Current Traffic

Sunday 10 April 2011

Post 355 - Jigsaw - A Rose Has To Die / Music Man


Here to download is Jigsaw's 1974 single for Fable Records "A Rose Has To Die" b/w "Music Man" (FB-218). U.K. band The Dooleys also had a version in 1978 and there's yet another version by The Ryders, a group from the Netherlands. Ben Findon wrote the song, Ben also wrote Billy Ocean's debut single "Love Really Hurts Without You." The single was produced by Johnny Chester at Armstrong Studios Melbourne.

1 comment:

garethofoz said...

Hi Ozzie
This is a fun song, but also a bit of a mystery. It's an English song (or at least it was written by an Englishman) but I can't find UK version before the Jigsaw version. The Ryders' take is from'75; the Dooleys' from '78. There is a South African version (by Dennis East, I think) from '74 as well, and I have a Belgian version by Les Serpents Noirs (sung in French; titled "Une rose se meurt") which I have tracked to '73 or '74 (working on that) but this is not likely to be the original. (I also have a French version by Sacha Distel titled "Quand on a une belle fille on la garde pour soi", but that's from '75). So I wonder whether it was just a publisher's demo that did the rounds. If so, the question is: who did it first - Jigsaw, Dennis East or Les Serpents Noirs?

Love the site by the way. Lots of great sounds to (re)discover.... Much appeciated.