Junction(Original Soundtrack
Recording) 16 March 1968 What a Mann 28 June 1968 Mighty Garvey! )
Singles
26 July 1963 "Why Should We Not?" "Brother Jack"
25 October 1963 "Cock-a-Hoop" "Now You're Needing
Me" 10 January 1964 "5-4-3-2-1" "Without You"
10 April 1964 "Hubble Bubble (Toil And Trouble)" "I'm
Your Kingpin" 10 July 1964 "Do Wah Diddy Diddy"
"What You Gonna Do?" 9 October 1964 "Sha La La"
"John Hardy" 8 January 1965 "Come Tomorrow"
"What Did I Do Wrong" 9 April 1965 "Oh No, Not My
Baby" "What Am I Doing Wrong" 10 September 1965 "If
You Gotta Go, Go Now" "Stay Around" 15 April 1966
"Pretty Flamingo" "You're Standing By" 1 July 1966
"You Gave Me Somebody to Love"(Released by HMV Records when
the group changed labels) "Poison Ivy" 29 July 1966 "Just
Like a Woman" "I Wanna Be Rich" 21 October 1966
"Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James" "Morning After the
Party" 23 March 1967 "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown"
"Feeling So Good" 5 May 1967 "Sweet Pea" "One
Way" 25 August 1967 "So Long, Dad" "Funniest
Gig" 12 January 1968 "Mighty Quinn" "By Request -
Edwin Garvey" 23 February 1968 "Theme from "Up the
Junction" "Sleepy Hollow" 7 June 1968 "My Name is
Jack" "There is a Man" 29 November 1968 "Fox on the
Run" "Too Many People" 18 April 1969 "Ragamuffin
Man" "A 'B' Side"
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