Barry Ryan – ’Eloise’ / ’Love I Almost Found You’ (MGM 61 204) November 1968 (German pressing)
BARRY RYAN: ” Eloise ” (MGM). Paul Ryan wrote the song and Barry sings with a considerable power reminding, oddly enough, of Chris Farlowe. A brilliant arrangement, and spectacular recording quality. The orchestra thunders, barks, roars then fades with symphonic depth and feeling before returning to a rock beat finale. In conception and execution it stands head And shoulders above most of this week’s releases, and will excite interest among connoisseurs of progressive pop. But — sadly — not a hit. (Melody Maker, 05/10/68)
BARRY RYAN “Eloise” / “Love I Almost Found You” (MGM 1442). There are those who knock all that Barry does but their eyes will be wide open with amazement at the sheer magnificence of this production. It’s a sort of pop symphony, with a massive orchestra, a vocal group (the Majority) and a Paul Ryan set of lyrics and just about everything laid on with the grand touch.
Barry’s whole singing style has changed too – soaring into the falsetto range and grinding out with a bluesy edge, even. If there be justice, this will be a very big hit. Flip:Much, much, much quieter ballad. (Record Mirror, 05/11/68)
For Barry Ryan and his brother Paul, opportunity knocks!
I CALLED ROUND to Barry Ryan’s new flat near London’s Grosvenor Square last Thursday to wish him and twin brother Paul a happy 20th birthday and congratulate them on producing such a splendid song in “Eloise”—you know, the record that’s causing road accidents galore as drivers pound their pedals in time to those drumbeats.
“The best present we’ve received is to hear that ‘Eloise’ sold over 5,000 copies today, outselling everything else,” Barry told me, simply bubbling with happiness.
He and his brother say that at last they have an answer to their knockers, who have been numerous and nasty in the three years that the boys have been in the business. “At last we’ve made a record to be proud of,” said Barry. “I’ve been able to sing as I want instead of sounding like a mini Engelbert, while Paul has won a personal battle to prove his writing talent.”
Barry Ryan | Eloise | MGM | 1968
The knockers, of course, have never ceased to snipe at the twins. In the earlier days, the boys agree, it might have been justified.
“We did have no talent then and doing the Palladium show as our first TV date was a bit strong,” Barry recalled. Eventually, early this year, Paul had a nervous breakdown and Barry decided to go solo. When he recovered, Paul decided to try his hand at writing songs.
“Paul really has been in a bit of a state this past fortnight, waiting and wondering whether the public would like ‘Eloise’. We’re very telepathic and I know how anxious he has been. Now that we know it will be a hit, I’ve never seen Paul so happy.
“I’m so glad ‘Eloise’ is his song. If it had been written by someone else, I would have felt awful, because although he can do without the glamour, it must seem a bit alien to him to see me on TV screens and so forth. Instead, he feels great and we’ve found a very workable situation for the future, which will probably include me doing an album of Paul’s songs, for he can do even better than ‘Eloise’.” (Disc & Music Echo, 03/11/68)
“I’m a looner. I drink more than I should! And I can tell if a chick is going out with me because I’m a pop star with money”
BARRY RYAN is one of the “live for today” brigade. “I’m basically a looner. I’ll go out most nights until 3 a.m. I believe in a good time—! believe in NOW. I suppose in a way I’m insecure, but I’d rather live for the moment than know when it’s going to rain and worry about it.”
In the three years since he left a hairdresser’s salon to become a pop singer he has built up something of a reputation for leaving a trail of broken hearted girls across London.
“I suppose I’m a bit of a . . . . in that respect. I go out with a chick for as long as the magic lasts, but when they start to get possessive I drop them.
“People think when you’re a pop star you have a much easier time pulling birds. It’s true you meet a lot more and get much more opportunity but there’s often a psychological barrier there.
“When I first started in the business I was a real raver on a one-nighter kick with chicks. But I’ve grown up since then. Now I can tell if a chick is going out with me just because I’m a pop star and I have a bit of money.
“And then there’s a different kind of chick who comes back to the flat and looks around and thinks, ‘Oh yes, very flash—he needn’t think he’s going to have an easy time with me,’ and gets very difficult. I can’t be bothered with them and I’ve come to be able to sort them out now.”
Barry Ryan | Eloise | MGM | 1968
At 20, with all the things that money can buy, Barry is, although he denies it, pretty synonomous with the “Playboy” magazine image. He doesn’t believe in what he calls the “Stag on the Campus” idea of “Playboy,” but he does have the luxury flat, the status and the youth to be able to enjoy a pretty unresponsible life. He lives at speed—often just throwing things in a suitcase and flying off to the sun for a week’s holiday or nipping over to Paris for the weekend if he feels like it.
“Oddly enough now,” he says sitting in the beautifully panelled front room of his flat which is scattered with brass heavy lamps, leopard rugs and a couple of fairly pornographic paintings on the walls, “I’ve come to believe more in personal satisfaction than material things. Possibly of course, because I have the material things I need.
