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Size: 135 MB
Bitrate: 256
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Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Perhaps the best studio album by a band that is really best represented by greatest-hit collections. This 1964 LP includes the classic hits "Needles and Pins" and "Don't Throw Your Love Away." It also features some of their best LP cuts, on which they applied their famed harmonies to American material that was both strong and obscure. The best of these covers are Bacharach/David's "This Empty Space" (originally by Dionne Warwick), the Jackie DeShannon-penned "Can't Help Forgiving You," the Drifters' "I Count the Tears," the folkish "Sea of Heartbreak," and "Where Have You Been" (which was also part of the Beatles' repertoire during their Hamburg days). The harder-rocking songs don't lend themselves as well to the group's talents, which always (with some notable exceptions) lay more in the folk-rock and Merseybeat direction than R&B/rockabilly.

The Searchers are an English rock band who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers.

The band's hits included a remake of the Drifters' 1961 hit, "Sweets for My Sweet"; remakes of Jackie DeShannon's "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk In The Room"; an original song written for them, "Sugar and Spice"; The Orlons's"Don't Throw Your Love Away"; and a remake of The Clovers' "Love Potion No. 9". They were the second group from Liverpool after the Beatles to have a hit in the United States when "Needles and Pins" charted during the first week of March 1964.

Originally founded as a skiffle group in Liverpool in 1959 by John McNally and Mike Pender, the band took their name from the classic 1956 John Wayne western The Searchers. Pender claims that the name was his idea, but McNally ascribes it to 'Big Ron' Woodbridge (born Ronald Woodbridge, 1938, in Liverpool, Lancashire), their first lead singer. The genesis remains unresolved.

The band grew out of an earlier skiffle group formed by McNally, with his friends Brian Dolan (guitar) and Tony West (bass). When the other two members lost interest McNally was joined by his guitarist neighbour Mike Prendergast. They soon recruited Tony Jackson (born Anthony Paul Jackson, 16 July 1938, The Dingle, Liverpool, Lancashire — died 18 August 2003, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire) with his home-made bass guitar and amplifier and styled themselves 'Tony and the Searchers' with Joe Kelly on drums. Kelly soon left to be replaced by Norman McGarry (born 1 March 1942, Liverpool, Lancashire), and it is this line-up — McNally, Pender (as he soon became known), Jackson and McGarry — that is usually cited as the original foursome.

McGarry did not stay long, however, and in 1960 his place was taken by Chris Crummey (who later changed his name to Curtis). Later that year Big Ron had a successful audition with Mecca and became a ballroom singer. He was replaced by Billy Beck, who changed his name to Johnny Sandon (born William Beck, in 1941, Liverpool died 23 December 1996). The band had regular bookings at Liverpool's Iron Door Club as 'Johnny Sandon and the Searchers'.

Sandon left the band in late 1961 to join The Remo Four in February 1962. The group settled into a quartet sharing the vocal lead and billed simply as 'The Searchers'. They continued to play at the Iron Door, The Cavern, and other Liverpool clubs. Like many similar acts they would do as many as three shows at different venues in one night. They negotiated a contract with the Star-Club in the St. Pauli district Hamburg for 128 days, with three one-hour performances a night, starting in July 1962.

The band returned to a residency at the Iron Door Club and it was there that they tape-recorded the sessions that led to a recording contract with Pye Records with Tony Hatch as producer. Their first single was issued in US on Mercury, the second on Liberty without success and then a deal was arranged with U.S. based Kapp Records to distribute their records in America.

Hatch played piano on some recordings and wrote "Sugar and Spice"—the band’s second number one record—under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale; a secret he kept from the band at the time.

01. It's in Her Kiss
02. Glad All Over
03. Sea of Heartbreak
04. Livin' Lovin' Wreck
05. Where Have You Been
06. Shimmy Shimmy
07. Needles and Pins
08. This Empty Place
09. Gonna Send You Back to Georgia
10. I Count the Tears
11. Hi-Heel Sneakers
12. Can't Help Forgiving You
13. Sho' Know a Lot About Love
14. Don't Throw Your Love Away

Bonus:
15. I Pretend I'm With You
16. Someday We're Gonna Love Again
17. No One Else Could Love You Listen
18. Tausend Nadelstiche ("Needles and Pins" in German)
19. C'est Arrive Comme Ca ("Don't Throw Your Love Away" in French)
20. I ( Who Have Nothing) (Outtake)
21. Shame, Shame, Shame (Outtake)
22. Red Sails in the Sunset [Swedish Radio Sessions]
23. Memphis Tennessee [Swedish Radio Sessions]
24. Needles and Pins [Swedish Radio Sessions]
25. Hi-Heel Sneakers [Swedish Radio Sessions]
26. What Have Yhey Done to the Rain? [Swedish Radio Sessions]
27. Glad All Over [Swedish Radio Sessions]
28. Let the Four Winds Blow [Swedish Radio Sessions]
29. When You Walk in the Room [Swedish Radio Sessions]
30. What'd I Say [Swedish Radio Sessions]