Saint Paul by Shane

Every New Zealand #1 single…

Shane

Shane landed a gig hosting the NZ pop show C’mon. This led to a record contract with HMV. His first single for HMV was a cover of The Monkees’ ‘Cuddly Toy’. It made little impact. His second HMV single was a cover of the obscure Terry Knight song, ‘Saint Paul’, a Beatles pastiche. It was the longest-reigning NZ chart-topper of 1969.

Saint Paul

Terry Knight was born in Michigan. He fronted Terry Knight and the Pack. Their lounge cover of Ben E. King’s ‘I (Who Have Nothing)’ made the top 50.

Knight travelled to the UK in 1968, hoping for a contract with Apple Records. He attended recording sessions for The White Album, where he witnessed the band members sparring and Ringo Starr temporarily leaving the group. He wrote ‘Saint Paul’ about his fractured relationship with Paul, and his belief that the Beatles would soon break up.

It was only moderately successful, partly because of a cease-and-desist letter from The Beatles, due to the extended use of ‘Hey Jude’ (adapted here as “Hey Paul”) in the outro. This was resolved by giving Maclen Music (the U.S. division of Northern Songs) a writing credit. The song contributed to the Paul Is Dead theory in the late 1960s.

With a headful of ideas but only four tracks at his disposal, producer Peter Dawkins quickly ran out of tracks and was forced to have Shane record his vocal at the far end of the studio while squeezing as many HMV staff members into the other end of the studio as he could, as backing singers.

Grant Gillanders, Audioculture

My verdict

This Beatles pastiche is fun… once. But mostly it will remind you of much better Beatles songs, that you’ll want to listen to instead. Even by the standards of 1960s psychedelia, “I looked into the sky / Everything was high / Higher than it seemed to be to me” is a dopey opening line.

My problems are mostly with the songwriting – this is a well-performed version of a gimmicky song. Shane’s vocal is tender and pliable, while the arrangement is busy and fun.

The Aftermath

Shane’s musical career afterwards was beset by difficulties:

• his fiancée was killed in a car crash
• his record company tried to mold him into a ballad singer
• he formed a new band, Killa-Hz. He broke his pelvis when he fell off the stage during a performance.

Shane continues to perform, and also ran a tiling business.

Meanwhile, Terry Knight was murdered by his daughter’s meth-addicted boyfriend in 2004.

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