Australian singles charts:
It Ain’t Necessarily So entered the Kent charts on 15 May 1965 and peaked at #5. The song was #34 on the Top 100 of 1965.
Album:
The song is on It Ain’t Necessarily So, But It Is Normie Rowe which entered the Kent album charts on 7 August 1965 and peaked at #2.
Composers:
George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin
Producer:
Pat Aulton
Record label of Australian release:
Sunshine
Wikipedia:
Rowe’s first single, released in April 1965, was a brooding ‘beat’ arrangement of Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So (from Porgy & Bess), a choice suggested by popular Melbourne radio DJ Stan Rofe (3UZ). It was a #1 hit in Melbourne and a Top Ten hit in most other capitals cities (#6 in Sydney, #5 in Adelaide, #3 in Brisbane), even though Sydney pop station 2SM (then owned by the Catholic Church) banned it because of its supposedly sacrilegious lyrics. The inspiration for Rowe’s version was apparently a 1963 version by the United Kingdom band Ian and the Zodiacs.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normie_Rowe
Pop Archives:
Melbourne singer Normie Rowe became Australia’s top teen idol of the late 60s and the star of Ivan Dayman’s Sunshine label. He had a string of hits in Australia from 1965, recorded four singles in London, toured Britain and America, and even inspired a tribute song, Norman-Normie. After he was conscripted to serve in Vietnam, he re-established himself as a respected performer, especially on stage, starring in such productions as Les Miserables and Annie.
Read more: www.poparchives.com.au/189/normie-rowe/its-not-easy
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