#13: Don’t Make Me Over by the Swinging Blue Jeans
City: St. John’s, NL
Radio Station: VOCM
Peak Month: April 1966
Peak Position in St. John’s ~ #2
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #24
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #116
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #31
Peak Position on Australian Singles chart ~ #35
YouTube: “Don’t Make Me Over”
Lyrics: “Don’t Make Me Over”
The Swinging Blue Jeans had their origins in a band called the Bluegenes, a jazz-influenced skiffle sextet group formed by Bruce McCaskill. From the liner notes on their 1964 album Hippy Hippy Shake, there is a great description about the Swinging Blue Jeans’ origins. “It was in 1959 that Ray Ennis (born in 1942 in Liverpool) and Norman Kuhlke (born in 1942 in Liverpool) met in a dance hall in Garston, a suburb of Liverpool. And it was that meeting that led to the formation of the Swinging Blue Jeans. Ray was a regular singer with the group playing at Garston’s Wilson Hall. Norman used to go in, listen to the band, and request songs for Ray to sing. (“One of my biggest fans,” Ray laughs). Together they formed the SBJ – washboard (which Norman played), tea-chest bass and three guitars (one of which Ray played). They appeared at clubs and dance halls in and around Liverpool for a year, and then, in a talent contest at the Empire Theatre one night, they came up against a group led by Ralph Ellis (born in 1942 in Liverpool).”
