The Foote Files: Ready Steady Go! With Marvin Gaye
(CBS 11) - Happy New Year to you and your family! 2020 represents our 9th year of The Foote Files and we are honored to be here!
Ready Steady Go! was the British version of ABC's American Bandstand and Shindig and NBC's Hullabaloo: a pop/rock music/dance show featuring the hottest and most popular talent in the world.
It aired on the ITV Network from August 9, 1963 to December 23, 1966. It was hosted by Elkan Allan (who was British presenter or "disc jockey") and Cathy McGown, another British presenter.
Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five acquired the rights to the show in the 1980s, including the surviving recordings. In 2018, BMG Rights Management acquired the ancillary rights to the show.
In today's video, we have Marvin Gaye singing "Can I Get A Witness," written by Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland.
It was Gaye's third song on Billboard from 1963, released five months after "Pride And Joy" was in June 1963. In the video, you can see Gaye just walking around the audience (and he is lip-syncing the song, not actually singing it in the studio live). In the early years, record companies wanted to make sure that their musicians sounded exactly like the record release if they appeared on live television.
Allan passed away on June 25, 2006.
McCown continued to work in British journalism and broadcasting, including being a board member of London's Capital Radio and on BBC's Newsroom South East, and continues to work in the British media.
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