Craig Douglas - His Golden Years (Remastered) '2020

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Only Sixteen (Remastered)
02. When My Little Girl Is Smiling (Remastered)
03. Pretty Blue Eyes (Remastered)
04. Our Favourite Melodies (Remastered)
05. Time (Remastered)
06. A Hundred Pounds of Clay (Remastered)
07. A Teenager in Love (Remastered)
08. My First Love Affair (Remastered)
09. Why Why Why (Remastered)
10. A New Boy (Remastered)
11. Oh Lonesome Me (Remastered)
12. Its All in the Game (Remastered)
13. Dream Lover (Remastered)
14. The Hungry Years (Remastered)
15. Both Sides Now (Remastered)
16. What Do You Want (Remastered)
17. Riddle of Love (Remastered)
18. My Hour of Love (Remastered)
19. You Needed Me (Remastered)
20. Battle of New Orleans (Remastered)
21. Oh! What a Day (Remastered)
22. Joanna (Remastered)
23. Come Softly to Me (Remastered)
24. The Power of Love (Remastered)
25. Come on over to My Place (Remastered)
26. Save the Last Dance for Me (Remastered)
27. Heart of a Teenage Girl (Remastered)
28. Nothin Shakin (Remastered)
29. Everyday (Remastered)


England during the late 50s had its equivalents to Frankie Avalon and Fabian,
teenage boy singers whose sounds were specifically tailored to appeal to the
most romantic sides of the young female psyche and not offend their parents.
Craig Douglas was one of the better of these and has proved one of the most
enduring, still performing more than 40 years after cutting his first record.
Born Terry Perkins on the Isle of Wight, he was one of a pair of twins (and
those twins were one of three sets among nine children). His mother sang well,
one of Douglas sisters performed on the Isle of Wight, and hed reportedly begun
trying to sing while still in the crib. An indifferent student, he preferred
athletics and being outdoors, which led to his volunteering during a school
holiday to help the milkman make his deliveries.
It was the latter brief diversion that got the boy labeled the Singing Milkman
at the outset of his career. At 16, his mother entered him in a local talent
contest and he won by singing Love Letters in the Sand. He got to a final round,
where he specifically avoided doing the standard Elvis Presley imitations that
his competitors presented. This led to an appearance at a variety show on the
island, where he was seen by London agent Bunny Lewis, whose wife was performing
on the same bill. She, in turn, was impressed with the boys poise and
professionalism. Lewis arranged for singing lessons for the 16-year-old and
began grooming him for a career on the stage in London. He also acquired the
name Craig Douglas.
His breakthrough came on The Six-Five Special, then the only real showcase for
rock & roll on British television. Douglas was booked on the show the same week
that Cliff Richard and Joe Brown appeared, but he made an impression even in
their company: A few days later, he was presented with two huge sacks of fan
mail from the performance. The Six-Five Special led Douglas to a recording
contract and a string of successes. Much of Douglas career was spent at EMI, for
which he had a number one hit with his version of Only Sixteen, but also charted
very high with A Teenager in Love, The Heart of a Teenage Girl, Pretty Blue
Eyes, and When My Little Girl Is Smiling.
Douglas wasnt really a rock & roll singer, his diction being too good and his
delivery too straight-ahead for that designation. His early records call up
images of Ricky Nelson but, like a lot of young British singers of his era, he
quickly aimed for a more mature audience. His singing was very emotive but also
very clean. He was obviously more comfortable with dignified pop music, such as
Time, than with the more rocking numbers like Ring-A-Ding that he was
occasionally called upon to record, with its slurred lyrics, honking saxes, and
loud electric guitars (although Douglas acquitted himself well in that setting).
He made the usual moves, appearing on film soundtracks (Two and Two Make Six)
and in movies (Its Trad, Dad; A Painted Smile), as well as numerous television
shows. Douglas appearance alongside his EMI stablemate Helen Shapiro in Its
Trad, Dad (which was Richard Lesters first feature and a dry run for A Hard Days
Night) showed off his strengths and weaknesses. He was charismatic simply based
on his good looks, but was rather a stiff on camera as an actor, especially next
to the vivacious Shapiro (who was also about five years younger than the then
21-year-old Douglas). Rock & roll was just another musical genre to Douglas,
which is not to say he was wrong, its just that antique numbers like It All
Depends on You or Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue done straight will never resonate
the same way Dream Lover or Rainbows will to listeners born after 1945.
Douglas time on the English charts ended in 1962 and his major recording career
came to a halt a year later with the advent of the Liverpool sound, but he
continues to perform regularly in clubs, on cruises, and in cabarets, as well as
international tours. Indeed, well into the 1990s, he had an annual month-long
booking in Hong Kong. Hes a fondly remembered and talented exponent of Englands
early flirtation with rock & roll.

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