1963 Gerry & The Pacemakers: How Do You Do It?

As purveyors of the home-grown 'Mersey Sound', Gerry and the Pacemakers managed the rare feat of beating The Beatles to the punch by scoring the first genre number one. First maybe, but that's not to say fab four had no influence over this at all - 'How Do You Do It?' was originally recorded by John, Paul George and Ringo in September 1962 with a view to releasing it as the follow up to 'Love Me Do', but being no fans of the song they managed to persuade George Martin to nix the release in favour of their own 'Please Please Me' instead.

Listening to their aborted take, the lethargic disinterest of the boys is palpable and their lack of joi de vivre renders the song a stillborn dud. Gerry and the Pacemakers no doubt capitalised on this illustration of how not to play the song by booting it the opposite direction to rev up the engine and shove it's high kicking, showtune qualities upfront. The Pacemakers provide a chunky enough backing, but it's Marsden who assumes tune carrying duties with a rough and ready vocal that makes up for with enthusiasm what it lacks in finesse.

And what strikes most about Marsden's vocal is his complete lack of any attempt to disguise his regional dialect. With British acts usually keen to ape their American inspirations, his Mersey grit makes Marsden sound like an alien in his own country's chart. Of course, Anthony Newley voiced his tunes in his own cockney twang, but in so doing it still carried the 'proper' respectability of the sort of 'typical' English accent the rest of the world believes the whole country speaks with. When Marsden opens his mouth, pure scouse drops out and it's the first example of a British vocalist revelling in his own locality and playing a brand of rock music that's not hell bent on recycling Chuck Berry riffs.

But in saying that, in all honesty the 'Mersey Sound' is not a sound I've ever cared for much (with some honourable exceptions excepted), and 'How Do You Do It' is a good enough example of the fixed grin simpleton, cabaret sound of many of the early hits that I find so irritating. Despite Marsden's noisy squawk, there's a complete lack of backbone to the song, an absence of purpose or drive that the vocal can't paper over and it sees the "How do you do what you do to me? I wish I knew. If I knew how you do it to me I'd do it to you" theme played more for nudge nudge George Formby-esque winks than anything more lasting. The Beatles failed to exploit the song's innate good humour, but in deep mining it, Gerry and the band only succeed in priming the song as ideal fodder for the chicken in the basket oldies circuit some thirty years in the future. But still, it gives the sixties a strong enough push to get them swinging.