Song of the Day 10/11: Dave Clark Five, “Any Way You Want It”

Unless you were alive at the time, it’s almost impossible to believe that the Dave Clark Five weren’t just the first British band to follow the Beatles in the British Invasion — they played the Ed Sullivan Show twice in March 1964, the month after the Beatles debuted there — they actually rivaled the Fab Four in popularity.

This song helps show why. This isn’t Journey’s ’70s arena-rock schlock. It’s got lots more energy — it sounds a lot like a Buddy Holly tune. The song, which originally listed drummer Dave Clark as co-writer in an effort to make it appear the band wrote its own songs, is now recognized as written by a guy named Ron Ryan who penned several of DC5’s hits. It only reached No. 14 in the U.S., which might explain its relative obscurity today. I hadn’t heard it in years until it popped up on Little Steven’s Underground Garage last night.

The song has the distinction of being the last one ever played in concert by the Ramones, who had Eddie Vedder join them onstage at The Palace in Hollywood on Aug. 6, 1996, to share vocals with Joey Ramone.

Tom Petty did a nice live version, demonstrating that the echo effect that couldn’t be reproduced live in the DC5’s day was easily replicated on stage by the time of this 1983 performance in Irvine, Calif.