W.O.C.K On Vinyl: The Hollies - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother E.P (1970)

Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.

Some 55 years ago, The Hollies recorded 'He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother' in Studio Two at Abbey Roads Studios, London.

… On arriving The Hollies were greeted by a session pianist - Reg Dwight, hired for just £12, who had just released his debut album under the name of Elton John. Drummer, Bobby Elliott, recounts setting up his kit next to Elton with Allan Clarke sitting on a stool nearby and the band nailing the track in the first or second take.

"He Ain’t Heavy…" became one of The Hollies’ most iconic and heartfelt tracks.
The song was originally written by Bobby Scott and Bob Russell and first recorded by Kelly Gordon.
Released in September of 1969, the song climbed to No. 3 in the UK charts and reached No. 7 in the US, resonating deeply with listeners on both sides of the Atlantic.

This was the second single The Hollies released after Graham Nash left the group to form Crosby, Stills, and Nash; the first was "Sorry Suzanne." Nash was replaced by Terry Sylvester.

The title came from the motto for Boys Town, a community formed in 1917 by a Catholic priest named Father Edward Flanagan. Located in Omaha, Nebraska, it was a place where troubled or homeless boys could come for help. In 1941, Father Flanagan was looking at a magazine called The Messenger when he came across a drawing of a boy carrying a younger boy on his back, with the caption, "He ain't heavy Mr., he's my brother." Father Flanagan thought the image and phrase captured the spirit of Boys Town, so he got permission and commissioned a statue of the drawing with the inscription, "He ain't heavy Father, he's my brother." The statue and phrase became the logo for Boys Town.

Boys Town Statue

In the Guardian newspaper of February 24, 2006, Hollies guitarist Tony Hicks said: "In the 1960s when we were short of songs, I used to root around publishers in Denmark Street. One afternoon, I'd been there for ages and wanted to get going, but this bloke said: 'Well there's one more song. It's probably not for you.' He played me the demo by the writers [Bobby Scott and Bob Russell]. It sounded like a 45rpm record played at 33rpm, the singer was slurring, like he was drunk. But it had something about it. There were frowns when I took it to the band but we speeded it up and added an orchestra. The only things left recognizable were the lyrics. There'd been this old film called Boys Town about a children's home in America, and the statue outside showed a child being carried aloft and the motto He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. Bob Russell had been dying of cancer while writing. We never got, or asked for, royalties.

 Joe Cocker was offered this song before The Hollies after it had been played first to his producer Denny Cordell. The General Professional Manager for Cyril Shane Music Ltd & Pedro Music Ltd in England at the time explains: "Tony Hicks was in our office looking for songs for the Hollies (our office was not on Denmark Street, it was in Baker Street). Denny called from New York to say 'Joe didn't see the song.' As Tony said in The Guardian, he liked the song and asked for an exclusive the following day. The version he heard was Kelly Gordon, who apart from being a successful producer, also wrote a little song entitled 'That's Life.' His version was slow and soulful which is why I had thought of Joe Cocker to record it. Bobby Russell wrote this song while dying of cancer in Los Angeles.

L-R Terry Sylvester, Tony Hicks, Allan Clarke and 
drummer Bobby Elliott - London, October 1969

We picked up the British rights to 'He Ain't Heavy' from an American publisher Larry Shayne. The song was on a Kelly Gordon album called 'Defunked'. The version was slow and soulful and had Joe Cocker written all over it. Joe turned it down, to his producer's surprise. We had a hit with The Hollies previously called 'I'm Alive,' so we had a relationship with them. Also, we had a great working relationship with the Air London production team, of which their producer Ron Richards was a partner. We never considered playing the song for The Hollies when Tony Hicks was in the office. We were playing songs like 'Sorry Suzanne.' It was only at the end of the meeting I suggested playing Tony this wonderful song, not because it was for them, but just to share the song. We were surprised when he said 'That's the one.'" [extracts from songfacts.com & Wikipedia]

This month's WOCK post comes from a recent find I made at my local flee market - an almost perfect copy of the Hollies 1970 E.P.   The nice thing about this EP is that it features two of my favourite Hollies hit singles:  "Sorry Suzanne" and of course "He Ain't Heavy....He's My Brother". 

Because this EP is now 55 years old, and I have never seen a copy before, I consider it to be Obscure and extremely rare. But the C box can also be ticked this month, not because it's Crazy but because Joe Cocker missed out adding the song to his long list of hits and Kelly Gordon wrote the song while dying from Cancer in 1969 (so sad).   This post consists of FLACs and full artwork with label scans.

Track Listing

A1 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

A2 Mad Professor Blyth

B1 Sorry Suzanne

B2 I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top

The Hollies were:

Allan Clarke - Vocals

Tony Hicks - Guitar, Backing Vocals

Terry Sylvester - Guitar, Vocals

Bernie Calvert - Bass

Bobby Elliot - Drums

The Hollies EP (71Mb)