BO STREET RUNNERS - Drive My Car - Rare 60's Beat Treasures

"Drive My Car" is a song primarily written by Paul McCartney, with lyrical contributions from John Lennon, and first released by The Beatles on the UK version of the 1965 album Rubber Soul; it also appeared in the US on the Yesterday and Today collection. The upbeat, lighthearted "Drive My Car" was used as the opening track for both albums.

Known mostly for the brief presence of a young Mick Fleetwood as a member, the Bo Street Runners were one of many London-area R&B-based rock bands during the British Invasion. Though they didn't come close to a hit, they did manage to release about an album's worth of material between 1964-1966 on four singles for Decca and Columbia, and a rare limited-edition EP. While their sound was fairly derivative and unremarkable compared to the top R&B-leaning British Invasion bands, much of their limited output was at least respectable, with a couple above-average songs that will be of interest to British Invasion collectors.


The Bo-Street-Runners first experience in a recording studio came early in 1964 when as a response to their fans at their weekly residency at The Railway Hotel in Harrow who wanted a momento of the gig.
The record was sold on Sunday nights at the gig for five shillings; the current (March 2008) value for a mint copy of the EP is given as £1,500 (Record Collector Magazine) Not a bad investment.

The band picked four numbers from their programme that were popular with their audiences. On side one was Willy Dixon's 'I Just Want t Make Love To You' and Ray Charles' 'Lonely Avenue'. Side two had John Dominic's self penned 'Bo Street Runner' and Jimmy Reed's 'Shame, Shame, Shame'.
The studio chosen to record the EP was that of R.G. Jones of Morden, SW London who had its own label 'Oak Records'. The R.G Jones audio company had been running since the 1920's but the Oak label only since 1958. The studio's early records were mainly produced by London jazz bands to be sold in small specialist shops around the capital but by the early 60's the studio was attracting local RnB groups. Amongst these were the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and David Bowie. No surprise then that the 'Runners' chose this venue for their first recording.The four tracks were put down in one short session with the band playing live and the vocal tracks put on at the end. This first version of Bo Street Runner was not the one subsequently released as their first single.

It was the custom at Oak records to issue their discs in plain white cardboard covers so the boys in the band painstakingly pasted the image of themselves on the starting line onto the covers. To avoid having to pay purchase tax (VAT) it was also the custom to limit the number of records pressed to 99 which is perhaps part of the reason for the EP's incredible value today.

By a strange coincidence the Bo Street runners were to return to the Morden studio in 1966 to record 'She's So Very Woman' the B-side of their final single.

R.G. Jones' studio and Oak records played an important role in the development of RnB during the 60's and their story can be found in an article in Record Collector Magazine, issue No 150, February 1992.

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Music

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• BO STREET RUNNERS
• Drive My Car
• Rare 60's Beat Treasures
• 60's
• Garage
• Rockabilly
• Rare