THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: Glad All Over Again
Epic Records, 1975
In the often narrow-minded rock 'n' roll atmosphere of the mid 1970s, digging the decade-old Tottenham Sound of The Dave Clark Five wasn't the coolest thing one could do. It wasn't quite as unhip as, say, declaring allegiance to Paul Revere & the Raiders or The Monkees, but it was still an invitation to scorn and dismissal. I just happened to like all three of these acts anyway. That played a large part in how I learned not to give a damn about what other people thought I should or shouldn't like.
I was 15 years old in 1975. I kinda remembered the DC5 a little from their hitmakin' heyday in the '60s; one of my older siblings (presumably my sister Denise) had the "Bits And Pieces" 45, and that lonely little 7" slab o' vinyl was still in the family record library at the Me Decade's midpoint. It was around '75 or so that my ongoing interest in The Beatles fueled a full-on obsession with the '60s, especially with the music of the British Invasion. I borrowed a bunch of my cousin Maryann's records--45s by The Rolling Stones and Yanks The Lovin' Spoonful, LPs by The Beatles, The Animals, The Searchers, and The Beach Boys--and immersed myself in the sound of the '60s.
Maryann's stash included two Dave Clark Five albums, Glad All Over and The Dave Clark Five Return! The title of "Glad All Over" seemed familiar, and a spin of the record confirmed that it was indeed a song I remembered from somewhere. That was enough. I was now a DC5 fan.
Over the next couple of years, I slowly expanded my knowledge and appreciation of the DC5. I heard "Any Way You Want It" and "Catch Us If You Can" on oldies radio shows, and eventually scored a couple of Dave Clark Five albums at the flea market (a really beat-up Glad All Over and a pretty nice copy of Having A Wild Weekend). More would follow.
I don't know when I became aware of Glad All Over Again, a double-album DC5 retrospective issued by Epic Records in 1975. I have no recollection of ever seeing it in a record store; I'm not 100% positive I've ever seen it at all, though I think I did, possibly in the library of the campus radio station WBSU when I got to college in the fall semester of '77, or in the DJ booth at the on-campus Rathskeller during the weekly Oldies Night on Thursdays. I know that I did read a review of it in an old issue of CREEM magazine that came into my possession at that time. If I saw the record, or even if I only heard of it, I knew one thing for sure:
I wanted it. I really wanted it.
But it was not to be. Lacking an opportunity to buy Glad All Over Again, I continued to build my DC5 collection as best I could. A 45 of "Red And Blue"/"Concentration Baby" (and I much preferred the B-side), and a slow process of acquiring albums one by one: Coast To Coast, American Tour, Greatest Hits, You Got What It Takes, 5 By 5, I Like It Like That, Weekend In London, The Dave Clark Five Return!, More Greatest Hits, Try Too Hard, and Satisfied With You, in that approximate order. Years later I scored a bootleg CD two-fer of The Dave Clark Five Play Good Old Rock & Roll and Dave Clark And Friends. I still have every one of these, plus a couple more bootleg CDs and the official CD best-of The History Of The Dave Clark Five, rent-money collection purges be damned. My Dave Clark Five collection isn't complete, but it's close.
It doesn't include Glad All Over Again. That's the one that got away.
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