San Francisco in the mid-60’s. London and New York in the late 70’s. Seattle in the early 90’s.

When a music scene explodes, all the record companies scramble to sign up every single band from that locale in order to grab a piece of the action, to show they’re au courant with what the people want. Maybe two or three of those bands become huge; maybe four or five have a couple of hits and a solid career; and then you’ve got everyone else — the players with the right zip code who never strike the motherlode.

Say hello to The Escorts! (Not to be confused with the US R&B group of the same name who met and recorded in prison in the 1970’s — that’s a story for another time). These Escorts hailed from Liverpool, forming in 1962, just in time for the Merseybeat explosion launched by The Beatles and the mad rush to sign up everyone from the area. They never came close to the heights reached by the Fab Four, Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Searchers, or Cilla Black, but they did attain some Liverpudlian popularity.

Fontana Records grabbed The Escorts out of the scrum and the band recorded five singles for the label, all of which failed to make the charts. There would not be a sixth.

Luckily, one of the perks of a local scene is knowing everyone else involved in it, from the smallest group to the biggest. You all play the same venues and hang out at the same clubs, so with these shared connections you can call in a hometown favor every once in a while. After signing with Columbia Records, The Escorts were able to call in a pretty good one. Somebody in the band knew Paul McCartney’s number.

In 1966, the band entered the studio to record their first single for Columbia, a cover of Smokey Robinson’s “From Head To Toe.” They attempted to lay down an acceptable take of the song for hours and nothing seemed to work, so guitarist Paddy Chambers gave Paul a call to ask for a little advice, and to Paddy’s surprise, the Beatle bassist said he’d be right over.

McCartney arrived at the studio shortly afterwards and immediately took over the proceedings, making suggestions about the arrangement, hopping behind the mixing board to engineer and co-produce, and even picking up the tambourine. The end result was a snappy little number, faithful to the original but with a Merseybeat bounce adding a little kick.

Alas, when released as a single in December of 1966, “From Head To Toe” inexplicably failed to find an audience and The Escorts soon broke up. But they did make a lasting impression on one youngster from Liverpool named Declan McManus. Ten years later he would change his name to Elvis Costello. He covered “From Head To Toe” and its B-side, “Night Time,” in 1982, and the following year provided the impetus which led to compiling all the band’s singles to make their first full-length album release.

The A-side of The Escorts’ final single:

Let’s pretend it’s 1966 and flip the record over to listen to “Night Time,” the soulful pop B-side written by aforementioned guitarist Paddy Chambers: