The Searchers were without a record contract for one year but fortunately Liberty Europe was

founded and they were looking for artist to sign. The first single came out in November 1968:

Umbrella Man b/w Over The Weekend (UK - Liberty LBF-15159,  France F-Liberty LIF –

528 F and USA World Pacific 77908 <1969>). Both songs were produced by Kenny Young –

also the writer of the A-Side which was sung by Mike Pender. The B-Side was written by

Frank Allen who also sings it. For the first time the group didn't play their instruments, they

just sang while studio musicians played. (See Frank Allen’s comment at the end of the page.)

On the left you can see the German cover, Liberty 15159 listing Pussy Willow Dream as  B-Side. But actually the song is the same as the on the UK-version: Over The Weekend. Liberty in Munich made two mistakes: they used the title of an upcoming single instead of the correct title and they failed again by writing DREAM instead of DRAGON. Liberty Sweden printed Kinky Kathy Abernathy on the label and the cover - but the song was Over The Weekend. Well done, Liberty!

On the left: advertisement for the New Musical Express, Melody Maker and Disc. But it didn’t help, there was hardly no airplay and it didn’t sale – the single sank without a trace although the sound was up to date – a pop song like many of that time.   The Searchers themselves weren’t too proud of their new single they didn’t  played it live very often.   Below you can see a copy of the French single.

 

The single didn’t chart in any country . But they tried it again on Liberty – see next chapter.

 

Why didn’t the Searchers play their instruments on the Liberty recordings. Here’s Frank

Allen’s answer (thanks to Wendy Burton)

 

We discussed it with the producer, Kenny Young, and he thought it might give a better 'feel'

and be more efficient.  He could pre-arrange things the way he envisaged them and it would

take less time as there wouldn`t be the need to rehearse the routines for days and days.  In

the end it wasn`t really a good idea.

Frank