A Love Like You - LYNNE RANDELL (1965) - Pop Archives - Sources of Australian Pop Records from the 50s, 60s and 70s

LYNNE RANDELL
A Love Like You
(Derek Quinn - Alan Jones [attributed here to Randell-Robinson-Quinn])
Australia 1965
#15 Melbourne

Double-sided hit with the B-side, Summertime. Released May 1965, charted in June.

This is a slower, atmospheric version with pared-down instrumentation, a striking contrast with the upbeat Mersey-style version by Freddie And The Dreamers whose guitarist-harmonicist co-wrote the song.

Lynne Randell (1950-2007), born in Liverpool UK, was an aspiring singer working as a hairdresser in Melbourne when she got her first big break. She toured the US on the same bill as The Monkees and Jimi Hendrix and recorded Ciao Baby (1967), her biggest Australian hit, in New York.

Further reading: The Lynne Randell entry at Wikipedia is comprehensive and well-sourced. It is especially good on the circumstances of Randell's "discovery" in a hairdressing salon, showing that she was an aspiring singer who had already performed in public, and that she was not merely overheard singing as she worked. Highly recommended.

FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS
A Love Like You
(Derek Quinn - Alan Jones)
UK 1965
Original version?

The song seems to originate ultimately with Freddie & The Dreamers, recorded January 1965, but the timing of its release in relation to Lynne Randell's Australian version is unclear.

Co-writer Derek Quinn was a member of The Dreamers, on guitar and harmonica. Quinn & Jones also wrote Freddie & The Dreamers' Over You (1964, #13 UK).

Freddie & The Dreamers, from Manchester, were led by Freddie Garrity (1936-2006), a bespectacled zane who would break into giggles and leap about doing his own eccentric dance, celebrated in their song Do The Freddie.

They had a good run on the charts with songs that weren't always as comedic as their stage act would suggest. These included If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody (1963, #3 UK), You Were Made For Me (1963, #3 UK) and I'm Telling You Now, a 1963 British #2 that rode the British Invasion to #1 in the USA in 1965.

Freddie is the only man I know who can sing, dance and remove his trousers all at the same time. [Michael Carreras, liner notes, What A Crazy World, 1964, quoted at 45-rpm.org.uk.]

Chronology:

1. PopMusicInfo.com gives a recording date in January 1965 for A Love Like You on a single pressed in the UK for sale outside of the UK. This is Columbia DC-763, B-side of A Windmill In Old Amsterdam. Note the 3 digits, not 4 as in UK Columbia releases. It does not appear on UK discographies.

2. A Love Like You was next on the UK EP Freddie & The Dreamers, September 1965.

3. In the USA, A Love Like You was the B-side of Do The Freddie (Mercury #72428) which entered the Billboard charts on 15 May 1965. To complicate this, there were also Mercury #72428 pressings with Tell Me When as the B-side. In Australia, Do The Freddie on Columbia #DO4574 had Tell Me When as the B-side.

Thanks to Staffan Olander at PopMusicInfo.

References: 1. Freddie & The Dreamers story and discography at British Beat Boom. 2. Data at PopMusicInfo.com 3. Goldmine Price Guide to 45 rpm Records (listing of Mercury #72428).