The Tony Jackson Group - Watch Your Step (1964-66, 2004)

Artist: The Tony Jackson Group
Album: Watch Your Step The Complete Recordings 1964-1966
Country: UK
Genre: Beat
Release: 2004
Quality: FLAC | lossless

For a long time, the only Tony Jackson collection was Strange Things' Just Like Me, which itself got hard to find not long after its release in the early '90s. This 2004 CD has everything that was on Just Like Me and a bit more. In fact, it's hard to imagine that there will ever be more Tony Jackson unearthed than what's here, as this disc has all 20 tracks Jackson released in the 1960s, along with four previously unreleased alternate takes and outtakes. Unsurprisingly, it sounds rather like (and sometimes much like) the Searchers, since Jackson was their original lead singer. And, to lay it on the line, it's not as good as the Searchers, though it's passable mid-'60s British Invasion music, and occasionally above average. The standout is certainly Jackson's folk-rock arrangement of Mary Wells' "You Beat Me to the Punch" (which liberally cops the guitar line from the Searchers' own arrangement of "Needles and Pins"). The high percentage of unmemorable covers of American R&B-rock tunes marks helped mark him, however, as a performer who didn't have nearly as much of distinction to offer outside of the Searchers as he did within that estimable band. Among the four previously unavailable songs, there's an alternate take of "Stage Door" with a somewhat less elaborate arrangement; an only slightly different alternate of "Is There Anything Else You Want"; the outtake "She Wanted Me" (by an unknown writer), which again recalls a middling Searchers; and an inconsequential jazzy instrumental cover of the Beatles' "We Can Work It Out."

Tracklist:
1. Tony Jackson With The Vibrations - Bye Bye Baby 2:28
2. Tony Jackson With The Vibrations - Watch Your Step 2:42
3. Tony Jackson & The Vibrations - You Beat Me To The Punch 2:53
4. Tony Jackson & The Vibrations - This Little Girl Of Mine 2:27
5. Tony Jackson With The Vibrations - Love Potion No. 9 2:02
6. Tony Jackson With The Vibrations - Fortune Teller 2:39
7. Tony Jackson & The Vibrations - Stage Door 2:23
8. Tony Jackson & The Vibrations - That's What I Want 2:11
9. Tony Jackson Group - You're My Number One 2:22
10.Tony Jackson Group - Let Me Know 2:24
11.Tony Jackson - Never Leave Your Baby's Side 2:12
12.The Tony Jackson Group - I'm The One She Really Thinks A Lot Of 2:33
13.The Tony Jackson Group - Follow Me 2:49
14.The Tony Jackson Group - Walk That Walk 2:44
15.Tony Jackson - Is There Anything Else You Want 2:06
16.Tony Jackson - Come On And Stop 2:31
17.Tony Jackson Group - Just Like Me 2:22
18.Tony Jackson Group - Understanding 3:08
19.Tony Jackson Group - Shake 2:54
20.Tony Jackson Group - He Was A Friend Of Mine 3:04
21.Tony Jackson & The Vibrations - Stage Door (Alt. Take) 2:19
22.Tony Jackson - Is There Anything Else You Want (Alt. Take) 2:23
23.Tony Jackson Group - She Wanted Me 2:25
24.Tony Jackson Group - We Can Work It Out (Instrumental Backing Track) 2:48

Personnel:
Tony Jackson (bass, vocals), Ian Buisel [Ian Leighton] (guitar, vocals), Paul Francis (drums), Paul Raymond (organ, 1964-66), Denis Thompson (bass, 1965-67), Ian Green (organ, 1967)

Tony Jackson, lead singer with top Liverpool group the Searchers, left them in July 1964 after he became disenchanted with the bands' move away from their rock 'n' roll roots to a softer, more melodic sound. By August, he'd moved to London and assembled a new band, the Vibrations. The Vibrations had an organ-based sound to their music rather than the familiar twelve string guitars associated with the Searchers