You Got What It Takes
YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES / I'VE GOT TO HAVE A REASON / You Don't Play Me Around / THINKING OF YOU,
BABY / Lovin' So Good //// Doctor Rhythm / Play With Me / Let Me Be / Blueberry Hill / TABATHA TWITCHIT
REVIEW BY BERNIE MEDINA -
This album is my 2nd favorite Dave Clark Five album, the first being the British lp:" 5X5= Go! A.k.a.
"14 Titles" One of the main reasons I like it, is the fact that it was available in "Stereo".
Technically speaking, and from a purist's point of view, it is not "True Stereo", but to my "plebian"
ears, it's true stereo enough! I say this with all respect to Mssrs. Mackswith and Kerridge the great talents behind
the DC-5.
Another reason for liking the album : "Love at first sight!" The cover art is quite contemporary, with
a nice touch of "psychedelia." The fine b&w cover art resembles a broken mirror (except this one
brought good luck!). The subliminal message Dave perhaps meant to convey, is that this recording will depart somewhat
from previous endeavors. Indeed, this album's title track brought the Dave Clark Five smack dab into the Top Ten.
The new adventure in sound begins with the opening salvo of one of their best singles, combining their trademark
percussive thumping beat with a full-blasting brass horn section. We must recall that horns were "stock and
trade" of the 60's sound. James Brown used it with his great J.B.s. Groups like Chicago Transit Authority,
Blood Sweat and Tears, Ides of March, Dreams (with the Breck brothers ) and Malo and Santana, Tower of Power, were
having great success with them. "You Got What It Takes" features one of Mike Smith's best vocal performances
ever! Ironically this single turned out to be their last Top Ten single in the American charts (topped at # 7).
Notice too that the Dave Clark 5 heavy percussive thumping beat is "back with a vengeance" on this excellent
album. One can also appreciate Mike Smith's multi-faceted, eclectic singing style in full bloom. His R&B Soul
side is accentuated. At times he sounds like an African-American singer ala Ray Charles (R.I.P.), or a Wilson Pickett,
and at times he is "Elvis-like"! YGWIT was long performed live by the DC-5, and Dave Clark is to be commended
for wisely recording it for all posterity.
Next we hear "I've Got To Have A Reason". I was surprised as many of you were, to see this fine single
not achieve the success it should have. A single listen will reveal one of the secrets of this group's success:
the excellent vocal harmonizing. These guys could all sing! They were also composers on their own right. Credit
must go, once again, to Dave Clark for selecting such a fine group of musicians, singers, composers, and friends.
The bridge on this tune features some clever "call and response, " singing.
"You Don't Play Me Around" plays next, and it is my favorite track on this lp. This tune is aided by
the oft overlooked skills of Denis Payton, who has infused the number with just the right amount of "Sax Appeal"!
Mike Smith's soulful and worldly-wise voice makes us all realize that in love "we have all been taken in"
at some point, and that a "good fool is hard to find"! We must live and learn. This is what I love about
Rock and Roll, they are love stories told in 2 or 3 minutes. I've always felt YDPMA could have been a hit single,
with its universal timeless theme.
"Thinking Of You Baby" is a decent rocker featuring Lenny Davidson's twangy guitar, and the whole group
swings. Mike Smith delivers another fantastic vocal , in fact the whole album is a Smith showcase. He uses primal
screams to great emotional effect. This album made me realize what a great singer he is, and how much he had developed
up to this point. (This song was a UK single in late 1964, and finally made it's way onto an American release.)
"Loving So Good" begins with an interesting "fade-in" by bassist Rick Huxley.The organ and
drums kick in, and once again, the DC-5 show off their excellent vocal harmonies to great effect. I believe this
album is the first to have been recorded on the more advanced 8 track tape machines, and the results are there
for the listener's enjoyment. The vocals sound crisper, and on the "Stereo" release you can hear lots
of "space and depth" within the instrumentation. This is a catchy tune. On the whole, the tunes are quite
short clocking in around the 2 minute range with a few exceptions.
Side "B" opens with a top DC5 team effort: "Dr. Rhythm", (which is more in fact Dr. Feelgood!)
This track quite simply "smokes"! Many of us on the message board feel that this track was a "lost
single". This killer was created with dancing in mind. If you don't move to this, well, I See Dead People.
Lenny Davidson uses fuzz-tone effects on his guitar, and Bo Diddley riffs with great results. Mike Smith's energy
vocal over-drive propels Dr. Rhythm to the stratosphere. Dave's drumming is quite effective here. Mike Smith's
primal screams and piano bar licks near the bridge, round out this fine, longer track..
