Dave Clark doesn’t talk often. When he does, it’s usually because something feels finished, corrected, or finally presented the way it was always meant to be heard. That’s exactly what brings him back now, overseeing All the Hits… and Beyond, a new Dave Clark Five compilation that doesn’t just revisit the catalog but restores it — remixed, remastered, and pressed to vinyl for the first time in decades.
Vinyl, for Clark, isn’t nostalgia. It’s origin. “Everybody was vinyl,” he said plainly, explaining why he returned the tapes to Abbey Road. Technology moves, formats change, and with each shift comes the risk of erosion. This project wasn’t about modernizing the Dave Clark Five so much as making sure the quality held up for listeners now — and for listeners years from now. “Technology changes every few years,” he said. “You have to make sure the quality is right.”
Listening back, it’s impossible to miss how much ground the band covered in a short amount of time. Fifteen albums in roughly six years reads like a dare, or a dare accepted. Clark doesn’t romanticize the pace, though. “Looking back, I think we did too many albums,” he admitted. The schedule was brutal: writing songs on planes between cities, cutting tracks whenever there was a break in touring, television appearances, or film commitments. Albums weren’t sculpted; they were captured. But the system worked. The songs held.
What they were chasing wasn’t history — it was momentum. “At the time, we were just in it to enjoy it,” Clark said. “It was for the fun of playing the music we all enjoyed.” Only later did the scope become clear. “It’s only going back in time when you look and say, ‘I didn’t realize I did that.’ You’re just being true to yourself.”
That honesty powered one of the most persistent myths of the British Invasion: the supposed rivalry between the Dave Clark Five and the Beatles. Clark dismisses it outright. “There was no rivalry,” he said. The story, he explained, was manufactured by the press — London versus Liverpool, south versus north. Even Paul McCartney has said as much. The charts might have framed it as combat, especially when “Glad All Over” knocked the Beatles out of the top spot, but behind the scenes there was no feud, only parallel momentum.
If Clark had one defining trait during that era, it was independence. Few moments illustrate that better than the fight to release “Because.” In the UK, the label pushed him toward another up-tempo single, worried a ballad would stall momentum. Clark relented once — and regretted it. When it came time to release the song in America, Epic Records refused outright. Clark responded with an ultimatum: release the song, or there would be no more records.
The response came by telegram. The president of the label warned him that releasing “Because” would ruin his career. Clark’s reply was brief: release it. The song became a massive hit. Later, the same executive called to congratulate him. “If I hadn’t been independent, it would never have seen the light of day,” Clark said. It’s not bravado. It’s a fact pattern.
That independence also explains why Clark doesn’t rank his own catalog. Asked about “Any Way You Want It” — a song later immortalized as the final track the Ramones ever played live — he shrugged it off. “We put our heart and soul into it,” he said. Judgment, in his view, belongs to everyone else.
The compilation’s most curious moment comes at the end: “Universal Love,” an unreleased track pulled from the vaults years later but never fully explained. Clark chose to include it now because its message hasn’t aged a day. “It’s so relevant today as it was then,” he said. The song carries the same peace-and-love ideals that defined the era — ideals Clark was careful not to echo too closely at the time, wary of being seen as echoing the Beatles. Now, distance has clarified intention. “The answer is love, really,” he said. “It’s what we need more of.”
There’s no grand retrospective posture here, no attempt to rewrite history. All the Hits… and Beyond exists because Dave Clark wanted the music to sound right — in the room, on the turntable, without compromise. The same instinct that drove him to fight labels, control masters, and move at an impossible pace is still intact. When he talks, it’s because something matters enough to say it.
And when the needle drops, it’s clear why it always did.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the classics below.
