THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD - DAY COSTELLO

The hit song "The long And Winding Road" has an interesting history in Australia....to explain more I have cut and edited some information from an interview with former pop singer Elvis Costello:

...Declan MacManus took to the stage in 1977, an angry young man sporting Buddy Holly glasses and a strange name: Elvis Costello. But he wasn't the first MacManus to use Costello as his stage name - that was his dad, Ross, a jazz trumpeter and pop vocalist since the early Fifties...Elvis with pride said, "Dad had a minor hit on “The Long and Winding Road”, under the name Day Costello. That was the first time the Costello name - it's my great-grandmother's name - emerged from our family”. "My dad, Ross McManus, released a cover version of “The Long and Winding Road” in 1970 under the name of Day Costello". "You know those “Top Hits” budget albums which were prevalent in the 1960s done by no-name artists, well, Ross sang on budget records for an Australian, Allan Crawford, and he wanted him to cover “The Long and Winding Road”. Allan had Danny Street sing it for another budget record for Crossbow but Allan didn’t like Dan’s vocals, and when Allan realised that the Beatles weren’t going to put it out as a single, he said that Ross should put it out in its own right. He got hold of the Danny Street backing track, but it had been recorded at a very slow pace, even slower than the McCartney version, and when Ross’s version was reviewed that was one of the things held against it. It wasn’t a big hit…except in Australia and Italy"…

The release of “The Long and Winding Road” in Australia was on Fable Records and because of the big 1970 radio ban it got saturation airplay. Using a name that nobody recognised was a smart move as many people at the time thought Day Costello was the name of an Aussie pop group...the Italian release of this song can be found for download around the world if you search on Google for "La Lunga Strada Che". The Italian version has been on C.D.

Here for download is the Australian No.1 “The Long and Winding Road” which has not been on C.D.

http://rapidshare.com/files/223075924/day_costello_-_long_and_winding_road__tom_mix_.mp3