Now Playing: If It Was Meant To Be (Demo)
Biography
Most known for recording a version of "Hush" that
inspired Deep Purple's hit cover of the same song, Kris Ife was active on
the British pop scene in various guises from the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s,
though he had barely a taste of commercial success. The guitarist and
singer/songwriter recorded in the mid-'60s as part of the Quiet
Five who released half a dozen singles that combined
different parts of Merseybeat, pop/rock, folk, and blue-eyed soul. They
managed to sneak inside the Top 50 in 1965 with the Ife-composed "When the
Morning Sun Dries the Dew," repeating the feat the following year with a
cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" though the original version was
the one that became a U.K. Top Ten single.
On Weds. 28th. December 1966, the Quiet Five played at
Windsor Castle, for a party to mark Prince Charles'
18th. Birthday earlier in Nov.
Subsequently, they played extensively on the "Society
Circuit", including Queen Charlotte's Ball, The Royal
Hunt Ball & the Venice Film Festival (for King Constantine) & at Count Volpi's
piazza on the Grand Canal.
Ife left the Quiet Five
1967 to go solo, cutting several obscure 45s, among them a forceful soul-rock cover of Joe South's "Hush."
It later emerged that Deep Purple became aware of the song after some members heard the
single played at a Manchester discotheque, and Deep Purple had a U.S. Top Five smash in 1968 after giving the number
a more hard rock-slanted treatment.
In the late '60s, Ife was asked to sing a track for
British producer Mark Wirtz. It became a single for
Ife on Parlophone- "Imagination".
Ife at the time, was writing songs with Vince Edwards
& Michael Derrick under the collective pseudonym Miki
Anthony. They wrote "Haven't We Had a Good Time"
which became Ife's 2nd. single produced by Wirtz. Ife
put together a session band to record material for
Wirtz that eventually developed into the Matchmakers.
Ife and Wirtz co-wrote most of the material for an album recorded by
Ife under the name of Judd, though Ife has recalled that this was a combination
of finished tracks and demos. Many of Judd
recordings had a swamp pop feel, albeit with a dash
of British blue-eyed soul-pop, but these unfortunately didn't provide the
elusive hit and make a commercial impact.
Ife also recorded a couple of obscure, more heavily orchestrated, early-'70s Righteous Brothers style
singles with J.Vincent Edwards, as the duo Jackson & Jones. Both singles were co-written by them and produced by Ife.
He also did an unreleased concept album that aimed to
teach American history through popular music, and then entered the publishing side
of the music industry in the mid-'70s.
Much of Ife's output was assembled for
the compilation "Hush - Definitive Collection 1967-1973" on RPM Records,
which includes late-'60s solo singles Hush, the
Judd LP, an unreleased Judd track, the Jackson & Jones singles and an unreleased track from his American history concept album.
His Quiet Five recordings are covered on the
"When the Morning Sun Dries the Dew" CD also on RPM Records, which combines everything
from that group's singles with some unreleased material.
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Click images for details on these CDs
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