Eden Kane: Melodies, Hollywood, and the U.K.'s Pop legacy

n this episode of Almost Live Nashville, host Tony Mantor interviews Eden Kane, a music star from the early 1960s famous for his hit single 'Well, I Ask You'.
Eden shares his fascinating journey from his early days with a guitar in England to his breakthrough in the music industry, his shift to rock 'n' roll, and eventual stardom.
He discusses his tours and collaborations with other legendary artists and his adventures in Hollywood, including his involvement with the Star Trek series. Currently, Eden is back to creating music and shares insights into his latest single, 'A Little Bit of Rock and Roll'.
The episode provides a deep dive into Eden's rich career, the evolution of his music, and his future aspirations in the industry.

Meet Eden Kane: Early Career and Rise to Fame
From Music to Hollywood: A Journey of Reinvention
The Impact of Stardom and Transition to Acting
Back to Music: New Projects and Reflections
Conclusion and Contact Information

INTRO/OUTRO: T. Wild

Mantor Music BMI

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars or behind-the-scenes staff have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. In the early 1960s, before the British music explosion fully took hold, one singer had already made his mark. Eden Kane burst onto the scene in 1961 with his single Will I Ask You, which chart straight to number one. With his smooth vocals, striking presence, and a string of chart hits, he quickly became one of the most recognizable names of the era, touring alongside some of the biggest stars in the UK and abroad. His story didn't end with early fame. In the 1970s, he moved to LA, where he not only continued to make music, but also discovered a new path in television and film. Fans of science fiction will know him from his appearance in the legendary Star Trek series. From his singles to the bright lights of Hollywood, his journey is one of reinvention, resilience, and lasting impact. He joins us today to share his remarkable journey from his early days in England to the release of his latest single. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

My pleasure, and thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Oh, it's my pleasure. I find it interesting sometimes people have varying stories on how they started in music. So how did you get started?

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Well, uh it all started with uh Lonnie Donnegan. No, with a skiffle group, I guess. Actually, the first thing was getting a guitar, which I was entranced with the guitars and Elvis and Bill Haley and those guys, as were a lot of people, you know, from that era. Once I got the guitar, you know, that was the beginning, and I learned a few chords, started to sing along with it. So uh that's basically how it began. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yeah, that's great. Now, was this a family thing, or did you just pick up the guitar and start learning music on your own?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Well, we were kind of musical in a way. You know, my mother used to play the piano a little bit. My dad, he played the banjo, actually, and the harmonica. I remember him doing that. So I guess there was some sort of family influence. But basically, when I first started, it was just my mother because my dad had passed away. So it was just my mom and my two brothers younger than me. And so we all got interested in music, not necessarily at the same time. And it was just one of those things that, oh, okay, so all right, so go ahead, knock yourself out. So we did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

So starting out, then it was just you.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah. It was mainly, mainly me to start with. I was the first one to kind of get the guitar. I was the oldest, so I got the guitar. And then, you know, it turns out that my brother Peter came next. And then Clive, uh Robin, he also sort of joined in a couple of years later. You know, all this happened school when I had the skiffle group. All these things happened very quickly. And then my brothers joined in, type of thing, and they joined in the band. And the strangest thing that happened was I had this guitar, and I didn't realize that my brother Peter, this was years later, I left the guitar. I'd gone on tour and I'd left the guitar in England, and he picked up the guitar, and he said he wrote Where Do You Go to My Lovely? on that guitar.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

On that very guitar. So there's a bit of interesting history there.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

That's awesome. I just love hearing stories like that. You never know where a song's gonna come from.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah, you know, it turned out to be, you know, better than expected, shall we say.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Now, what happened when you got out of school? Was that when you got signed to a record label?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

