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Handbags and Gladrags: The Complete History
Introduction
Just a quick word to say that all the links about the people mentioned in this article, and to any of their music that you might like to buy of theirs, are all at the bottom of the page. What follows is all written by Robert Ellis, and I don’t think it could have been done better. Not even by me.
So in Mr. Ellis’ very own words...
The theme tune for The Office is a cover of the song Handbags & Gladrags, written in the 1960s by Mike D’Abo. Here is a short essay about the song and its history.
Mike D’Abo
Mike D’Abo was educated in Harrow, a suburban area of North-London. It was while at school that Mike formed a pop group called A Band of Angels. Initially an amateur outfit playing pop covers at dances and parties, they were good enough to secure a record contract in 1964 and turned professional.
The Angels made and released a number of recordings, although they did not achieve notable chart success (I must confess, I have no recollection of the group at all). Two of their tracks, Hide ‘n Seek and (Accept my) Invitation were strong enough to get included in various sixties compilation albums. Mike D’Abo himself played piano and guitar and, of course, provided the lead vocals. His instrumental skill was such that he was allowed to play on the studio recordings of their songs, whereas the other band members were replaced by session men.
With or without chart hits, Mike D’Abo established enough of a reputation so that in mid 1966 he was chosen to replace Paul Jones as lead singer of top group Manfred Mann. The Manfreds had a number of big hits (including 54321 and Do Wah Diddy) behind them and it was a massive coup to be chosen to front them. In fact, Mike did not disappoint and with his vocals the Manfreds went on to their greatest period of success.
Hits for Manfred Mann in the Mike D’Abo era included Just Like a Woman, Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James, Ha Ha said the Clown, Up The Junction, My Name is Jack and Fox on the Run. Their biggest hit, however, was the massive 1968 No. 1, The Mighty Quinn, written by Bob Dylan. On Top of the Pops, Mike D’Abo appeared, sat in some kind of weird inflatable arm-chair to perform the song.
The eponymous Manfred Mann (the keyboard player) decided to split his group in 1969, apparently in disillusionment at their last single Ragamuffin Man – a strange decision as it was a hit and one of their best songs (there was even a primitive kind of video to go with it!). In one respect Manfred may have made the right decision, as Manfred Mann had a very ‘sixties’ sound and it’s unlikely they would have easily made the transition to the sophistication of the 70s. Manfred himself popped up again in the 70s with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and had a couple of decent hits – one of which (Davey’s On The Road Again) was very similar in content to the hated Ragamuffin Man!
There’s a common assumption in the media, that when an artist is no longer appearing in the charts, that they’re sitting in a bedsit somewhere shooting smack up their arm. Nothing could have been further from the truth where Mike D’Abo was concerned. Although he has never again had a chart hit, he has had an unbroken career as a professional musician and songwriter. He has recorded solo albums, written film scores (including There’s A Girl In My Soup) and advertising jingles (e.g. Cadbury’s Finger of Fudge) and appeared on the West End stage.
In the 1980s, as the sixties nostalgia boom got underway, Mike D’Abo returned to live performance with various sixties shows, reincarnations of the Manfreds and his own band The Mighty Quintet.
From 1991 to 1996 Mike worked as a DJ presenting BBC Radio Bristol’s Late Night West. Although this has a rather Alan Partridge feel to it, the show actually had a large and devoted following. Mike was particularly renowned for his caring and supportive treatment of the many troubled souls who phoned into the show – as unlike Partridge as one can imagine! The show spawned a self-help group which operates to this day.
Handbags and Gladrags
While I haven’t found a definite date for the writing of this song, the first version to be released was that by Chris Farlowe (see below) in 1967, so one presumes it was written around this time. Mike D’Abo’s own version appeared on his solo album D’Abo, released in 1970. Mike’s interpretation of his song is quite unlike any of the covers that have followed. It is a gentle ballad with piano, acoustic guitar and flute – but no percussion of any kind. It is in many ways a classic album track, and not a song that you’d quickly identify as a potential timeless hit. For any songwriter, the ‘holy-grail’ is to have a song used in films or TV. Just imagine, Mike D’Abo gets a royalty every time an episode of The Office is shown anywhere in the world, and every time a tape or DVD is sold. That’s good business, and richly deserved for a song of outstanding durability and adaptability.
