You've Got Your Troubles

"You've Got Your Troubles"
Single by The Fortunes
from the album The Fortunes[1]
B-side "I've Gotta Go"
Released August 1965
Format 7" single
Genre Pop
Length 3:23
Label Decca Records F12173 (UK)
Press 9773 (US)
Writer(s) Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook
The Fortunes singles chronology
"Look Homeward Angel"
(1964)		 "You've Got Your Troubles"
(1965)		 "Here It Comes Again"
(1965)

"You've Got Your Troubles" became the inaugural composition by the prolific songwriting team of Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway in 1964. "You've Got Your Troubles" became a #2 UK hit for the Fortunes in the United Kingdom in August 1965,[2] affording the group international success including a Top Ten ranking in the US.[3] The track was included on the Fortunes' self-titled 1965 debut album release, the group's only album release of the 1960s.[1]

History

Cook and Greenaway wrote "You've Got Your Troubles" while they were both members of the group the Kestrels, the song being composed while that group was on a pop package tour. Cook recalls he and Greenaway were in a theater. "Roger [Greenaway] said 'I've [written] a little tune' and we both brought our ukuleles out and he played [his tune] and he said 'Could you help me with the lyric?' and in the space of two hours we'd written the whole song".[4]

Cook and Greenaway cut a demo to pitch the song which was accepted by Mills Music Publishing, where the two were signed as staff writers by Tony Hiller. Hiller, who had written "Caroline" the second of four previous non-charting singles by the Fortunes, placed "You've Got Your Troubles" with that group.[5] Noel Walker, an in-house producer for Decca Records, would recall: "The Fortunes' contract came up for renewal and Decca didn't want to renew it...I told Decca that they sung wonderfully and deserved another chance. I wanted to use them as singers backed by professional musicians" - the Fortunes would receive some adverse publicity for not playing on the track themselves - "and I found a beautiful song 'You've Got Your Troubles'." [6] Les Reed, who arranged the session for the Fortunes' recording, conceived the track's striking trumpet motif. (Reed believes that on their demo Cook and Greenaway vocalised the notes which Reed would have played on the trumpet.)[7]

Radio Caroline North DJ Mike Ahern would claim that his radio station was responsible for the breakout of the Fortunes' "You've Got Your Troubles", [8] which reached #2 on the UK chart dated 25 August 1965, held off from #1 by the Beatles' "Help!", then in the final week of its three-week tenure at #1 UK. In the US "You've Got Your Troubles" peak at #7 on the 2 October 1965 Hot 100. The song also peaked at #1 in Canada and #3 in Ireland and was especially successful in the Netherlands, spending 14 weeks in the Top Ten and peaking at #3. Other international hit parade rankings were achieved in Australia (#12), Belgium (French=#24/ Flemish=#10), Germany (#28), and South Africa (#6).

Tom Edwards, who was programme controller at the 1960s UK pirate radio station Radio City, stated that this record would be aired whenever the station's fort needed practical assistance from its base in Kent.

The demo of "You've Got Your Troubles" by Cook/Greenaway also came to the attention of George Martin who wanted to have the songwriters record their own song, but due to his time being taken up producing the Beatles' album Rubber Soul (1965), Martin was unable to produce Cook and Greenaway's recording of "You've Got Your Troubles" prior to the Fortunes' version hitting the charts. Martin did have Cook and Greenaway cover the Rubber Soul track "Michelle" which afforded the duo a Top 20 hit in both US and the UK, the duo being billed as David and Jonathan [4] (Cook and Greenaway had had a previous non-charting single release: their composition "Laughing Fit to Cry", which was not produced by Martin). "You've Got Your Troubles" was featured on the 1966 David and Jonathan album which was self-titled in the UK and entitled Michelle for US release.

"You've Got Your Troubles" became a chart single in 1966 for Nancy Wilson: taken from her Touch of Today album, Wilson's version reached #48 R&B in Billboard and #10 on the magazine's A/C chart. As "You've Got Your Troubles (I've Got Mine)" the song became a Country & Western hit for Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan whose version - taken from their 1969 album Birds of a Feather - reached #27 on the C&W chart in Billboard.

Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway produced the recording of their composition "You've Got Your Troubles" recorded by the session group White Plains which version was featured on their 1970 debut album self-titled in the UK and released in the US as My Baby Loves Lovin'. Cook and Greenaway also produced a remake of "You've Got Your Troubles" by the Drifters which was issued as a single off of the group's 1973 album The Drifters Now.

The song appeared on the soundtrack of Michael Apted's Stardust (1974).

The Fortunes would remake "You've Got Your Troubles" for the group's album Their Golden Hits recorded in the summer of 1982 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for domestic release by Phonogram-Holland.[9]

Notable cover versions

References

  1. 1 2 "The Fortunes". Fortunes, The. Discogs. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
  2. ↑ "Fortunes". Singles. United Kingdom: Official UK Charts Company. Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
  3. ↑ "The Fortunes". Chart history. United States: Billboard magazine. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
  4. 1 2 Cook, Roger. "Paul Leslie presents a conversation with songwriter Roger Cook". The Paul Leslie Hour (Interview). Interview with Paul Leslie. 8.91 WBCX FM.
  5. ↑ Hayward, Keith (2013). Tin Pan Alley: The Rise of Elton John. London: Soundcheck Books. p. 32. ISBN 9780957144200.
  6. ↑ Spencer Leigh. "Obituary: Barry Pritchard". The Independent. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  7. ↑ Thompson, Gordon (2008). Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out. NYC: Oxford University Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0195333251.
  8. ↑ "Looking back at Caroline with Mike and Tom". Icce.rug.nl. 2004-01-06. Retrieved 2016-09-29.
  9. ↑ Billboard Vol 94 #29 (24 July 1982 p.56
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