JOHN E SHARPE & THE SQUIRES (SA)

Died: 1990

Sharpe was born in Johannesburg and cut his teeth backing Charles Jacobie and also playing in the band The Hustlers. In 1965 he formed John E Sharpe & The Squires which included Les Goode (who would later work with The A-Cads) on bass, Barry Saks on guitar and Mervyn Harris on drums while Sharpe played guitar and took on vocal duties. They released the album ‘Maybelline’, their hit single listed below and 3 other singles (‘Monkey Shine’, ‘I’ll Explain’ and ‘Stop Your Sobbing’). Sharpe would also work with Gene Rockwell and Billy Forrest in his Quentin E Klopjaeger days.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
20-May-1966	I’m A Rock	5	10
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	10

Biggest climber awards	1
Star rater climbs	2
Biggest fallers	1
Weeks with oldest in the charts	1
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	10
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	0
Top 30 points ranking	=784
Top 20 points ranking	=755
Top 30 points	193
Top 20 points	93

‘I’m a Rock’ was a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘I Am A Rock’ although the local pressing of the single shows the slightly abbreviated title rather than the full ‘I Am’ of the Simon & Garfunkel hit.

Sharpe provided instrumental backing on the following Quentin E Klopjaeger hit:

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
30-May-1968	Lazy Life	1 (2)	16
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	16

Total chart involvement by the band and its members:

Number of hits	2
Weeks	26
No of No. 1’s	1
Weeks at 1	2