Drivin’ You Wild – CLIFF BENNETT & THE REBEL ROUSERS***

Three Rooms With Running Water/Baby Baby Baby/You Make Me Happy/Sweet Sorrow/I Have Cried My Last Tear/Another Saturday Night/Its Drivin’ Me Wild/(That’s Why) I Love You So/Who’s Cheatin’ Who/I’ll Be Doggone/Strange Feeling/Take You Home

One of the first releases on the successful budget label Music For Pleasure was Drivin' You Wild, from British sixties pop stalwart Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers. Budget albums such as this would be later disqualified from chart inclusion. (UK:25)

"The history of pop music is full of injustices, but one of them is that Cliff Bennett only has two UK top ten hits to his credit. Despite that, Cliff's music is seen as an integral part of the British sixties music scene. Some people are wary of cover versions, but Cliff was brilliant at them. Other British R & B bands of the time, gained wider recognition, especially in America, but Cliff's music is just as good as theirs."

"In truth, they were a couple of years ahead of the curve, with Bennett possibly one of the few Brits who could tackle material by Marvin Gaye, Little Milton and Sam Cooke without looking or sounding ridiculous in the process. The Rebel Rousers are a minimal, but deceptively fast and full sounding sextet, that make these tracks come alive with stripped-down vitality. They make old soul tunes sound like Liverpool pop, and pop throwaways sound like R & B rarities. This is one of the missing chapters in British rock that every fan ought to get around to sampling."

"Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers earned the right in the mid-sixties to be called a true 'band' - a seven man line-up, with a powerful bluesy lead singer and not one, but two, rasping saxophones to spice up all their arrangements. Maybe their delivery and choice of material was just a little too in-your-face for the teenage record buying public, which may go some way to explain why they are largely forgotten today."

"For years the accepted wisdom about this band is that they were too dependent on cover versions to be taken seriously. Absolute nonsense! Rhythm & blues and soul have always been rife with cover versions. Indeed that was part of the magic - hearing different singers trying to outdo each other with the intensity and vivacity of their performances. For my money The Rebel Rousers were victims of the musical snobbery of the record buying public of the day - that a bunch of white guys from the Home Counties could not compete with what was being produced Stateside."