Between 1994 and 1997, Britpop ruled the airwaves as far as I was concerned, but it did not mean that it was the only music genre I was listening to. The late 60s were never too far away either, especially as several Britpop artists were declaring how that period of music had influence them. Reissue programmes were starting to gather pace and one of these was a reconstruction of the fabled ‘Teenage Opera’ project. I had first heard of this project when I heard lead single ‘Excerpt From A Teenage Opera’ played on Capitol Gold, a radio station that focused on what was called oldies music back in the late 80s, early 90s. Oldies back then would have been anything between the mid 50s and 1969. This was an excerpt but what happened to the rest of it?
For this, we must go back to 1967 when German born producer Mark Wirtz finds himself in London checking out bands on the underground scene. He is also accepts a job on the staff at EMI. Two of the bands who he takes an interest in are Pink Floyd and the In Crowd. The Floyd sign to EMI label, Columbia but Wirtz declined the offer to produce them but looks to work with the In Crowd, especially their singer who goes by the name of Keith West. The In Crowd were already signed to EMI and had released three singles under that name but none of them troubled the charts. The band decided to change their name to the more ‘psychedelic’ Tomorrow and started to work with Wirtz.
Wirtz had had an idea of doing a pop opera style project and had already laid down some basic tracks. One of these was played to West who wrote the lyrics to what would become the first release for this project called ‘Excerpt From A Teenage Opera’. The song, telling the story of a grocer who is taken for granted before he dies was recorded in true stereo, which was rare for a 1967 pop single and it reached number 2 in the UK singles charts. The title of ‘Grocer Jack’ was given to the song later and was not included on the original single credits to imply that it was part of a much larger project. With the song being such a big hit, the music press were keen to find out when the rest would be released.
Reports suggested that the whole thing was already complete and was going to be released as a double album, also rare for the 60s. There was talk of a musical version would be staged which is something that did happen in 2017. There were also reports that MGM were prepared to buy the film rights. However, after this initial interest, the release of second single ‘Sam’ failed to live up the sales of the first and interest quickly faded. This was down to a couple of reasons. First up, ‘Sam’ was quite long for a single closing in at over five minutes so radio stations were reluctant to play it. Keith West also decided to leave the project. He needed to make a choice between being a darling of the underground music scene with his band Tomorrow, or being a pop star recording with Wirtz on the opera project. He opted for Tomorrow, even though he did record one further song for the project. Called ‘Mr Rainbow’ it was a rerecording of the Tomorrow song ‘Hallucinations’ and it was released under the pseudonym Steve Flynn.
Wirtz continued to work with Tomorrow. Their single ‘My White Bicycle’ is a psychedelic classic but neither it, nor the follow-up, ‘Revolution’ seriously dented the charts. By the time their album came out, the band had lost their cohesion. One of the reasons for this could have been that they were expected to play songs from the Teenage Opera project on stage. It would have been difficult enough to do this with the band being a four piece, but they were lacking the orchestra and children to reproduce them in the style of the recording.
After West left, there was a third single called ‘(He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman’ with Wirtz taking over a lead vocalist. This was the first single not to have a dedicated stereo mix and it can be said that Wirtz knew his opera project was now dead in the water. ‘Except From A Teenage Opera’, ‘Sam’ and ‘(He’s A Dear Old) Weatherman’ are the only songs that can be guaranteed to have been completed for the project. Wirtz continued to produce records and when RPM Records came to compile their version of Teenage Opera in 1996, they used the three aforementioned songs, period productions from Wirtz and incidental music to make it sound like an actual soundtrack.
I decided that if EMI had thought of releasing an album back in the late 60s with some of the music Wirtz had been involved with, I suspect none of the incidental music would have made the cut. That just leaves the two themes (one to start of proceedings and one to conclude), the single A-Sides and even some B-Sides.
SIde A
- Theme From A Teenage Opera – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Excerpt From A Teenage Opera – Keith West
- Auntie Mary’s Dress Shop – Tomorrow
- Barefoot & Tiptoe – Sweet Shop
- (He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman – Mark Wirtz
- Dream, Dream, Dream – Zion De Gallier
- Mr. Rainbow – Steve Flynn
Side B
- Sam (From A Teenage Opera) – Keith West
- Shy Boy – Kippington Lodge
- Colonel Brown – Tomorrow
- Cellophane Mary-Jane – Astronaut Alan & The Planets
- Possum’s Dance – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- On A Saturday – Keith West
- Theme From A Teenage Opera (End Titles) – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
The following notes for these songs have taken some details from the sleeve notes of the 1996 RPM release and an entry on the Steve Hoffman forum written by user mark f from 5th November 2007.
