This week’s request came from Eoin Fitzgerald who said, “My father told us he used to look at my Mum in the nursing home and the line I’ll put you together again would just come back to him time and again because he would have done anything to bring her back to her self. Knowing him like l do, it wasn’t for his own sake he wished this. He isn’t a selfish person. He called her his hero and he just wanted better for her. Their anniversary is August 22nd and it would be nice to put the backstory to a poignant song for our family.” That is a very heartfelt message Eoin and, yes, is the short answer and to enable me to make sure of all the details, I emailed the song’s lyricist, Don Black, and took the liberty of forwarding your message to him. He very kindly replied with the details and a message which I have included at the end of the story.
Hot Chocolate were the only British band to have at least one UK hit in every year of the 1970s, but of their 30 UK hit singles, only a handful get regular airplay. Some of their lesser-heard singles are quite dark and complex. Every one of their hits was produced by Mickie Most, most were written or co-written by lead singer Errol Brown and all released on Most’s own RAK record label. Seven years into their chart account came their only chart-topper, So You Win Again, which was written by Russ Ballard, their second is this week’s suggestion and was written by two legendary songwriters and was originally in a little-known show.
The band originally came together in 1968 when Errol Brown and Trinidadian-born, London-raised bass player Tony Wilson got together and began writing songs. They met a record producer called Derek Lawrence who liked what he heard and offered to pay for some studio time. They didn’t have a name at this point but one of the songs they recorded was a reggae cover of John Lennon’s Give Peace A Chance with some slightly altered lyrics. Lawrence wasn’t impressed with the version, but the band thought it had potential. Brown was astute enough to seek permission for them to cover the song, albeit they had just done that. So, Wilson and Brown decided to go the Beatles’ Apple office in London, knocked at the door and, to their surprise, got to meet John and Yoko. John listened to it and asked why they changed change some of the lyrics, “It wouldn’t work out with the original words from the hit single, so we made up our own,” Wilson stated. John then asked them the name of their band to which Errol replied, “We don’t have one.” John then said, “Go and get a coffee and ask one the girls in reception to come up with a name”, apparently it was Mavis Smith who said ‘how about the Hot Chocolate Band’. They went back and told John and Yoko, who both said they like it, but advised them to drop the word band, so Hot Chocolate they became and John even signed them to Apple records for about 18 months but the hits eluded them.
By 1970, record producer Mickie Most had signed them to his own RAK label. Wilson and Brown, who had now recruited Patrick Olive on percussion (then bass after 1975), drummer Tony Connor, Larry Ferguson on keyboards and Harvey Hinsley on guitar, began writing a stack of songs of which the first nine all made the UK chart. From the summer of 1975, all original material was solely written by Brown.
I’ll Put You Together Again was their 18th hit and was written by Don Black and Geoff Stephens. It was written for a concept album called Dear Anyone and was released earlier in 1978. It became a show in 1983, but a very short-lived one. The way the songs were sung on stage were quite different from the original album. The original had been sung by Pandora and the Correspondents, Pandora was the actress Maggie Moone & the Correspondents were various members of the ensemble. The musicians included Pilot’s Ian Bairnson and David Paton on guitars and drummer Barry Morgan who had been a one-time member of Blue Mink. Some of the other members included the actress Elaine Stritch, Gemma Craven and Clare Torry who is best remembered for singing the theme tune to the comedy series Butterflies under the title Love Is Like A Butterfly and providing the improvised high pitched screams on Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky.
The 1983 stage production originally opened in Birmingham and featured Jane Lapotaire, Peter Blake and Stubby Kaye and moved the London’s West End later that year.
In my exclusive interview with Don Black, he told me, “The musical Dear Anyone was the story of an Agony Aunt who could solve everyone’s problems but her own. There is a moment at the beginning of the musical where she’s excited about getting the job as a problem solver, and, being a musical she sings. That’s where the song I’ll Put You Together Again comes in. Over the years I’ve had many letters and emails about the healing qualities of this song , as a songwriter this is very satisfying.”
The whole thing was based on a book by Jack Rosenthal and the show was also loosely based on the TV sitcom Agony which starred Maureen Lipman and ran from 1979 to 1981. Agony was co-created by the real-life agony aunt Anna Raeburn.
I’ll Put you Together Again is the memorable stand-out track which deals with the agony aunt encouraging a person who feels that they cannot go on with their life because of their problems and contemplating ending it all, to write to her for advice and confidently saying they can make everything better. The song opens with the verse, ‘When you can’t take any more, when you feel your life is over, put down your tablets and pick up your pen and I’ll put you together again.’ There’s advice in every verse with the third verse saying, ‘When things look hopeless, just write me and then’ and the fourth reminding us, ‘If there’s no light anywhere and you’ve got no one to turn to, I’ll lead you out of the darkness and then’. Because the show was short-lived, no cast soundtrack was released.
Hot Chocolate continued into the 1980s with the hits No Doubt About It, Girl Crazy and It Started With A Kiss, but all without Tony Wilson who had quit in 1975. By 1986, Errol had had enough and he left for a solo career which never really took off and ended up with two minor hits, Personal Touch which peaked at number 25 and Body Rockin’ which missed the top 50.
In 1987, a pointless re-mix of the song was released and made number 10 in the UK. Ten years later, The Full Monty included Hot Chocolate’s 1975 hit You Sexy Thing and because of the success of the film, the record label re-issue the single and it went back to number six thus giving that song the rare feat of having been a top 10 hit by the same act in three different decades.
When Errol Brown left the band in 1986, he was replaced by Greg Bannis who had been on the TV show Stars In Their Eyes where he remained until 2010 when Kennie Simon became the new lead singer.
Wilson, who is 76, moved back to Trinidad where he still lives, Errol Brown, whom Dave Lee Travis often referred to as the singing malteser because of his bald head, moved back to the Bahamas. He died of liver cancer in 2015 at the age of 71.
No one has more experience with putting words together and conveying messages like Don Black and in his email reply, he concluded with this message Eoin, “The story of your mum and dad is very moving and I hope August 22nd is a thundering success.”
Warmest wishes,
Don Black