Gerry and the Pacemakers: "I'll Be There"

January 18, 1965 (1 week)

Ever gentlemanly and modest, producer George Martin refuted claims on the part of critics that he did the bulk of the heavy lifting when it came to Beatles' recordings. He saw his role as that of a translator, a classically trained musician who took the Fab Four's creative ideas and helped mold them into some of the most extraordinary music ever committed to tape. He was there to assist these talented but unlettered individuals but the craft, Martin maintained, was all theirs.

The wags were wrong and, in truth, it didn't take the polite but firm voice of George Martin to disprove them. All one really had to do was to take a listen to the other groups that he produced to see that the magic was only coming from one corner. The Beatles had the curiosity, humour and talent to be a perfect fit for Martin; the rest of his charges were just there for him to make the best of what they had - and the bulk of them didn't have all that much.

Bobby Darin's "I'll Be There" is a composition that never really found a home — and, perhaps, deservedly so. The Latin Lover tossed it off as the B side to his Top 20 arrangement of the standard "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey" and it languished there. Darin would have made a few extra bucks from having one of his compositions on the flip side of a stronger song but that was that.

Though Darin's "Bill Bailey" had been only a minor hit in the UK, there is another explanation as to how Gerry and the Pacemakers would have come across it in the early sixties. As many from Merseyside have told it over the years, Liverpool sailors and merchant seamen would return from the United States with bundles of records. For whatever reason, they refused to keep or sell the bulk of them and instead just handed them out to the local urchins. (I picture them descending the gangway and throwing these prized 7" and 12" items like frisbees to the youngsters who'd come to greet them) While a young John Lennon or Paul McCartney managed to get their hands on something like Larry Williams' "Bony Maronie" or Barrett Strong's "Money" by this (dubious) method, lovable lad Gerry Marsden had to make do with Bobby Darin — and not one of his good songs like "Mack the Knife".

The Pacemakers soon made it a part of their setlist, often closing out shows at the Cavern. Familiarity, however, did little to improve it. While Lennon and McCartney, as well as an emergent George Harrison, were keeping The Beatles afloat in originals, Marsden hadn't quite mastered the self-sufficiency route. They had already gone through those idiotic Mitch Murray numbers as well as their own spin on "You'll Never Walk Alone" (bloody hell, they couldn't have been a more cliched bunch of Scousers, could they?). "I'm the One" had been an acceptable Marsden-composed hit but the group still had to rely mainly on the work of others.

While I don't think much of "I'll Be There" as a composition, the Pacemakers only manage to make it worse — and, whatsmore, George Martin doesn't even do much to help matters. When Marsden yelped along with a frivolous little piece like "How Do You Do It" with plucky charm, he didn't possess the vocal chops for a lush ballad, even if it isn't an especially effective one. Perhaps due in part to the singer's lack of vocal prowess and warmth, Martin chose to swamp the recording with a sickly string arrangement. By this point in The Beatles' extraordinary run, he had given their roughhouse sound a professional sheen with contributions that accentuated with talents; with the Pacemakers it was more a case of a layering of gloop in order to cover up what a nondescript band he was working with.

The one bright side is that it is perhaps due to Gerry and the Pacemakers that someone was finally able to make the most out of a very average song a few years later. Tried out during the sessions for From Elvis in Memphis, it was kept off (in favour of, quite honestly, far better material) and kept on ice until budget release Let's Be Friends in '71. Like Bobby Darin (and unlike Gerry Marsden), Elvis Presley was an accomplished vocalist who had been on something of a creative hot streak ever since his 1968 Comeback Special so he was in a prime position to make something reasonable out of nothing special.

Score: 3