Play For Today / Love's Melodies is the Searchers second album for Sire.
 

“Luckily for us the unfulfilled promise of The Searchers did not deter the people at Sire and plans were made for a follow up. The general feeling in the company was that, despite Pat Moran's excellent and dedicated work on the album, there was a need for an extra depth and edge to any new product, and the American producer Ed Stasium was brought in to add the missing elements.”
Frank Allen: The Searchers And Me  Castle-upon-Alun 2009, page 293

Love's Melody, in the UK and Germany, already released as a single and taken from the second issue (UK only) of their first Sire LP (see my page about Searchers (1979) now came out in the USA as the title track of their new lp and as a single.

First the album: March 1981 was the first release. It came out in the US, titled Love's Melodies, Sire SRK 3523.
 
  Song titles Writers
     
A1 Silver Dave Paul
A2 Infatuation Randy Bishop
A3 She Made A Fool Of You Moon Martin
A4 Almost Saturday Night John C. Fogerty
A5 Little Bit Of Heaven McNally, Pender, Allen
A6 You Are The New Day John David
     
B1 Love's Melody Andy McMasters
B2 Everything But A Heartbeat Will Birch, Ritchie Bull
B3 Radio Romance Will Birch, Paul Shuttleworth, Vic Collins
B4 Murder In My Heart Ronnie Thomas
B5 September Gurls Alex Chilton
B6 Another Night McNally, Pender, Allen

Mike Pender sings lead on all tracks.

Releases in other countries, all using the cover shown above

Canada Sire Records XSR 3523  
Norway Sire Records SKR 3523   
France Sire Nova SKR 3523 NP  
Germany Sire Ariola 203389-320  
Australia Sire Records 3523 LP & Cassette

 
above: Norwegian record, below promo & regular release from Portugal  
 
above: Germany
below: are Australian cassette release		 above: Canada
                     below: from Organge Coast Magazine


One month later (April 1981) Sire released the LP in the UK. Here titled "Play For Today", it had the same catalogue number as the US LP, a different song order and Sick And Tired instead of Love's Melody. Sick And Tired is really rocking, even more than the 1963 Starclub version - then sung by Chris Curtis. Now Mike sings lead - not only on this song but on all.
 


“Play For Today was released in the May of 1981. The title was a play on words, having been lifted from the popular BBC drama series and the black cover featured a radio tuner drawn in contrasting green lines. It was a nice use of a phrase that would serve to strike a chord of identification with listeners in Britain. In the US the cute play on words meant nothing and the packaging was completely revamped to show a simply drawn country lane and a signpost topped by a red heart. The title for American consumption was changed to Love's Melodies and though it took the eminently sensible route of establishing the name of the preferred track that was to be the first single, it conversely gave a false impression of the content. It was a hard driving rock album and not a collection of soppy love songs.”
Frank Allen: The Searchers And Me  Castle-upon-Alun 2009, page 295 - 296

 The Singles

In the USA Sire released one single from their version of the LP: Love's Melody b/w A Little Bit Of Heaven (Sire SRE49665). As both - the single and the LP - were unsuccessful,  this was their final release in the US concerning new material.
 

Another Night b/w Back To The War came out in th UK and France. UK: SIR 4049, France: C 008 - 64 298. Another Night was the 3rd self-penned A-Side, after He's Got No Love and Second Hand Dealer. In both countries the single was released with a picture cover. B-Side was taken from the 2nd edition of their first Sire LP.
 


Until a few years ago there was no doubt for me that the whole Sire tracks were recorded by the Searchers themselves which means Mike, John, Frank and Billy. But according to Frank Allen Sire insisted to replace Billy by the young drummer Martin Hughes.

Frank: "After a promotional meeting in London. John and Mike grabbed a cab to Euston for their train home and were surprised to find Ken Kushnik and Paul McNally insisting on sharing the journey. During the short trip they voiced their concerns over the drumming and stated that they very much wanted us to replace Billy Adamson. They did not like his style of playing or his look. They felt the drums had let the album down and whatever the case they would not countenance him playing on the next one. (…) Taking over the drum stool from the ousted Billy Adamson was a young Irish lad called Martin Hughes who had been recommended by Paul McNally. About half our age, his youthful enthusiasm and rock solid bass drum provided the perfect bedrock for the new tracks. He was quiet and unobtrusive and though he seemed a little overawed at being asked to sit in on these sessions with a group who had been part of an era that had become the new reference point for all guitar based bands since, Martin fitted in beautifully and acquitted himself without fuss or fault throughout. 

Telling Billy Adamson was not pleasant but there was little he could do about it. It was a done deal. He was still in place as our drummer for live engagements but would henceforth be substituted for our recording sessions. In truth I don't think he ever really believed that it was Sire's decision."

Frank Allen: The Searchers And Me  Castle-upon-Alun 2009, page 293
 


taken from his Home Page: http://www.mythankyoupage.com/music-art-entertainment/music-in-monchique-the-algarve-portugal/

If you check this out, you will find that one of the two LPs is "Searchers" (2nd issue). To be exact he plays on drums on "Love's Melody" and may be on "Back To The War"
For me Billy played excellent on the first Sire LP.

  left: Martin Hughes