Sandon and The Searchers". Sandon left the band in late 1961 to join The Remo Four in February 1962. The group settled into a quartet named "The Searchers", with Jackson becoming the main vocalist. They continued to play at the Iron Door, The Cavern, and other Liverpool clubs. Like many similar acts they would do as many as three shows at different venues in one night. They negotiated a contract with the Star-Club in the St. Pauli district Hamburg for 128 days, with three one-hour performances a night, starting in July 1962. The band returned to a residency at the Iron Door Club and it was there that they tape-recorded the sessions that led to a Pye Records recording contract with Tony Hatch as producer. The first single, "Sweets for My Sweet", featuring Tony Jackson as main vocalist supported by Pender and Curtis, shot to number one in the UK in 1963, firmly establishing the band as a major spearhead of the "Merseybeat" boom, just behind The Beatles and alongside Gerry and the Pacemakers. Their first album, Meet The Searchers, sung mostly by Jackson and Pender, was released in August 1963 and reached number 2 on the British album charts the next month. With a slightly changed track listing, including the song "Needles and Pins", it hit #22 in the US album charts in June 1964. In the US their first single was issued on Mercury and the second on Liberty, both without success; then a deal was arranged with US-based Kapp Records to distribute their records in America. Philips Records then released an earlier recording they held of a cover of Brenda Lee's hit 'Sweet Nuthins', which dismayed the group. It made the lower end of the UK chart, but did not disturb their momentum. In the 1964 film Saturday Night Out the group played the title song of the soundtrack. Hatch played piano on some recordings and wrote "Sugar and Spice", the band's UK #2 hit record, under the pseudonym Fred Nightingale, a secret he kept from the band at the time. Apparently Curtis disliked this song (largely a revamp of the key aspects of first hits) and refused to sing on it. Jackson again took lead vocal, though Curtis later agreed to sing the distinctive high-harmony vocal links between verses. "Love Potion No.9", sung by Jackson, was a non-UK single lifted from the first LP that was