Theme from a Teenage Opera (B-side of ‘Except For A Teenage Opera) – the first track in the chronology of the Opera but never, according to Wirtz, intended to be part of the final concept. In fact ‘Theme’ was considered by Wirtz to be a throwaway B-side. Apparently, it gained its name only later when a B-side was needed for ‘Excerpt From a Teenage Opera’. Steve Howe plays the lead guitar on the track and contrary to popular belief this is the only Opera related track on which Howe appears. Howe’s guitar, the mandolins and balalaika were added later. Despite Wirtz’s feelings about the track it’s certainly a strong number melodically and the production is excellent.
Excerpt from a Teenage Opera – Incorrectly known as ‘Grocer Jack’, the instrumental track was recorded under the name Mood Mosaic. Though ‘Sam’ would present more complications in editing, ‘Excerpt From A Teenage Opera’ has at least three distinct sections, one of which has Wirtz doing his best Motown impersonation (evident in the section starting with “his arms and legs don’t feel so strong”). Existing recordings show that the rhythm section and keyboards were recorded live, followed by percussion overdubs. At least three more sessions would include orchestra and vocal overdubs. Though Wirtz has claimed that his use of mandolin and balalaika were influenced by Russian classical and dance music, the string band he used was from a local restaurant. Exactly who played on the track is unclear, but Clem Cattini was the drummer. Vocalists included The Ivy League, The Ladybirds and Peter Lee Stirling. Jim Sullivan and/or Vic Flick were more than likely the guitarists and Wirtz believes that Russ Stableford played bass. The children’s chorus was made up of students from the Corona School (a performing arts school in London which still exists to this day). Wirtz claims to have paid the Corona School out of his own pocket, West claims the kid’s vocals were his idea and there are reports that they were fed milk and cookies.
Auntie Mary’s Dress Shop – Recorded during the sessions for the Tomorrow album
Barefoot & Tiptoe – In early 1968, Wirtz married single Ross Hangman. Between them, they wrote several songs including this one. Both Mr and Mrs Wirtz sing on this song as well. The recording also included the Band of the Irish Guards who were not used to sitting down when playing, so they were recorded marching around the studio for the oompah section.
(He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman – After West left the project, Wirtz claims that he gave up the search for a suitable vocalist but its possible he didn’t try all that hard sensing that he needed to get the track out fast. It can be argued that no other vocalist could have performed it as well as Wirtz. One existing backing track shows that the rhythm section was recorded live with timed sections of silence left for the orchestral overdubs. During the first silence Wirtz can be heard laughing hysterically. The main features of the instrumental track are the prominent accordion and the heavy percussion – again played by Clem Cattini. The children’s vocals were performed by the Irish kiddy folk act The O’Briens, with whom Wirtz recorded one single.
Dream, Dream, Dream – The artists lived on this release was Zion De Gallier. This was the pseudonym of Douglas Ord who was a singer of a band called The Deepbeats who do not see to have made any recordings. This was the A-Side of his second single, both of which were produced by Wirtz.
Mr Rainbow – As noted above, Steve Flynn was a pseudonym for Keith West and this was a rerecorded version of Tomorrow’s song, ‘Hallucinations’.
Sam – Roughly the same history and musicians as ‘Excerpt From A Teenage Opera’ but session recordings indicate even more percussion overdubs, which were later mixed down or totally removed. The heavy use of percussion had been a Wirtz trademark since 1964 and it sounds like Wirtz wanted to recreate his old sound. Sample edits of the backing tracks show that the sections were originally considered to be in a different order. The music papers of the day have Wirtz covertly recording train sounds at railway yards. He did in fact record the church bells at The Dom in his hometown of Cologne, Germany. The 4th Central Holloway Brownies Pack sings the children’s chorus this time because, according to Wirtz, The Corona School was not interested in participating. The issue may have come down to money. It is unclear as to whether the Brownies required milk and cookies. Lyrics printed on the promotional picture sleeve show a spoken word section with a girl (singer Penny Gold) asking Keith if Sam will come back. Promotional copies of the single had no B-side because the original B-side had been rejected (see below). Promo copies also contained a slip warning DJs of the track’s length. Wirtz later edited ‘Sam’ for radio play when it became evident that it was too long. Copies of those edits appear to have been hastily pressed. Advanced publicity claimed that Sam took 80 hours to record but Wirtz says that this is rubbish. In any case, publicists seemed pleased to announce that EMI were concerned about the cost to make the record. The B-Side of ‘Sam’ that was not used would have been interviews by Tim Rice, he of the musicals and working with Andrew Lloyd Webber fame. The second Mark Wirtz idea for the B-side to ‘Sam’ was to have kids being interviewed on various topics. Papers quoted Wirtz as saying that the interviews would address the kids at an adult level with the hope of gaining their perspective on various serious topics. The interviews were conducted apparently with the girls in the ‘Sam’ Brownie troupe but EMI rejected the idea for the B-side. If these tapes still exist, they have not been located.
