Sixties City presents a wide-ranging series of articles on all aspects of the Sixties, penned by the creator of the iconic 60s music paper  Mersey Beat

Ken Dodd


Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd was born in the Knotty Ash area of Liverpool on 8th November 1927 (and has continued to live in the same house his entire life). The son of Arthur and Sarah Dodd, he attended Knotty Ash School and was a member of the choir of St. John’s Church, Knotty Ash. He was eight years old when he had an accident on his bike which resulted in the protruding teeth which have become one of his trademarks. He recalled, "My teeth were knocked askew in a cycle accident, but discovering that I could make people laugh was like being kissed by an angel.”

When his parents bought him a ‘Punch and Judy’ set, he used to conduct shows in the garden with his sister. At the age of 14 he noticed an advertisement for a book on how to become a ventriloquist and sent off for it. His father then bought him a dummy which Ken called Charlie Brown and he next began to entertain at local orphanages.

On leaving Holt School, Ken initially began delivering coal with his brother Billy for his father’s firm. He then became a salesman.
Show business was always attractive to him and he formed an act as 'Professor Yaffle Chuckabutty, Operatic Tenor and Sausage Knotter' in which he sang comic songs, turning professional in 1954.

Ken became one of Britain’s leading comedians and still performs, having passed the age of 80, yet he has also had a recording career which was highly successful and included ‘Tears’, which topped the charts for four weeks, selling over two million copies and becoming the biggest selling British record of 1964, despite the competition from The Beatles and all the other chart groups.

In 2001 he was awarded ‘Freeman of the City of Liverpool’ and in 2002 became the first ever member of the TV Times ‘Hall of Fame,’ while in November 2003 he became the first recipient of the ‘Living Legend’ award from the British Comedy Society. Ken has also been made an Honorary Fellow of John Moores University in Liverpool and received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the Longest Joke Telling Session Ever when he told 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours at a Liverpool theatre. Ken is most proud of being voted ‘The Greatest Merseysider Ever’ by the people of Liverpool in April 2003. Runners up were John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Ken’s main record releases took place from 1960 – 1969. They were:
Ken Dodd    

1960: ‘Love Is Like A Violin’ c/w ‘The Treasure In My Heart’, on Decca F11248. It reached No8.
‘Dream That I Love You’ c/w ‘Jealous Of You’, on Decca F11293.

1961: ‘Once In Every Lifetime’ c/w ‘Just For A While’, on Decca F11355, which reached No28.

1962: ‘Pianissimo’ c/w ‘If My Heart Was A Ship’, on Decca F11 422, which reached No21.
‘Come To Me’ c/w ‘More Than Anyone I Know’, on Columbia DB4872.
‘The Key’ c/w ‘Remember I Love You’, on Columbia DB4937.

1963: ‘Still’ c/w ‘Melodie’, on Columbia DB 7094, which reached No35 in the charts.
‘Eight By Ten’ c/w ‘I’ll Love You Tenderly’, on Columbia DB 7191, which reached No22.

1964: ‘Happiness’ c/w ‘All Of My Life’, on Columbia DB 7325, which reached No31.
‘So Deep Is The Night’ c/w ‘On One’s Listening’, on Columbia DB 7398, which also reached No31.

1965: ‘Tears’ c/w ‘You And I’, on Columbia SB 7659, which topped the charts.
Ken Dodd
 1965: ‘The River’ c/w ‘Someone Like You’, on Columbia DB 7750, which reached No3 in the charts.

1966: ‘Promises’ c/w ‘Thank You For Being You’, on Columbia DB 7914, which reached No6.
‘More Than Love’ c/w ‘I Can’t Seem To Say Goodbye To You’, on Columbia DB 7976, which reached No14 in the charts.
‘It’s Love’ c/w ‘House With No Windows’, on Columbia SB 8031, which reached No36 in the charts.

1967: ‘Let Me Cry On Your Shoulder’ c/w ‘I Am Two Kinds Of Fool’, on Columbia DB 8101, which reached No11 in the charts.
‘Mine’ c/w ‘Then There Was You’, on Columbia DB 8250.
‘The Same Mistakes’ c/w ‘Call Me Mr. Sunshine’, on Columbia DB 8297.

