The Dave Clark Five: "At the Scene"

March 14, 1966 (1 week)

Though the charts didn't quite reflect it in the first part of the year, the music of 1966 proved to be considerably darker and tougher than previous years. Though considered to be a seminal album from 1967, The Velvet Underground's The Velvet Underground and Nico had been recorded nearly a year earlier — which perhaps goes some way to explaining how it managed to stand out so starkly up against all that lovey-dovey flower power. A rougher edge took hold of The Rolling Stones as they really began to come into their own. The Who's Pete Townshend crafted some magnificent pop but with some questionable themes while their hits were being played live at increasingly louder volumes. Even The Beatles began moving toward the dark side on Revolver cuts like "Eleanor Rigby" and "Tomorrow Never Knows".

Yet, there was still a place for bubblegum pop. While they were becoming increasingly irrelevant back in Britain, Herman's Hermits and Peter and Gordon continued to find success in North America as younger kids turned their backs on much of that dark stuff. (With The Beatles having failed to sell out Shea Stadium in the summer of '66 for their second show at the famed venue, CBS interviewed some youngsters at the concert to see if they felt the Fab Four might be fading away. Older teens still spoke highly of them while a little girl admitted that she preferred 'Herman and the Hermits'; as an aside, I'm not sure that asking kids at a concert really proved anything: they ought to have gotten the perspective of some adolescents who weren't in attendance instead) While Canada remained loyal, they were but a taster for what was to come in the late sixties. The Monkees were on the horizon, The Bee Gees weren't far off and American pop was soon to take over from the British Invasion. It seemed like everyone had to take a side.

As if trying to place themselves on the right side of the divide, The Dave Clark Five returned with their roughest number to date. Lead singer Mike Smith is in fine sandpapery form, Clark pounds the drums with his usual ferocity and their bandmates even sound energetic — and not just because they've been cajoled into stomping their feet on a wooden stage the entire time. The DC5 always played with a booming presence but they found a new level here. Too bad, then, that "At the Scene" is feeble and smacks of throwaway pop played at maximum volume to hide just how empty it is.

Though not terribly great, "At the Scene" isn't a total disaster. Not nearly as fun as "Over and Over" but a modest improvement on "Bits and Pieces". Ultimately, this third and final Canadian number one from the DC5 sort of sums them up. While they may have aspired to be ranked alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, they lacked talented songwriters and were unable or unwilling to explore musically. On the other hand, they couldn't quite grasp how to craft truly great pop either, as if pandering to commercial demands was below them or something. What they did they did reasonably well but they could never quite rise above being a dance band from London's East End. Merseybeat may have faded away but they were going to drive the Tottenham Sound into the ground.

Score: 4