The DAVE CLARK FIVE
by RICH ARITHMETIC
Editor’s Note: This lightly edited piece originally appeared in the 1980’s Cassette Culture Blog, June 25, 2026.
Today I’m paying tribute to a band that tends to get overlooked when we remember the British Invasion of 1964 — the era when The Beatles crashed the doors of the American music industry and opened them to other British bands that we still remember 60-some years later, like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, The Yardbirds, and The Animals.
But for a brief time, the Dave Clark Five sold more records than all those other bands except for The Beatles. In fact, their debut smash hit “Glad All Over” knocked The Beatles off the top of the charts to become the second British band to have a Number One hit on the American record charts.
Now never mind that although Dave Clark was certainly a successful promoter of the band that bore his name, Dave himself was kind of a jerk. Despite the images on their record covers and TV appearances, Dave Clark never played drums on the DC5’s records, nor did he really write the songs he took credit for composing. Even in their live appearances, the band most often simply sang to a pre-recorded background, and because Dave Clark put the band on a salary, it meant that in the end, he was the only one who reaped the profits of their significant royalties, publishing, and appearances, while the band members struggled financially after the band broke up.
Having said all that, there is no denying that those early Dave Clark Five records were catchy as hell, and the Wall of Sound production (double-and-sometimes-triple tracking the drums) gave the band a pounding Roar that was referred to as the “Tottenham Sound,” and in their early years their huge sound was unmatched by their British contemporaries, including The Beatles, The Kinks, and the Stones.
At least for the first year or two of The British Invasion, the Dave Clark turned out one hit after another until they just couldn’t keep up with the creative progression of the other British bands who all were competing with each other to make artistic statements with each new record.
But — for a time — the DC5 had the most powerful sounding records on the charts and on the jukeboxes, as manifest in the following two singles, the stomping “Bits & Pieces” and “Any Way You Want It.” Turn these songs up loud when you play them!