Celebrity Jukebox #116: Denny Laine

I'll get round to Henry Kissinger eventually. He may not deserve a tribute, but he certainly appears in plenty of songs.

First though, and far more importantly, we need to celebrate the life of the man who sung this...

If you were to make a list of the best intros to 60s hits, that would be right up there. It's a cover, of course, and the Bessie Banks original is pretty special too... but Denny & co. gave it a bit more zing. Denny didn't stick it out with the Moody Blues and most of their subsequent success came with Justin Hayward at the helm... but for me, they never bettered that track, even when they got decked out in White Satin. 

Denny didn't stop there though, he went on to form The Electric String Band and begin releasing solo material too...

The Electric String Band - Ask The People

Denny Laine - Say You Don't Mind

Colin Blunstone of the Zombies would take that latter track into the charts in 1972.

Denny also took to the skies with Ginger Baker's Air Force, making a credible fist of this old standard... 

Ginger Baker's Air Force - Man Of Constant Sorrow

You might say he earned his Wings with that one. So it's hardly a surprise that Sir Thumbs Aloft would soon be giving Denny a call and asking him to join a new beat combo he was putting together. I often wonder, late at night when I just can't get to sleep, whether Macca invited Denny to join Wings because his name sounded like a pun on Penny Lane. Or did Denny - whose real name was Brian Frederick Hines - choose that particular rock star alias for exactly that reason? Not according to Denny himself, who claimed the Laine came from Frankie, his sister's favourite singer, and Denny because... er... "everyone had a backyard, and a den to hang out. I think I got that nickname there." Turns out that Denny had his stage name before Paul wrote Penny Lane, but as the song is about a real Liverpudlian Street, could the Birmingham lad have visited it in his youth and found it just as inspirational as the Scousers did? You can see why I find it hard to get back to sleep.

As to Wings... well, they were only the band The Beatles could have been. 

You knew that one was coming. 

Which leads us to this...

Mull Of Kintyre is a track I was taught to hate from an early age. It became cool to loathe it, largely due to the fact, I presume, that it was the UK's biggest selling single of all time throughout the late 70s and half the 80s, at least until Band Aid came along and sold a few more copies. But is it really that bad? I mean, OK, it's no Band On The Run or Jet or Goodnight Tonight... it's not even Junior's Farm... but really, it is really worth all the vitriol? Even when the bagpipes come in. Actually, watching that video now, I come over all wistful for times long gone, and that's the power of a good pop song as far as I'm concerned. 

When Ben alerted me to the passing of Denny Laine, he added the following comment...

That means it's only going to be Fairytale of New York and Mull Of Kintyre this Christmas. At least it means Stop The Cavalry will have less airtime. Christ, I hate that song.

Unwittingly, Ben just provided me with an excellent link into the only obvious song that came to mind as a tribute to Denny Laine...

Jona Lewie - Denny Laine's Valet

Sadly that was all I could find that mentioned Denny by name. Well, apart from this live track from the album Wings Over Europe on which Macca graciously cedes the stage to Denny...

I'm sorry you have to Go Now, Denny. I hope your heaven is filled with mist rolling in from the sea.