A song about doomed love, written by a man who never lived to see it top the charts.

"Running Bear" is a cheerful record about two people who drown. That tension between the bouncy production and the tragic storyline is part of what makes it so fascinating, and part of why it shot to number one in March 1960 and stayed there for two weeks.

But the real story here isn't Johnny Preston. It's the man who wrote the song. Jiles Perry Richardson Junior, better known as the Big Bopper, died on February 3rd 1959 in the same plane crash that took Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. He was twenty-eight years old. "Running Bear" reached the top of the British chart sixteen months after he died. He never knew it existed as a single.

Preston was a young singer from Port Arthur, Texas, who gave the song exactly what it needed. Wide-eyed, slightly breathless, completely committed to the tragedy of Running Bear and Little White Dove, two young lovers from rival tribes who swim toward each other across a river and meet in the middle. Romantically. Fatally. The backing vocals, a cheerful chorus of whoops and uga-ugas courtesy of George Jones among others, somehow made the whole thing work rather than collapse under the weight of its own absurdity.

It's a brilliant piece of early 1960s pop storytelling, and it's the kind of record that Seven Inches of History was made for. These are Rainbow Valley's shorter bite-size episodes, each one picking up a single number one and telling the story behind it. Some of those stories are joyful. Some are heartbreaking. This one, somehow, manages to be both at once.

Find this episode and the full Rainbow Valley catalogue at

https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/rainbowvalley and follow us on Twitter at @rv_podcast.

#JohnnyPreston #RunningBear #TheBigBopper #SevenInchesOfHistory #RainbowValleyPodcast #UKNumberOne #1960s #PopHistory

"Just remember this - in this country they drive on the wrong side of the road"

In 1969, British cinema delivered one of its most enduringly cheerful acts of grand larceny. The Italian Job had Michael Caine, three Mini Coopers, a coach balanced rather inconveniently above a precipice and a plan that looked perfectly sensible provided nobody examined it too closely.

In this episode of Rainbow Valley, we go behind the scenes to explore how this much-loved crime caper found its way onto the screen. Written by Troy Kennedy Martin, directed by Peter Collinson and produced by Michael Deeley, the film followed recently released criminal Charlie Croker as he assembled an unlikely team to relieve Turin of several million pounds in gold. The authorities, the Mafia and the Italian traffic system all had other ideas.

We discover how Michael Caine came to play the immaculately dressed Croker, alongside Noël Coward as the wonderfully imperious Mr Bridger and Benny Hill as Professor Simon Peach, a computer expert whose enthusiasm for large ladies required rather more explanation than most job interviews would allow. Behind the camera, meanwhile, French stunt coordinator Rémy Julienne and his team set about turning the streets, rooftops and staircases of Turin into an obstacle course for three small British cars.

There is also the film's distinctive musical world, created by Quincy Jones and crowned by "On Days Like These" and "Getta Bloomin' Move On", better known to generations of viewers as "The Self-Preservation Society". It was a soundtrack that somehow made traffic jams, bullion robbery and municipal vandalism feel positively uplifting.

The making of The Italian Job captures Britain at the end of the 1960s: confident, stylish and slightly cheeky, yet already looking back at a decade whose optimism was beginning to wobble. It is a story of inspired casting, audacious stunt work, nervous studios and a famously unresolved ending that has kept viewers arguing ever since.

So settle into the passenger seat and join us for a journey from London to Turin, accompanied by Minis, gold bars and one very precariously parked coach.

Rainbow Valley – bringing you the stories from the decade that shook the world.

This episode, along with all previous episodes of Rainbow Valley, is available wherever you get your podcasts and at:

https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/rainbowvalley

#RainbowValleyPodcast #RainbowValley #TheSixties #1960s #HistoryPodcast #TheItalianJob #MichaelCaine #BritishCinema #ClassicFilm #MiniCooper #Turin #1969

Two number ones before breakfast. Adam Faith was just getting started.

Adam Faith was not an accident. While some artists stumble into the charts through luck or timing, Terence Nelhams-Wright from Acton arrived at number one in the spring of 1960 as the result of a series of very deliberate decisions. The name. The image. The sound. All of it carefully assembled, and all of it working perfectly.

"Poor Me" was his second consecutive number one, following "What Do You Want" which had topped the chart at the end of 1959. Back to back number ones before most people had even worked out who he was. The songwriter was Les Vandyke, pen name of Johnny Worth, who had an almost uncanny gift for matching a lyric to a performer. The narrator of "Poor Me" is convinced the universe has it in for him romantically. Faith delivered that conviction with a sincerity that made it completely believable.

The sound was John Barry's work. The pizzicato string arrangement, plucked and precise, gave the record an intimacy that set it apart from everything else on the chart. Barry would go on to write the James Bond scores and win five Academy Awards. In 1960 he was a young arranger who understood that putting Faith's voice right at the front of the mix, with minimal decoration around it, was exactly the right call.

Three weeks at number one. A career built on intelligence as much as talent. And then, just to prove he was more than a pop star, a famous television interview in which he sat opposite John Freeman and actually thought about the questions. Not many number one artists of 1960 could say the same.

Seven Inches of History is Rainbow Valley's bite-size series covering every UK number one of the 1960s. Every episode is available now at https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/rainbowvalley.

Follow us on Twitter at @rv_podcast.

#AdamFaith #PoorMe #SevenInchesOfHistory #RainbowValleyPodcast #UKNumberOne #BritishPop #1960s #PopHistory