5 by 5 (Dave Clark Five album)

5 by 5  is the tenth American album by the British band The Dave Clark Five. It was released on 20 February 1967 and contained the Top 50 hit "Nineteen Days". The LP reached the Billboard Top 200 and the Cashbox Top 100. The album was only released in the US; the similarly named British album (subtitled "14 Titles by Dave Clark Five") did not contain any of the same songs.

Overview
The album continued the tendency of previous albums to offer a greater variety of musical styles. Genre-wise, it stood between rock and roll ("Nineteen Days"), rhythm and blues ("Something I've Always Wanted", "You Don't Want My Loving", "Small Talk"), country ("Picture Of You") and good-time music in the vein of The Lovin' Spoonful ("Sitting Here Baby"). All songs were composed by the band members, produced by Dave Clark and the album was released in both mono (LN 24236) and stereo (BN 26236). The artwork featured the band members in a black and white photograph remotely reminiscent of the With the Beatles album. 5 by 5  was unavailable for many years before it was remastered and re-released by Dave Clark in 2019 on Spotify.

The band also recorded an instrumental song of the same title ("Five by Five"), which was used as the finale of the TV special "Hold On! It's The Dave Clark Five" in 1968. But the recording was not released until the If Somebody Loves You album.

Reception
The album reached position 119 in the Billboard magazine chart, but did better in the competing Cashbox chart, reaching number 66. Cashbox magazine wrote, "The Dave Clark Five serves up a batch of rock efforts. Among the outstanding tracks are Something I've Always Wanted, You Don’t Want My Loving, and Pick Up Your Phone. The always popular quintet should find themselves with yet another hit on their hands with this album, as they perform with distinction once again."

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger wrote, "LP found the quintet playing pretty much in the same style they had been using since their first hit, even though trends were passing them by left and right by this point..." and praised the track "You Don't Want My Loving" as the best song of the album.

Personnel

 * The Dave Clark Five
 * Dave Clark – drums, backing vocals
 * Mike Smith – keyboards, lead vocals
 * Lenny Davidson – electric guitars, backing vocals
 * Rick Huxley – bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Denis Payton – tenor saxophone, backing vocals