Gerry & the Pacemakers

Gerry Marsden maintained a career as a television personality, and starred in the West End musical, Charlie Girl. While Ben Harney unfortunately was neglected by commercial recording studios during his lifetime, in 1925 a folklorist recorded Harney singing an example of an early ragtime song on a dictaphone phonograph cylinder, and this recording has survived. They disbanded in 1966 (see 1966 in music). Ben Harney died of a heart attack in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1965, though, their popularity was rapidly declining on both sides of the Atlantic and they soon seemed un-hip. Harney quit touring after suffering from a heart attack in 1928. The band also starred in a moderately successful film called Ferry Cross the Mersey. He sometimes performed in blackface.

Marsden began writing most of their own songs, including "It's All Right" and "Ferry Cross the Mersey". Harney's act included him playing piano, singing (including scat singing), and dancing. Despite this early success, Gerry and the Pacemakers never had another number one single in the UK. Once ragtime became popular he started billing himself as The Originator of Ragtime or The Father of Ragtime, which most (but not all) of his contemporaries thought was an overstatement for the sake of advertising. 1). Harney toured widely on the Vaudeville circuts in the USA, as well as tours of theaters in Europe and Asia. 1 in the UK -- the first time this feat had ever been achieved (first three singles by a performer all reach no. In 1897 Harney published his book The Ragtime Instructor, the first comprehensive description of ragtime, with instructions of how to rag (add syncopated rhythms to) tunes, including giving written examples of ragged versions of light classics and opera songs.

Their next two songs, "I Like It" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", both reached no. That same year Harney was referred to in print as "the rag time pianist". They began recording in 1963 with "How Do You Do It?"; the song became a #1 hit. In January of 1896 Ben Harney moved to New York City, where he appeared regularly at Tony Pastor's Music Hall. They rivalled the Beatles early in their career, playing in the same areas of Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England. Harney's tunes "You've Been a Good Old Wagon, But You've Done Broke Down", "Mister Johnson, Turn Me Loose", and "Cake Walk In The Sky" were big hits in the mid 1890s. Gerry Marsden formed the group in the late 1950s with Fred Marsden (his brother), Les Chadwick and Arthur Mack. Some historians still debate Harney's ethnic background.

Like the Beatles, they came from Liverpool and were also managed by Brian Epstein. Handy referred to him as "white". Gerry & the Pacemakers was a British rock and roll group during the 1960s, and one of the few groups to challenge the Beatles in popularity. Johnson referred to him as a "Negro", while W.C. James P. Harney was light skinned with red hair; early in his career he played with African American theater troops, but later in his career he represented himself as white.

Ben Harney is generally said to have been born in Louisville, Kentucky, although some sources put his birthplaces as Nashville, Tennessee. Benjamin Robertson "Ben" Harney (6 March 1871 - 2 March 1938) was a United States of America songwriter, entertainer, and pioneer of ragtime music. Download recording - "The Wagon" ragtime from the Library of Congress' Gordon Collection (http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/sideBbandB4.html); performed by Ben Harney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on about September 9, 1925.