Hold Tight - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (1966) Blue Peter & The M4 (SHQ)

A real blast for you here, the amazing Dave Dee, Dozy Beaky, Mick and Tich singing their UK Top 5 hit "Hold Tight" the bassline in this song is amazing.

The song was recorded on 11 January 1966 at Fontana's studio in Marble Arch, London and released as a single in February 1966. It was included on the band's debut album, issued on 24 June 1966.

The song reached number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. This was their first top ten hit, also reaching number 27 on the Australian Kent Music Report and number 8 on the New Zealand Singles Chart. The song did not chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, with the band achieving limited success in America.

The song was used in the soundtrack to the 2007 Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof, in which Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) requests the song, calling in to the radio station for which she works. She erroneously refers to the band as "Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mitch and Tich".

Reviewing for New Musical Express at the time, Derek Johnson wrote that "the stamping drum opening sounds like a Dave Clark disc – then in comes a grating rasp guitar and plonking bass, to build the rhythm to a pitch before the vocals start. The song itself goes up, line by line, in octaves – so that Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich are in falsetto at the end of each stanza".

For Record Mirror, Peter Jones described the song as a "highly effective hit-parade follow-up with a beat based on a current clapping craze at football grounds".

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich are an English rock band active during the 1960s. Formed in Salisbury in 1964, the band consisted of David Harman (Dave Dee), Trevor Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) and Ian Amey (Tich). Their novel name, zany stage act and lurid dress sense helped propel them to chart success with a string of hit singles penned by songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley including "Hold Tight!", "Bend It!" and "Zabadak!". Over the course of the band's career, they played several different genres, including freakbeat, mod and pop. Two of their single releases sold in excess of one million copies each, and they reached number one in the UK Singles Chart with the second of them, "The Legend of Xanadu". Unlike many other British bands of the 1960s who were associated with the British invasion of the United States, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich had limited commercial US success. They did better in Canada with 7 songs in the top 100.

Fabulous song that sounds right for the times, hope you enjoy this classic pop song.

Eddy EVB ‪@thesquaredisc‬