1968: ‘Kisses From A Clown’ c/w ‘And You Were There’, on Columbia DB 8365.
‘Sunshine’ c/w ‘I Can’t Hold Back My Tears’, on Columbia DB8444.

1969: ‘With You Beside Me’ c/w ‘More Than Ever Now’, on Columbia DB 8543.
‘Tears Won’t Wash Away My Heartache’ c/w ‘How Can I Say I’m Sorry’, on Columbia DB 8600, which reached No22 in the charts.
‘Sweet Memories’ c/w ‘Don’t Say A Word’, on Columbia DB 8647.
Ken Dodd

Click on the image to hear
'The River' on 'You Tube'

Ken Dodd His chart albums included:

‘Tears Of Happiness’, on Columbia 33SX 1793, reached No6 on 25th December 1965, with a chart life of ten weeks.
The album re-entered the charts at No20 on 16th March 1966 with a chart life of two weeks.
‘Hits For Now And Always’ was issued on Columbia SX 6060 and reached No14 on 23rd July 1966 with a chart life of eleven weeks.
‘For Someone Special’, on Columbia SCX 6224, reached No40 in the charts for one week.
‘I’ll Find A Way’ was issued on Columbia SCX 6379 in 1970 and ‘Broken Hearted’ was issued on Columbia DB 8725 and reached No15 on 5th December 1970 and No38 at re-entry on 13th February 1971.
‘When Love Comes Round Again’ was issued on Columbia DB8796 and reached No9 in the charts on 10th July 1971, with a chart life of 16 weeks.
‘Just Out Of Reach (Of My Two Empty Arms) was issued on Columbia DB8947 and reached No29 in the charts on 18th November 1972, with a chart life of eleven weeks.
‘(Think Of Me) Wherever You Are’ was issued on EMI 2342 and reached No21 in the charts on 29th November 1975 with a chart life of eight weeks.
‘Hold My Hand’ was issued on Images IMGS 0002 and reached No44 in the charts on 26th December 1981 with a chart life of five weeks.

During Ken’s early career he sang comedy songs and during 1965 penned and recorded two comedy numbers ‘Where’s Me Shirt?’ and ‘Song Of the Diddymen’, the latter was issued as an EP on Music for Pleasure FP26 in 1968. There have been numerous albums and CDs of Ken’s recordings issued ranging from ‘His Greatest Hits’ on Music For Pleasure in 1988 to ‘All The Songs I Love’ on EMI Gold in January 2006 and over the years Ken has sold over 100 million records!

In 1965 he appeared on the longest-ever run at the London Palladium, a total of 42 weeks, which broke all box office records and earned him a Variety Club Award. In 1982 he was awarded an OBE by the Queen for his services to show business and charity.In 1993 he received a Lifetime Achievement award at the British Comedy Awards.

The Beatles appeared on a charity show at the Albany Theatre, Maghull, with Ken topping the bill on 15th October 1961. Ken thought their music was terrible and made a complaint to the organisers. When one of them came into his dressing room and said they’d been told that if they gave him their card he might be able to get them some bookings, he threw the card away. He was reminded of it years later when Paul McCartney mentioned that they’d worked with him before. “No, you’ve never worked with me, lad,” Ken told him. When Paul mentioned it had been at the Albany, Dodd said, “That noise wasn’t you, was it?” “Yeah, we were rubbish, weren’t we?”. “You certainly were,” said Ken, “I had you thrown off”.

Ken Dodd and Beatles Interview

Ken Dodd

Ken Dodd London Palladium		 Fame began to come for both acts at around the same time and during an appearance on the Granada programme ‘Scene At 6.30’, Ken joined The Beatles in humorous dialogue, with Gay Byrne as the referee. Here are just a few excerpts from the interview (click image on left for full interview):

BYRNE: “We have always thought that it might be a good question to put to Mr Kenneth Dodd and members of The Beatles er, to what extent they attribute their success to their hairstyles? And we’ll start by asking the question now of Mr Dodd.”
DODD: “We call it hair (he pronounces it ‘hur’) in Liverpool…you see we always have the judy with the fair (he pronounces it ‘fur’) hair. A fellow once went into a shop in Liverpool where they sell these minks and things and he said to the girl, ‘Give us one of those hairy coats.’ She said, ‘I beg your pardon, sir, what fur?’ He said, ‘For the judy, who do you think?’”

