The Invitations – What’s Wrong With Me Baby

2nd October 2022 · 1960s, 1965, Music, Soul

This Northern Soul classic came out in 19675, two years before The Invitations came to the UK to perform. It didn’t go quite as they expected.

Only when they arrived at the venue for their first gig did they discover the audience was expecting to see The Drifters.

Dodgy promoter Roy Tempest ran a regular scam on the circuit, notoriously hiring lesser-known – and cheaper – groups to play in the place of more famous acts.

He got away with it by making subtle changes to the billing, adding words like ‘The Fabulous… The Original… The Fantastic’ to the star names.

For example, The Platters turned out to be the less celebrated Steinways, The Temptations were actually The Velours, and The Isley Brothers were The Diplomats.

Not that there was anything wrong with these stand-in groups, and Tempest might have argued that his sleight-of-hand ensured them an enthusiastic audience once they realised they’d been had.

The Drifrers’ replacements were The Invitations, who had started out as The Champlains and changed to The Tip Toppers before settling on the new name.

The line-up here features Roy Jolly as lead singer, joined by Gary Grant, Bill Morris and Bobby Rivers, though Roy would leave the followin year to be replaced by Herman Colefield.