Song of the Day 10/19: Vince Taylor, “Brand New Cadillac”
Americans might be forgiven for thinking British rock and roll began with the Beatles. The Merseybeat sound they represented seemed to grow from meager roots – skiffle, the craze that dominated the late ’50s and early ’60s in England, sounded like jug-band music to Americans.
The British reaction to Elvis Presley and the rest of America’s first generation of rock ‘n’ rollers was muted by the BBC’s control of the airwaves, but teenagers still heard it, and native imitators sprang up to fill the demand. Most were no closer to matching Elvis’ talent and charisma than Pat Boone and are mostly forgotten today, even in Britain. Vince Taylor was the exception.
Born Brian Holden in England, Taylor was raised in the U.S., where he attended Hollywood High School. He was 18 when he traveled to London and quickly formed a band to back his singing. He affected a leather-clad rebellious look, and backed it up with a volatile personality that led to heavy turnover in his backing band, the Playboys.
He found his greatest fame in France, but by 1964 he added LSD to his drinking and amphetamine habits and completely wigged out – at one big London gig he proclaimed himself the apostle Matthew. He attained a sort of notoriety a decade later, when David Bowie drew inspiration from Taylor’s story to create the Ziggy Stardust character.
The song Taylor is remembered for today was originally a B-side to his 1958 single “Pledgin’ My Love,” and it didn’t make the charts in Britain.
The tune wasn’t forgotten, though. It was resurrected in 1964 by a Birmingham band called the Renegades. Under the truncated title “Cadillac,” their arrangement went to No. 1 in Finland. In an interesting twist, the band members claimed authorship of the song until a later lawsuit. A Swedish band called the Hep Stars reached No. 1 in that country the next year with the same arrangement. To demonstrate the song’s pan-cultural appeal, an Irish band called the Shamrocks took it to No. 1 in France in 1965.
If you’ve heard “Brand New Cadillac” it was almost certainly the version the Clash recorded for “London Calling.”
Taylor eventually retired to Switzerland, where he worked as an aircraft mechanic before his death in 1991. Van Morrison’s “Goin’ Down Geneva” has a verse about Taylor, and in concert he usually punctuates it with a snippet of “Brand New Cadillac,” as in this performance from 2000.
