In 1964, Chad & Jeremy arrived in the United States as part of the
British Invasion. According to Stuart, "We snuck in under the radar" because even though their folk songs and strings-backed ballads bore little resemblance to the rock music of most of their colleagues, they gained widespread acceptance in the US. Their second US single, "
A Summer Song" (produced by
Shel Talmy), was a surprise hit that Chad & Jeremy had intended as an album track. All three hits were included on their 1964 debut album, ''
Yesterday's Gone, which spent 39 weeks on the Billboard '' 200 and eventually peaked at No. 22.
1965 In January 1965, Chad & Jeremy were in talks with a major label,
Columbia Records. On 27 March, they signed a contract giving Columbia control over all Chad & Jeremy recordings retroactively to 1 January 1965. Before the end of 1964, however, the duo had made a new batch of recordings, giving the minor labels a backlog of material to release throughout the following months. Columbia quickly released a new album,
Before and After, in June. The title track single "
Before and After" peaked at US No. 17 almost immediately. The title track was composed by
Van McCoy and preceded the album as a summer single, which peaked at US No. 35 in August. The duo went on a year-long hiatus in mid-1965 when Clyde accepted an acting role in a London stage production of
The Passion Flower Hotel. Clyde expressed his reasoning, and his regret, to an interviewer in 2014: Stuart said, "I was the partner of an actor who was constantly threatening to leave the act, and did". After finishing the album in London—most of which was scrapped— In late November, Columbia arranged for Chad & Jill to sing on television again, this time a rendition of the folk music standard "The Cruel War" on
Hullabaloo.
1966 Clyde returned from London after about nine months away. Around the same time, Columbia released a new Chad and Jeremy single in the US, the
Dylanesque "Teenage Failure", In April, Columbia released Chad & Jill's "The Cruel War" as a single that is backed with "I Can't Talk to You". Chad & Jeremy began to work in earnest again and recorded the album
Distant Shores, which was released in August 1966. The title song was composed by their bassist
James William Guercio, who later enjoyed fame as a producer for
Chicago and
Blood, Sweat & Tears. "Distant Shores" was their last Top 40 hit; it reached US No. 30 in August while a second single "You Are She" peaked at No. 87 in November.
Television work (1965)|alt=Patty Duke holds a microphone stand for Jeremy as he tunes his guitar During the mid-1960s, Chad & Jeremy made several television guest appearances. They portrayed a fictional singing duo called "The Redcoats" (Freddy and Ernie) on the 10 February 1965 episode of the sitcom
The Dick Van Dyke Show that satirised
Beatlemania. "I Don't Want No Other Baby But You" and "My, How the Time Goes By" were featured in that episode. One week later, they appeared on
The Patty Duke Show as "Nigel & Patrick", an unknown British singing duo in need of promotion and sang the song "The Truth Often Hurts The Heart" (twice), which was inexplicably never issued as a single. In an interview marking the 50th anniversary of the show's debut,
Patty Duke said of that particular episode; "I was obsessed with them ... that was a big week for me". They were guest stars on an episode of
Laredo—"That's Noway, Thataway", first broadcast on 20 January 1966—in which they played destitute English actors travelling through the
Old West. The episode was intended as a pilot for a Chad & Jeremy television show that was titled
Paleface but was never produced. The duo appeared as themselves in the December 1966 episodes "The Cat's Meow" and "The Bat's Kow Tow" of the television series
Batman, in which the guest villain was
Julie Newmar as
Catwoman. In this two-part storyline, Catwoman's master plan includes "stealing" the voices of Chad & Jeremy. The same year, Clyde appeared on his own in a
Season 8 episode of
My Three Sons. == Late 1960s and breakup ==