1967 Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich – Zabadak!

1967 Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich – Zabadak! 

Five friends in Wiltshire (a county in England) formed a band in 1961. The band’s initial name became Dave Dee and the Bostons.

The members quickly quit their jobs to pursue full-time careers as musicians. An initial attempt to record songs did not go well. They renamed their band using their nicknames: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.

After the band signed with Fontana Records, lyricist Ken Howard and composer Alan Blaikley began working with the group in 1964. They wrote several of the band’s hits.

The band became part of the British Invasion in 1965 but had difficulty charting with any hits in the US. Their sole single on the Hot 100 came in 1967 with the release of Zabadak. The record reached #2 on the UK chart and the top ten in over a dozen other countries. In spite of charting well in the Northeastern US, the single stalled at only #52 in the US.

Ken and Alan also wrote the single that became the band’s biggest hit. The Legend Of Xanadu topped the charts in the UK and a few other countries in 1968. They sold over a million copies of the song.

The band had eight top ten singles and several other top forty releases. At least one source claims that between 1965 and 1969, they spent more weeks on the UK singles chart than the Beatles!

The band’s 1966 song Hold Tight was used in the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof. Director Edgar Wright created the film The Red Area for release in 2021 and discussed the film with Quentin. That led to his discovery of the band’s song Last Night In Soho, which became the new film’s title at release. Edgar also included the 1968 single as part of the film’s soundtrack.

Dave Dee attempted a solo career beginning in 1969 with little success. The rest of the band stayed together for four more years, but their career also floundered. Thanks to various reformed lineups of the band, they have often appeared on the oldies circuit since then. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dee,_Dozy,_Beaky,_Mick_%26_Tich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dee,_Dozy,_Beaky,_Mick_%26_Tich_discography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabadak!_(song)

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