They could just say, 'Oh, you mean this, Joe.'"There exists a tape of Meek doing just that to create the melody for "Telstar" in 1962. The Tornados' drummer, Clem Cattini, remembers: "He played this tape of him singing and the music didn't sound right. It had all the wrong time and key signatures and we rewrote it." The Tornados recorded the instrumental during the summer of 1962, but had to leave early for a booking in Great Yarmouth. Enter Goddard, who added eerie sounds on a clavioline, a primitive, battery-powered keyboard."Telstar" went to the top of the charts in both Britain and America, a unique achievement for a British beat group before The Beatles. Meek became infatuated with the Tornados' bass player, the late Heinz Burt, and according to the play, had an affair with him.Because of the laws relating to homosexuality, Meek had to keep his private life secret. The record producer Derek Lawrence gained his experience from helping Meek, and noted his bizarre working practices: "Joe would take a record from the charts and sing his own song over the top of it.
He'd record what he was doing so there are tapes of, say, a Freddie and the Dreamers record with Joe warbling out of tune across the top of it. He failed to spot the potential of both Tom Jones and Rod Stewart, but he found a common bond with Screaming Lord Sutch, and they made the ghoulish "Til The Following Night" and "Jack The Ripper".Meek saw Mike Berry as Britain's answer to Buddy Holly and wrote his Top 10 single "Doncha Think It's Time", but Meek's songwriting skills are questionable. He wrote his songs this way and the records themselves would turn out fine because he was working with good musicians. They thought it was another take but he was doubling them up to get a fuller sound without them knowing it."Because making a record cost no more than a reel of tape and electricity, Meek would take almost anyone off the street and record them. The usual stipulations were being male and good-looking, and Meek made 100 one-off recordings with artists who were never heard of again.
Joe would be in the next room and he would pop his head round the door and say, 'Ready'. He'd have three or four violinists and he'd get them to record something and ask them to do it again. The end result was songs like 'Johnny Remember Me' and 'Telstar', which had a unique sound, although many people criticised it at the time."Although the hyperactive Meek was tone deaf, he could recognise talent in others. He worked with the nerdish songwriter Geoff Goddard, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, and he formed two groups for studio work, the Outlaws and the Tornados.
