Let Me In

Sixty years ago today, Piccadilly Records released Let Me In by The Sorrows as a standalone single. The song had already appeared the previous year as the closing track on Side B of the band’s debut album, also called Take a Heart. Written by Miki Dallon. August 26, 1966 was not the first time anyone had heard it. It was the first time it stood alone.

When The Sorrows went into the studio to record the Take a Heart album, they were a traditional British R&B and beat group. Producer John Schroeder and lead guitarist Pip Whitcher began experimenting with distorted guitar and aggressive bass. The other members were not immediately convinced. They worried the abrasive sound would alienate pop listeners and radio programmers. Take a Heart reached number 21 on the UK charts. It was the first charting single from any band in Coventry. An appearance on Ready Steady Go drove it there. The heavy guitar sound the band doubted became what defined them.

Let Me In never charted as a single. Don Maughn changed his name to Don Fardon and eventually left for a solo career. The Sorrows relocated to Italy, where Take a Heart had found an audience that never faded. They recorded in Italian and played to stadium crowds. They were given a villa near Rome. The music they made during those sessions belongs to a genre that did not have a name yet. Freakbeat was coined in the 1980s by music journalists to describe the aggressive British bands of 1965 to 1967. A bridge between mid-decade mod-beat and the psychedelia that followed. The Sorrows were in the middle of it before anyone knew what to call it.