No, when I got out of school, I was basically I had a band and we were doing gigs around Croydon. I was living in Norbury, which is very close to Croydon. And so we we used to do youth clubs and things like that. Once we had a semblance of a band, you know, we decided to get out there and do something. So we did the youth clubs and the local halls, uh town halls, and things like that. You know, it wasn't a sophisticated deal. It was just very rough and ready. But then that led from Skiffle, it just led to rock and roll. Then we started to get amplification and uh, you know, and then it moved on from there.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah. You went to amplification, you went more to rock and roll. What were some of the transitions you went through from there? How long after that was it when you decided that, hey, I'm kind of liking this. Maybe this needs to be my priority.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yeah, that's a very interesting, you know, question. I never thought to myself, oh, I'm born to do this, you know, and therefore I'm gonna pursue this career. The word career just didn't, you know, my mother thought, well, you're gonna, you know, you've got to go to the city, get a job. And I was interested in in draftsmanship and architecture and things. So I joined a firm. So I was doing a nine-to-five game. And it was just by pure chance that I happened to enter a telecontest. You know, once the band was going and things like that, we entered the telecontest, which I happened to win. And by chance, a guy who was later to be my manager happened to be at the contest, and then he called his partner and said, I think we found someone that we want to promote. I mean, it was right time, right place type of deal.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah, that's awesome. I've talked with a few people that had that kind of story, and it's just great.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yes, no, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

It's a great experience. I mean, you're doing it because you love to do it. Yeah. You started out doing it just to compete. Right. And it's a great feeling that people love your music.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, and it was an amazing surprise, but it was a good surprise. Thought, oh, wait a minute, you know, this looks good, you know, especially when the guys eventually managed me, said, uh, you know, get back on the bus, don't talk to anybody, and we'll we'll be in touch with you. And the next thing I know, I was after the contest, uh, I was making a record. So that was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, that's a great story. Where was your first record cut?

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Well, the first record was at Pi Records because my managers happened to be AR guys at Pi.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Great label to start on.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

They already had a lot of experience in the business. And the first song I ever did was because this particular talent contest was run by Cadbury's Chocolate, and it was to promote Cadbury's drinking chocolate. And so when I won the contest, I thought, you know, I think I'm gonna write a little song about Cadbury's drinking chocolate. I'd been dabbling in writing songs a little bit, you know. And so I came up with a song called Hot Chocolate Crazy. So the first song we did was Hot Chocolate Crazy at Pi Records, but you know, it didn't work. Just uh Hot Chocolate Crazy, no, not quite. And then Richard Sarastead, no, that's not gonna work. So basically they said, we're gonna change your name. Mind you, I did do it under Eden Kane, but the managers decided to promote me as Eden Kane. They didn't think Richard Sarastead was gonna work, he wouldn't look good on a marquee or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

So um it all happened, you know, very quickly, starting in 1960, and then in 61 was actually the pivotal year when Will I Ask You came up.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, that was a great year for you because Will I Ask You actually became a big hit record for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah, yeah, it did. They found a songwriter who had written a big hit for Adam Faith called What Do You Want? And he'd written other things as well. So at the time he was doing it under the name of Johnny Wirth. So eventually he came up with uh Will I Ask You for Me. We recorded it and it eventually went to number one.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, that's great. A number one song, other hit songs out there. With all this going on, how did that impact your life?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Uh initially it was sort of unbelievable because I mean, I was still living at home in Norberry, and uh everything continued the same, more or less, until one day they said, You better listen to the radio, Rick, because they're gonna play your song. Then I heard my song on the radio. And then pretty soon after that, things did change because the next thing you know, I was doing TV shows because the song was a hit. So I was doing like Thank You Lucky Stars and Top of the Pops and all that kind of stuff. So in that way, it pretty much changed drastically. Suddenly going, wait a second, I'm in the pop star business. You know, it was a bit of a surprise, and uh I said I'm just gonna roll with it and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Absolutely. I mean, you had a number one song on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Then two or three more top ten songs.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Yeah, yeah, they they decided, well, even now, of course, as soon as you have any sort of inkling of a hit, there's another one in the can, you know, and you release that one as well. So it was very, very fast because they went back to Johnny and said, write us another one, do the follow-up. And so the follow-up was get lost. Then after get lost, which a few months later, he wrote, Forget me not. It was a short space of time when they were all one after another.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah, you had a number one, a number ten, a number three, a number seven, I mean four, back to back to back.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Yeah, because after that, I parted company with my management because they've sort of, you shall we say, broke up, they went their different ways. I guess business wasn't too good. But so I said, Okay, now what am I gonna do? By this time, the bands had come in. You know, the Beatles came in and uh the cheering the bump. And so the solo singers were kind of left behind a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yeah, unfortunately that happened. So what was next?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

In 64, I was lucky enough after I changed labels to uh a label called Fontana, and we recorded Boys Crying. And so in 1964, I had another hit, so that was great.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah, absolutely. Now, while you were doing all this, putting out records and everything, was you touring a lot?

