Days of Pearly Spencer

"Days of Pearly Spencer"
Single by David McWilliams
A-side	"Harlem Lady"
B-side	"Days of Pearly Spencer"
Released	6 October 1967
Format	7"
Genre	Baroque pop psychedelic pop
Label	Major Minor MM533
Songwriter(s)	David McWilliams
Producer(s)	Mike Leander
David McWilliams singles chronology
"String Module Error: Match not found" (String Module Error: Match not found) "Days of Pearly Spencer" (1967) "String Module Error: Match not found" (String Module Error: Match not found)
"God and My Country" "Days of Pearly Spencer" "This Side of Heaven"

"Days of Pearly Spencer" (or in later releases "The Days of Pearly Spencer") is a 1967 song written and originally performed by Northern Irish singer-songwriter David McWilliams,^[1][2] and included on his second album David McWilliams.^[3] Although it charted in several countries in continental Europe and in Australia, the original version was not a chart success in either the United Kingdom or Ireland. In 1992, a cover version by English pop singer Marc Almond reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart and also made number 8 in Ireland.

Background

Having his first single, "God and My Country", flop, McWilliams entered a Belfast recording studio to record some demos. Around that time, Mervyn Solomon overheard his tapes, and was impressed enough to telephone his brother Phil Solomon. Because McWilliams was already signed to CBS, who manufactured Major Minor's recordings, Phil Solomon offered to take McWilliams off their hands. The offer was accepted, and Solomon took McWilliams with him to London to record the song. Originally, the song was a poignant ballad.^[3]

The song had, according to Stuart Bailie of Radio Ulster, a "flickering, almost documentary style" in which it took listeners to the more run-down parts of Ballymena where people walked through rubble bare-foot looking old beyond their years. Due to the title of the song, many listeners believed that the song pertained to an individual harrowed by a poor lifestyle and poor-quality alcohol; McWilliams said he had written the song about a homeless man encountered in Ballymena. Some of those close to McWilliams, however, claimed he was writing about two ladies from his hometown.^[4]

Recording and release

The recording was produced by Mike Leander who formed a sweeping orchestral arrangement for the song. Leander had previously provided arrangements for such records as "She's Leaving Home" by The Beatles and Marianne Faithfull's "As Tears Go By."^[4]

Some of McWilliams' vocals were recorded using a telephone line from a phone box near the studio, generating a low-tech effect, and giving the song a 'strange "phoned-in" chorus'.^[3] The record was originally released in October 1967 as the B-side of "Harlem Lady",^[5] but "Days of Pearly Spencer" received considerable exposure on Radio Caroline, of which Solomon was an executive, and in adverts in the UK music press. Double-page adverts were taken out in all the major music newspapers and the New Musical Express front page featured it, calling it "the single that will blow your mind"^[6] and the accompanying album, David McWilliams, "the album that will change the course of music".^[3] Adverts for it were plastered everywhere, and in 2012 Stuart Bailie of Radio Ulster remarked that "there was no getting away from David McWilliams". Advertisements for the song even appeared on double-decker buses, yet McWilliams "was walking around London without the pocket money to get on one of those buses",^[4] and one publication put the total cost of promotion at close to £20,000 (equivalent to £330,000 in 2016).^{[7] [4]}

The BBC refused to play the record, however, because of Solomon's involvement in the pirate radio station Radio Caroline, and thus the record failed to chart in either the UK or the Republic of Ireland.^[3] In continental Europe, the song topped the French Singles Chart, reached number two on the Belgian Singles Chart, and reached number eight on the Dutch Singles Chart.^[4] In Australia, the song spent two weeks at number 32 on Go-Set's national top 40,^[8] reaching number 10 in Brisbane.^[9] The song was rereleased on three separate occasions and remains a staple of "oldies" radio stations.^[3]

Critical reception

Richie Unterberger described the song as "[McWilliams's] best song, with a dark edge, swirling violins, and an effective dab of psychedelia in the megaphone-distorted vocals on the song's chorus."^[10] In 2002 The Independent called the song "dreamy".^[3] In 2012 Stuart Bailie of Radio Ulster called "Harlem Lady", the A-side, a "quality tune" and "Pearly Spencer" a "remarkable record".^[4]

Cover versions

References