Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

There can be no doubt that The Searchers caused quite a stir in the UK when they charted with "Sweets For My Sweet." So where were you when you first heard The Searchers and which one of there recordings did you hear first?

In Canada, at least northern Ontario at the time, I was captivated by the sound of "Needles and Pins." This was the first I had heard the group. I was in Port Arthur, Ontario and heard the group on the radio. I have been an avid ever since.

The first time ever I heard the Searchers (Don't Throw Your Love Away) was in late 1964 at my first cousin's. I was 8. She was 18, and due to her travelling very often to the United Kingdom, she had quite a collection of 45's. 'Don't Throw Your Love Away/I Pretend I'm With You' made me sit up and take notice of the Searchers.
Very sadly, in early 1996 my cousin passed away from cancer at age 49, and my aunt let me have her entire collection of 45's (numbering a few hundreds). That still near-mint Searchers 45 remains one of my most prized possessions.

Sergio: A very touching story and moving example of the reasons why music continues, by association, to have such a powerful emotional hold on us.

I too will always cherish the sweet harmonies of "Don't Throw Your Love Away" and the shuffling rhythm of the Chris Curtis composition "I Pretend I'm With You."

Driving in Yonkers, N. Y in a car- on the radio (AM- 77 WABC). The song was "Needles and Pins". The drums and guitar at the top caught my attention. But it was "Since You Broke My Heart" on their first KAPP LP, and "Saints and Searchers" ("B" side of "Sugar and Spice") that made me a die-hard.

Living in Chicago and listening to WLS on the radio. The song was of course Needles & Pins.
Couldn't wait for the lp. When it did come out I just played that album to death. But unlike John before me, it was Ain't that just like me that got my attention. What a rave up of a song.

I discovered the Searchers a bit later on and indirectly through the Beatles. I was 14 in 1974 and living near Washington, DC. A local station, WASH, was doing a 10th anniversary celebration of the Beatles arrival in the US. As a part of this, the DJ doing the show set aside an hour (this was a 4 hour program) of what he refered to as "Groups Whom Followed The Beatles Over". He played "Needles and Pins" and also "Don't Throw Your Love Away". I liked both songs enough to do some digging at a record store in town which had the reputation of stocking music that was otherwise off the beaten track. I asked the owner if he had anything by the Searchers; he came back with a copy of the then still fairly new Pye Golden Hour Vol 1. Once I got it home and played it I was hooked and have been ever since.

Jeff

My first acknowledged memory is What have they done to the rain, which rode quite high on a popular radio poll. I don't know if there was an official national chart at that time, but I'm quite sure it sold quite well in Norway. Most of my friends liked it. I bought the single as one of my four first. The others were I feel fine, I'm alive (Hollies) and I'll be there (Gerry and the Pacemakers!).
I also remember my friend had three singles that had served their times in a public juke-box. (They lacked the small hole piece in the middle. So the hole was much bigger, and you had to buy small, colourful substitute pieces to put in to make them playable on our players.) That was Sugar and spice/Saints and Searchers, Don't throw your love away (b-side I pretend I'm with you, with its beautiful fret-changing sounds!). And I remember the third b-side Noone else could love me. What was on the A? Someday we're gonna love again? All songs much appreciated.

Einar

Hi Einar, Yes you are right the a- side was Someday We're Gonna Love Again. It was the last Searchers song that Tony Jackson was on, leaving in Aug. of 1964.

My first was "Needles and Pins" I was about 11 and in my parents kitchen searching for Beatle songs, or anything British actually on the black tube Motorola radio.
Sérgio "Don't throw Your Love Away" has always been my favorite song by them.

Bet it was "Love Potion # 9", from dad's tapes, i was about two or three years old at the time... Then, some years later (guess it was about '86 or '87) i was offered a bad quality cassette copy of "Take me for..."+some singles. But due to the lack of information somehow i was sure the Searchers were a garage band from Chicago... anyway, "Take me..." is still one of my all-time favourites...