Moms Music- Dave Clark Five

In my Moms collection #momsrecords, there were quite a few Dave Clark Five records. There is an old urban rock legend that Dave named the band after himself because he was a crappy drummer but no one is going to be able to kick Dave Clark out of the Dave Clark Five (I have no idea if this is true or if he is even a subpar musician but as we all know what happened to Pete Best maybe there is some credence in it. Google doesn’t really help me here, either, though you don’t have to go far to find the rumor the studio albums were “enhanced” mentioned) Awhile back, I watched 2014s “Dave Clark and Beyond” documentary. Now, I think that might have taken some hagiographic extremes (Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Paul McCartney all give glowing interviews as if there was no more important band.) But let’s look at that argument. The DC5 had some great songs and it is true that before there were the Beatles and the Stones, the Beatles primary chart competition was the Dave Clark Five. The hit list is surprisingly longer than you might think. There are a genuine handful of pop standards, but Dave Clark really had a string of UK hits from 1963 until 1970 (the US hits end around 1967 but considering the climate is nearly as impressive) It’s probably easy to dismiss the band for not adapting to the time. My mom’s DC5 collection ends with 1965s “Having A Wild Weekend” which contained “Catch Us if You Can” and I think this is where most Americans’ knowledge ends. Researching on wiki, one of the band’s last singles was a cover of Neil Young’s “Southern Man” (a non-charter for a final iteration of the band called Dave Clark and Friends in 1971). It’s worth a search to hear and wonder if there might have been a 70s future for them. The Clark doc mentions his 1986 musical “Time” which I don’t recall having much an impact in the US, and I am not sure how big of a deal it was in the UK or Australia. It stands as a curiosity- a Doctor Who inspired space opera with a range of performers from Cliff Richard to Freddie Mercury to Julian Lennon to Ashford and Simpson and even Sir Laurence Olivier. I suspect it hasn’t stood up the test to time but who knows, but I came to praise Dave Clark not bury him, and a great body of work.