BYRNE: (to The Beatles): “Do you think he owes a lot of his success to his hairstyle, fellas?”
JOHN: “No. I don’t think it helped at all.”

GEORGE: “It might have been better if he was bald.”
DODD: “Bald!...with the teeth and the hair, all the gimmicks, you know, I think you definitely have to have a gimmick. You’ve all got gimmicks, haven’t you boys?”

BYRNE: “What about the nose?”
DODD: “The nose…(He looks at Ringo and points. Everybody laughs). “He’s a Martian! We were writing this film script for the boys…you know the boys are making this new film and we’ve been writing the script and we’ve cast Ringo in the role of King Charles on account of the thing, you know, and he goes along to Nell Gwynne and picks her jaffas.”

BYRNE: “Tell us more about this picture, we didn’t know about this.”
DODD: “Oh yes, we’ve written the thing. I’m writing the script, yes, with Knotty Ash University…he’s King Charles, John is a courtier and in this film he wears a long golden wig with all beautiful curls.”

JOHN: (camping it up): “Oh, very nice.”
DODD: “…And a blue velvet jacket and like, sort of knickerbockers, with lace round the bottom and buckled shoes with diamante clips on and he sort of walks round on the film set and there’s a policeman standing at the side, says he’ll pinch him when he comes off.”

BYRNE: “And what’s he supposed to be doing, though?”
DODD: “Well, John, he’s a peasant. He’s an evil sort” (he points to George).
Commenting on the fact that Ken appears to have mistaken George for John, Paul and John say, “He’s Tom, Harry.”

DODD: “Well, thingy. He’s an evil smelly peasant.”

BYRNE: “Why is he an evil smelly peasant?”
DODD: “Come and stand where I am…and Paul is a jester, you see, and he’s always making the King laugh. Every time he stands on his head the King laughs like anything – he wears a kilt!”

BYRNE: “Getting back to this group, then, have you no ambitions to form a group yourself?”
DODD: “Love to. With the boys? Kenny & the Cockroaches or Doddy & the Diddymen.”

BYRNE: “What about yourself, would you…”
DODD: “Or Ringo and The Layabouts.”

BYRNE: Would you not form one yourself, Ken?”
DODD: “Yes, I’d like to. Yes, because the only thing is, I’d have to change me name, you see. I’d have to have a name like Cliff or Rock, something earthy.”

PAUL: “Or Cliff Dodd…Rock Dodd.”

DODD: “Let’s invite suggestions for an earthy name for me.”
JOHN: “Sod!”

They also appeared once on ‘The Ken Dodd Show’, a BBC radio programme, although Dodd’s agent turned down the opportunity of booking the group twice as he didn’t think they’d last”.

When Ken appeared in pantomime in 1964 he commented, “When I found out I was doing pantomime in Liverpool, I knew I had to pick out at least one Beatle to do a little impersonation. I picked Ringo, got myself tight trousers and a wig and included it in the show. Fantastic reception! But then Liverpool lads have got to stick together, haven’t they?”
Ken Dodd

Sixties City: Sadly, following six weeks of hospitalisation for a chest infection, Ken Dodd died at his home in Knotty Ash, the same home in which he was born and lived all his life, on 11th March 2018. Two days before his death he had married his partner of 40 years, Anne Jones.


Mersey Beat Magazine Bill Harry attended the Liverpool College of Art with Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon and made the arrangements for Brian Epstein to visit The Cavern, where he saw The Beatles for the first time. Bill was a member of 'The Dissenters' and the founder and editor of 'Mersey Beat', the iconic weekly music newspaper that documented the early Sixties music scene in the Liverpool area and is possibly best known for being the first periodical to feature a local band called 'The Beatles'.

He has worked as a high powered publicist, doing PR for acts such as Suzi Quatro, Free, The Arrows and Hot Chocolate and has managed press campaigns for record labels such as CBS, EMI, Polydor. Bill is the critically acclaimed author of a large number of books about The Beatles and the 60s era including 'The Beatles Who's Who', 'The Best Years of the Beatles' and the Fab Four's 'Encyclopedia' series. He has appeared on 'Good Morning America' and has received a Gold Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.

Article Text Bill Harry       Original Graphics SixtiesCity      Other individual owner copyrights may apply to Photographic Images

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