"Applejack" is an instrumental by

Jet Harris Terence "Jet" Harris (6 July 1939 – 18 March 2011) was an English rock and roll musician. He was an original member of Cliff Richard's backing band the Shadows, serving as the bass guitarist from the group's inception until April 1962, aft ...

and

Tony Meehan Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan (2 March 1943 – 28 November 2005) was a founder member of the British group the Drifters with Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, which evolved into the Shadows. He played drums on early Cliff Richard and ...

, released as a single in August 1963. It peaked at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

Background and release

"Applejack" was written by

Les Vandyke John Worsley (21 June 1931 – 6 August 2021), more widely known under the pseudonyms Les Vandyke and Johnny Worth, was an English popular music songwriter from the 1950s to the 1980s, who started his career as a singer. As "Les Vandyke", he w ...

and Meehan's then-wife Bridget de Mare. It was Vandyke's only instrumental hit. Along with the B-side "The Tall Texan", written by Meehan, it was recorded at

Decca Studios Decca Studios was a recording facility at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, North London, England, controlled by Decca Records from 1937 to 1980. History The building that housed Decca Studios at 165 Broadhurst Gardens in London was bu ...

in July 1963. Neither side feature Harris playing, who was suffering from health problems. Instead, like with their previous single "

Scarlett O'Hara Katie Scarlett O'Hara is the protagonist of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 in literature, 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' and the 1939 Gone with the Wind (film), film of the same name, where she is portrayed by Vivien Le ...

Joe Moretti Joseph Edward Moretti (10 May 1938 – 9 February 2012) was a Scottish guitarist renowned for his work on seminal UK rock and roll records such as Vince Taylor's "Brand New Cadillac" and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over". He later li ...

plays lead guitar. Because of the success of "

Diamonds Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insol ...

", which Harris played on, Decca kept Harris name on the follow-up records in order to help them sell. In September 1963, Harris was involved in a car accident, with his chauffeur-driven

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...

colliding with a Midland Red bus. He was knocked unconscious and suffered severe head injuries. The accident also made public the fact that Harris was having an affair with singer

Billie Davis Carol Hedges (born 22 December 1945), known professionally as Billie Davis, is an English singer who had hits in the 1960s, and is best remembered for the UK hit version of the song, " Tell Him" (1963) and " I Want You to Be My Baby" (1968). ...

, who was with him in the limousine. However, with "Applejack" climbing up the charts, Harris and Meehan had been booked to perform on ''

Ready Steady Go! ''Ready Steady Go!'' (or ''RSG!'') was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light ente ...

''. Their manager still wanted them to perform, but Harris was still suffering shock from the accident and after turning up for a pre-show rehearsal and doing a run-through, he took off, leaving Meehan to do the show by himself. Harris was later found hiding in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Whilst Harris and Meehan did not release anymore singles together, the band that had actually played on "Scarlett O'Hara" and "Applejack" would go on to release one further single, "Son of Mexico", solely under Meehan's name, which peaked at number 39 on the charts. Harris would go on to record another single, "Big Bad Bass", as a comeback in early 1964, but it failed to chart.

Track listing

7": Decca / F 11710 # "Applejack" – 2:05 # "The Tall Texan" – 2:16

Personnel

– drums,

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

– acoustic lead guitar *

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-born naval officer who served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. Often referred to as the "Father of the American Navy", Jones is regard ...

– electric bass guitar * Glenn and Chris Hughes –

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

, brass, piano There is also acoustic rhythm guitar and backing vocals by unknown musicians

Charts

References

{{authority control 1963 singles 1960s instrumentals Songs written by Les Vandyke 1963 songs Rock instrumentals Decca Records singles