#3: Wild Thing by Fancy

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKWS
Peak Month: September 1974
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #14
YouTube: “Wild Thing”
Lyrics: “Wild Thing”

Fancy was a band made up of studio musicians produced by Mike Hurst. They were fronted by Penthouse pet Helen Caunt (October 1971) to add sex appeal to the band. The musicians included Ray Fenwick (born in Greater London in 1946), Fenwick was with the blues band the Syndicats in 1964. In 1965, he joined the Dutch band Tee-Set (who had a 1970 international hit with “Ma Belle Amie”). From 1967 to 1969, Fenwick was with the Spencer Davis Group. He played in the Chess Records studio for Bo Diddley from 1972 onward. Another bandmate was Michael “Mo” Foster, who was born in Wolverhampton, England, in 1944. He learned the recorder at the age of nine. He formed a skiffle band in 1959 named The Tradewinds. From 1961 to 1964 he played dances with a band called the Baskervilles. The third musician was Les Binks, born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, in 1951.

Binks did some session with with Eric Burdon and War, Deep Purple and others.

“Wild Thing” was written by Chip Taylor and became a number-one hit for The Troggs in 1966. Taylor is the brother of actor John Voight. He was born in 1940 in Yonkers, New York. Taylor also penned “Anyway You Want Me”, another international Top Ten hit for The Troggs (1967 – the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, the UK). He composed The Hollies 1965 number-one UK hit, “I Can’t Let Go”, and the 1968 hit single for Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts called “Angel Of The Morning”. He also wrote “I Can Make It With You”, a minor hit for both the Pozo-Seco Singers and Jackie DeShannon, and “On My Word” for Cliff Richard.

“Wild Thing” is a song about sexual attraction. A guy sees a female and she makes his “heart sing,” and makes “everything groovy.” He wants to know if he loves her. And he wants to know if she moves him. The answer to the question is found in his invitation to her: “Come on and hold me tight.” He then variously concludes “I love you,” and “You Move me.”

Penthouse model Helen Caunt breathed rather than sang during the recording of “Wild Thing”.

20-year-old Helen Caunt, October 1971, UK model for Penthouse

“Wild Thing” peaked at #1 in Kingston (ON), Berlin (NH), Washington DC, and Wichita (KS), #2 in Columbus (OH), Harrisburg (PA), Charlottesville (VA), West Palm Beach (FL), and Amarillo (TX), #3 in Beaumont (TX), Ottawa, Saskatoon (SK), and San Antonio (TX), #4 in Cleveland, Bellingham (WA), Sioux Falls (SD), Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, Lafayette (IN), Miami, Hamilton (ON), and Portland (OR), #5 in Los Angeles, Chicago, Allentown (PA), New Haven (CT), and San Bernardino (CA), #6 in Milwaukee (WI), Easton (PA), and Denver, #7 in Cedar Rapids (IA), and Vancouver (BC), #8 in Bakersfield (CA), Erie (PA), Kansas City (MO), Toronto, Fort Lauderdale (FL), and Albany (NY), #9 in Birmingham (AL), and Des Moines (IA), and #10 in Pittsburgh, and Dallas.

Fancy subsequently released a cover of the Doors “Touch Me”. Fancy toured in the summer of 1974 as an opening act for Kiss, Wishbone Ash and Steppenwolf. In early 1975, they also supported 10cc at the Hammersmith Odeon.

Before and after Fancy, Mo Foster toured as a sideman variously with Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Joan Armatrading, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Sting, Dusty Springfield, Cliff Richard and others. He played on over 350 recordings, including with Gerry Rafferty, Ringo Starr, Gary Moore, Cher, Olivia Newton-John (“Let Me Be There”), Phil Collins (“You Can’t Hurry Love”), Meatloaf, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice, Ellie Brooks (“No More the Fool”), Howard Jones (No One is to Blame”), Tanita Tikaram “Twist in My Sobriety”), Julie Covington (“Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”), and many more. Mo Foster also played on soundtracks for eight feature films. These include For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Over the decades, Foster released five solo albums. He died of bile duct cancer at the age of 78 in 2023.

After Fancy, Les Binks was with Judas Priest for two and a half years. He played in a number of heavy rock bands in the 80s and 90s. Binks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

In the years since Fancy, Ray Fenwick has toured with the progressive rock band Yes, as well as producing for a number of acts. He was with the Ian Gillen band from 1976 to 1977. He released three solo albums between 1971 and 1997. He was in the recording studio on thirty other albums with various acts between 1967 and 2016. Ray Fenwick died in 2022 at the age of 75.

January 11, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
“The Seventies: Fancy,” rayfenwick.com.
“Legendary English Bassist Mo Foster Passes Away at 78,” Bass Magazine, July 3, 2023.
Pete Alander, “Beyond the Realms of Les Binks,” kkdowning.net, March 28, 2017.
“The Ultimate Guide to Every Penthouse Pet from the Past,” OG Collection, October 21, 2024.
Steve P. Marsh, “‘Wild Thing’ returns: Yonkers-born Chip Taylor will perform an intimate show in Garrison,” The Journal News, January 29, 2019.

CKWS 960-AM Kingston (ON) Top Ten | September 21, 1974