The Best of the Emi Years

Pearly

The Days of Pearly Spencer

“Days of Pearly Spencer” by Irish singer/songwriter David McWilliams was released in 1967. The song features a sweeping orchestral arrangement by Mike Leander, while the lyrics were inspired by the fate of a homeless man McWilliams encountered in Ballymena. Massive exposure on Radio Caroline and advertising in the UK music press in the summer of 1967 helped generate interest and sales throughout continental Europe. The record topped the charts in France and The Netherlands, and ultimately sold a million copies worldwide. However, despite being well known in the UK, it failed to make the charts there, perhaps because the BBC refused to play it due to links with pirate radio. In Italy, the song was covered in 1968 by Caterina Caselli as "Il Volto Della Vita". Successful later versions of the song included a disco version which reached #1 in Belgium in the 1980s. A cover by Marc Almond, with an additional verse written by Almond giving the song a more optimistic tone, reached #4 in the UK charts in 1992. [Read more on Last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/David+McWilliams/_/The+Days+Of+Pearly+Spencer). User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

“Days of Pearly Spencer” by Irish singer/songwriter David McWilliams was released in 1967. The song features a sweeping orchestral arrangement by Mike Leander, while the lyrics were inspired by the fate of a homeless man McWilliams encountered in Ballymena. Massive exposure on Radio Caroline and advertising in the UK music press in the summer of 1967 helped generate interest and sales throughout continental Europe. The record topped the charts in France and The Netherlands, and ultimately sold a million copies worldwide. [Read more on Last.fm](http://www.last.fm/music/David+McWilliams/_/The+Days+Of+Pearly+Spencer).