[8] Bringing a shared love of jazz to the British blues boom then sweeping London's clubs, the band was completed by Mike Vickers on guitar, alto saxophone and flute, bassist Dave Richmond and Paul Jones as lead vocalist and harmonicist.

After changing their name to Manfred Mann at the behest of their label's producer John Burgess, the group signed with His Master's Voice in March 1963 and began their recorded output that July with the slow blues instrumental single "Why Should We Not?

[4] The overdubbed instrumental soloing on woodwinds, vibes, harmonica and second keyboard lent considerable weight to the group's sound, and demonstrated the jazz-inspired technical prowess in which they took pride.

The group began its string of successes with Bob Dylan songs with a track on the best-selling EP The One in the Middle, "With God on Our Side", next reaching No.

[6] The EP's title track reached the British top ten singles, the last self-written song (by Jones) and the band's last R'n'B workout to do so.

The group had managed an initial jazz/rhythm-and-blues fusion, and then had taken chart music in their stride—but could not hope to cope with Paul Jones' projected solo career as singer and actor, and with Mike Vickers' orchestral and instrumental ambitions.

Jones was replaced by Mike d'Abo in July 1966,[13] and the group switched labels to Fontana Records,[13] where they were produced by Shel Talmy.

[13] Their first Fontana single, a version of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman", released in July, scraped into the UK top ten and reached number one in Sweden.

[14] This featured original member Dave Richmond on double bass, but not Mike d'Abo, suggesting the sessions dated from a little earlier in 1966.

36 when issued as a single, and the follow-up, Randy Newman's "So Long, Dad", with its intricate keyboard arrangement, missed the top twenty altogether.

The following year, 1968, brought two albums: the Mann–Hugg soundtrack to the film Up the Junction in February, from which an edited title track coupled with the rare B-side "Sleepy Hollow" was issued as an unsuccessful UK single; and Mighty Garvey!

In June 1968, the following single, John Simon's "My Name is Jack", was recalled when the US company Mercury Records complained about the phrase "Super Spade" in the lyrics, which referred to a Haight-Ashbury drug dealer.

The release was delayed by a week until the offending name was re-recorded as "Superman",[15] but the UK hit single version retained the original lyric.

[17] For a moment their musical worlds coincided: a TV cigar advertisement, a long track from Chapter Three's first album ("Travellin' Lady"), and "A "B" Side" (the flip of the old group's last single) all used the same riff.

[7] In 2009, the Manfreds (d'Abo, Hugg, Jones and McGuinness) joined Klaus Voormann in performing a version of "Mighty Quinn" for his first solo collection A Sideman's Journey, credited to 'Voormann & Friends'.

During the brief time between Mike Vickers' departure and Jack Bruce's arrival (October–November 1965), Pete Burford followed by David Hyde played bass with the band.

During November 1965–June 1966, the core five-piece (Mann, Hugg, Jones, McGuinness, Bruce) were augmented by Lyn Dobson on trumpet and Henry Lowther on saxophone.