The Hollies, who other than the Rolling Stones are the longest-running British rock band that never broke up, have reached the end of the road. Guitarist Tony Hicks, 80, announced health problems have made touring impossible, and drummer Bobby Elliott, 84, decided he’d retire as well. The band from Manchester released their first single 63 years ago.
The Hollies were founded by Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, friends since childhood who started singing together in choir in grade school. They played skiffle and performed together as a duo in the late ’50s, then in 1962 joined the rhythm section of the Deltas, who had just lost their singer and lead guitarist. They added Hicks to the lineup the next year and changed their name in homage to Buddy Holly. Like the Stones, they started out as a cover band, only pop-oriented, distinguished by the harmonies of Nash and Hicks behind lead singer Clarke.
The band was most popular in the UK, where they placed 30 singles on the charts, and they reached the Top 40 in the U.S. 11 times between 1966 and 1974. Nash left in 1968 because the band rejected songs he wrote that didn’t fit their established style – “Marrakesh Express,” for example, later a hit for Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Clarke left for two years in the early ’70s but returned in 1973 and stayed until leaving in 2000 to tend to his cancer-stricken wife. Hicks and Elliott, who also joined soon after the band formed, carried on, sometimes with Clarke, until their last show, last January in Scottsdale, Ariz. They were inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame in 2010.
Hicks, Clarke and Nash wrote most of the band’s home-grown hits together. “Carrie Anne” was started by Hicks and Nash; Clarke wrote the lyrics to the bridge. Nash revealed their inspiration years later: singer Marianne Faithful, one of the darlings of London in the Swinging ’60s. “We tried to find a name that was kind of similar to Marianne and one that would not give the game away, shall we say,” Nash said.
The instrumental break is probably the first time steelpan was used in a pop song, but it posed a problem when the band had to lip-sync it for television. This director made an odd choice.
The Hollies never had a No. 1 hit in the U.S. The closest they got was in 1972 with “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress,” almost a solo turn for Clarke, who wrote it with tunesmith Roger Cook and plays lead guitar. Clarke said the tune, patterned on the swamp rock of CCR, came together in “about five minutes.”
