Judy Teen

Background

In 1973, Cockney Rebel's debut single "Sebastian" became a big hit across Europe, but failed to enter the UK Top 50. The band's debut album The Human Menagerie was released in November 1973 and suffered a similar fate, leading the band's label EMI to feel that Harley had yet to record a potential hit single. Following the release of The Human Menagerie, Harley went away to re-work "Judy Teen", with the objective of making it a potential hit single. Harley later recalled:

"When the first album came out, the record company said, 'We don't have a single.' And I said very arrogantly, 'I'll write one, I know how to do it.' That's exactly what I said and exactly what I did. Now I think - what an arrogant young man, fearless! "Judy Teen" was a boy/girl story, a teenage romance, a bit of sex in there, interesting drum rhythm, hooks all over the place - lo and behold big hit! It's a good sexy little teenage love story. When I wrote Judy Teen, I was 18 or 19 when I had the experience that that song came from."

"Judy Teen" had already been recorded as a demo in 1972, but was not recorded for The Human Menagerie. During that year, the band's early incarnation had featured Pete Newnham on guitar. This line-up recorded three demos at Riverside Recordings; "Judy Teen", "Ritz" and "That's Alright That's Me". In an exclusive interview with Newnham for the unofficial fan site Harley Fanzone, he recalled:

We made our first demos at a friend of Steve's studio, Riverside Recordings. "Judy Teen", "Ritz" and "That's Alright That's Me" were the three songs. I had expected to do two guitar tracks, one a rhythm guitar and then a lead overdub for each song - but there was only time for a very rushed guitar take. So, although at the time we all were over the moon with the general result, I wasn't too happy with the guitar. Going back to those demo tracks, they were very clean and untreated, except for a phased drum reverb fadeout on "Ritz" and a bit of echo on John's violin on "Judy Teen". A lot of time was spent getting Steve's vocals to sound right, and they sounded amazing. Anyway, the demo was to play to prospective management rather than record companies."

Once Harley finished re-working the song, the band recorded it as their next single with Alan Parsons at the producer's helm. However, the single's release was delayed after EMI decided to hold the song back at the beginning of 1974. This allowed them to re-issue "Sebastian" on 25 January (originally due to be 11 January), as the third time being released as a single. When "Sebastian" still did not become a UK hit, EMI released "Judy Teen" as a single in March. Successfully breaking the band in the UK, the song peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart, and remained within the Top 50 for eleven weeks. It was also a hit in Europe too, peaking at #23 in Belgium and #26 in the Netherlands. Upon release, "Judy Teen" was chosen as Johnnie Walker's 'Record of the Week' on BBC Radio One.

The single's success opened a new wave of popularity for the group, which the band discovered during their UK tour for their second album The Psychomodo. In the New Musical Express magazine of 29 June 1974, an article on Cockney Rebel by Tony Stewart quoted violinist Jean-Paul Crocker over the change in audience since "Judy Teen" became a hit:

"The trouble with this tour has been the cock-up because of the single. It went into the charts a week before we started the tour, and it's going up and up and up. It's what? - number five this week. And if it gets any higher by the end of the tour - which is 42 dates - it's going to be a riot. We had riots, literally riots, every night last week. That's why Tony's here (the security guard). We did a gig in York and there were bottlefights - and we had a rough time of it in Newcastle. But when I came off at York I was in tears, because we'd never seen it before. It was the people in the front row who caused all the trouble - because they're the ones who knew the single."

Drummer Stuart Elliott added:

"You see, the only trouble with the hit single is that they only come for that. We'll play a whole set from "The Psychomodo" and "The Human Menagerie", and they don't really appreciate it. As soon as you play "Judy Teen" they go bloody mad."

In 2012, the four-disc anthology Cavaliers: An Anthology 1973-1974 was released, combining the two Cockney Rebel albums The Human Menagerie and The Psychomodo, as well as two discs of demo and live versions. On the release, a previously unreleased early version of "Judy Teen" appeared on disc three. This version is dated 1 March 1973 and was recorded at Audio International Studios.

Release

The single was released by EMI Records on 7" vinyl in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Japan and Australia. A UK promotional demo copy/DJ copy of the single was also issued by EMI.

All editions of the single featured the B-Side "Spaced Out", which was written by Harley and produced by Harley and Parsons. The B-Side was exclusive to the single, and would later be included on a number of CD releases. It first appeared as a bonus track on the 1992 CD single issue of the band's 1975 UK number one single "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", and later on the 2000 EMI/Comeuppance Discs re-issue of Harley's 1978 album Hobo with a Grin. In 2006, it was included on the remastered three-disc box-set compilation The Cockney Rebel – A Steve Harley Anthology and later on the Cockney Rebel Cavaliers: An Anthology 1973-1974 from 2012.

All releases of "Judy Teen", except in the UK and Ireland, came with colour picture sleeves, which featured differing photographs of the band. The German sleeve was the only one not to feature the band on the front cover, but a close-up drawing of a female face. Following its original release as a single, the song has since appeared on the majority of Steve Harley/Cockney Rebel compilations.

Promotion

In April 1974, a music video was filmed to promote the single. It featured the band performing the song, with some shots using kaleidoscope effects. On 23 May 1974, the band performed the song on the UK music show Top of the Pops. While small segments of this rare performance survive, the original, full video has been presumed lost by the BBC.

The song has consistently been a part of Harley and the band's set-list when performing live, remaining a popular inclusion of the band's concerts. Various live versions of the song have appeared on a number of official releases as a result. On 14 April 1975, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel performed the song as part of their set at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. This concert was filmed and released as a film titled Between the Lines. Later in 1984, the song was part of the band's recorded concert at the Camden Palace in London, which was filmed for a special TV broadcast. In 1985, the same concert, including the song, was released on VHS, titled Live from London.