Shy Boy – A single A-Side by band, Kippington Lodge.
Colonel Brown – Another track recorded by Tomorrow for inclusion on their album.
Cellophane Mary-Jane – A B-side for a single where the artist was listed as Astronaut Alan & The Planets. This looks to have been a group of session players who released numerous singles under loads of different names and Wirtz may well have been a member. The A-side was called ‘Fickle Lizzie Anne’.
Possum’s Dance – Originally released as the B-side to ‘(He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman)’. According to Wirtz this track was recorded at the end of the ‘Sam’ sessions while the mandolin and balalaika players were still around. It’s possible that the main track was recorded even earlier as Mood Mosaic. Again, despite its charming melodic qualities, Wirtz considers this to be a throwaway B-side.
Theme From A Teenage Opera (End Credits) – a rerecorded version of the opening theme.
The cover is adapted form the one that was used on the RPM records sleeve from this heady days of 1996 and considering this came out in the era when sleeve art was minimal due to the limited space afforded by cassettes and CDs, this is quite a busy effort. All references to RPM have been removed but the Parlophone label has been added. The credit for Kippington Lodge would not, if it this had come out in the 1960s included the separate entry for Nick Lowe as he was just a member of the band and his solo career was some way off into the future. I do not have the necessary I.T. skills to fix that one though.
P.S. – Whilst I was putting this together, I thought that if this LP had been released back in the 60s, it would have been ripe for reappraisal and a Deluxe Edition. If CD 1 was the original album, CD 2 would contain the single mixes, flip sides, all of the incidental music that came with the 1996 reconstruction and any further unreleased material.
CD
- Except From A Teenage Opera (Single Version) – Keith West
- Theme From A Teenage Opera (Single Version) – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Festival Of Kings – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Sam (From A Teenage Opera) – Keith West
- Thimble Full Of Puzzles – Mark Wirtz’ Mood Mosaic (feat The Ladybirds)
- Paranoiac Woodcutter #1 – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- The Sad Story Of Simon The Bugle – Mark Wirtz
- The Kid Was A Killer – Keith West
- Except From A Teenage Opera (Count In Version) – Keith West
- Paranoiac Woodcutter #2 – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Mrs Raven – MArk Wirtz
- Knickerbocker Glory – Mark Wirtz
- Grocer Jack’s Dream – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Lets Live For Tomorrow – Steve Flynn
- Farewell To A Broken Doll – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Fickle Lizzie Anne – Astronaut Alan & The Planets
- Glory’s Theme (All Aboard) – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Lead The Way – Sweet Shop
- Love & Occasional Rain – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Lady On A Bicycle – Kippington Lodge
- Geraldine – Zion De Gallier
- Grocer Jack (Reprise) – Mark Wirtz Orchestra
- Two’s Company, Three Thousands A Crowd – Tim Rice & Samantha Jones
- Except From A Teenage Opera (Shortened Version) – Keith West
Sam (From A Teenage Opera) (Specially Edited Version) – Keith West
Except From A Teenage Opera (Single Version) – Mono mix of the song used on the 1967 single.
Theme From A Teenage Opera (Single Version)– Mono mix of the song used on the 1967 single.
Festival Of Kings – This was originally released on the Mark Wirtz Orchestra’s 1970 LP, ‘Come Back & Shake Me’. Even though it appeared on the 1996 ‘Teenage Opera OST’, it is unclear is this was ever meant to be a part of the project.
Sam (From A Teenage Opera)– Mono mix of the song used on the 1967 single.
Thimble Full Of Puzzles – B Side to the ‘Sam’ single. Originally used on the ‘Mood Mosaic’ LP, a Wirtz project that came out just before he started work on the ‘Teenage Opera’ project.
Paranoiac Woodcutter #1 – Originally this tune was first reported B-side to Sam was this instrumental that would later form the foundation for ‘(He’s Our Dear Old) Weatherman.’ It’s unclear whether the song was even recorded around the same time as ‘Sam’ and Wirtz claims the title was a joke name on the session sheets – his obvious Disney influence at work.