“I don’t have to worry about money. and never really think about it. Rarely do I rarely carry cash and have accounts at most shops for clothes. I go to clubs less because Paul and I like to entertain at home a lot now.
“thinking about it, I probably drink more than I should. I never go on TV or stage drunk or anything but I do get pretty stoned at times. Well why not?” Barry Ryan has few people to be responsible to, other than himself. At the moment there is no serious romance in his life and he has a small army of people to cope with everything other than his personal life.
getting tied down to one person worries me.
Barry has an accountant, a fan club secretary, his own secretary, a manager and Maid, a lovely lady who lives upstairs and cleans his flat and takes his clothes to the cleaners for him. He enjoys his life very much indeed and it shows. He has absolutely no thoughts of settling down, he says.
“I’m not exactly frightened of marriage, but getting tied down to one person worries me.
“I’m far too young for one thing. For a man, marriage isn’t really important. They don’t NEED it, like women do, to give them security. I mean, fellows can be 60 years old and marry a beautiful 20-year-old chick. But after 26, girls give up and just grab whatever they can.
Out of date
“The only reason I’d get married is to have kids and the set-up today is such that you really do have to marry to have children, no matter what other people say. But I think in about 20 years, marriage as an institution will be out of date anyway.
“Of course I also don’t think about marrying at the moment because I’ve never found the right girl. I couldn’t be a 9-to-5 man. No, I don’t really know what I want—well if I did I’d go out and get it wouldn’t I? “
“One day I’ll meet someone, a very groovy chick, and fall in love.”
Like most boys who are madly proving they’re rushing in the opposite direction, Barry Ryan is really just searching for the inevitable goal.
“It’s so hard to find the right girl, that’s the trouble. So you get a reputation, simply because you’re trying them all to find the right one. It’s not easy—really, when I think about it, getting married would be okay.
“I suppose I don’t think about it in too kindly a light simply because I’ve never found the girl I’m looking for.” (Disc & Music Echo, 09/11/68)
CHART SUCCESS FOR PAUL & BARRY’S TWENTIETH
ON the very day I met them an elated Paul and Barry Ryan were celebrating their twentieth birthday and the arrival of “Eloise” in the charts. “It’s the greatest birthday present we could hope for,” they agreed.
Now Barry will obviously be accepted as a singer in his own right, but I asked him if he had felt apprehensive after “Goodbye” failed to make an impact on the charts.
“No, I wasn’t apprehensive at all. We were just plodding along before, anyway,” he said. “I’ve only done television on my own so far, and you perform to a camera. Before we could look at each other for support, it was a sort of give and take thing. It wasn’t really my image then though, We used to do suave cabaret in evening suits. Now people can accept me for what I am in what I like to wear.”
LESS SPONTANEOUS
Paul has stepped out of the stage spotlight, but is being widely acclaimed for his songwriting. He told me how he first composed “Eloise”.
“I don’t really play piano. To me middle C is 1, and I work from there picking out the notes and experimenting. People have said it would be less spontaneous if I played seriously. The intro was the main thing. I wanted to attract people to the song.”
“At first,” continued Barry, “We didn’t particularly like “Eloise”, but we took it to Johnny Arthey, who arranged it: He is so underrated that guy.”
“It’s a funny thing, you don’t really know what you want until you hear it,” said Paul. “The arrangement can give you 60 per cent and you don’t even know at the time what you want the other 40 per cent to be until it happens.”
“We felt sure ‘Eloise’ must be a hit when the session men rang us up after” added Barry. “We couldn’t defend ouselves against criticism before, but after this we feel we can.”
CROAKY VOICE
Barry was anxious to defend himself against critics of his recent “Top of the Pops” appearance;
“I had ‘flu the day I was to appear and as my voice was croaky, Colin Charman thought it would be best for me to sing with the orchestra and record it in the afternoon. I’m going to do it all live next time, because I don’t like bad remarks and I can do it.”
There will surely be more “Top of the Pops” performances when Barry can prove his point. He is also due to appear on “Dee Time” this Saturday.
Barry has recently been added to the Beach Boys’ six-day tour, commencing December 1, and so has the task of finding a suitable backing group to work with him on such occasions. (Any interested groups please contact Barry via the Harold Davison Organisation).
Following this tour Barry hopes to visit America, after completing a new LP. Meanwhile Paul is planning a follow-up single for him.
“I’ve certainly got the lyrics for it” he explained. “I was sitting in a cafe and two elderly women were talking about a window cleaner who fell off his ladder, and so on, and I was writing it all down — Noel Coward was a great one for doing that. It will probably be called ‘Gossip’. I want to get Barry three hits and then branch out and write songs for other people as well.”
Paul has obviously found his niche. while Barry remains firmly in the spotlight. (Record Mirror, 11/11/68)
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