"Concrete and Clay" is a 1965

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...

recorded by the UK pop

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

Unit 4 + 2. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1965. The song was written by group members Tommy Moeller and Brian Parker. It was also a top 40 hit for Eddie Rambeau in 1965.

Background

Recorded with the help of

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

s and featuring ("+2")

Russ Ballard Russell Glyn Ballard (born 31 October 1945) is an English rock singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer. Originally rising to prominence as the lead singer and guitarist of the band Argent, Ballard became a prolific songwriter and producer b ...

and Bob Henrit, the lyrics detail the indestructible love of the singer and his lover. The

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

has a pronounced

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

influence, using

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

s and a baião beat. These distinctive elements helped boost "Concrete and Clay" to the No. 1 position on the UK Singles Chart in April 1965.

Chart performance

American record producer

Bob Crewe Robert Stanley Crewe (November 12, 1930 – September 11, 2014) was an American songwriter, dancer, singer, manager, and record producer. Crewe co-wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles with Bob Gaudio for the Four Seasons. As a songw ...

, best known for his work with the Four Seasons, had heard the Unit 4 + 2 hit version of "Concrete and Clay" while on a trip to the UK. As a result, Crewe had a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "Concrete and Clay" cut by Eddie Rambeau, a staff writer at Crewe's music publishing firm, which was the inaugural release for Crewe's own DynoVoice Records. Although the Rambeau version's release pre-dated the US release of the Unit 4 + 2 version by one week, both singles debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 dated 8 May 1965; Unit 4 + 2 at No. 96 and Rambeau at No. 98, with both singles making a similar chart ascent over the next four weeks. The original eventually peaked at No. 28 while Rambeau's version reached No. 35. In Canada's RPM Magazine the two versions were co-charted, both reaching number 1 on May 17, 1965.

Unit 4 + 2

Eddie Rambeau

Other cover versions

*Featured on albums by Gary Lewis and the Playboys (''A Session with Gary Lewis and the Playboys''/ 1965) *

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

(''Kinda Latin''/ 1966) *"Concrete and Clay" was remade by

Randy Edelman Randy Edelman (born June 10, 1947) is an American musician, Record producer, producer, and composer and Conducting, conductor for Film score, film and television. He began his career as a member of Broadway theatre, Broadway's pit orchestras; he ...

for his 1976 album release ''Farewell Fairbanks'' which otherwise comprised Edelman originals. Issued as a single, Edelman's "Concrete and Clay" became a UK hit reaching No. 11 in March 1976. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

the song reached No. 32 on the AC Charts. *In 1986, a remake of "Concrete and Clay" by Martin Plaza, co-lead vocalist of the group

Mental as Anything Mental As Anything was an Australian new wave and pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up (which lasted from 1977 to 1999, and recorded all of its charting singles and albums) was Martin Plaza (birth name Martin ...

, reached No. 2 in Australia and was the 23rd biggest selling single in Australia in 1986. *Also in 1986, a remake by Hong Kong Syndikat reached No. 26 in Germany, and also reached No. 12 in France in 1987. *Former

Dexys Midnight Runners Dexys (known as Dexys Midnight Runners from 1978 to 2011) are an English pop rock band from Birmingham, with soul music, soul influences, who achieved major commercial success in the early to mid- 1980s. They are best known in the UK for their ...

singer Kevin Rowland released a version in 1999 * Pete Byrne also covered the song on his 2001 solo album ''The Real Illusion''. *

They Might Be Giants They Might Be Giants, often abbreviated as TMBG, is an American alternative rock and Children's music, children's band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as ...

attempted a version of the song in 1990. The uncompleted track was released as an MP3 in 2001. *"Concrete and Clay" was also covered on a 1983 EP by Los Angeles band Doll Congress, featuring Michael Penn and keyboardist Patrick Warren. *The 1967 album ''Music to Watch Girls By'' by the Bob Crewe Generation features instrumental versions of several Bob Crewe produced hits, including "Concrete and Clay". *On 28 October 2011, a new version of "Concrete And Clay" by original singer and co-writer Tommy Moeller was released on the Chance Music record label based in Sydney Australia, 47 years after his original version in 1964. *The Tommy Moeller album ''Time'' is dedicated to "Concrete And Clay" co-writer Brian Parker (1939–2001), and includes three other songs by Moeller and Parker. The cover of the album shows Tommy Moeller at age 19 when he first sang "Concrete And Clay", and in 2011 when the new version by Chance Music was released. *Another version from 1973 was recorded by British teenage singer Darren Burn. It failed to chart. *A finnish rock band YUP did a cover version "Maa Alla Horjuu" (lit. "The Ground Is Shaking") in 2001 for their re-recordings and covers -album of "Hajoita ja hallitse" (lit. "Divide and rule"). * The Honeycombs recorded a cover in 1965-66 that was not released until 2022.

International cover versions

The success of "Concrete and Clay" in 1965 resulted in international cover versions that same year, with renderings in: *Swedish – "Du för mig" recorded by Lill Lindfors *Finnish – "Tunti Vain" recorded by

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John (given name), John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly ...

*French – "Comment Elle-Fait" recorded by Richard Anthony *German – "Ein Fremder kam vorbei" recorded by Horst Wiegand.

Popular culture

*The Unit 4 + 2 version was featured in the 1998 film '' Rushmore'' and was included on its accompanying

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

. * "Concrete and Clay" also featured in a

Signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

White NOW toothpaste commercial.

References

{{authority control 1965 songs 1965 singles Unit 4 + 2 songs UK singles chart number-one singles RPM Top Singles number-one singles London Records singles Decca Records singles Baião songs