The Sad Story Of Simon The Bugle – Listed in the sleeve notes in the 1996 RPM release as a lost track, this has been found in the subsequent years. This completed backing track under this title appears on ‘The Fantastic Story of Mark Wirtz.’ However, that track was probably made after Wirtz left EMI. Unlike other Opera tracks was recorded completely live and was not recorded at Abbey Road. It does have a distinct Opera quality to it but for Wirtz it’s a fairly ordinary arrangement. It also lacks the multiple sections that have come to distinguish the three Opera singles. The opening segment the track on ‘Fantastic Story’ was used on ‘The Song I Sing’ from Wirtz’s solo album Balloon. Later Wirtz added vocals and used the full track as ‘The Chug-a-lug Song’ on his unreleased recording ‘Tempo’. It seems likely that ‘Sad Simon’ was never recorded and even Wirtz admits that the idea may have been a last ditch effort to revive the Teenage Opera. Wirtz says that he had intended to recruit Cliff Richard as lead vocalist on ‘Sad Simon.’
The Kid Was A Killer – B Side to the single, ‘On A Saturday’
Except From A Teenage Opera (Count In Version) – The stereo version of the song but with a count not included on the original release.
Paranoiac Woodcutter #2 – see above
Mrs Raven – Wirtz looked to release this as a stand alone single in 1968 but it only got as far as the promotional disc stage. I believe that this was co-written by Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith, producer of early Pink Floyd and engineer one numerous Beatles songs. Not part of the Teenage Opera project, but……
Knickerbocker Glory – This was the B-Side of the ‘Mrs Raven’ and this was included on the 1996 RPM release.
Grocer Jack’s Dream – From the 1996 RPM release, this is a backing track for the song ‘Except From A Teenage Opera’.
Lets Live For Tomorrow – B-Side of the ‘Mr Rainbow’ single. This does not sound like Keith West is singing this song to me.
Farewell To A Broken Doll – This was originally released on the Mark Wirtz Orchestra’s 1970 LP, ‘Come Back & Shake Me’. Even though it appeared on the 1996 ‘Teenage Opera OST’, it is unclear is this was ever meant to be a part of the project.
Fickle Lizzie Anne – A-Side of the ‘Cellophane Mary-Jane’ single.
Glory’s Theme (All Aboard) – From the 1996 RPM release, this is a backing track for the song ‘Sam (From A Teenage Opera)’.
Lead The Way – B-Side of the ‘Barefoot & Tiptoe” single
Love & Occasional Rain – This was originally released on the Mark Wirtz Orchestra’s 1970 LP, ‘Come Back & Shake Me’. Even though it appeared on the 1996 ‘Teenage Opera OST’, it is unclear is this was ever meant to be a part of the project.
Geraldine – B-Side of the ‘Dream Dream Dream’ single
Grocer Jack (Reprise) – From the 1996 RPM release, this is a small section of the backing track for the song ‘Except From A Teenage Opera’.
Two’s Company, Three Thousands A Crowd – a comedy record conceived by Wirtz during his Teenage Opera period but in no way connected to the project. The recording has a couple (Tim Rice and Samantha Jones) making love, only to be interrupted by an ever-growing crowd of people who break into a song aptly titled ‘What Goes Up, Must Come Down’ (come to think of it, on paper the idea sounds rather funny). The idea of the crowd entering the room has a striking resemblance to The Beatles later recording of the ‘Hey Jude’ chorus, an irony not lost on Wirtz. The full recording of ‘Two’s Company’ has not surfaced but a partial version is hidden at the end of CD 1 of ‘The Fantastic Story.’ A re-recorded version of ‘What Goes Up’ was later released under the name Cellophane Mop.
Except From A Teenage Opera (Shortened Version) – Released as the B-Side to the US version of the single that was on the New Voices Records label. It is unknown if Wirtz produced this himself but this is the only place this version of the song has been released.
Sam (From A Teenage Opera) (Specially Edited Version) – Wirtz produced this after the song had been released to be played on the radio. Radio stations were reluctant to play songs that were over five minutes back in the 60s, but by the time this came out, the momentum for the Teenage Opera project was waining.
Missing is the track, Little Canoe. Apparently the working title of an intended Teenage Opera track. Wirtz now claims that he may have invented the title – or at least its connection to the Teenage Opera – to appease Opera fanatics. However, an acetate from the Teenage Opera period exists with the word “Canoe” on it. I have not been able to source a copy of this track, but Wirtz has alternately claimed that this recording formed the foundation for another planned Opera track called ‘The Sad Story of Simon and His Bugle.’
