A curveball concept from the mind of Peter Gabriel, it’s unquestionably the oddest prog-related releases of the 70s. Something that even guitarist Robert Fripp describes as “perhaps the strangest recording session of the era.”
It’s hard to understand how some of the scene’s finest talents came to act as a backing band for diminutive TV comedian Charlie Drake – but it did happen, in mid-June 1975. As Prog reported in 2010, pianist Keith Tippett said: “I think it was one of the those occasions when you were contacted and told such-and-such was involved. You thought, ‘Well, if they’re doing it...’”
Drake, best known for playing the title role in the successful 60s TV series The Worker, had enjoyed the occasional novelty hit with singles like My Boomerang Won’t Come Back and Splish Splash. For his part, Gabriel – who’d actually had less chart success than Drake at that point – had just left Genesis and was exploring new career directions.
He’d co-written three songs with Martin Hall, and somehow decided that one of them, You’ll Never Know, would be perfect for Drake; who somehow agreed. Gabriel – who also produced the track under the name Gabriel Ear Wax – was serious enough about the project to assemble a stellar band for the session, featuring Fripp, Tippett, Sandy Denny and Phil Collins.
The drummer recalled: “How he ended up with this line-up, I have no idea! It seems the most obscure set of people to make a comedy record. On the day, Charlie, who was quite small, turned up with a brand new denim outfit for his rock debut; it was quite touching to see him at it!”
Drake had a reputation for self-destruction. Not only did he often injure himself during comedy performances – he famously knocked himself out during a live broadcast of The Worker, which had to be hastily cut short – he also took a dim view of anyone who disagreed with him offstage.
At the time of Gabriel’s invitation he was out of work, after he’d started a fight with the actor’s union Equity and been effectively blacklisted as a result. It was generally known that if you entered what was known as ‘Charlie Drake World,’ you did what he wanted or beat a hasty retreat.
Thus it was that, not knowing much about prog, and preferring to prepare himself in a pub near the studio, the comedian didn’t turn up to record his vocal until most of the stars were leaving.
Brand X bassist Percy Jones was also part of the band – and Brian Eno may have been too, although no one seems to be certain. “With that sort of line-up I anticipated some really interesting music coming up,” Jones told Prog in 2018. “It turned out to be a very straight-ahead pop tune – not at all what I had expected. It left me a bit puzzled as to why they got a line-up like that to record that style of music.”
When Drake set himself up at the mic, he began to apply what he called “improvements” to Gabriel’s lyrics. He opened with the claim that the listener was about to hear his first gold-selling disc, adding a hopeful, “You never know!” He went on the deliver the words mostly as they’d been written, but changing his pitch, style and character as he went.
As the song ended he said: “Well, that’s it – my first gold! I wonder where Elton John buys his glasses. I shall have a swimming pool made in the shape of Shirley Temple. I suppose I’ll have tax troubles…”
Drake never explained the thought processes behind his approach. Gabriel has never explained his own intentions. Left with the challenge of trying to sell the song, Charisma Records wrote: “The single is produced by Peter Gabriel. Erstwhile lead singer with Genesis, and sometime human sunflower. It is a send-up of pop stardom which also features Sandy Denny, Eno and Robert Fripp. As Drake is chalk to Gabriel’s cheese, so is the idea of Charlie encountering a groupie – listen to the single and you’ll discover what happened.”
But no one did. It didn’t come close to being a hit on release in November 1975 (with another Gabriel/Hall composition titled I’m Big Enough For Me on the B-side). But given the musicians involved, it’s salvaged a life of its own. It was later included on Denny’s 1988 compilation The Attic Tapes Vol. One.
Collins reflected: “The whole session was one of life’s interesting snapshots!”
