Pop Archives

Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs - Wee Bit More Of Your Lovin’ (1966)

(Eddie Daniels - Jewel Akens - Jerry Capehart)
Australia Australia
#58 Perth

Single on Parlophone (Australia).

Billy Thorpe (1946-2007): British-born singer, guitarist and songwriter whose family emigrated to Brisbane in the 1950s. Based in Sydney from 1963, ‘Thorpy’, with The Aztecs, had numerous pop hits in a variety of styles, but at the end of the 60s, then in Melbourne, he fronted a loud, rocky, blues-based formation of the Aztecs that contrasted with his earlier pop idol image. Later, his solo and business career took him to Los Angeles, and he wrote two popular autobiographical books, Most People I Know (Think That I’m Crazy) and Sex And Thugs And Rock’n’Roll [AbeBooks link].

Further reading: Paul Culnane’s account of Billy Thorpe’s career at Milesago.

Suggestion from Terry Stacey.


Jewel Akens - Wee Bit More Of Your Lovin’ (1962)

(Eddie Daniels - Jewel Akens - Jerry Capehart)
USA USA
Original version

Single on Capehart label, B-side of (Doin’) The Mashed Potatoes. Some discographies list this as 1961. Also released on Crest (1962) and Ember (1965).


Daniels-Akens-Capehart (and Cochran):

In the career biography of Jewel Akens (1933-2013) the names of singer-songwriter-producer-A&R man Jerry Capehart and rock’n’roll star Eddie Cochran often appear. Capehart, who was Cochran’s manager, advisor and collaborator (for example on C’mon Everybody and Summertime Blues) also gave Akens’s early group The Four Dots their first break.

Eddie Daniels recorded with Akens as Jewel And Eddie on Silver and Crest with the participation of Capehart, and of Cochran who played guitar on their records, as he had done for The Four Dots. See, for example, the label of Jewel And Eddie’s Silver 45 from 1960 which has writing credits to Daniels, Akens, Cochran and Capehart.

Phil Hardy and Dave Laing sum up this period:

Although contracted to Liberty, Cochran spent a great deal of time in the studio surrounded by musician friends and singers under the auspices of [publisher] American Music and the fruits of these jam sessions were often released on obscure American Music subsidiaries such as Silver, Capehart, Crest and Zephyr as by The Kelly Four (Cochran’s backing group), Jewel and Eddie and others.

– Eddie Cochran entry for The Encyclopedia of Rock, Vol. 1 (1976), p.82


Later, Jewel Akens went solo for his only big hit, on Herb Newman’s Era label, written by Newman’s son: The Birds And The Bees (1965, #3 USA, #29 UK, #3 Sydney, #15 Melbourne, #1 Brisbane, #7 Adelaide, #11 Perth).

Further reading: 1. Jewel Akens biography at Black Cat Rockabilly. 2. Comprehensive Jewel Akens discography at Soulful Kinda Music; includes all his earlier recordings as a group member.