The various covers of Handbags have tended to vary the lyrics slightly. The lyrics of the Mike D’Abo original are as follows:Ever seen a blind man cross the road,
Trying to make the other side.
Ever seen a young girl growing old,
Trying to make herself a bride.
And what becomes of you my love,
When they have finally stripped you of,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy.Once I was a young man,
And all I thought I had to do was smile.
So listen all you young girls,
Who have bought everything that’s in style.
‘Cos once you think you're in you're out,
For you don't mean a thing without,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy.Sing a song of six-pence for your sake,
And take a bottle full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds in a cake,
And bake ‘em all in a pie.
They told me you missed school today,
So I suggest you just throw away,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy.And what becomes of you my love,
When they have finally stripped you of,
The handbags and the gladrags,
That your Grandad had to sweat so you could buy.
As to the meaning of the song, it’s anybody’s guess. One reading of the lyric is as a commentary on the futility of fashion and the irrelevance of outward appearances. In this sense it is well chosen as the theme for The Office, as David Brent is a man concerned, above all, with image, status and perception.
The Cover Versions
Chris Farlowe – 1967
Whether this is really a cover version is a moot point. It was, after all, the first version of the song to be released. Chris Farlowe had a No. 1 hit in 1966 with Out Of Time, and Handbags & Gladrags was one of a number of singles he released subsequently in search of another chart success.
Handbags and Gladrags reached No. 33 in the UK charts in 1967. To put this in perspective, you needed a lot more sales to get in the charts in the 60s than you would today, so getting in the Top 40 was no mean feat. Having said that, Handbags and Gladrags received little air-play and was not a well-known song.
In retrospect, the Farlowe version is not too bad. The vocal is a little over-wrought and the production somewhat dated, but there’s a nice soulful harmonica sound to compensate.
Although Chris Farlowe never had another big hit, he continues to tour to this day.[This version can be heard on the “Closed for Business” documentary on the Specials DVD]
Double
Feature – 1967
Double Feature consisted of Birmingham vocal duo Brian Lake and Billy Hall. In late 1967 they released a quite excellent version of Handbags on the Deram label. To the familiar piano signature, their version added some
powerful orchestration and effective vocal harmonies on the chorus. In my opinion this cover is very much better than the Chris Farlowe version.Unfortunately, it was released in December 1967, just two months after Farlowe's cover had charted and it sank without trace!. I'm grateful to Jim Wall for alerting me to this rare release. You'll have to work hard to find a copy, but it's definitely worthwhile.
The Love Affair – 1968
The Love Affair were a UK pop band formed in 1966 who hit the big time with a No. 1 single Everlasting Love in early 1968. A couple more Top 10 hits followed and in late 1968 they released an album called The Everlasting Love Affair (albums often had corny, derivative titles like this at the time). The problem was that the group had not written or played on their hit singles, and the album consisted only of tawdry cover versions of recent hits. Unsurprisingly, it bombed!
The album contained a version of Handbags and Gladrags which is the certainly the worst that I’ve heard. Poorly produced and with a dated keyboard sound, it makes nothing of the song’s subtle melodies or emotional impact.
The Love Affair tailed off into obscurity in the 70s. The name has lived on in various live acts and low quality re-recordings, often featuring none of the original line up!
Rod Stewart - 1970
Obviously there is little that needs to be said about Rod Stewart. He had been well known in the 1960s as lead singer with Long John Baldry’s band, and then the Jeff Beck Group. He was recruited to front The Faces, a rock band formed from the split of sixties group The Small Faces.
In 1970, Stewart (and/or The Faces) released an album called An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down. This included a version of Handbags & Gladrags, on which Mike D’Abo himself provided the arrangement and played piano.
In many ways, the Rod Stewart version of Handbags and Gladrags is the first in which we can recognise the elements of arrangement and production familiar today. An excellent ‘live’ version was included on the 1993 album Unplugged…And Seated. More recently Handbags and Gladrags was used as the title track of a Rod Stewart compilation album released in 1995.
It was the Rod Stewart version of Handbags and Gladrags that Ricky Gervais was familiar with, and which convinced him to choose it as the theme tune.
