DEL JULIANA
Never Like This
(Barry Gibb)
Australia 1964

Original version

Surf-style single on RCA, a 'song the Bee Gees gave away', produced by Johnny Devlin.

At the same sessions Del Juliana (b. c.1942) recorded another Barry Gibb song, Boy On The Board, that was never released.

The B-side of Never Like This is a version of the Ray Charles 1959 hit What'd I Say (#9 USA).

Pop-rock singer Del Juliana released two singles and was a familiar solo artist on TV pop shows.

Del Juliana has gone down in history as the singer who almost supported The Beatles on their 1964 Australian tour. Whether she pulled out or was overlooked is unclear, but her place seems to have been taken by Johnny Devlin.

According to Teenagers' Weekly, 16 October 1963, Del Guiliani (as her name is spelt there) was signed to Channel 7 Sydney in 1962 on a five-year contract after she had appeared on Sing Sing Sing, the program that had replaced the Johnny O’Keefe Show from October 1962.

In their book Behind the Rock (now online), Jon Hayton and Leon Isackson tell the story of how their band The R'Jays (soon to be The Rajahs) booked Del Juliana to appear with them at the Snowy Mountains Hotel in Cooma early in 1964.

Biographical details on Del Juliana are hard to find, but she is said to be New Zealand-born and living nowadays in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales. She appeared at a 2002 memorial concert for Dig Richards.

See also Del Juliana's 1964 single (I Say) You're Driving Me Crazy with I Was A Fool For Leaving.

Listen to Never Like This at MPH's Del Juliana page.
On CD: Canetoad Records' Girls! Girls! Girls! along with two other Del Juliana tracks [Canetoad Records link].

At YouTube: Del Juliana singing Mockingbird with Johnny O'Keefe, some time before his hit version with Margaret McLaren.

References: Joseph Brennan's Gibb Songs for 1964. Cook, Bilyeu, and Hughes, The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb (via Google Books).

Thanks to Belinda and 'jargonise' at MusicPopHits MSN group.
Teenagers' Weekly reference from Zbigniew Nowara. When Del Guiliana/Juliana joined Sing Sing Sing it was being compered by Lionel Long, but Johnny O'Keefe took over as compere early in 1963 when he returned after illness (Damian Johnstone, The Wild One).

Suggestion from Fred Hill.

Thanks to Rob for straightening out my maths.

Corrections or comments? Contact the writer.