Chicory Tip Page


    The Very Best of Chicory Tip


The Chicory Tip became a famous band in the early `70 through Giorgio Moroder`s hit "Son of my Father" Lyrics.
On the release "The very Best of Chicory Tip" ( 1997 ):
a interesting comment wroten by Roger J. Easterby.

I write it here again, please take a look.

How can you forget dates that were connected to the first number one hit that you produced?
In the first week of December 1971 i was sitting in my office in Walmer House, just 200 yards from the BBC, which enabled me to hi-jack producers on their way to work!, when i received a special delivery.
Eddie Levy, who worked for ATV Music had sent over a record by Giorgio Moroder, which the German Company Hansa were releasing in the UK in January through EMI entitled "Son of my Father".
As well as running a successful production company at that time, i was still recognised as a top promotion man in the music business and Hansa`s owners in Germany, Peter and Trudi Meisel had asked Levy to contact me to see if i would be interested in promoting the record for them when it was released.

The minute i put Moroder`s disk on the turntable it smelled of a hit. It was so different to anithing i had heart bevore. Not only was it very catchy but it had this unusual synthesiser sound that just got right inside your brain. I rang Eddie Levy right away. " This is a hit record " i told him, and i`d love to be associated with it.

After playng the record several more times during the morning i realised that this was just too good an opportunity to be missed for my own production company.

At the time i had four groups under contract and used to record them in order. If a song came in that we felt had great potential it went to the group who were due in the studio next. In this way each group got the opportunity of getting a good number of record. It was then that a talented young engineer called Chris Thomas came to mind.

The Cover

When i was working at Air London with George Martin, John Burgess, Ron Richards, Peter Sullivan and Roger Greenaway, Chris was a trainee engeneer at the company`s studios at Oxfort Circus. Chris was booked for the session and played a major part in the musical aspect of the record.

The other interesting fact about Chicory Tip`s version of "Son of my Father" occurs in the song itself. As we had to produce the record as quickly and as secretly as possiblr we could not ask Eddie Levy for the written lyrics. So lead singer Peter Hewson had to learn the words from the Moroder record. And as they were not too clear certain passages were actually made up and vary a great deal from the original.
The record was completed in two days and was actually mixed on Christmas Eve - I remember getting home at 10pm after delivering the master to the CBS offices.
The rest as they say is history. The record was issued in the first week in January and took just three weeks to get to number one, hitting the top spot on 29th January and having a run of 13 weeks in the charts.
Eddie Levy, Trudi and Peter Meisel and Giorgio Moroder forgave me - they did have the publishing rights! - which was very important for me. In fact, the Giorgio Moroder version did take the honours in the rest of Europe where Chicory Tip didn`t get a look in and, disappointingly, neither version made it in the U.S.A.

Giorgio Moroder, who went on to great success in the U.S. as the producer of Donna Summer`s records, and his songwriting partner Pete Bellotte, generously said they would continue writing songs for Chicory Tip and the group had two further hits, "what`s your name", which peaked at number 13 and spent 8 weeks in the charts, and "Good grief Christina", which had 13 weeks in the charts and hit the number 17 slot in the top twenty.
Chicory Tip, even by their own admission, were not the most talented group of the world, bur they were certainly the first `glam rock` outfit years bevore the term became fashionable and they were first to feature a moog synthesiser on disc. they also had to buy one so that they could perform their records live on stage.
"Son of My Father" has also endured over the years thanks to a gootball supporters. You still hear at soccer grounds today the name of the crowd`s favourite player being chanted to the tune.
Enjoy the tracks on this CD and remember the days of the early 70`s when the pop world was still experimenting eith new sounds and the charts were full of one-hit wonders Chicory Tip didn`t last, but they at least brought a new sound and the scene for a year or so. It was however Giorgio Moroder and young Chris Thomas who went on to world-wide fame, both as successful producers.

Roger J. Easterby