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Oh, yes. It was the days of Larry Pond's concerts, and it was the days of Billy Fury and Marty Wilde and Cliff Richard, and you know, I'd looked up to these guys, I was a few years behind them, and I used to watch them on Oh Boy, and I was you know, pretty impressed. And then eventually when I got to meet these guys, it was amazing. So I toured with Billy a lot. Then I toured with Helen Shapiro and Sandy Shaw and you know, people of that era. So that was good. And later on, I did a lot of tours with Marty Wilde, my good buddy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yeah, that's great. Good times. Now, with everything that you had going on, many different people pulling at you from different directions. What did your day-to-day look like?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Well, but but the day-to-day was was basically keeping the thing going, you know. It was like, okay, I've got this, and now I've got to keep doing it in order to keep making it work because it's easy to get complacent.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yes, very true.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

But but I'd already had a lot of publicity, and it was a matter of, am I going to stick with it? You usually have two choices. Either you stick with it or you don't. So I stuck with it, and then I thought, okay, groups are in now. I've been lucky enough to have another song, and it was it was a hit in Australia as well. So Boys Cry. And I had done a couple of tours in Australia already with, you know, people like Del Shannon and Roy Olbison and the searches. And so that was an option for me. A guy in Australia who became my manager at that point said, Come to Australia, mate. You know, we'll make some, you know, I'll get you some work. So I went to Australia in 1967. Yeah. And stayed there for two years.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

That's a great option. What was it like making that move from the UK to Australia? Different cultures.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah, well, I got on the plane. No, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

That's okay. Better than swimming there.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

It wasn't that much of a shock and that much of a, you know, transition because I'd already done it. You know, I'd already got on a plane and flown off to Australia or whatever. I'd been traveling around the world, I'd been to New York already and stuff like that. And so that particular part of it wasn't uh it was just this is where the work is. I'm gonna go where the work is. So then it was just a matter of saying, let's do it, you know, let's get this done.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Now I think you mentioned New York. When did you make that move to the US?

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Ah, the US, because I'd already stopped by in the US on one of the tours. And I think it was uh a tour I did with the searches that we went off to Australia to do this the tours. We stayed in Hollywood on the way there, we stopped in LA. I happened to be at this hotel where all the the guys were staying, and an interview was set up with a magazine called Record World Magazine, which was similar to a billboard and cash box and magazines like that that were already in existence. So those three were the music magazines. And so a lady who came with her friend to actually interview the searchers, and so I happened to meet this young lady, and uh we became friends, and I gave her my phone number, et cetera. So this is all in 1964, I think it was, yeah. Uh, but we kind of kept in touch over the years. And so basically, it was a girl that brought me back to LA. Not to mention palm trees on the boulevards and the beaches and the magic of Hollywood, of course. You know, I was always a big movie fan, et cetera, and uh it was just great to be here. So eventually I ended up here.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Yeah, that just makes sense. Now, speaking of the glamour of Hollywood, I see that your wife has a Hollywood connection as well. I see her sister is none other than Stephanie Powers.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

When I first met her, and she was a reporter at the time, I didn't know. And of course, I didn't know for a long time because it's not something that she by the way, I'm the sister, you know. So over the years when as we kept in touch, her being in America and I was in England, that was never really brought up until we all got together again, you know, and I came back from Australia and stopped off to say hello. I just called to say I love you. Yeah. So I came back, and then of course it all came about, and the whole scene was completely changed. Movie stars, you know, Hollywood. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah, that's a tremendous story. And that's the beauty of what you do in the music industry. You just never know who you're gonna meet, and you never know what's around the next corner.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

You know, I never thought that I would ever become friends with like Dell Shannon, you know, you know, people I had I had admired, and now I got to meet uh several people like that. You know, I hate to name drop, like Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood and people like that back in the day, mainly because of Stephanie, you know, Stephanie Powell, you know, she so she moved in in those circles. And so, you know, I drifted into it, basically, and it was it it was terrific, you know, because I'd admired these people for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

