Vanity Fare (often misspelled Vanity Fair, due to the similarity of the novel and magazine title) are an English pop/rock group formed in 1966. They had the million-selling song, "Hitchin' a Ride", which became a worldwide hit in 1970. Career School friends Trevor Brice (born 12 February 1945, Rochester, Kent, England) (vocals), Tony Goulden (born Anthony Goulden, 21 November 1942, Rochester) (guitar), Dick Allix (born Richard Allix, 3 May 1945, Gravesend, Kent) (drums) and Tony Jarrett (born Anthony Jarrett, 4 September 1943, in Rochester, Kent) (bass) formed the band in Kent in 1966, originally calling themselves The Avengers. Under that name, they recorded a number of demos, including "Marianne", with record producer Joe Meek, but none were ever released. After that, they changed their name to The Sages, and had one 45 single release on the RCA Victor label (47–8760), with "In The Beginning" on the A side and "I'm Not Going To Cry" on the B side. They played local clubs and were spotted by entrepreneur Roger Easterby who became their manager and producer. Having changed the name of the band to Vanity Fare after the novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, they signed to Larry Page's Page One Records. In the summer of 1968, Vanity Fare achieved a UK hit single with their first release, a cover of "I Live for the Sun", originally recorded in 1965 by the California group The Sunrays. Following two more singles, "Summer Morning" and "Highway of Dreams," both of which failed to make the UK Singles Chart, they released their biggest UK hit, "Early in the Morning". Written by Mike Leander and Eddie Seago, it reached number 8 in that country in August 1969, number 12 in the US, and number 10 in Canada in early 1970. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. For their next release "Hitchin' a Ride", they added keyboardist Barry Landeman (born 25 October 1947, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England), formerly of Kippington Lodge, to the group. "Hitchin' A Ride", written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray, gave them a second million-selling hit, reaching No. 16 in the UK (January 1970), No. 1 for two weeks each on Chicago radio stations WCFL (May 1970) and WLS (June 1970), No. 5 on the Hot 100 (June–July 1970), and No. 3 in Canada. The hit was preceded by a tour of the United States, following