I Stand Accused: The Complete Merseybeats and Merseys Sixties Recordings

• Emerging from the Liverpool group scene during the goldrush years, The Merseybeats’ combination of Everly Brothers-style vocal harmonies and adroitly-chosen beat boom ballads saw them record several hit singles (including ‘I Think Of You’, which reached the Top Five), a brace of very popular EPs and a self-titled album that spent a couple of months in the LP charts.

• After their superb version of ‘I Stand Accused’ (a big favourite of local teenager Elvis Costello, later to cover the song) failed to become the huge success that it deserved to be, group leaders Tony Crane and Billy Kinsley reinvented themselves as vocal duo The Merseys, who recorded one of the classic mid-Sixties pop hits in ‘Sorrow’, subsequently quoted in Beatles track ‘It’s All Too Much’ and taken back into the charts a few years later by David Bowie.

• ‘Sorrow’ was followed by a handful of Merseys singles that, although less successful, are now highly regarded by admirers of late Sixties British pop and psychedelia, and are now legitimately assembled under one roof for the first time.

• I Stand Accused: The Complete Merseybeats and Merseys Sixties Recordings features everything known to have been recorded by both acts, including demos, out-takes, alternative versions and home recordings. The set also incorporates the various splinter projects that took place during the same time-frame, with a pseudonymous single as Crackers joined by some highly sought-after 45s involving Merseybeats drummer John Banks and former Big Three bassist Johnny Gustafson, who had briefly replaced Kinsley in The Merseybeats.

• A 2-CD digipak release, I Stand Accused features many superb full colour photos as well as a new 9,000 word essay that covers the fascinating careers of both bands, including their relationships with the pre-fame Beatles and Brian Epstein, their adventures with The Who (with whom they shared the same management team, leading to John Entwistle and Keith Moon playing on a handful of Merseys tracks) and their unwitting part in the tale of Pete Best’s dismissal.

Tracklist

DISC ONE:
THE MERSEYBEATS

1. IT’S LOVE THAT REALLY COUNTS
2. THE FORTUNE TELLER
3. I THINK OF YOU
4. MISTER MOONLIGHT
5. LONG TALL SALLY
6. I’M GONNA SIT RIGHT DOWN AND CRY
7. SHAME
8. YOU CAN’T JUDGE A BOOK BY THE COVER
9. DON’T TURN AROUND
10. REALLY MYSTIFIED
11. MILKMAN
12. HELLO YOUNG LOVERS
13. HE WILL BREAK YOUR HEART
14. FUNNY FACE
15. THE GIRL THAT I MARRY
16. FOOLS LIKE ME
17. MY HEART AND I
18. BRING IT ON HOME TO ME
19. LAVENDER BLUE
20. JUMPING JONAH
21. THE THINGS I WANT TO HEAR (PRETTY WORDS)
22. WISHIN’ AND HOPIN’
23. LAST NIGHT (I MADE A LITTLE GIRL CRY)
24. SEE ME BACK
25. DON’T LET IT HAPPEN TO US
26. IT WOULD TAKE A LONG, LONG TIME
27. I LOVE YOU, YES I DO
28. GOOD, GOOD LOVIN’
29. SOLDIER OF LOVE
30. I STAND ACCUSED
31. ALL MY LIFE
32. OUR DAY WILL COME
33. NUR UNSERE LIEBE ZAHLT (It’s Love That Really Counts)
34. NUR DE ALLEIN (I Think Of You)

1-2 Single, Fontana TF 412, released August 1963
3-4 Single, Fontana TF 431, released December 1963
5-8 EP, Fontana TE 17422, released March 1964
9-10 Single, Fontana TF 459, released April 1964
11-20 From the album The Merseybeats, Fontana TL 5210, released June 1964
21 Not originally released, recorded 1964
22 Single, Fontana TF 482, released July 1964
23-24 Single, Fontana TF 504, released October 1964
25-26 Single, Fontana TF 568, released May 1965
27-28 Single, Fontana TF 607, released September 1965
29 Not originally released, recorded late 1965
30-31 Single, Fontana TF 645, released December 1965
32 From the album This Is Merseybeat Vol. One, Oriole PS 40047, released July 1963
33-34 Single, German Fontana 269 310 TF, released June 1964

DISC TWO:
THE MERSEYS AND BEYOND

1. SORROW
2. SOME OTHER DAY
3. SO SAD ABOUT US
4. LOVE WILL CONTINUE
5. RHYTHM OF LOVE
6. IS IT LOVE?
7. THE CAT
8. CHANGE OF HEART
9. PENNY IN MY POCKET
10. I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY
11. LOVELY LORETTA
12. DREAMING
13. HONEY DO
14. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME
15. SORROW (alternative version)
16. NOTHING CAN CHANGE THIS LOVE
17. DO ME A FAVOUR
18. JUST TO BE WITH YOU
19. SWEET DAY
20. TAKE ME FOR A LITTLE WHILE
21. MAKE ME YOUR NUMBER ONE
22. BUMPER TO BUMPER
23. SCRAPE MY BOOT
24. COOL IT
25. MARK OF HER HEAD
26. HELLO MEMORIES
27. PRETEND
28. SO HOW COME (NO-ONE LOVES ME)
29. ALL I HAVE TO DO IS DREAM

1-2 Single, Fontana TF 694, released April 1966
3-4 Single, Fontana TF 732, released July 1966
5-6 Single, Fontana TF 776, released November 1966
7-8 Single, Fontana TF 845, released June 1967
9-10 Single, Fontana TF 916, released March 1968
11-12 Single, Fontana TF 955, released July 1968
13-14 Crackers single, Fontana TF 995, released January 1969
15 Not originally released first version, recorded early 1966
16 Not originally released, recorded 1966
17 The Kinsleys, not originally released, recorded 1964
18-19 Johnny Gustafson single, Polydor BM 56022, released August 1965
20-21 Johnny Gustafson single, Polydor BM 56043, released January 1966
22-23 Johnny & John single, Polydor BM 56087, released June 1966
24-25 The Quotations single, CBS 3716, released September 1968
26-27 The Quotations single, CBS 4376, released July 1969
28-29 The Merseybeats, not originally released home demos, recorded December 1962