Would You Believe? | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by The Hollies | ||||
Released | 1 June 1966 | |||
Recorded | 14 September 1965 – 25 March 1966 | |||
Studio | Abbey Road Studios, London | |||
Genre |
Rock Pop |
|||
Length | 29:26 | |||
Label | Parlophone PMC 7008 (Mono) | |||
Producer | Ron Richards | |||
The Hollies chronology | ||||
|
Beat Group! | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by The Hollies | ||||
Released | May 1966 (US) 6 June 1966 (Canada) |
|||
Recorded | 1963–1966 | |||
Genre | Rock, pop | |||
Length | 25:31 | |||
Label |
Imperial LP-9312/12312 (US) Capitol (D)T-6152 (Canada) |
|||
Producer | Ron Richards | |||
The Hollies US chronology | ||||
|
||||
The Hollies Canadian chronology | ||||
|
||||
Would You Believe? is an album by the Hollies, released in 1966.
It features a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock," which displayed progression for the band at the time – the rising folk-rock nascent was on the horizon. However, Would You Believe also features covers of Buddy Holly's "Take Your Time" and Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" — by 1966, R&B and blues covers were becoming passé.
Another sign of growth for the band on Would You Believe includes the Evie Sands cover, "I Can't Let Go", a major hit for the band.
The band-written songs (under the pseudonym, "Ransford") are also considered to be among the more progressive tunes on the album: "Hard Hard Year", "Oriental Sadness", "Fifi the Flea" and "I've Got a Way of my Own". "Fifi", covered by the Everly Brothers (see the 1966 Two Yanks in England album), had lyrics outside of the band's norm; "Oriental Sadness" featured distinctly Asian-sounding chords; and "Hard Hard Year" and "I've Got a Way of My Own" (which had previously appeared on the B-Side of "If I Needed Someone") are both folky-sounding waltzes.
This was the Hollies' last album with original bass player Eric Haydock, who took a leave of absence from the group after the American tour that followed the last recording session for the album, missing the recording session for the follow-up single "Bus Stop", and then either quit or was fired shortly after returning.
Both the stereo and mono mixes of Would You Believe? were digitally remastered at Abbey Road Studios by Peter Mew in March 1998. In the UK, the remastered album was released with both mixes on one disc.
All songs attributed to "Ransford" are by Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash