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By suggestion from Bob Fox (no relation)…
First Class – Beach BabyBritish band, First Class, was barely a band. It was a group of musicians assembled for the sole purpose to record this song, knowing it would likely be a hit.
Written by John Carter and his wife, Jill Shakespeare, they looked for a familiar voice to record it. They hired Tony Burrows and a session musician Chas Mills to lay it down on tape. They decided to name the group of newly introduced band members, First Class.
On at American Top 40 episode from August 31st, 1974, Casey Kasem tells the story of it’s quest to become a hit:
“Now on American Top 40, I have that song that was launched by a criminal act, an act that could have cost the owner of a British record company at least a stiff fine. He’s also a recording artist, Jonathan King. He’s known to Americans as the guy who hit back in 1965 with ‘Everyone’s Gone to the Moon’, remember? Well, since then he’s become a successful producer in England, and he started his own label a couple of years ago. Last year, during the United Kingdom’s severe energy crisis, a songwriter came to Jonathan’s house with a master tape of a new song that he’d just recorded, but he’d come on a bad day of the week. You see, it was a day when Britons were prohibited from using electricity because of the power shortage. But something told King to take a chance. He invited the artist to come in, and, in a room lit only by candles, keeping the volume turned way down, he listened to that tape, and he knew he’d bought a hit song.”
“Beach Baby” climbed all the way to the #4 spot on the Hot 100!
