Customer Reviews

Sound of Fury

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Most American fans of rock n' roll's early years have never heard of Billy Fury, which is a shame.

Fury (real name Ronald Wyncherly) was arguably one of the best of Britain's pre-Beatle 1950's rock n' roll singers (along with his contemporaries, the much more well-known Cliff Richard & the much less known Johnny Kidd.)

"The Sound of Fury" is raw rockabilly at it's most primitive (which, for most rock n' roll purists, is a GOOD thing.)

Two songs in praticular, stand out in my mind when listening to this album. "Turn My Back On You" shows the late Fury's obvious love of Sun Records-style rockabilly, with it's strong bass & limited use of drums. "Don't Jump" (an ode to an attempted suicide over a broken heart) is early '60's "guitar twang", accompanied by Fury's Presley-like pouting vocals. (Fury, like Cliff Richard, was a huge fan of Elvis Presley & in fact, had met "the King" on the set of the latter's filming of "Girls, Girls, Girls" in 1962.)

Fifties nostalgia fans who are looking for soft pop-rock "malt-shop memories" type of fare won't find much to peak their interst in "The Sound of Fury" (& to be honest, some of the album's recordings are a bit too primitive sounding for mainstream audiences.)

However, for those serious rock n' roll collectors, as well as those hard-core rockabilly fans, "The Sound of Fury" is an absolute must have & a prime example of how often times, non-Americans can get an American popular art form more "right" than many Americans themselves.

As an interesting side-note, Billy Fury/Ronald Wyncherly was also a native of Liverpool (like his four more famous neighbors who "invaded" our shores, years later in 1964.)

Fury died in 1983 of a heart-attack.

The name of Billy Fury is nearly always associated to "Halfway to Paradise", but he left a full rich catalog of ballads, rock n roll and pop songs. He enjoyed many chart entries in UK. When the Beatles led the so-called "british invasion" of the US charts, many other british bands or solo artists followed them, but Billy Fury did not take part of that invasion.
There are today CDs that rescue his music that remained forgotten during a long time, he had a very good voice, it is worth listening to these songs today, either to remember them or listen to them for the 1st time.

British rock and roll is rather thin on the ground. There are a few essential tracks - Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac, Cliff Richard and the Drifter's Move It, Johnny Kidd's Please Don't Touch - and a few collectable artists such as Marty Wilde, Wee Willie Harris and Joe Brown. Most aspiring Brit rock and rollers were steered by monolithic old-guard managers into the more lucrative "family entertainment" arena, rock'n'roll being seen as a worthless delinquent fad; witness Tommy Steele progressing from Rock With The Cavemen to Tommy The Toreador in three short years.
When it comes to albums, top of any aspiring collectors' list has to be Billy Fury's 1960 10" album The Sound Of Fury. The whole album was produced by Jack Good and recorded (apart from one already completed track) in two epic three-hour sessions on 14th April. It speaks volumes that in order to get the slap-bass sound they knew from records by Gene Vincent, Bill Haley and the like they needed two bass players, one to play the notes on bass guitar and the other to slap the bass, because no-one knew the technique. Don't knock it though, it worked, and Joe Brown's Scotty Moore-style guitar work is great. All ten songs were written by Billy Fury (using the pseudonym Wilbur Wilberforce) and encompass rockabilly, blues and country influences. He, too, was later to be steered towards the big ballad style of the all round entertainer, but is here presented doing the sort of material he loved best.
This two-CD album presents the unadorned mono 10" album on disc one, clocking in at under 23 minutes, but also adds a valuable bonus disc. Stereo versions of all the album tracks (excluding the previously recorded Turn My Back On You) turned up in America in 1988 (presumably in the possession of Jack Good). They seem to be mixes of the same takes as those on the album with the exception of That's Love, although the sleeve notes are ambivalent. These give the recordings an immediacy and presence that make them definitive.
An alternative take, in stereo, of his 1959 single Maybe Tomorrow is followed by a further nine mono bonus tracks. These consist of the single My Christmas Prayer (to be covered in 1993 by St Etienne), the entire Billy Fury No. 2 EP (including the excellent Don't Jump) and the B-sides to Jealousy, Letter Full Of Tears and I'd Never Find Another You, which present the orchestral side of Billy Fury in 1961 and 1962.

This is a tough album to review. For one thing, The Sound of Fury originally was released as a 10-inch sort of mini-album. The compact disc reissue includes the mono and stereo versions of the original album. In the the 1954--1961 period there were a number of British rock stars, most of whom were managed by Larry Parnes, and most of whom had strong sounding pseudonyms. Hence, Fury... Unlike most of these singers, Billy Fury wrote most of his own songs. At least, he wrote the material on his debut album. Later, Parnes had him covering pop hits. The other difference between Fury and some of his contemporaries is that he really rocks. Keep in mind, though, that this is in comparison to some of his fellow countrymen of the same period. Fury's compositions and the arrangements on The Sound of Fury closely resemble those recorded by the pre-RCA Elvis Presley. In fact, in the liner notes guitarist Big Jim Sullivan admits that he copied the style of Elvis backer Scotty Moore. This is more like second generation Sun Studios-type rockabilly (more than half-a-decade after the real thing) than just about anything else you could ever hope to hear. Other British musicians of the time, perhaps most notably Tony Sheridan and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, were much more progressive and were paving the way for the British Invasion. Fury was a force, though, and the first rock star from Liverpool. As much as it might be tempting to dismiss The Sound of Fury as mere out-of-date Elvis Presley/Scotty Moore imitation (and a really short one at that), there's a feeling of sincerity in the performance of Fury and his band that makes this album more than just a historical curiosity.

Billy Fury audiotioned for Decca in 1958 after making his first discs at the same Kensington Liverpool studio where the Beatles made their That'll Be The Day/In spite of all the danger.After a couple of singles based on Rick Nelson and the Everly Brothers came this 10 inch which is now expanded for the CD market.A concept album of sorts it was closer to Sun territory than anything else around at the time.
Decca however saw it different and it wasn't long before they steered him into the High School arena which obviously paid off as there'd be big hit songs into the mid 60s.
Decca may have signed Billy Fury but they were to become notorious for having turned down the Beatles but Dick Rowe took the blame as he was the boss-the real culprit was ex Shadow TONY MEEHAN
The only worthwhile song Decca found on the Beatles audition tape was Like Dreamers Do which they made an acetate of and eventually used for an Applejacks single.Mainly because they found most of the songs from a time when rock'n'roll was supposed to be dead and buried.Like EMI they were looking for high school pop which the Beatles only touched on.
When you think about it Decca did them an enormous favor.If they'd signed the Beatles there'd have been no George Martin and their first single would have been Like Dreamers Do-hardly one of their greatest creations as it was no more than a copy of Bobby Vee
Still Fury stuck with high school pop to the very end with his final singles-on the same Parlophone label the Beatles had been on-were revivals of Bobby Vee's Devil Or Angel and the Blackwells' Love Or Money
Amazingly he never had a posthumous hit in his own country but today there are at least 50 CDs with even the Kensington recordings available
Meanwhile Billy Fury who appeared on Shindig once had no American career and just a few singles issued on London

It was for a present for a friend and he was over the moon especially as it oly took a couple days to arrive and it travelled from America to England..