It's the Searchers


It's the Searchers is the third studio album by English rock band The Searchers. It features the band's famous hit singles "Needles and Pins" and "Don't Throw Your Love Away" as well as cover versions of some well known tracks originally recorded by Betty Everett, Carl Perkins, Don Gibson, The Drifters or Tommy Tucker. It was also the last Searchers album to feature singer Tony Jackson. The album peaked at No. 4 in the UK album chart.

Overview and recording

The tension in the Searchers began before the recording sessions. Things got worse between Chris Curtis and Tony Jackson. Curtis became the leader of the band and in fact, he did not like Jackson's style or himself at all. “I didn’t like Tony Jackson much, even from the start, and if I’d had the nous to audition for the Searchers, I would have had someone else in the first place,” said Curtis to Spencer Leigh in 1997.
So, Tony lost the position of the band’s lead singer. Chris Curtis would tell him his vocals were not needed and he was to play bass his way. Their egos grew bigger and as the new lead singer Mike Pender wrote in his autobiography: “Internal tensions within the band worsened when certain people neglected to tell Tony about recording sessions and policy discussions.” Finally, Jackson sang lead vocal on one song only, "Sho' Know A Lot About Love ".
Although it was probably not the intention of the authors, a later re-issue of the album featured an updated band photo on the cover with new bass player Frank Allen.
During the album sessions, the band also recorded two unreleased tracks. The first was "I (Who Have Nothing)", an English language cover of the Italian song performed by Ben E. King in the US. The second was "Shame Shame Shame" written by American blues musician Jimmy Reed. Both songs were finally released in 1992 on The Searchers' 3CD box 30th Anniversary Collection 1962–1992. Journalist Alan Walsh claimed that he "goes to a Pye LP session and joins the boys" and sang backing vocals with them on the song "Sho' Know A Lot About Love".

Release

It's the Searchers was the third Searchers' album released within 12 months . It came as a monaural LP album on the Pye label in the UK in April 1964, Pye NPL 18092. It entered the LP charts on May 30 went to No. 4 and stayed for 17 weeks. Early pressings of the album had been made with title "It's Fab! It's Gear! It's the Searchers"'', the originally intended album title, but it was shortened later.
The low-budget Marble Arch Records reissued the album in 1968 with the new cover art. This LP was released in mono and for the first time also in stereo version. But the track list was shortened and four songs were omitted.

US version (This Is Us)

The US version of It's The Searchers was retitled This Is Us and given a different cover art. It was released with a different track listing. It entered the LP charts on 29 August 1964 and peaked at No. 97 on Billboard Top 200.

Love Potion No. 9

The song "Love Potion No. 9" was chosen as an additional single from the album. It became massively popular and reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on Cash Box during the winter of 1965. Lead singer Tony Jackson left the band at the time of the album's release and formed his own band, Tony Jackson And The Vibrations. He immediately recorded his own new version of the hit song, but it missed the charts.

Personnel

The Searchers
Additional musicians and production