Top 10: April 24, 1965

By spring 1965, the British Invasion was in full effect, with seven of the Top 10 songs in the U.S. by British artists, including the Kinks, Herman's Hermits, Wayne Fontana -- but not the Beatles!

Apr 24, 2025

THE SO-CALLED BRITISH INVASION was at its peak in 1965, the year after the Beatles took over the American pop charts. The Beatles’ success sparked a flood of interest in other British pop and rock groups, only some of which sounded like the Beatles. By the time late April/early May 1965 rolled around, about 30 of the Top 100 singles were by British artists. Even more spectacular, seven of the Top 10 hits were British in origin. A few of these became rock classics, but the majority of them were pop fluff or novelty numbers. Herman’s Hermits had two songs in the Top 10 the week of April 24, a rare week when the Beatles had no songs in the Top 10. Let’s take a closer look and listen to the toppermost of the poppermost that week in history.

Click on the above playlist to listen to the songs discussed below.

1. “Game of Love,” Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders

At least in the U.S., Wayne Fontana – born Glyn Ellis in Manchester, England -- was something of a one-hit wonder with “Game of Love.” The song itself -- a kind of not-so-innocent effort at seduction -- is pretty vacant, with the stupid if memorable opening lines

The purpose of a man is to love a woman
And the purpose of a woman is to love a man
So come on, baby let’s start today
Come on, baby let’s play
The game of love….

The song goes on to invoke Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before getting really cringey with the line, “Love your daddy with all your might.” ‘Nuff said about the lyrics. The music, on the other hand, skirts a fine line between blues-rock and novelty, and the arrangement is clever enough to explain why this track went to number one, its grab-bag approach featuring girl-group harmonies vying with a deep-bass doo-wop vocal, a Bo Diddley beat during the bridge, and some delicious electric guitar fills. In that manner, it stands as an exhibit A of the British Invasion. Before the year was out, however, Fontana quit the Mindbenders (in mid-concert, no less). In 1967, Fontana scored a solo hit in the U.K. – the song “Pamela, Pamela,” written by Graham Gouldman, whom you know as a founding member of the 1970s art-rock group 10CC (“I’m Not in Love”) – but that was pretty much the end of Fontana’s career. The Mindbenders continued on without Fontana for a few more years, scoring several UK hits co-written by American songwriter Carole Bayer Sager.

2. “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” Herman’s Hermits

Written by English actor Trevor Peacock, “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” was first sung and recorded by English actor Tom Courtenay in 1963 for a televised play. There were no mistaking the singer’s British origins when Peter Noone – the “Herman” of Herman’s Hermits – recorded the song in his loverly English accent. (Sometimes, British Invasion groups – including the Beatles to some extent – tried to disguise their accents to sound less English and more American.) With its low-key backup and simple production, the recording harked back to skiffle, that curious English blend of American folk, country, and blues with a hint of a rock ‘n’ roll backbeat. The song went to number one in the U.S.; curiously, it was not released as a single back home, nor was their other 1965 hit, “I’m Henry VIII, I Am.” By years end, Alvin and the Chipmunks covered “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” for their album Chipmunks à Go-Go.

3. “I’m Telling You Now,” Freddie & the Dreamers

Freddie & the Dreamers were contemporaries of the Beatles, often grouped together with other Merseybeat bands, although they were from Manchester, not Liverpool. But on this song, first recorded in 1963, they do sound a lot like early Fab Four, with three-way harmonies and electric guitar that could have been played by George Harrison. Lead singer Freddie Garrity was something of a cut-up onstage (so was John Lennon early on), and the group was known for their synchronized dance steps, too. Their first UK hit was a cover of James Ray’s song “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody”; Ray himself was the first to record a song called “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” which George Harrison took to number one in his 1987 cover version.

4. “I Know a Place,” Petula Clark

British singer Petula Clark won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Vocal Performance of 1965 – Female for “I Know a Place,” her follow-up to her signature hit, “Downtown.” Clark totally deserved the honor – the single is a brilliant knockoff of Phil Spector’s girl-group hits, replete with a Spectorian “Wall of Sound” production and Clark’s dynamic, soulful vocals. The recording spent five weeks in the U.S. Top Ten and knowingly nodded to the Beatles. The “place” the singer knows sounds an awfully lot like the Cavern Club – the Liverpool nightclub where the Beatles first gained a following, described in the song as “A cellar full of noise.” Beatles manager Brian Epstein published a memoir a year earlier entitled A Cellarful of Noise. With 15 Top 40 hits in the U.S., Clark enjoyed a long and fruitful career, which included lending backup vocals to John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Now age 92, Clark lives in Surrey, England.

5. “Stop! In the Name of Love,” The Supremes

The first hit on this week’s chart that is not by a British act held the top position in late March/early April. “Stop! In the Name of Love” was one of a string of mid-1960s hits that saw the Supremes vie with the Beatles for chart supremacy. It boasts all the signature elements of the Motown sound. Written and produced by Motown’s main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song, like so many Motown hits, was a successful “crossover” hit, appealing equally to black and white audiences. It boasts one of the best cold opens of any pop hit in the rock era, launching right into the title lyric with horns blasting and drums pounding. One could undoubtedly argue this point, but to my ears it captures Diana Ross at her finest as a vocalist and the Supremes as a vocal act. The sad story of what followed just a few years later with the Supremes has been oft-told in books, movies, and musicals, but this hit -- nominated for the 1966 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Rock & Roll Group Vocal Performance -- must be considered one of the all-time best by any group.

6. “Tired of Waiting for You,” The Kinks

In the wake of “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night,” this was the Kinks highest-charting single until 1983’s “Come Dancing.” It was a bit of a turn for the London-based Kinks, whose previous hits relied largely on Dave Davies’ proto-metal guitar buzz. This time out, the song was largely driven by Ray Davies’ vocals and the song’s unusual chords and melody. There are hints of raga-rock here, with the song largely fueled by two alternating, droning guitar chords. Also, Ray Davies displays a sensitivity and vulnerability in his singing and in the lyrics, elements that would be expanded upon on subsequent songs and albums. A definite standout among British Invasion hits.

7. “I’ll Never Find Another You,” The Seekers

While the Seekers began their musical life in their native Australia, they first gained commercial success when they moved their home base to the UK. Whether or not you want to consider them a British Invasion outfit is up to you, but there is no mistaking the influence of the Beatles on their sound, particularly in the guitar riff that opens the song. But when the group starts singing the listener realizes they are as much in Peter, Paul and Mary folk-pop territory than anywhere else, and for better or worse. To my ears, it’s worse. The vibrato-laden vocals and ornate harmonies are too precious and cloying. Nevertheless, the song got as high as number four on the U.S. charts. It’s no surprise that when the group was reconstituted a few years later as the New Seekers, they had a hit with “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony),” which was a Coca-Cola jingle before the group recorded it as a pop song.

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