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"LYANNA" performed by Billy Fury is his version of the great Jimmy Campbell track. Not quite as effective as the original but not bad at all. What's really sad is that this and at least one other Jimmy Campbell song is credited as being written by Billy Fury. Either he claimed them as his own or his estate did. This material got released in the '80s and had been unreleased until then. Given the silly writing credits, it's hard to tell if there are other songs by Campbell but one, credited to "Turner" and called "Going Back to Germany" has all the Campbell trademarks.”
As a matter of fact I handled Jimmy’s publicity in the 23rd Turnoff days when he recorded ‘Michaelangelo’. I remember I was about to do a particular stunt with the single. In those days it was extremely hard to get any music coverage in the press, apart from the high profile artists such as the Beatles, Stones, Dylan and so on, so press agents had to rely on gimmicks.
I used a photograph of Michaelangelo’s ‘David’ on the press release. I took a picture window envelope and folded the press release in such a way that a certain part of David’s anatomy was visible in the picture window. I thought that if I sent them out this way, the post office would refuse to release and we would end up getting column inches in the nationals. However, I decided not to go ahead with the idea in case it led to a prosecution. Incidentally, I liked ‘Michaelangelo’ so much I suggested that Jimmy write songs about other artists and perhaps use it as an album concept – he then wrote ‘Another Vincent Van Gogh.’ Remember, this was before Don McLean penned the international hit ‘Vincent.’ Apple actually acquired the rights to ‘Another Vincent Van Gogh.’
Mark comments, "As for Jimmy and Apple, my hunch is that Apple Publishing agreed to publish the song as a "consolation" for not giving him a recording contract. Basically, it was a way they could give him 20 pounds for a bus ticket back to Liverpool without giving him a hand out. Just my hunch though based on stories from other Apple writers and the fact they (Apple) only picked up the publishing to one song, so I'll be curious to hear what Jimmy says. Apple's paperwork from back then (as opposed to now) seems to be in order, so someone certainly assigned "Another Vincent Van Gogh" to Apple back in 1968.
”You may also want to ask Jimmy if it was George Harrison he dealt with at Apple. Several Apple people I interviewed for the book remember walking into George's office as a "songwriter from Liverpool" pleaded with him for a record contract. I had always thought this must have been Timon (of "Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane" fame) but perhaps it was Jimmy.
”Oh well, it's quite interesting unraveling the past. By the way, have you ever asked Jimmy if "Your Words" was a Jimmy Campbell song? Billy Fury takes the writing credit but it sure sounds like a JC song to me!"
Mark diligently pushed ahead with his determination to get Jimmy’s work released on CD and told me “I want NOTHING from the project, other than to see the Rockin' Horse album and possibly a Jimmy Campbell retrospective CD released soon. I would also like to be the one to provide the CD liner notes.”
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