I can completely relate to what you just said. A lot of the stars that I listened to growing up, all of a sudden I was getting to meet them.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

The best part about it is they were calling me, then mentioning that we need to work on a project sometime.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

That's the beauty of the music business. You just never know who's gonna call you or who you might run into that could wind up working together on a project. That's the beauty of this business and how the process can work.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

Oh, you know, no, you never know. I remember we when I went to New York, and when my managers thought, okay, we're gonna go to New York. We've got a lot of hit records here, we're gonna go to America. This is free Beatles. So I went to New York, I met Murray the K, the DJ, that took me on the DJ little route. In those days, you had to you took your stuff to the DJs. We went to the um the Apollo, I think it was, these groups that were there that were amazing, you know, so like um the Supremes and the Miracles and you know, Smokey. And I brought my head into the door of these music legends that were already huge stars all over the world. And then later on, I became friends and we're still friends.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Yeah. Now, you mentioned Hollywood. Yeah. For all the Star Trek fans, the Trekys, you were in several episodes for several years in that series.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Yeah. At at Paramount, I worked at Paramount Studios, behind the scenes mainly. I I never really said I wanted to be an actor. That's not something. But on the other hand, you know, I can say a few lines here and there. The first one was uh Next Generation with Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Friggs, and so that was amazing. I was on there for seven years as Klingons and uh and Borgs and things like that. So they blah, blah, blah. But in the meantime, while I was doing the next gen, the 60s revival tours. So the producers, I became friends with the producers, and I said, look, I gotta go to England to do a tour. They said, Don't worry, you go there, do it, do your tour, and when you come back, you'll you know, you'll still have a gig here. Oh, fantastic. So that really worked out well. So then with Star Trek, back to Star Trek. So I stayed there for seven years, and then the next series was a show called Star Trek Voyager with uh Kate Malgrew, the female captain. She was amazing. And so that was another seven years, and they gave me a few little roles there, not very famously, tiny things, except for the very last episode of Voyager, where I was a general or an admiral on the bridge of the Enterprise, and I helped to save mankind. Thank you. Yeah, I love it. Don't mention it. So that was great to end that, and so I was very happy about that.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, that's just a great, great story for sure. Now we fast forward to now you're back doing music again.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

It's basically, yeah, it is all about the music. And um, I'd written this song a few years ago, and I remember I used to do it in my act, actually, when I did the tours. And the last one we did was like just over two years ago in England. And I would do the song at the end of the show, just a little bit of this particular song, because it was up tempo and thought it was a fairly decent rock and roll song. So we did it, and people seem to like it. So I was thinking to myself, well, you know, it couldn't hurt to try to r re-record it and see see what happens. I'm still fit enough to, I think, be able to do a few shows and things like that. Now we're hoping it it gets uh it goes, it's it's climbing the heritage charts right now, and hopefully it'll get a little bit higher and uh and people have you know, people are voting for it, so that's great.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah. What's the name of the song? It's called A Little Bit of Rock and Roll. Nice. Now, where did you record the song?

SPEAKER_00 18:25

I recorded it here in Beverly Hills, actually. Studio with a friend of mine who is a very famous producer, and he goes back to the 60s, the Beach Boys and all that kind of stuff. And his name is Michael Lloyd. So Michael said, All right, Rick, you know, why don't we do this? And so I recorded it at his studio just down the road from here. That's how it started.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Yeah, and that's a great start. Now, you've done so many things singing, writing, TV series. It seems you've gone full circle, you're back to singing again. What's next? What's on the agenda?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Um, keep breathing, that's one.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah, that's a good thing to think about.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

And and basically to move on to the next thing and to try to make it, you know, try to make it work. You know, it's important to to have projects, I think, at any age. But so, you know, I just want to keep going and keep doing something useful.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Absolutely. That's a great thing to think about. So any shows in the future?

