Customer Reviews

Winchester Cathedral

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have waited for this for SOOO long! I am ecstatic to have Winchester Cathedral and Diana Goodbye on CD. However, I am disappointed to not have the tracks Lili Marlene, A Kind of a Hush and a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. The songs that replace them are good but the CD as a whole lacks the energy of the original LP. Of course, we also lost What Ever Happened to Phyllis Puke, which I think is an improvement. Listen to the tracks above. If you like Winchester Cathedral (or just like OLD music), you should buy this album.

If you aren't familiar with the New Vaudeville Band, it is a group of young men in the sixties who wanted to recreate the sound and feel of music from the 30's. The album (LP) has a better biography of how it actually came together as well as a neat picture of the band in era garb. The jewel case insert says that the music is from the 20's and I don't have my LP unpacked to make sure that the LP had said 30's. I am pretty sure though. The person who wrote the description on the insert apparently didn't like the band. He says, "And, despite the corny sound of the record, it won the 1966 Grammy for Best Contemporary Rock & Roll Recording ..." Corny sound. The LP sounded great. It was SUPPOSED to sound dated. Hence the megaphone. Jeez.

Okay, producers, this is great - now how about Lili Marlene?!!!

Listening to Winchester Catherdral is like taking a lovely walk to memories past. A song with simplistic music and lyrics that are sang so clearly. I would recommend this CD to anyone who enjoys a break from 2003/04 and seeks a simpler time. I give this song a resounding five star rating. I loved it way back when...and I love it now.

My wife and I listened to this album while we were dating in 1966. We had the album and 8-track tape. She recently asked me to get the CD, because we always like the songs, and especially because her name is Amy, which is the title to one of the songs. What is now being sold is NOT the original album, and as you can see from other posts here, most of the good songs have been replaced. "Kind of a Hush"???...let Herman sing it. This is truly a disappointment. If you want to hear the music as it should be, you'll have to buy an original album..

This is not the original album. Although the cover is. This
is very deceiving.

One of the features of popular music is that there is always room for nostalgia. While some now look back on the sixties as a musical golden age, there were (during the sixties) several groups that were looking back to earlier eras. Among them were the Temperance Seven, the Migil 5 and the New Vaudeville Band.

The New Vaudeville Band's music was firmly rooted in the thirties although much of their material was original (unlike that of the other groups mentioned, who mainly recorded covers of songs from their chosen era), written to sound like it could have been vaudeville music of the thirties. They had four UK hits, these being Winchester Cathedral (a UK top five hit that made number one in America), Peek-a-boo (a UK top ten hit omitted from this compilation), Finchley Central (which just missed the UK top ten) and Green Street Green (a minor UK hit). Despite the phenomenal American success of Winchester Cathedral, none of their other UK hits charted in America.

While it is common for American pop (and country) songs to refer to specific locations, it is much less common for British pop songs to do so. It therefore comes a surprise to find that three of this group's four hits are about specific locations. Fans of the group should have no difficulty finding Winchester Cathedral between London and Southampton. Finchley Central is a London Underground station that can easily be reached from Baker Street (of Gerry Rafferty fame - perhaps the most famous location-based British pop song). Green Street Green is near Orpington to the south east of London.

This compilation is based on out-of-print British compilation that had 24 tracks including Peek-a-boo and great covers of I wonder who's kissing her now, Lili Marlene, A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square and Shine on harvest moon..

If you enjoy Winchester Cathedral, you will surely enjoy the rest of this fine collection.

I have always loved this album and can understand the complaints listed below. I just purchased a used version of this album (on CD) and it has 24 tracks, including Lili Marlene, Nightingale..., Whispering, and Oh Donna Clara (Alas, No "A Kind of Hush" but that song seems to fit with Herman's Hermits better, anyway). I haven't listened to the LP in years, but can tell that the tracks are not in the same order. Still lots of fun to listen to.
This better version is an Import from 1990: C5 Records C5CD 558.
If you like Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and/or Temperance Seven, but would like the tempo/energy turned down more to Leon Redbone (hope that makes sense), give the New Vaudeville Band a try.
Good Luck!

I was disappointed that the selection of songs on the CD were not exactly the same as the ones on the record album. There is only three songs on the CD that are also on the record album. Anyway I still liked the CD.

I, too, grew up singing and enjoying many of these songs in the '60s. As pointed out by other reviewers, it's not the same without some of the original songs which were on the album. Still worth owning, but a slight disappointment. I notice there's a new release coming out in February of 2007; perhaps this one will have the deleted tracks on it? Here's hoping!

Not only is this CD in perfect condition, but having it on CD was clearer and allowed me to visit the past!

The booket cover reproduces the actual jacket of the New Vaudeville Band's first album---but the disc inside is actually an anthology of the troupe's work. Short form: Geoff Stephens, a producer and songwriter who wrote "Winchester Cathedral" and cut it with studio musicians and a singer named John Carter (though Stephens inexplicably received credit for the vocal on the single release), found himself in dire need of an actual working band: a clever modernising of the '20s and '30s music hall styles Stephens genuinely loved, "Winchester Cathedral" became the surprise blockbuster of mid-to-late 1966. (It knocked the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" out of the number one spot, was brought down for a week by the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," returned to the top slot for one more week, and was brought down for good by the Monkees' "I'm a Believer.")

Stephens found an actual band whose rock satire made room for the same kind of music hall styles and attitudes he loved . . . but that band (you know them better as the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) turned him down (except for their bassist, who threw in with the Stephens project). Stephens managed to round up an ensemble---complete with contra bassoon, pocket trumpet, and other period instruments as well as a contemporary rhythm section---and the band toured and cut a few more sides, some of which were rather splendid and some of which were rather lame, especially considering the novelty wore off sooner than Stephens believed it might.

Essentially, this CD is perhaps a little more than everything you'll ever need to have of the New Vaudeville Band. But the best of it is still engaging, witty ("Finchley Central" is practically a "Winchester Cathedral" do-over and a charming one at that), and utterly sincere. It's a shame, though, that what also survives of the New Vaudeville Band are some television clips at the height of "Winchester Cathedral"'s popularity in which the band showed they were terrible at lip-synching mime. Which made them about as normal as the next band who wasn't riding a wave of arch nostalgia . . .