Brian Poole & The Tremeloes - The Decca Singles: A-Sides & B-Sides (2023)

Brian Poole & the Tremeloes were an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex, England. Lead singer Brian Poole left the band in 1966 and the band continued as The Tremeloes.

The group formed in 1958 as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes (the name soon being changed thanks to the spelling mistake of a local newspaper), and were initially cast in the Buddy Holly and the Crickets mould. Decca notoriously chose them over The Beatles, whom they had auditioned on the same day. They first charted with a version of “Twist and Shout” (1963), which owed much to the Beatles' version, followed by a chart topping cover of The Contours' U.S. million-seller “Do You Love Me” in the same year. Before they parted company with Brian Poole in 1966, their covers of Roy Orbison's B-side, "Candy Man" and The Crickets' B-side ballad, "Someone Someone" (both 1964) entered the UK Singles Chart Top Ten, with the latter peaking at number two.

Once Poole had left, and after a couple of near misses, rhythm guitarist and keyboard player Alan Blakely took over leadership of the group, and Len 'Chip' Hawkes (father of 1990s hitmaker Chesney Hawkes) replaced bassist Alan Howard. As the Tremeloes, the band started an even more successful hit run from 1967 onwards with Cat Stevens' “Here Comes My Baby”; “Suddenly You Love Me”, “Hello World”, and “My Little Lady”, and their Number one recording of an old Four Seasons' B-side “Silence Is Golden”. Both this latter single and “Here Comes My Baby” also entered the Top Twenty of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.