Harold "Lally" Stott (born ca.1950 Liverpool England died 1977 in a tragic road accident) was a songwriter who scored a hit with the song "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep".
Lally's first pop band was called Denny Seyton and the Sabres. They were one of the more promising Liverpool-based bands that never made it big, despite getting as far as charting a single, "The Way You Look Tonight," in 1964. Pop outfit The Four Just Men was Lally’s next rock group. They recorded and worked in Stockport and Manchester England. They recorded two singles in the 1960s "Things Will Never Be Same"/"That's My Baby" (as the Four Just Men) and "There's Not One Thing"/"Don't Come Any Closer" (as Just Four Men). The group changed name and became the underrated but significant psychedelic band “Wimple Winch”. After the band's decline Lally went off to Europe where he started a solo career.
Lally wrote "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" which became a hit for the Scottish band Middle of the Road in 1971. Stott's own version was a big hit in Italy, Holland and it went to #1 in June 1971 Australia beating the rival version by Middle of the Road. It was a massive selling single in Sydney NSW.
After Middle of the Road scored a hit with their version Lally went into writing and producing for them. Lally wrote their follow up “Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum” as well as a host of other songs. He also produced some of their work.
From Middle of the Road blog:
Written by Lally Stott, this song was a hit in Italy and Australia for the composer, as well as on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it charted, but failed to achieve significant success, as the cover by Mac and Katie Kissoon became more popular.
Stott's record company were reluctant to release it overseas, so he offered it to Scottish folk-pop group Middle Of The Road, who were working in Italy at the time. The song became a massive hit in Europe initially, and then repeated this feat in the UK as returning holidaymakers searched out a copy.
However, it nearly flopped in the UK, as Mac and Katie Kissoon released their version just before them, but aided by incessant radio airplay, it became a huge hit. It reached No.1 in the UK for five weeks in June 1971.
The Kissoon version failed to chart in the UK, but reached No.20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Lally’s flip-side to "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" was “Henry James” which scored airplay in some parts of Oz. He had a couple of follow up singles in Oz too, one of which was “Jackaranda” which was played incessantly by the radio stations at Grafton when I was about to leave the district and move to the town of Cessnock.
Lally’s version of "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" has been released on CD overseas in Holland and Italy but always the longer album mix which slowly fades in.
For download is the 7” mix of "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" which has never been on CD anywhere in the world, as far as I know.
http://rapidshare.com/files/236515783/Lally_Stott_-_Chirpy_Chirpy_Cheep_Cheep.mp3
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