Chase – 1971 (approx.)
(Bill Chase)
Chase were a jazz-rock group formed by trumpet player Bill Chase. Bill Chase was a classically trained brass player who rose to prominence in the 1960s, playing with a number of leading jazz bands in the USA. In 1971 his profile was sufficiently high that he was able to recruit his own band, which was immediately in great demand and winning awards for their music.
Sometime between 1971 and 1974, Chase recorded a version of Handbags & Gladrags which is quite unlike any other. The familiar melodies are completely submerged in a driving trumpet performance which is much better than you might think My first impression (not being a jazz fan) was that it was awful, but it has grown on me as time has gone on. It’s definitely worth a listen.
Unfortunately, in 1974, Bill Chase and his band were killed en route to a performance, when a plane they had chartered crashed in bad weather.
Mary
Coughlan – 1992
Although not so well known in the UK, in her native Eire Mary Coughlan is huge (not literally, obviously). She was born in 1956 and survived alcoholism, suicide attempts and mental hospital before getting her big break on a talent contest in 1984.
As well has having had a number of big selling albums in southern Ireland, Mary is particularly renowned for the quality of her live shows. In 1992 she released an album called Sentimental Killers which included a very interesting cover of Handbags & Gladrags. (The track also featured on her 1994 compilation Love Me Or Leave Me.)
I was curious as to how Handbags would work for a female singer, it being so much a song sung by a man to a woman. Mary Coughlan deals with this by varying the lyric and the order of verses. Thus her opening lines are:
“Once I was a young girl and I thought,
all I had to do was smile.
For me you’re still a young child,
who wants everything in style.”Mary Coughlan’s style is difficult to define but it has clear jazz and folk influences. Her version of Handbags is well produced and grows on you the more you hear it.
Stereophonics 2001
The Stereophonics are a Britpop band (I think - correct me if I’m wrong) who hail from Cwmaman in South Wales. They had played together for a while under the name The Tragic Love Company before renaming themselves and getting a record deal in 1996.
Handbags & Gladrags was the ‘Phonics fifteenth single, released in November 2001. At first sight it appears a strange choice of track for a group with a pretty straightforward rock profile. In fact, it proved a shrewd move. Helped no doubt by the popularity of The Office, Handbags and Gladrags has been the group’s most successful single (jointly, with The Bartender And The Thief) reaching No. 3 in the UK charts.
Their version of Handbags sticks closely to the Rod Stewart arrangement and doesn’t really take us anywhere new. It is, however, competently produced and makes good listening.
Big
George
An interview with Big George Webley appears elsewhere on this site (here) and there’s no need to duplicate the information therein. Suffice it to say that the big man has done a great job. The instrumental version used with the opening titles sounds unremarkable enough at first hearing that one hardly notices it and, I guess, few people would have recognised the tune. The vocal take with the closing credits, however, makes full use of the pathos of Handbags And Gladrags – a perfect complement to the banality and sheer sadness of the comedy/drama. I particularly like the little instrumental flourish at the end that accompanies the closing scene after the credits. A masterpiece.
[You can now download mp3s of the theme song! (2.3mb) and an alternative studio version (5.6mb) of the song, which are site exclusives if I do say so myself-ED]
The singer of this version is the one and only Fin, who has a website dedicated to him here.
‘David Brent’ – 2001
If you don’t know this version of Handbags, then where have you been?? In Series One, Episode 4, having tortured poor Rowan (the trainer) with his guitar, Brent plays us out over the closing credits with a version of Handbags which is just as awful as you would want it to be. With a ghastly mid-Atlantic drawl he makes an absolute meal of the chorus. Totally OTT and totally indispensable!
Diffusion Online
Not strictly a cover version, but not to be missed. Diffusion have mixed the Stereophonics’ cover with dialogue from Series 1 and added ‘some drum and bass shit’ to make a hilarious confection. [Lots of fantastic remixes throughout the site.]
In Conclusion
That’s all I have been able to discover about Handbags & Gladrags, and probably far more than you wanted to know. If anyone knows the story better than me (which wouldn’t be difficult) and can correct any points, please let me know,
Robert Ellis, rellis57@hotmail.com