Tom Petty's Buried Treasure Radio Show & The Story Of Its Theme Song

I've become addicted to Tom Petty's Buried Treasure, found at SiriusXM channel 711. It's a continually running, hour long show where Petty mostly played obscure records from his own collection. At one time the program was a weekly feature on the satellite radio service's Deep Tracks channel. Later, all 250-plus episodes were spun off onto their own station.

Petty featured a lot of rock and roll, rhythm & blues and straight ahead blues from the 50s, 60s and 70s, but the rocking DJ with a great sense of humor didn't hesitate to play newer stuff - like The White Stripes and Kings of Leon - if he was so moved. The late star has played a lot of very old music that is new to me.

A typical show may feature Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, The McCoys, The Zombies, The Animals, Chuck Berry, Ann Peebles, Canned Heat, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Taj Mahal, Jimi Hendrix, The Rascals, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Shangri-Las, Shirley Ellis, Elvis Presley, James Brown and The Who.

Petty passed away in 2017, so when he mentions current events or what was then a new album release you'll have to adjust your mind to the fact that the newest of these shows was recorded more than seven years ago.

Speaking of buried treasures, you won't find many that are more obscure than the show's theme song, "Bert's Apple Crumble," by a long forgotten and short-lived British band named The Quik. Not much is known about the group or the song. The R&B instrumental was issued as the b-side of their debut single titled "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" composed by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati of The Rascals. The theme - featuring rousing organ work with a beat that really takes off after the drum break - couldn't be more infectious if it tried.

There is almost no information on The Quik. AllMusic provided the only biography I could find, and they didn't offer much. The excellent, online, music review site wrote that the band's lineup was "lost to time,"  but a YouTube page I found lists its members. The group shouldn't be confused with a California power-pop outfit from the 70s and 80s with the similar name of The Quick (properly spelled using the letter "c").

Members
Bruce Roberts (guitar, vocals)
Pete Hunt (drums)
John Roberts (bass)
John Rennie (saxophone)
Alex Chamberlayne (organ)

Overall, the British band released three singles in 1967. Another two-song, digital single with vocals I discovered isn't very good. Unfortunately, none of their records charted and The Quik came to a very quick end.

"Bert's Apple Crumble" can be found on a couple of compilation discs on the web, and I was able to purchase and download it from iTunes.

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