LOST TREASURES
MIKE D’ABO
d’Abo
By Peter Marston
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Many pop fans may not know the name Mike d’Abo, but most will be familiar with at least some of his creative work. He was the singer in Manfred Mann after the departure of Paul Jones and is featured on some pretty big hits, “The Might Quinn” being the most prominent, but also “Ha Ha Said the Clown” and “My Name is Jack.” He is the author of both the Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup” and Rod Stewart’s “Handbags and Gladrags.” He played Herod on the original British recording of Jesus Christ Superstar and his featured number, “Herod’s Song,” is certainly one of the album’s highlights. If all that is not enough to jog your memory, he is also the father of Olivia d’Abo who played older sister Karen Arnold on the popular television series The Wonder Years.
His career in recorded music began with the British beat group Band of Angels who released three singles between 1964 and 1966, all co-written and sung by d’Abo. None of the singles achieved much chart success and when d’Abo was called to replace Jones in Manfred Mann, the decision was easy. D’Abo fronted the Manfreds from 1966’s cover of “Just Like a Woman” through 1969’s “Ragamuffin Man.” When the band packed it in 1969 (to be reformed as Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1972), producer Mike Leander took over the reins of d’Abo’s career, promising to make him “another Cliff Richard.” Though that never quite happened, d’Abo did record three solid solo albums in the early ’70s, all featuring very strong pop, soul and singer-songwriter material.
The first of these solo albums is 1970’s d’Abo, released on the UNI label. The support musicians include some of England’s finest: most notably, Albert Lee and Chris Spedding on guitars and Gerry Conway and John Marshall on drums. The album features a variety of styles with side one generally leaning toward the soulful and side two leaning toward country and folk material. The opening two tracks, “Let It Roar” and “Walk a Million Miles,” are up-tempo pop-gospel numbers, the former sporting not only one of d’Abo’s best vocals on the album, but also the requisite gospel response chorus. “As Long as I Have Loving” is an outstanding blue-eyed soul ballad with an arrangement that is reminiscent of Ray Charles. “Mary, Warm My Bed” is a funky shaky-guitar piece that pop fans may know from Colin Blunstone’s cover on his first solo LP, One Year. Without a doubt, though, the highlight of the album is “Call My Heart Your Home, Girl,” a ballad with beautiful chord changes and a disarming, soaring chorus. The more country-flavored material is a little less striking, though entirely enjoyable, especially “Oh, What a Day,” which alternates between a very traditional verse pattern with a more driving pop/rock chorus. The album closes with d’Abo’s version of perhaps his most successful composition, “Handbags and Gladrags.”
After d’Abo, two additional solo albums were recorded for United Artists: 1972’s Down at Rachel’s Place and 1974’s Broken Rainbows. D’Abo then went on to release two albums as a duo with former Dave Clark Five singer Mike Smith. During the same period he also appeared on the original British recording of Evita. Sporadic solo releases continued through the ’80s and d’Abo’s reemerged in 2011 with Passion Driven. He continues to play occasional live dates, often as part of ’60s revival shows
D’Abo has never been reissued on CD, but does appear in its entirety on RPM’s 2001 compilation The Mike d’Abo Collection Volume One: “Handbags and Gladrags.” The compilation also includes all six sides d’Abo cut with Band of Angels along with four additional tracks. The original vinyl is frequently available on second-market sites like eBay and GEMM. Any way you can find it, though, it’s well worth the effort!
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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.” You check it out at this link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang
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LINKS:
WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_d%27Abo
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.mikedabo.com/
AllMusicGuide: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-dabo-mn0000485346
VIDEO:
“HANDBAGS AND GLADRAGS”
“MISS ME IN THE MORNING”
“CINDERELLA ARABELLA”
