Juanita Banana EP 1966

Barclay Records BLY 70987-1

Sometime around late summer of '66, Barclay needed a promotional EP. I think the French EP releases were all 4 track EP's at the time, they didn't release 45's like the UK. They used The Hills, a Devon based group, and The In-Betweens. It is basically a Barclay sampler.

On side 1, The Hills tracks seem to be the same as a UK release by The Peels on Stateside Records, SS 513, which came out 20th May 1966. Same tracks, same songwriters, same year.

Take A Heart and Little Nightingale are two tracks taken from the 1965 Feel So Fine EP by The In-Betweens. Little Nightingale is said to be written by Jimmy Page but the credit here lists the writer as Williams. Jimmy's Welsh friend, John Williams would write songs and had formed a partnership with Jimmy  in 1965. Page would try to get them recorded by the artists that he played session with. Page with Williams on vocals and Bobby Graham  on drums, cut a demo of the song.

"I was at Jimmy page's house in Epsom, England. I was a record producer and Jimmy was writing some arrangements for me. Eric Clapton handed Jimmy three acetates which he'd picked up as a favour. Jimmy wrote on my copy 'James Page Music AMB 2201' which was the phone number of Immediate records, owned by Tony Calder & Andrew Oldham. This was when Jimmy was still a session player and Calder had commissioned this work.
David Nicolson, March 2010

The EP was apparently to promote Bananas! On the rear:

"Ce disque est accompagne d'un porte-cles offert par le Comite inter professionnel de la Banane 123 rue de Lille, Paris. Reclamez-le a votre disquaire qui se fera un plasir de vous le remettre."

Thanks to Chris Selby for  providing this image of a genuine key-ring.

Rough translation: "This disc should contain a key-ring courtesy of the International Banana Committee, 123 Rue de Lille, Paris. Ask your record dealer who will be pleased to provide one." 
The hole in the corner of the cover originally had a keyring with a banana dangling from it, hence the rust mark. I don't think anybody has ever seen one, it's the stuff legends are made of. The EP was never made available in the UK. They released it, probably around spring of 1966, in France, Spain and most of Europe and even Argentina but not the UK.

Much appreciation to Markus Bennermo for supplying the original artwork for this release. I must also thank hantsguys on 45cat.com for The Peels labels. 

Promo label

Test pressing

The Juanita Banana EP turns up on Ebay regularly often in the £50 price range.

For more information about Juanita Banana, this makes interesting reading:  The Juanita Banana Phenomenon. Thanks to Chris Selby for the link.

Next Page