Mr. Bloe

Mr. Bloe was the name given to the musicians who performed the single "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" which was a hit for Dick James Music (DJM). These included Harry Pitch or Ian Duck on harmonica, and Zack Laurence on piano.

The tune "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" was written for the US studio group Wind by Bo Gentry, Bernard Cochrane, Paul Naumann and Kenny Laguna. They released it as the B-side for their single "Make Believe" which, with Tony Orlando as lead singer, was a chart success in the US.^[1]

Stephen James, of Dick James Music, wanted to release the tune in the UK but could not obtain the rights. He had the tune covered by other musicians including Elton John on piano but didn't like that version. It was then rearranged by Zack Laurence and re-recorded with Zack Laurence replacing Elton John on piano. The tune was then released in the UK on 9th May, 1970,^[2] reaching number 2 on 4th July, 1970. Zack Laurence then appeared to perform on Top of the Pops with the other musicians — Ian Duck (harmonica), Dee Murray (bass), Roger Pope (drums) and Caleb Quaye (guitar) who went on to form the band Hookfoot.^[1] The harmonica part is somewhat mysterious and some sources credit it to Harry Pitch - the harmonica player who went on to perform the theme tune for Last of the Summer Wine.^[3][4]

Other singles, "Mr. Bloe" and "Curried Soul" were then released. The Mr. Bloe single contans two instrumentals written by Elton John — "Get Out Of This Town" and "71-75 New Oxford" and he performed the piano piece on both. The US group Wind then released "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" in the US in August 1970 under a new name of Cool Heat.^[1]

In total, "Groovin' With Mr Bloe" spent 18 weeks in the chart.^[2] The lack of an obvious performer made it mysterious and it became a favourite of Morrissey who was then 11 years old.^[3]

A follow up single, "Curried Soul", failed to chart, and an album, also entitled Groovin' with Mr. Bloe, was released in 1970 but flopped, leaving the act as a one-hit wonder.

"Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" is also a lyric in the song, "I Was a Mod Before You Was Mod", by the band Television Personalities. The B-side to Madness' "Our House" single was "Walking With Mr Wheeze", another instrumental with occasional scratch mix effects. The tune's title was an asthmatic parody of "Groovin' With Mr Bloe". The song was partly recorded by The Fall in 2003, for a Peel session as the beginning of their song, "Green Eyed Loco Man". The tune was also covered by Robert Johnson and the Punchdrunks in 2002.

"Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" was used as the theme music to the 2009 BBC TV series, Oz and James Drink to Britain. It was also used in the early seventies Argentine television as the intro music for football broadcasting.

See also

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Claude Bernardin, Tom Stanton, "Mr. Bloe", Rocket man, p. 62, ISBN 9780275956981, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=eJGcZSyBflwC&pg=PA62 
2. ^ ^{a b} Roberts, David (2006), British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.), Guinness World Records Limited, p. 371, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 
3. ^ ^{a b} Simon Goddard (2009), "Groovin' With Mr Bloe", Mozipedia, p. 150, ISBN 9780091927097, http://books.google.com/books?id=bux9DlAHPWkC&pg=PA150 
4. ^ Harry Pitch, National Harmonica League, http://harmonica.co.uk/harry.htm