"Even the Bad Times Are Good" is a song written by British group

the Tremeloes The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me". After Poole's departu ...

, released as a single in July 1967. It became their third consecutive top-ten hit in the UK and continued their international success.

Release and reception

"Even the Bad Times Are Good" was written by songwriting duo

Peter Callander Peter Robin Callander (10 October 1939 – 25 February 2014) was an English songwriter and record producer. Active from the 1960s onwards, Callander wrote or co-wrote songs that have been performed by recording artists such as Cilla Black, Tom ...

and

Mitch Murray Mitch Murray (born Lionel Michael Stitcher; 30 January 1940) is an English songwriter, record producer and author. He has won two Ivor Novello Awards, including the Jimmy Kennedy Award. Murray has written, or co-written, songs that have produ ...

. The song was a contender for

Sandie Shaw Sandie may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Sandie Clair (born 1988), French professional racing cyclist * Sandie Fitzgibbon, Irish former camogie player * Sandie Jones (1950/1951–2019), Irish singer * Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (1879 ...

to sing at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1967 The Eurovision Song Contest 1967 was the 12th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Merci, Chérie" by Udo Jürgens. Organised by the European Bro ...

; however, it lost out to the eventual Eurovision winner " Puppet on a String". After this, the song was quickly picked up by the Tremeloes who first released their version in May 1967 on their album ''Here Comes the Tremeloes''. Following the number-one success of " Silence Is Golden", "Even the Bad Times Are Good" was released as a single with the B-side, "Jenny's Alright", written by the Tremeloes' Len "Chip" Hawkes and

Alan Blakley Alan David Blakley, (1 April 1942 – 1 June 1996) a British musician and record producer, was rhythm guitarist and keyboards player with the Tremeloes and co-writer of most of their hits until January 1975, when he started writing for oth ...

. Reviewing for ''

Disc and Music Echo ''Disc'' was a weekly British popular music magazine, published between 1958 and 1975, when it was incorporated into ''Record Mirror''. It was also known for periods as ''Disc Weekly '' (1964–1966) and ''Disc and Music Echo '' (1966–1972). ...

'',

Penny Valentine Penelope Ann Valentine (13 February 1943 – 9 January 2003) was a British music journalist, rock critic, and occasional television personality. Biography Penny Valentine was born in London, of Jewish and Italian ancestry. In 1959 she became ...

described the song as "another saga of simplicity and drum-thumping much in the vein of " Here Comes My Baby". For one moment at the beginning when everyone broke into extraordinary cackling I had my doubts and wondered if the Tremeloes were about to freak out. But ah, no, here we go, lads – thump, bang, crash, wallop".

Track listings

7": CBS / 2930 (UK) # "Even the Bad Times Are Good" – 2:36 # "Jenny's Alright" – 2:24 7": Epic / 5-10233 (US and Canada) # "Even the Bad Times Are Good" – 2:24 # "Jenny's All Right" – 2:22

Charts

References

{{authority control 1967 singles 1967 songs The Tremeloes songs Songs written by Peter Callander Songs written by Mitch Murray CBS Records singles Epic Records singles Song recordings produced by Mike Smith (British record producer)