Johnny Kidd: the under-rated genius of Brfitish rock ‘n’ roll

I arrived in the UK too late to hear Cliff Richard’s “Move It”, released in 1958, when it was first came out . Ditto Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac”. But I was in time to catch the third in that triumvirate of classic British rock ‘n’ roll singles, Johnny Kidd’s sublime “Shakin’ All Over” when it topped the charts in 1960. (Interestingly, the same guitarist, Joe Moretti, played on the last two – evidently a bit of a genius.) 

The failure of Johnny Kidd to kick on from that initial success to become an international pop star by the time he died in a car crash in Lancashire at the age of 30 six years’ later is a genuine mystery.

Kidd looked good, he had a great voice,  produced a slew of brilliant singles (some self-penned – a rarity at that time), and had an exciting stage act and an amusing if somewhat cheesy persona (his backing band were The Pirates, and Kidd sported an eye-patch, frilly shirt and stripey stretch-pants or leathers, plus a cutlass), and when The Beatles came along, he effortlessly adapted to the Merseybeat style without sounding in the least lame. Given that Cliff Richard and Billy Fury had already turned to s mushy ballads and gutless pop novelties by the end of 1960, and that Vince Taylor was a truly crappy singer, Kidd was practically the only prominent British rocker left in the two years before The Beatles exploded on the scene. He should really have cleaned up.

But Kidd never had any hits outside Europe, and only a handful inside the UK. Which is odd, since the majority of great British rock and roll records of that era had his name on them.

The first hit (well, it managed to crawl up to No. 25) was the wonderful“Please Don’t Touch”, later covered by Motorhead/Girlschool. The deserved success of sublime rock classic “Shakin’ All Over” was followed a few months later by the almost equally brilliant “Restless”, which, for some odd reason, only managed to get to 22.

Five months’ later came the tough, bluesy “Linda Lu”, which only managed to reach No. 48, despite its evident quality. 1962 saw a cover of an American original, “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues”, also limp its way up to 48 – one of the greatest 45s not to make it into the Top 20. To add to the unfairness, it was backed by a “I Can Tell” a cover which is almost as good as Bo Diddley’s classic original. 

1963 saw JK record but fail to release the excellent cover of “Some Other Guy”, only for The Big Three to chart with it (what were his record company thinking?) but “I’ll Never Get Over You” a cheerful Beatlesque track – not one of Kidd’s best - saw him back in the limelight, reaching No. 4 later that year. And then… well, not much, really.

He left behind at least one other true classic, “Feelin’”, a 1959 recording which, inexplicably, never made it onto a single or even an EP.

The Pirates re-emerged in the late ‘70s as a hard-rocking power trio/pub rock band who enjoyed success via live appearances and some decent LPs: their no-nonsense, muscular, working class non-ponciness went down well with punk fans, who viewed them as “authentic”. They weren’t subtle and they certainly weren’t pretty, but they really rocked. Mick Green, the lead guitarist, is superb – as you can see on this live version of their own“Gibson, Martin, Fender”. (The quality of Kidd’s backing band is one of the reasons his music has lasted so well.)

Who knows why Johnny Kidd didn’t really make it – probably a mixture of bad luck, missed opportunities, poor timing.  It certainly wasn’t a lack of talent.

Whatever the reason, he deserved better.