The Juke Box Jury Hot Seat

A pretty girl singer sat smiling as her record was played. Feet owned by teenage fans tapped peppily throughout the television studio as the cheery, perky performance of Norman jingled on. But there was a touch of tragedy to come . . .

For the pretty little girl heard what THEY had to say about her performance. And THEY didn’t like the record, the voice, the production, the sound. THEY were pushing their opinions across to many millions of viewers.

It was, said one looker-on, “like a public execution.”

That pretty little girl was Carol Deene, then only sixteen. Her record was being played on Juke Box Jury – and Carol had been asked along to occupy the “Hot Seat” – The seat in that little box behind the panel where only the viewers could see her.

It’s make or break this sort of appearance.

Says Carol (pictured): “They slayed me. I’d been so happy at first. I thought it would help me to become a star.  Then THEY started – Shirley Bassey, her husband Kenneth Hume, Susan Castle and Ross Parker. Mr Parker even put a clothes peg on his nose after the record was played”.

“I felt terrible. I tried to keep smiling. I can just about remember going out afterwards to walk past the panel, and I think David Jacobs kissed me and said he didn’t think the record was so bad.”

“Then I went off. Out of sight. And I cried. My manager was there and tried to comfort me. They’d been so merciless I just felt there wasn’t any point in going on singing. I’d watched the programme before and liked it. I never dreamed a panel would turn on anybody so much. For days afterwards, I would suddenly remember . . . and break down again.”

Carol was perhaps the harshest-treated of all the “Hot Seat” stars. Afterwards, Shirley Bassey and her husband Ken said they felt it was unfair that Carol had been actually there in the studio. Maybe. But it was an experience that Carol will never forget.

But other stars lived to thank the jurists. They went on to big triumphs out of the blue simply because the jurists praised a disc.

Like American “twangy guitar” star Duane Eddy (pictured). He says: “I had a hit record going for me in the States. It was called Yep. But, the British Juke Box Jury show put on Peter Gunn Theme, the flip-side. Now I wanna make you understand, I was worried sick about the way things were going in Britain for me. I needed a big hit”.

“The panel praised my record. I wasn’t there – but I heard all their views back home in the States.  Within about a week, the fans had pushed the Peter Gunn disc into the charts. Boy, I was so happy. I figured I ought to buy a great big present for all the members of the jury.”

Frank Ifield had many discs in Britain before I Remember You sent him on the way to top stardom. Everybody liked him, but his records didn’t seem to be making much progress. Then, that yodelling bit was heard by the nation via Juke Box Jury.

The panellists praised Frank as a really nice guy, so highly that sales suddenly started to rocket upwards. And a hugely successful career was underway.

But says Frank (pictured): ” I ‘d given myself a limited time to make the grade in Britain. If things weren’t going well, I’d just go back to Australia. And my time was on the way to being eaten up”.

“But when that panel were so gosh-darned nice – well, I got a tremendous uplift. It sounded as if they were all fully paid-up members of my Fan Club As you know, things went so well after I Remember You that it was months and months before I could even get back to Australia.”

Brian Poole and the Tremeloes had mixed feelings about Juke Box Jury panellists. When they came out with I Can Dance even David Jacobs commented, “Do you think people will fork out money for a record which is the same as the one they bought last time?”

Brian and the boys sat watching from home, “feeling like the bottom had dropped out of our world”. The disc was a comparative flop, so it took great courage for Brian to accept a “Hot Seat” offer when his next disc was released.

He said: “I think I’d have fainted or something if they’d had a go at me all over again”.

But they were nice about Candy Man. which immediately became a big hit. And Brian had taken along huge sticks of rock to hand out as presents for each member of the Jury. He said: “Of course, I’m not really a mug. Fact is that sticks of rock are just fine for bashing people over the head if they say things you don’t like”.

Up and downs. Praise or blame. Figures suggest the panellists are right in their decisions more often than not. But figures don’t give a clue to the heart-thumping suffered by those whose records are included – especially those sitting in the “Hot Seat”.

But no Jury ever had more power than The Beatles when they took over all seats on the show. If they LIKED then things happened immediately on disc sales. If they DISLIKED, then the slump set in.

So Elvis Presley slipped with his Kiss Me Quick, but fellow Liverpudlians The Merseybeats and The Swinging Blue Jeans, who’d merely hovered hopefully before, suddenly found themselves with hits. Just because those Beatles put in a good word for them.

First published in Fabulous, 21 March 1964.