"Play With Me" has a catchy nursery-rhyme melody with fine vocal harmonies, but pales in comparison to
the rest of the album, making it nothing more than "filler" material. Despite the thick-sounding guitars,
it's the weakest track here, though not hideous.
"Let Me Be" is one of the better rockers here. It feels somewhat "Beatlesque", and includes
some fine Lenny Davidson guitar work, and once again very good vocal harmonies. The drums are certainly front and
center. The songs start-and-stop dynamics create a catchy, hypnotic effect. Mike's screams augment the emotional
content as well.
"Blueberry Hill" kicks off with a jazzy brass section intro. Mike Smith nails this one down, and mades
it the definitive version IMHO. "The Boomer" takes artistic liberty and risk here, passionately giving
us a vocal "tour-de-force". His diversity and range is exemplary. A fabulous performance: "Blueberry
Hill" ascends to become a high point of this great album.
"Tabatha Twichit" is another "nursery-rhyme" type of song. You'll either love it or hate it,
with its catchy melody and trademark thumping beat. I confess, I never cared much for it in the beginning, but
like another weird DC-5 song called "Red Balloon", this one grows on you. Another testament to how a
brilliant singer can make miracles with sub-standard material.
All in all, a wonderful 60's record and more proof that the Dave Clark 5 featuring vocalist and keyboardist Mike
Smith "Got What It Takes"!
REVIEW BY ART HENDERSON -
Like its predecessor, FIVE BY FIVE, this album arrived on the market too late to ride
successfully on the coat-tail of the massive single for which it is named. "You Got What It Takes" ,
once #7 in the charts, had been of the Hot 100 for two months, and even the follow-up "You Must Have Been
a Beautiful Baby" had run its six week course by the time this album appeared in late July, 1967.
After mediocre chart success in 1966, the 1967 brass-dominated title track heralded a
new sound for the Dave Clark Five. Its chief purpose was to restore some long lost integrity in their home country,
and while it did success in this to a degree, almost predictably it became most successful in America.
Deliberately moving away from the harmonica-drenched FIVE BY FIVE album, the emphasis
here is on brass with a dash of fuzz guitar. On "You Got What It Takes", they do away completely with
the Sam Cooke inflections of the Marv Johnson original. Dave's insistent snare undercarriage supports the "Black
Is Black" bass and lead guitar riff and a rapid-fire trumpet salvo.
With the late 1966 single "I've Got to Have a Reason", Lenny Davidson produces
one of the songs that in tunesmith's terms puts him on a par with Mike Smith. (Other aces in the Davidson canon
include "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)" and "Julia".) Succinct, subste, understated, "I've
Got to Have a Reason" is a classic. Lenny's own vocals are very much to the fore, sharing verses with Mike,
and going it alone on the bridge. A touch of falsetto, also used in "Nineteen Days" and "Good Time
Woman", is added to the coda.
Mike Smith's "You Don't Play Me Around" is one of those bluesy things, all too
often taken for granted (like "I'll Be Yours My Love") but it actually has a lot going for it. Simple,
straight ahead contstruction, three verses, three choruses, with no middle eight or instrumental section, (though
Denis's lovely, smokey sax, wafting anxiously in and around Mike's vocals, yearns for a chance to shine). Lenny
lends some deft, funky touches underneath the verses, particularily in the third.
Set to 2/4 pattern with a looping fuzz guitar figure, "Doctor Rhythm" opens
unusually with the chorus, albeit a four line repetition of the title. Lyrically, this one moves into uncharted
territory for the DC5 as Mike Smith, alias Doctor Rhythm, declares his lustful intentions in the second verse.
While there is little on the intemperence of the Stones "Stray Cat Blues", still a year away in 1967,
it certainly displays the lechary of "Let's Spend the Night Together".
If the DC5's version of "Blue Suede Shoes" on WEEKEND IN LONDON was mundane,
then their revisiting "Blueberry Hill" here is exemplary. In a treatment that borders on reinvention,
the tempo is slowed right down, allowing Mike Smith to partake in some vocal gymnastics, the likes of which had
not been heard before on any Dave Clark Five record, nor any record by a British band for that matter. Leading
into each verse, his tense phrasing is met by an equally tense burst of trumpet. The tension eases as the rhythm
starts, the trumpet falls away, and the gymnastics begin. If you've not played this track in 20 or 30 years, then
listen afresh.