Allan Clarke

Allan Clarke, a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, ranks among the founding members of the Hollies while sustaining an intermittent solo career as well. During the 1950s he and his childhood companion Graham Nash began performing together in Manchester. The lineup expanded with the addition of bassist Eric Haydock and drummer Don Rathbone, the latter replaced by Bobby Elliott in 1963; the group operated first as the Fourtones in 1961 and then as the Deltas in 1962. Early in 1963 Tony Hicks joined on guitar, a recording contract was secured, and the ensemble adopted the name the Hollies. Their earliest material drew from American R&B, although original songs soon appeared, and their hallmark remained a robust vocal approach with Clarke out front and Nash and Hicks supplying the harmonies. In Britain the Hollies achieved steady singles success that began with “Just Like Me,” the first of twenty-nine chart entries of which seventeen reached the Top Ten and two—“I’m Alive” and “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”—attained the number-one position. Their American chart presence proved more modest, yielding twenty-three singles of which six entered the Top Ten. Nash departed at the close of 1968 to establish Crosby, Stills, and Nash, yet the Hollies persisted.

Clarke exited in August 1971 to pursue solo work, issuing the albums My Name Is ’arold (1972), Headroom (1973), and Allan Clarke (1974). He returned to the Hollies in July 1973 while continuing his individual output, which included the 1976 release I’ve Got Time. A second departure occurred in March 1978, followed by the album I Wasn’t Born Yesterday (1978), before he rejoined that August. Later solo projects comprised Legendary Heroes (1979), The Only One (1980), and a 1981 compilation titled Best Of. In 1983 Nash reunited with Clarke, Elliott, and Hicks for the album What Goes Around … and an accompanying tour; afterward Clarke, Elliott, and Hicks maintained the Hollies lineup.