Frank Ifield

	Frank Ifield

Early years Frank Ifield moved with his Australian parents to Dural, 50 km (30 miles) from Sydney, about 1946. It was a rural district and he listened to hillbilly music (now called country) while milking the cows. He learned how to yodel in imitation of country stars like Hank Snow. At the age of thirteen he recorded "Did You See My Daddy Over There?", and by the age of 19 was the number one recording star in Australia and New Zealand. He returned to the UK in 1959. [edit] The hits His first record in the UK was "Lucky Devil" (1960) which got to number 22 in the UK charts. His next six records were less successful, but he finally broke through with "I Remember You" which topped the charts for seven weeks in 1962. Known for Ifield's falsetto and a slight yodel, it became the top-selling single of that year and was one of the first million sellers within the UK alone. His next single was a double A-side: "Lovesick Blues" and "She Taught Me How to Yodel". "Lovesick Blues" was originally sung by Hank Williams and was treated in an upbeat "Let's Twist Again" style. The other song is a virtuoso piece of yodelling with the final verse - entirely yodelling - sung at double-speed. It also reached number 44 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. His next hit, "Wayward Wind", made him the first UK-based person to reach number one three times in the UK in succession. The only other person to have done so at that point was Elvis Presley. His other recordings include "Nobody's Darling but Mine", "Confessin'" (his fourth and final UK chart topper), "Mule Train" and "Don't Blame Me". In 1963 he sang at the Grand Ole Opry, introduced by one of his heroes, Hank Snow. Many of his records were produced by Norrie Paramor. [edit] Jolly What! Ifield toured the UK in 1963, supported by The Beatles. While Vee-Jay Records temporarily had the rights to a number of The Beatles' recordings, they released an album called Jolly What! England's Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles and Frank Ifield on Stage on 26 February 1964. The LP consisted of four studio Beatles songs (all previously released), plus eight recordings of Ifield. The original pressing has a drawing of a chubby old man with a moustache, and is itself quite rare. However, just before Vee Jay's publishing rights were about to expire on 10 October 1964 they changed the sleeve cover to a drawing of the Beatles. Probably less than one hundred copies were pressed, making it is one of the rarest Beatles albums. Three sealed stereo copies were discovered in 1976, selling for $600, $900 and $1,800. One of the three was re-sold in 1995 for a whopping $22,000.[1] Like many of the albums rushed out to cash in on the Beatles success, Jolly What! has been called a "rip-off", due to its intentional misleading of buyers. For one thing, the album consisted entirely of studio recordings (not live, and thus not "on stage"), and that all the Beatles material had been previously released. What's more, Ifield was a moderate success in his own country, but hardly a "great recording star".[2] The album is also known for a mistake in the liner notes: "It is with a good deal of pride and pleasure that this copulation has been presented" -- presumably "copulation" should have been "compilation". (One wag commented that "copulation" was appropriate, since the makers of the album were "trying to screw the fans out of their money.")[2] The album, however, was significant in that, until the release of the Beatles' 1973 compilation album, The Beatles/1962-1966, Jolly What! was the only American Beatles album to include "From Me to You."