The First Class--Beach Baby (1974)

   Only the mish mash of styles that defined the top 40 charts during the early/middle 70's could have given us one of the best summertime hits about the beach from London. Not only that, but they evoked the sound of the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson better than Wilson himself could at the time.
      The First Class was a studio group which consisted of songwriter/producer John Carter, studio singer Tony Burrows, and Chas Mills, primarily to promote the music of Carter and his songwriter wife, Jill Shakespeare.
     We have had done a blog on Burrows before and this would be the last of an incredible run as a lead singer in a band. "Beach Baby" itself was written and recorded in the summer of 1974. After it's release in subsequent success in the US, there was a clamoring for a tour. None of the participants were interested in this, so a band was put together which consisted of, Del John (lead singer), Spencer James (guitar), Robin Shaw (bass), Clive Barrett (keys), and Eddie Richards (drums). If you actually own the copy of their one and only album, you will see this group with the trio who actually recorded it.
     The version here on the blog is the album version of the song which is longer, but much superior to the single.