The Overlanders (band)

Career

Originally playing folk songs, the band found success hard to come by during the beat era, and so converted to a more mainstream sound. In 1964, they had a regional hit in the Chicago area of the United States, and in Australia, with a cover of "Don't It Make You Feel Good", a song written and recorded by The Shadows in UK. That same year, their rendition of Chad Stuart's "Yesterday's Gone" received much airplay in the U.S., and became a minor hit.

Although they released twelve singles on the Pye label between 1963 and 1966, their only British hit was a cover version of The Beatles' song, "Michelle". It reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in January 1966, beating off a rival cover version by David and Jonathan which entered the charts the same week and reached No. 11, and featured arrangements by Tony Hatch.

A collection of complete recordings, titled Michelle: The Pye Anthology, was released on CD by Castle Records in 2001.

Personnel

The original trio were –

later augmented in concert by –

When Arnold left in late 1966 to pursue a solo career, he was replaced by Ian Griffiths. Widlake left in 1968, and was replaced by Mike Wedgwood (born 19 May 1950, in Derby, Derbyshire, England).

Rick Wild kept the band touring, and are currently based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.