The story of Ray's raunchy sessioners who found unexpected success in the States

The band Fancy developed from session work. After Ray Fenwick's stint in the Spencer Davis Group he worked with a number of musicians including bassist Mo Foster. Ray had also worked with the producer Mike Hurst, on the Hardin-York sessions amongst others, and it was Hurst who invited Ray to cut a new version of the old Troggs hit "Wild Thing". The vocalist on that session was a Penthouse model, Helen Caunt,who "breathed" rather than sang. This was acceptable for the record, but not so good for live work. The band auditioned new singers, among whom was Annie Kavanagh who'd been singing in the chorus of the hit stage musical "Jesus Christ Superstar".

By this time, the record was a surprise hit in America, so the "band" (Ray,Mo,Annie and drummer Les Binks) toured there. Fancy stayed together for only a couple of years but managed a second US hit "Touch Me" (March 1974).Ray was getting involved with Roger Glover and Jon Lord from Deep Purple and Glover asked him to do Ian Gillan's album. Ian was forming a band at the time and asked Ray to join.

These are Real Audio samples

Ray Fenwick on Fancy (recorded 1997)

Touch Me