The Real Thing, a Liverpool soul group formed in the 1970s, were one of the coolest acts of their era. They achieved huge sales and major hits in the UK and the US, and in the 1980s, remixes of their most popular singles gave their music a new sound and introduced it to a different audience. The band members consistently proved they were true professionals, and we’ll now discuss the reasons for their showbiz success by analysing the history of The Real Thing at liverpoolski.
The Band’s Key Achievements and Uniqueness
First, let’s talk about the group’s main achievements. Their song “You to Me Are Everything” made the international charts and reached number one in the UK singles chart. In Britain, fans also loved hits like “Can’t Get By Without You” and “Can You Feel the Force?”. The band was somewhat in the background for a period, but success returned after a short break in 1986, when a remix of “You to Me Are Everything” was released. In the UK, the group had no equal in terms of sales in the 1970s. In 1977, they also created the groundbreaking song, “Children of the Ghetto”. One journalist noted that The Real Thing had restored Liverpool’s musical reputation.
The entire line-up of The Real Thing was black. Interestingly, among similar Black British groups, this one has remained the most successful for decades. Chris Amoo and Dave Smith, as its last remaining members, are true stalwarts of the music industry. The group continued to perform all over the world, even as its members grew older.
History
It all began in 1970, when Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis, and Ray Lake formed a promising and exciting band capable of making great music. One of the “tricks” of these guys in the early stages was performing soul covers of American hits. This was enough to land them a contract with EMI to record their songs.
Some of their singles from 1972-73 were decent but lacked commercial success. This includes songs like “Vicious Circle”. Minor setbacks did not stop the members. The group continued to work even after Kenny Davis left.
One of the turning points was their collaboration with vocalist and composer David Essex and Pye Records. Together with Essex, the Liverpool musicians created several good songs, but the laws of showbiz can sometimes be hard to fathom – once again, they did not achieve huge sales success. However, after Eddie Amoo, Chris’s brother, joined the group, The Real Thing’s career truly took off.
It was then that the hit “You to Me Are Everything” was created, and it took its rightful place in the charts. The song even received a silver certification for selling 250,000 copies on the sound carriers of the time – vinyl records and cassettes.
In 1976, the group’s first album was released, which included both hit singles as well as the song “You’ll Never Know What You’re Missing”. After that, album releases became a regular occurrence:
- Four from Eight (1977) (the original title, Liverpool 8 – named after a deprived area of their hometown – was rejected).
- Step Into Our World / Can You Feel the Force (1978).
- ….Saints or Sinners? (1980).
There were also compilation albums: 20 Greatest Hits (1980), 100 Minutes (1982), and others.
From 1982, the group began working with David Essex again, but this time as backing vocalists on his tour. For a while, high chart positions were out of reach for the band, but after the 1986 remixes, the guys returned to their usual spots in the rankings, which to some extent reflect the quality of a musical product.
The Role of The Beatles and the Backstory
Even before the name The Real Thing came into being, the conditions were ripe in Liverpool’s Toxteth for the creation of a band of black musicians. The famous foursome, The Beatles, played a big role in this.
In the main Merseyside city, there was a vocal quintet called The Chants, which was founded by Eddie Amoo. At one concert, the black musicians met Paul McCartney, who invited them to an audition at Liverpool’s The Cavern Club. When they showed off their skills, everyone in The Beatles was impressed and invited the guys to perform with them that same evening.
The Chants truly stunned the audience with their performance. The group was signed to Pye Records, but their time in the spotlight had not yet come. They failed to achieve the same popularity as their colleagues in the Merseybeat movement. However, those years of performing and recording were not in vain. Eddie Amoo polished his songwriting skills, which would prove useful to him in the future.
His younger brother, Chris, was also watching his older brother closely. At a certain point, he was ready to create his own vocal group, giving it the somewhat extravagant name – The Sophisticated Soul Brothers. It was made up of Chris’s friends. When these performers gave concerts, they attracted the attention of famous people who could help them climb the career ladder. Among them was the legendary Tony Hall, who, however, wanted the black musicians to change their name. The idea for the new name, which was brought to life, came to Tony while he was sitting in his car and saw a Coca-Cola advertising slogan.
It was Tony Hall who guided the group through the perilous maze of the music business, acting as their mentor and never once losing faith in this talented team. One of the members (Ray Lake) left the group and later died at the age of 48, so the collective turned from a quartet into a trio. Much later, in 2018, 73-year-old Eddie Amoo passed away, but Chris and Dave continued to tour.