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Well, I have done a couple of things here and there, but nothing of any import, you know. I'm I'm hoping to uh come back to England at some point and do a few gigs. With that in mind, you know, it's uh something to look forward to. Hopefully it'll it'll come to pass.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah, I think that'd be a great thing. I think a lot of people would enjoy it as well. The main thing is that you stay true to the music because that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

You know, so many people get all wrapped up in the charts and how it's doing and radio and all that. Really, what it comes down to is when you hit that first chord of that first song on stage and you start feeling the energy the music brings you.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Oh, I I know. Um absolutely. It is it is all about the music. And if you think back of you were saying the chords and the and the tuner, I remember there was a great song when I first started listening to it, and it was just an instrumental song. It was called Green Onions. Amazing. I mean, it it's like that melody sticks in your mind. Then everybody who's who's written, I I know a lot of songwriters, and you know, I'm always interested in how they come about writing their songs. A very good friend of mine is uh a fellow called Marty Panzer, who wrote a lot of Barry Manlow's song. And I used to say, How did you come about this song? And it's how did you write even now, for instance? You know, he said, Well, I used to send him the lyrics, and then he'd put the music to it. I thought, wow, okay. And different people write in different ways, you know, and Lennon McCartney had their own method, you know. Sometimes they wrote together, sometimes they wrote separately, and so all the great songwriters. So to me, that is the very fascinating part of the business, you know, the the actual songwriting.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yes, talent. I know a lot of songwriters here in Nashville.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Some that have written some of the biggest songs of all time.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Oh no, I remember going to the to the Bluebird Cafe, all the songwriters would sit around in a circle. Everybody else was at these little tables. It's not a big place, but they'd all start playing their songs on acoustic guitars, and they go, Remember this one? And it was some incredible hit. And they'd all be taking turns and digging the these great songs that they wrote. That was a lot of fun. Watch that.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, yeah, it is. The Bluebird is a great place here in Nashville.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

I think it's great you're getting out there doing your music, but most important, I love it that you're enjoying yourself. Yeah. I know a lot of singers, they got caught up in the hustle and the bustle of the music business. Then after a while, in their 50s, 60s, 70s, they just started laying back and enjoying doing their music. Now they say, you know, I feel better playing in front of an intimate crowd than I did in front of 20,000 people.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Oh yeah, that's uh it's a whole different dynamic. If you're destined to be out there and singing in front of people I think I did it well and knew I could actually do it. It was a great sort of, you know, revelation. It was good to do and and then you want to keep doing it. Say, okay, let's do that again. That was great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah, I just think it's great that you're doing this. It's about having some fun, enjoying the people that are doing it with you, enjoying the music you're performing. Then ultimately sitting back, relaxing, taking it all in, and enjoying the fact that you're still doing this.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Yep, that's exactly what it's about. People talk about uh, you know, music being the story of their life, you know, type of thing, because there's a song for everything, and everybody has their favorite songs, and be it rock and roll, country rock, or classical, whatever, they're entranced by it. It captures you and it takes you into a different world.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

It does. I say that music is one of the most powerful tools there is.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

You can hear a few wrists on the intro of a song, and once you know it, it can take you back 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah, no, I I know. I was writing a little bit of rock and roll. I was trying to write a decent little rock song, and it's a kind of a story, country rock kind of song. Because I was always fascinated by story songs as well. I mean, sometimes there are other songs, of course, that are not story songs that are very catchy. Things go, you know, what does Dowa Diddy mean? You know, and what does Wab Baba Luma mean? What is, you know, but then when you listen to a song that you could completely connect with and uh and you say and also it's interpreted differently all the time. It's not like if you start out to write something, it's not always interpreted the way that you wrote it. People identify it with their own, you know, experience. For instance, like every breath you take, Sting, I think he mentioned that it wasn't about love, it was about him losing somebody. And that's the beauty of music. Everybody makes their has their own interpretation that makes them feel good about it.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yes, absolutely. Everyone has their own interpretations as long as they like it and it makes them feel good. Now, how do people find you?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Well, I'm on YouTube and I have a video that is being played. I have a fan club called Eden Kane, Edencane.com, and also the songs on Amazon, it's on all these platforms. You know, it's out there, you know, we're trying to promote it. And at the moment it's like you know, 23 on the heritage chart, and people vote every week, and I'm hoping they'll keep voting to kind of you know raise the profile a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Absolutely. I hope it goes to number one. Well, this has been great. Great conversation, great information. I've really enjoyed this. Thanks for taking the time to join us today.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Well, it's my pleasure. I and thank you for uh inviting me.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been at Tony Mantor Production. For more information, contact media at plateau music.com.