Oh Boy! was the first teenage all-music show on British TV airing from June 1958 until May, 1959. It was produced by
Jack Good for ITV.
Within the first 6 weeks, the show became a smash hit and the number of viewers had doubled. Many
top British vocalists who went on to achieve international fame made their early TV appearances on the show. Sir Cliff Richard,
Dame Shirley Bassey, John Barry, Marty Wilde and Billy Fury are some examples. The cast listings read like a who's who
of UK 'Hit Paraders' of the time and were household names - The Dallas Boys; Ronnie Carroll; The Vernons Girls; Emile Ford;
The King Brothers; Lonnie Donegan; Vince Eager; Dickie Valentine and Alma Cogan. The show was even blessed with appearances
by non British acts: The Inkspots; Conway Twitty and Brenda Lee from the USA and the Marino Marini Quartet from Italy all
appearing to promote their latest recordings.
The show was transmitted on Saturday evenings and was in direct competition
to the BBC's 6.5 Special. Each week it featured resident artists plus a selection of special guests. The residents included
Cliff Richard and the The Vernons Girls. The last of the original show went on air on 30th May 1959.
Maggie Stredder Emile Ford Michael Holliday Vince Taylor King Brothers The Mudlarks Vince Taylor and His Playboys Tommy
Steele Vince Eager Billy Fury
Cuddley Dudley Peter Elliott Jackie Dennis
a note on the Oh Boy recording:
Cliff Richard and Peter Elliott were not at the recording
studios along with everyone else on that evening of October 19th - they both had previous engagements. Their contributions
to the LP were recorded later and added in.
In Cliff's case, he returned to Studio 2 at the Abbey Road
Studios on Tuesday October 21st and between 6-10pm that evening he recorded his 6 tracks - all of which were sung by Cliff
in various episodes of the TV show.
Oh Boy! episode #30 4th April 1959 (part 2of3)
1. I Like Love (Tony Sheridan and his Wreckers)
2. Don't Look Now (The Vernons Girls)
3. Red Planet Rock
(Don Lang - with Red Price on sax solo)
![Oh Boy! [click for larger image]](/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=https://jamsandwiches.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ohboylpfront.jpg&target=tlx_new)
![Oh Boy! back cover [click for larger image]](/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=https://jamsandwiches.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/ohboylpback.jpg&target=tlx_new)