Manchester Soul Jukebox
Secret Agents
by The Olympics
011
Mirwood Records USA Another considerably rare piece of vinyl that one of the Blue Note Club DJ’s imported from the USA after bidding for it on a postal auction. Lists of records were obtained through the music press small ads, a bid price was listed and returned. If successful you got the 45 after they received your cash (a 1965 version of EBAY!). ‘Secret Agents’ was inspired by American TV spy shows (I Spy, Honey West, Get Smart) it mentioned the FBI and was one if not the original inspiration for an entire raft of songs related to spies, such as: I Spy For The FBI by Jamo Thomas, Agent Double O’ Soul from Edwin Starr and Rex Gavin And The Mighty Cravers: Sock It To Em J. B. (James Bond). Their song about the ‘Western Movies’ was a reasonable success in the USA and ‘Secret Agents’ was it’s themed follow up. The Olympics first success was a small hit Stateside with (Baby) Hully Gully but in England it was The Bounce, released as a track on the first UK Sue L.P. that brought them to prominence at Manchester’s Soul Clubs in 1965 – The Bonyard (Bolton) The Cavern/Jigsaw, The Oasis, The Jungfrau and of course The Twisted Wheel. The groups biggest hit on the cities Soul scene was ‘Baby Do The Philly Dog’ and that track is certainly in this top 500
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