Chad & Jeremy - Biography
By NIck Castro
Chad & Jeremy were part of the British invasion movement, but with a unique folk pop sound. They had hits with songs like "Yesterday's Gone" and "A Summer Song". Though they would only achieve lukewarm responses to their music in their native England, they would soon enjoy much success abroad, in the United States.
Their story began when the two burgeoning musicians, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde, met each other while attending college in London at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Stuart, born in 1941 as David Stuart Chadwick in Windermere, England, was raised by working class parents. he studied choral singing as a child, an acquired skill which would prove invaluable later in his life. He attended art school before enrolling in school in London to study drama.Clyde, born Michael Thomas Jeremy Clyde, came from an affluent family who had made their fortune in the shipping business. Clyde was born in 1941, in Buckinghamshire, England. Clyde's great-great-great grandfather was the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Clyde went to Eton, one of the finest schools in the world. He too studied choral singing in his formative years. Both were involved in acting and drama, since early ages, and Clyde would actually write direct films during his time at Eton. These films would garner him some attention and accolades. Their first group together was a folk one called The Jerks. When Clyde graduated, a year prior to Stuart, he left to further work on his drama studies, and the band broke up. Chad, left with no band, began his pursuit of music business. He began working with Gordon Franks, one of England's most well known composers and arrangers.
When Clyde returned from school, a year later, the duo began playing again and they got a residency at a local coffee shop, which afforded them time, by day, to work on their music. It was at this coffee shop gig that they were discovered by record producer John Barry, who scored many of the early James Bond movies, through a connection of Clyde's well connected mother. Barry got the duo signed to the small independent record label, Ember, but unfortunately, the label had too little resources to properly promote the duo, and they found themselves in the unenviable position of getting nowhere fast, though the material they were producing was so strong. They did have one hit, the only in England, from this early period though. It was the song, "Yesterday's Gone". This song wold prove to be a classic case of the bamboozled musician, taken advantage of by the record label. Stuart would sell his song to a publishing house for a ridiculously small advance. The song is also half credited to Wendy Kidd, who actually had nothing to do with the composition, but it was written on her piano and in her apartment, so she demanded half of the royalties, which Stuart naively agreed, in exchange for a job as a music publisher himself.
After the mild success of their first single, Chad & Jeremy recorded a followup with the song, "Like I Love You Today", but it do not do much, again due to the label's inability to properly support the single. Barry became disgruntled over the matter and bought himself out of the contract. Chad & Jeremy were now on their own, without representation. Soon though, they were working with legendary American producer, Shel Talmy, who was working in the UK for Decca records at the time, and had had a hit with the band The Bachelors and was also busy working with The Kinks on their third single, "You Really Got Me". Talmy helped Chad & Jeremy to complete the recording of their first full length album, Sing for You (1964 - Ember), which contained their sleeper hit, "A Summer Song". The American version of this record, though still slightly different, was Yesterday's Gone (1964 - World Artists). The album did not do well in England, in part due to a British tabloid, which featured a picture of a young Clyde, dressed in royal attire and in attendance at Queen Elizabeth's coronation. The story dismissed the duo as rich boys masquerading as proletariat folk rockers. Though the group tried to make light of the story, it is widely believed that this article, along with Ember's poor distribution, negatively impacted the group before they could achieve any real success there. In consolation though, the album became a huge hit in the US markets. The song, "A Summer Song" went to the top ten charts. With this, they also released the single of the song, "Yesterday's Gone", which became the song they are most remembered for. This song became a hit on not only the pop charts, but on the country charts as well. Their American record label, World Artists, made the move their previous labels never could; they promoted the record with all of the resources they had, and it payed off. World Artists was an up and coming label and they needed a big artist on their roster. They were wise enough to have faith in the talents of Chad and Jeremy. The single was followed up with the American release of the song, "A Summer Song", which is a lovely mid-tempo ballad with great two part harmonies and nice guitar work. The band was receiving a lot of attention by now in the US and there record was selling faster then it could be pressed. They quickly followed up with the single, "Willow Weep For Me". Soon after the band left England for California.
In 1967, the band released their pseudo-psychedelic album, Of Cabbages and Kings (1967 - Columbia), which contained lots of comedic moments, including on side two, which featured the progressive 60's comedy troupe, Firesign Theatre. The album was delayed in release though, and by the time it saw light of day, it already seemed derivative.
Chad & Jeremy were also working as actors and were featured in an episode of Batman, with Julie Newmar, as well as the Dick Van Dyke Show. They soon were crushed under the shady business dealing fo their major label, Columbia, which kept finding ways to charge the duo for everything, including for being forced to record in the Columbia owned studios, which charged ridiculously high hourly rates.
Chad and Jeremy have continued to play reunion shows, intermittently, throughout the years, and have recently been doing a slew of shows together. They both still harmonize together amazingly well and play guitars in the same style as their early records. Many artists suffer from changing styles, but this dup has remained true to their roots.
