In the early 1960s, the prospect of a “British invasion” of the US seemed remote: most of the traffic was one-way, from the US to the UK. However, one UK-made record topped the charts across the Atlantic: ‟Stranger on the Shore”was a lilting instrumental written and performed by Acker Bilk, a Somerset clarinettist who earned his living on the banjos-and-beer circuit of the UK’s trad jazz scene. The song would earn him a decent living for decades, but he grew to loathe it.
Acker, real name Bernard Bilk, claimed he thought up the song’s melody in a taxi. He named this gentle tune ‟Jenny” in honour of his daughter. Having scored several hits since his first, 1960’s ‟Summer Set”, Bilk was famous enough to be asked to create the theme for a BBC TV children’s series about a French au pair in Brighton. Bilk offered them ‟Jenny”, but was asked to change its title to the name of the programme, Stranger on the Shore. Its wistful, airy tones, with Bilk’s ‟liquorice stick” accompanied by silken strings, was heard on TV on Sunday afternoons, accompanying the culture-shocked lead character longingly staring out across the English Channel towards her home in France.
‟Stranger on the Shore” was released in October 1961, credited to Mr Acker Bilk with the Leon Young String Chorale. It became 1962’s biggest-selling single in the UK, spending 55 weeks in the chart, though it was kept off the top spot by Cliff Richard’s ‟The Young Ones”. It made number one in the US, however, and both the single and its accompanying album went gold there. Bilk was soon such a big star that his PR operation was playfully known as the Bilk Marketing Board. It is not known if it was responsible for the rumour that Ginger Baker had played on Bilk’s version, an entirely fictitious notion, although Bilk and Baker had played together in the 1950s while the late Cream drummer was learning his trade.
The song proved remarkably flexible and Bilk called it ‟my pension”. As an instrumental, it attracted covers by Booker T & The M.G.’s,where it sat incongruously on the grits and gravy of their debut LP, Green Onions;soul saxophone star King Curtisplayed it dead straight in 1964, and kitsch-Hawaiian MOR kings Santo & Johnnydelivered it as an unseemly brisk strut in 1964. Fellow exotica specialist Martin Dennyalso took a trip to the shoreline in 1962.
Bilk, at heart a real jazz fan, was doubtless flattered when Duke Ellingtoncovered it for his album Ellington 65, and other credible instrumentalists who tackled the song included contrasting Chets, Baker (smooth jazz trumpet) and Atkins(country guitar) (both in 1966).
‟Stranger On The Shore” was too successful not to acquire lyrics. The music publisher Robert Mellin penned lovelorn verses about a man pining for his partner overseas, giving the ditty a second life. The Driftersscored a small US hit with this version in 1962 as Bilk’s instrumental was climbing the same chart, and Andy Williamsmade number 30 in the UK with his effort. There were covers galore by Ruby & The Romantics,Slim Whitmanand Roger Whittaker;the song was also used in numerous movies.
As time passed, the interpretations grew more bizarre. Reggae saxophonist Val Bennettrecorded it in 1968 under the production supervision of Lee Perry, who oversaw a funkier cut of it five years later by the singer David Isaacs. Jamaican vocal group The Chosen Few offered a lush though slightly dissonant version in 1973, smothered in fuzzbox guitars. In 1987, Tijuana trumpeter Herb Alpertmade it an unlikely choice for one of his jazz-funk ‟comeback” albums, Keep Your Eye On Me. Free jazzers Lol Coxhill and Steve Beresford were among a group of improvisers trading as The Promenaders, who returned it to Brighton beach, recording/butchering it there in 1982.
Rave anarcho-pranksters The KLF sampled Acker Bilk’s version heavily on their 1990 album Chill Out, using its haunting nature to powerful effect on ‟A Melody From a Past Life Keeps Pulling Me Back”. Perhaps Bilk felt the same way about it. In 2012, half a century after the song’s major success, he admitted he’d had enough of ‟Stranger on the Shore”. He grumbled to the BBC: ‟It’s all right, but you do get fed up with it after 50 years.”
What are your memories of ‘Stranger on the Shore’? Let us know in the comments section below.
‘The Life of a Song Volume 2: The fascinating stories behind 50 more of the world’s best-loved songs’, edited by David Cheal and Jan Dalley, is published by Brewer’s.
Music credits: Sanctuary Records; Vintage Music Association S.P.; Perennial Music; Hallmark; Universe Remasterings; Master Classics Records; Leverage; Rhino/Warner Records; RCA/Legacy; Real Rhythm And Blues Records; Music Manager; UMC (Universal Music Catalogue); EMI Catalog (USA); Tembo; Trojan Records; Herb Alpert Presents
Picture credit: ANL/Shutterstock