Combining the cockney chirpiness of Tommy Steele and the moody rock poses of Billy Fury (for whom he once played guitar), Joe Brown never really looked comfortable as an early 60s pop star. Big hits such as A Picture Of You and It Only Took A Minute had a countryesque stroll to them, but Brown was all too quickly saddled with novelty tunes and godawful wacky film comedies.
Brown was arguably more at home when covering his heroes (Ray Charles’ Hallelujah I Love Her So, Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen), and when the hits dried up he happily settled into the role of musician-for-hire, occasional actor and a constant, though mostly unheralded, presence on the pub circuit. This anthology collects everything he put out between 1961 and ’67, where the wheat just about outweighs the chaff with a diversity which suggests that he was always more concerned with the music than the trappings of stardom.
Still touring today, and holding down a parallel career as a radio presenter, Brown’s never been short of work. He tiptoed away from the spotlight when we weren’t looking, but these 82 tracks represent a time when he found himself reluctantly playing the game.
