Cook and Greenaway wrote "You've Got Your Troubles" while they were both members of the group
the Kestrels, the song being composed while that group was on a pop package tour. Cook recalls he and Greenaway were in a theatre. "Roger [Greenaway] said 'I've [written] a little tune' and we both brought our ukuleles out and he played [his tune] and he said 'Could you help me with the lyric?' and in the space of two hours we'd written the whole song". Cook and Greenaway cut a
demo to pitch the song which was accepted by
Mills Music Publishing, where the two were signed as staff writers by
Tony Hiller. Hiller, who had written "Caroline" the second of four previous non-charting singles by The Fortunes, placed "You've Got Your Troubles" with that group. Noel Walker, an in-house producer for
Decca Records, recalled: "The Fortunes' contract came up for renewal and Decca didn't want to renew it ... I told Decca that they sung wonderfully and deserved another chance. I wanted to use them as singers backed by professional musicians [the Fortunes would receive some adverse publicity for not playing on the track themselves] and I found a beautiful song 'You've Got Your Troubles'." This song is noted for the
counterpoint melody heard towards the end of the song.
Radio Caroline North DJ Mike Ahern would claim that his radio station was responsible for the breakout of "You've Got Your Troubles", which reached number 2 on the UK chart dated 25 August 1965, held off from number 1 by
The Beatles' "
Help!", then in the final week of its three-week tenure at number 1 UK. In the US, "You've Got Your Troubles" peaked at number 7 on the 2 October 1965
Hot 100. The song reached number 1 in Canada and New Zealand, number 3 in Ireland, and was especially successful in the Netherlands, spending 14 weeks in the Top Ten, peaking at number 3. Other international hit parade rankings were achieved in Australia (number 12), Belgium (French number 24 / Flemish number 10), Germany (number 28), and South Africa (number 6). The demo of "You've Got Your Troubles" by Cook and Greenaway also came to the attention of
George Martin who wanted to have the songwriters record their own song, but due to his time being taken up producing The Beatles' album
Rubber Soul (1965), Martin was unable to produce Cook and Greenaway's recording of "You've Got Your Troubles" prior to The Fortunes' version hitting the charts. Martin did have Cook and Greenaway cover the
Rubber Soul track "
Michelle" which afforded the duo a Top 20 hit in both US and the UK, and number 1 in Canada, being billed as
David and Jonathan ==Chart history==