Unless you're a real aficionado of the Mersey Beat sound, it’s unlikely that the Signs are a band on your radar. These two 1966 recordings have been virtually lost for half a century and even overlooked by a multitude of lauded Mersey Beat compilations. Formed by legendary Cavern Club DJ, Bob Wooler, and managed directly by The Cavern Club, the Signs were the up-and-coming Liverpool group of ‘66. Vee-Tone Records are thus delighted to be working with Tony Burns, lead vocalist on ‘Ain’t You Got A Heart’, to bring you a very special 50th Anniversary single. The 1967 (Mercury MF 969) version by Paul Newman and the X'caliburs has for many years been a floor-filler on the Northern Soul scene, but the Signs' earlier release is in our opinion much better. Not only does it boast a completely different, bigger and fuller sound, but the B-side, ‘My Baby Comes To Me’, is a real knockout piece of British R&B penned by none other than Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The Signs first major gig arranged by Bob Wooler, was at the Liverpool Empire as support act to the Soul and R&B legend Ben E King. The Signs were of course also regular Cavern Club performers. “A couple of weeks had gone by [after the Empire gig] and I received a 'phone call from Dave Kerrigan,” Tony recalls, “He gave me the news that a guy called Dick Rowe a Decca A&R man (the same Dick Rowe that had turned down The Beatles at Decca), had been invited up to the Liverpool Empire gig by Bob Wooler specifically to watch us perform. He’d been so impressed that he wanted to sign us to Decca Records. On our first recording session we recorded three songs: ‘Ain’t You Gotta Heart’, ‘A Kind of Hush’, and ‘When My Baby Comes To Me’. According to Dick Rowe, our first single was to be ‘Ain’t You Gotta Heart’, with the B-side being ‘My Baby Comes To Me’. Our follow-up single was to be ‘A Kind of Hush’ but, shortly after the recording session, we fell out with our management team over money and the band were no more.” Of course, ‘There’s a Kind of Hush’ was later picked up by Herman's Hermits giving them a hit single reaching No. 7 in the UK and a No. 4 in the US. Where’s the justice?...Here! It’s high time to give the Signs the recognition they deserve, for what is a killer double-sided 45
