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Blues, and folk rock were beginning to happen. The result was a lushly produced (for the time),
light, distinctly English pop sound with a touch more sophistication than most of the British
Invasion acts.
Unlike most of their musical peers, Chad & Jeremy were from upper middle class families and had been well-educated. They were clean-cut, polite and well-tempered and it showed in their music. They could hardly go wrong as America was just getting past the 'teen idol' era in pop music and young girls were looking for new pop stars to scream over. Chad & jeremy were signed in England to Ember Records, a small independent label that released the occasional gem but never seemed to have any UK hits. In the quest for anything British in 1964, U.S. producers & record companies searched the UK for product, and World Artists picked up U.S. rights to C&J from Ember, who had no regular U.S. outlet. It is often thought that their U.S. success was due to possible confusion with Peter & Gordon. The two duos have been frequently confused and even mislabelled Stateside. It would seem that profits made by leasing C&J to World Artists kept Ember afloat. Ember was also the home to the Dave Clark Five for their 1st single (in 1962), which was fairly unremarkable but has still sold to DC5 completists. Ember, which was started up around 1960 by a fellow named Kruger, ceased active operations years ago but lives on as TKO, "The Kruger Organisation." Any legitimate issue of C&J 1964-5 records or Ember-owned material should note(P) The Kruger Organisation.
In 1967, when Sgt. Pepper hit and the world of pop was getting more serious, Chad & Jeremy dismissed their earlier output as 'muzak,' and released their serious album, the psychedelic Of Cabbages and Kings, which didn't do too well in sales, but made the critics listen up. This was followed by the equally ambitious The Ark in 1968, although by that time, the hits had dried up, and since they had decided to call it quits, Columbia spent no money promoting the record, and it was a commercial flop, difficult to find today. Chad went into composing for musical comedies, did a stint as musical director for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and released a single with his wife Jill. He is a radio personality in a U.S. locality these days. Jeremy returned to acting, which had been an interest before the music. He has, and still does appear on TV, in movies, and on the stage. The duo did a one-off reunion album in 1983 and briefly reunited again for the British Reinvasion tour in 1986, and yet again in 2003 for the PBS special program 60s Pop Rock Reunion (see video clip). The pair began production on a new album late in 2003, due in late 2004/early 2005, released a special acoustic CD in the Philippines, and have toured in 2004. See the official C & J site's News page for the latest.
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Chad & Jeremy, dissatisfied with World Artists (who weren't paying them), switched to Columbia
Records in 1965. Their second Columbia album started
to show the influence of Bob Dylan, which was everywhere at the time. Unlike many U.K. acts with
a U.S. hit, C&J took full advantage of their overseas success. They moved from the U.K.
to California and became familiar guests on shows like Hullaballoo, The Hollywood Palace,
and they even guest-starred on Batman, The Dick Van Dyke Show,
The Patty Duke Show, and Laredo, as well as appearing on the music and talk shows
of the day. They had a string of hit singles in America, but didn't fare as well in their native land.