Two versions have also appeared on the 1999 album Stripped to the Bare Bones and the 2004 live acoustic album Anytime! (A Live Set). The song was included in the band's set-list at the Isle of Wight festival in 2004, which was released on DVD in 2005, titled Live at the Isle of Wight Festival. On 24 November 2012, the band performed the song live at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. At this concert, Harley and the band, supported by an orchestra and chamber choir, performed the band's first two albums in their entirety. "Judy Teen" was one of three additional tracks on the night, and this live version appears on the CD and DVD release Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir).

Track listing

1. "Judy Teen" - 3:45
2. "Spaced Out" - 3:04

Critical reception

In the 16 March 1974 issue of New Musical Express, writer Charles Shaar Murray reviewed the "Judy Teen" single: "There are those among our number who rate this little combo as being the elephant's jock-strap, but I've found their energetic posing and watery music singularly irritating. "Judy Teen" is another mincingly affected Roxy Music cop, but it could conceivably affect others differently. Don't let my world-weary cynicism put you off, kids. Those who have lived longest have borne most, as Arlo Guthrie once said. It is vaguely interesting to point out that this toon bears exactly the same intro as The Defranco Family's "Abracadabra", which proves absolutely nothing. What a senseless life of human waste."

In the Belgian Juke Box magazine of April 1974, an article on the band described the song: "Mix the rhythm of "Sweet Pea" (the Manfred Mann version) with a little bit of "Catch a Falling Star" and you get "Judy Teen"." In a 1976 article titled "The Pick of My Pop", writer Bob Hart described the song, along with the band's "Mr. Soft" as "superb". In 1977, Hart would later write another article on Harley for The Sun newspaper. He commented: "Tune in to hits like "Mr. Soft" and "Judy Teen", and they still sound fresher than much of the music being pumped out in 1977."

Donald A. Guarisco retrospectively reviewed the song for AllMusic, where he stated "Most glam acts were either arty or purely commercial, but other groups were able to blend both styles to create singles that were as challenging as they were catchy. Steve Harley was able to straddle this balance and "Judy Teen" is a good example of this skill. The lyrics are a light-hearted tribute to "the queen of the scene" that mix gestures of praise with lyrical flights of fancy. The music matches the lyrics' sense of fun by mixing swinging mid-tempo verses that create a waltz-like beat with a more up-tempo chorus that builds to an effervescent peak. Cockney Rebel's recording of "Judy Teen" wraps the song's plentiful hooks in some unique ear candy, anchoring the song with Stuart Elliott's steady yet inventive drum work from but dressing it up with Milton Reames-James' frilly keyboard riffs and some soaring electric violin riffs from Jean-Paul Crocker. The result was catchy enough for a wide audience but clever enough to snare in ambitious listeners with its wordplay. "Judy Teen" earned the group its first Top Ten hit and set a precedent for equally ambitious future singles like "Mr. Raffles (Man, It Was Mean)" and "(I Believe) Love's a Prima Donna."

Guarisco would also mention the song in an AllMusic retrospective review of the 1987 compilation Greatest Hits. He noted "Of all the glam-rock acts to hit it big in England during the 1970s, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were second only to David Bowie himself in terms of artsy ambition. Tunes like "Judy Teen" and "Love's a Prima Donna" may have been poppy enough to sail into the English singles charts, but they also boasted unconventional instrumentation (no Cockney Rebel single ever featured an electric guitar) and poetic lyrics with lots of surreal, Bob Dylan-esque wordplay. The result was a string of intelligent yet catchy singles, all of which are compiled on this collection."

AllMusic reviewer Dave Thompson retrospectively highlighted the song as an album standout by labeling it an AMG Pick Track on the 2000 Disky UK compilation Best of the 70's. He also spoke of the song's B-Side in a review of the 1983 compilation The Collection: "A 15-track compilation produced in the last days of vinyl, "Collection" was most notable, at least among serious fans, for the inclusion of "Spaced Out," one of Steve Harley's most characteristically brilliant compositions, yet one that had spent the past nine years languishing on a B-side (of "Judy Teen") alone."

In 2006, Classic Rock magazine writer Carol Clerk reviewed The Cockney Rebel – A Steve Harley Anthology, where she noted: "Sebastian was a brave first single with its choral and orchestral dramas. Later favourites such as "Judy Teen" and "Mr Soft" were exquisitely crafted and arranged, and determinedly eccentric to boot." Chris Roberts of Uncut magazine, reviewing the same compilation, commented: "Harley's ever-changing band slid perfectly into the post-Ziggy/Roxy slipstream, all mannered English vocals, florid lyrics and sexual-theatrical rock. Tricksy hits like "Judy Teen" and "Mr Soft" (riddled with inventive sonic punctuation, also violins) displayed arch wit." Reviewer George Starostin retrospectively called the song a "catchy boppy single" on his website.

In 2013, Classic Rock magazine writer Geoff Barton reviewed the Birmingham (Live with Orchestra & Choir) album. He wrote: "The eclectic glam rock of 70s chart-busters "Judy Teen" and "Mr Soft" is reproduced with stunning accuracy."

In a 1990 interview, English musician and singer David Gedge of The Wedding Present recalled of "Judy Teen": "The first single I heard was "Judy Teen" on Top of the Pops and I thought it was brilliant. I've always liked things which are a bit extreme, and for someone to come into TOTP and look like that and make this record that was so strange, I was quite impressed by it really."

Personnel