Bruce Woodley - The Seekers

The Seekers

Bruce Woodley had a 'residency' performing at the Treble Clef restaurant in Prahran. With former schoolmates, Athol Guy and Keith Potger, he formed a folk music trio, The Escorts, in the early 1960s. With the arrival of vocalist Judith Durham in 1962 they became The Seekers, and had some success in Australia before travelling to London in 1964 and recording four international hit singles written and produced by Tom Springfield. Woodley played guitar, banjo, and mandolin, as well as one of the four-part vocal harmony, and was the chief songwriter. While Durham sang the majority of lead vocals for the group, Woodley usually handled the male lead vocals, including a number of album tracks. The Seekers first disbanded in 1968.

During 1965, while in London, Woodley met Paul Simon, following the poor performance of Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. and just prior to the success of Simon and Garfunkel. Simon and Woodley co-wrote the million-selling "Red Rubber Ball"—later a #1 hit for US group The Cyrkle. The Simon and Woodley collaboration also provided "I Wish You Could Be Here" and "Cloudy". The Seekers later recorded these three songs, and "Cloudy" became an album track on Simon and Garfunkel's hit 1966 LP Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme—the only Simon and Woodley song to appear on both groups' album. However, Woodley's relationship with Simon had deteriorated and Woodley later struggled to get his share of the royalties—his songwriting credit on "Cloudy" was omitted from the release of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.