Graham Nash was replaced by guitarist-singer Terry Sylvester, formerly of both The Escorts, a second generation Merseybeat group who had a minor UK chart hit in 1964 with "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and from 1966-1968 was with The Swinging Blue Jeans. This revised Hollies lineup had an immediate hit in 1969 with "Sorry, Suzanne", which reached #3 in the UK. In time, too, Sylvester proved a capable substitution for Nash as part of the group's songwriting team.
The Hollies were one of the last of the major British Invasion groups to have significant chart success in the United States. Their first single was not issued in the US and it was not until "Look Through Any Window" that the band reached the Top 30. Many of their other singles that had been hits in the UK, including "I'm Alive", "Yes I Will" and "We're Through" were virtually ignored in the US. From 1965 until they signed to Epic in 1967, the band had their most concentrated success in the US. In 1966 "Bus Stop" reached No.5 in the USA, while their own song "Stop Stop Stop" made no.7, After the initial Epic single "Carrie-Anne" reached #9, the band records continued to sell poorly in the US, with the exception of "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" (no.7), "Long Cool Woman" (no.2) and "The Air That I Breathe"(no.6).
When Nash left in December 1968 it was due to a number of issues. Nash was by then feeling something of a prisoner of his early pop success; like John Lennon and George Harrison he too disliked the screaming of fans drowning out the songs in concerts. He felt imprisoned within The Hollies "pop group identity" too, when he wanted to write more personalised songs of a reflective nature not necessarily utilising vocal harmonies, and was clashing with producer Ron Richards over material. He relocated to Los Angeles, where he joined forces with former Buffalo Springfield guitarist Stephen Stills and ex-Byrds singer David Crosby to form one of the first supergroups, Crosby, Stills & Nash.
While all their albums included original compositions, these were usually listed under the pseudonym "L. Ransford". Released in October 1966, For Certain Because (UK #23, 1966) was the Hollies's fifth album, their first album consisting entirely of original compositions by Clarke, Hicks and Nash. Released in the U.S. as Stop! Stop! Stop! it reached U.S. #91 and spawned a U.S. release only single "Pay You Back With Interest" which was a modest hit reaching U.S. #28. Another track "Tell Me To My Face" was a moderate hit by Mercury artist Keith and would also be covered a decade later by Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg on their "Twin Sons Of Different Mothers" album.
Hollies' next album Evolution was released on 1 June 1967, the same day as The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was also their first album for their new U.S. label Epic. It reached UK #13 and U.S. #43. The U.S. version included the single "Carrie Anne".
Like most British groups' during this period, The Hollies' US releases almost always featured different track listings from their original UK albums. The Hollies second album "In The Hollies Style" (1964) did not chart and none of its tracks were released in the US. The Hollies’s third album simply called Hollies hit number 8 in the UK in 1965. Their fourth Would You Believe made it to #16 in 1966. Released in the US as Hear Here and Beat Group, they failed to crack the top 100. Meanwhile a US Imperial Bus Stop album made of songs clipped from earlier albums climbed to #75, the group's first US album to enter the Top 100.
The Hollies had a squeaky-clean image, and were known for their bright vocal harmonies. Though initially known for its cover versions, Hollies moved towards written-to-order songs provided to them by such writers as Graham Gouldman. Soon after, the group's in-house songwriting trio of Clarke, Hicks and Nash began providing hits.
Their EMI debut single "Ain't That Just Like Me" was released in May 1963, and hit #25 on the UK Singles Chart. Their second single, a cover of The Coasters' "Searchin," hit #12. Hollies scored their first British Top 10 hit in early 1964 with a cover of Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs' "Stay", which reached #8 in the UK. It was lifted from the band's Parlophone debut album "Stay With The Hollies", released on 1 January 1964, which went to #2 on the UK album chart. A version of the album was released in the US as Here I Go Again, on The Hollies' then-U.S. label Imperial.
The original lineup included Allan Clarke as lead vocalist, Graham Nash as guitarist and vocalist, Vic Steele (real name Vic Farrell, 1945) on guitar, with Eric Haydock and Don Rathbone rounding out the group on bass guitar and drums. Steele left Hollies in May 1963, shortly before they signed to Parlophone as label-mates of the Beatles. Tony Hicks, who replaced him, and Bobby Elliott, who replaced Rathbone, joined Hollies in quick succession in 1963; both had played in a Nelson-based band, the Dolphins, Bernie Calvert, who replaced Haydock in 1966, was also a Dolphin member.
The group's first U.S. album release came in 1964 as part of the first wave of British Invasion acts. They are commonly associated with Manchester, as some of the original Hollies grew up in the city. In a 2009 interview, member Graham Nash said that the group decided just prior to a performance to call themselves the "Hollies" because of their admiration for Buddy Holly.
Graham Nash was replaced by guitarist-singer Terry Sylvester, formerly of both The Escorts, a second generation Merseybeat group who had a minor UK chart hit in 1964 with "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and from 1966-1968 was with The Swinging Blue Jeans. This revised Hollies lineup had an immediate hit in 1969 with "Sorry, Suzanne", which reached #3 in the UK. In time, too, Sylvester proved a capable substitution for Nash as part of the group's songwriting team.
