"Rachel" is a song by Australian singer

Russell Morris Russell Norman Morris (born 31 July 1948) is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) reco ...

. The song was written by English singer-songwriter

Raymond Froggatt Raymond William Froggatt (13 November 1941 – 23 July 2023) was an English songwriter and singer.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music'', Virgin Books, , p. 159-160 Biography Froggatt (otherwise known as "Froggy") was ...

and produced by

Howard Gable Howard Gable is a New Zealand-born Australian record producer who is best known for his work as an A&R manager and house producer for EMI's Columbia pop label in Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970. He was also for some years married to ...

. It was released as a single in April 1970 and peaked at number 23 on the Australian

Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...

chart in May 1970. The track peaked at number 1 in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Composer Froggatt did not release the song himself until 1972 on a Bell UK single.

Background and recording

In 1969, Morris travelled to London to promote his track " The Real Thing" with UK label

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

. The song was a commercial failure and failed to chart. Whilst there, Russell recorded two numbers with expatriate Aussie guitarist and former Bee Gee Vince Melouney, one being Melouney’s "Little Lady", the other "Rachel". These cuts remain unreleased, the perfectionist singer being very unhappy with the producer's mix. Morris returned to Melbourne in December 1969 and immediately set about fresh recording sessions with

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

and re-recorded "Rachel". It was released as a single in April 1970, peaking at number 23. The single's fate was in part determined, as that of many other single releases at the time, by the controversial

1970 radio ban The Australian 1970 Radio Ban or 1970 Record Ban was a "pay for play" dispute in the local music industry that lasted from May until October. During this period, a simmering disagreement between commercial radio stations – represented by the Fe ...

which resulted in major United Kingdom and Australian pop songs being refused airplay, including Morris'

Dave Justin version

The original release of "Rachel" was in November 1968 by British singer Dave Justin on an unsuccessful Polydor UK single. This was some 17 months before Russell Morris's release.

Track listing (Russell Morris)

; 7" Single *Side A "Rachel" - 4:27 *Side B "Slow Joey" - 2:26

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Russell Morris Russell Morris songs 1970 songs 1970 singles EMI Records singles Columbia Graphophone Company singles Decca Records singles Number-one singles in New Zealand