One of the bands that knocked on Gouldman’s door shortly after the breakthrough with the Yardbirds was the Hollies. They recorded Look through any window, which was written by Gouldman together with another succesful sixties popcomposer Silverman. The demo of the song, based on a train conversation that Gouldman picked up between London and Manchester, was played to the Country Gentlemen first. The Manchester band,  formed in 1963 by Peter Cowap, liked it very much, but unfortunately for them the Hollies had the first option and decided to record it themselves in 1965, making it one of their greatest hits with a fourth place in the British chart.
Another song written for The Hollies was Going away, which had not the impact on the band that the other songs had. As a sort of compensation for stealing another song from them - the number one hitsingle I'm alive, written by Clint Ballard jr. - the Hollies passed the song on to a Manchester band called The Toggery Five, formed around Mancunian Paul Young . The Toggery Five made the most of it when they recorded the song at Abbey Road Studios. It was an up-tempo number, building well, with a good lead vocal by Young with tight harmony vocals throughout the song. But The Toggery Five's versions of I'm Alive and Going Away were never released. A version recorded by the Hollies supposedly remains somewhere in the vaults of EMI or Abbey Road Studios.
That same year Gouldman was also active as producer on a single for Little Frankie and for Friday Browne (Ask any woman). The cost of living, written wiith Peter Cowap, was recorded by the Downliners Sect, although Gouldman recalls it was his own demo for the most part that saw the light under the band’s flag. ‘I think they may have added a few things, but it was baically me.’ Also in 1965 the Shadows recorded a coverversion of Gouldman’s Naughty Nippon Nights. Furthermore his I’m gonna take you there was recorded by Dave Berry and Gettin’ Nowhere was adapted by three artists: Friday Browne, Tony Basil and P.J. Proby, the last two bringing the song out with another title, I’m 28.

When 1965 went over in 1966 the 19 year old Gouldman had achieved what 19 year old music making boys normally can only dream of: he had his name associated with four top ten singles. And more was yet to come. Nevertheless Gouldman was not satisfied. He kept on dreaming of succes with a band of his own and he was wondering why he did not manage to achieve this with the Mockingbirds. “There was an interest in my writing, but no one paid too much attention to the Mockingbirds. I was writing hits, but we were still playing for eighty dollars a night. In a way I felt guilty that the Mockingbirds weren’t having any hits.”
Was it a lack of charisma on Gouldman’s behalf, maybe? Being the man who has once been described as standing on the stage in a permanent S-shape, knees forward, hips backwards and his body turned to the microphone, he was more the person to be considered your older brother than the expected teenage pop star. But Kevin Godley gave another explanation for the lack of Mockingbirds succes. ”Just about all the songs we recorded were Graham’s songs, but nothing happened. It was amazing; he was a very big writer at the time, but the group chemistry just didn’t make it together.”
The single I can feel we’re parting marked the end of the contract the Mockingbirds had at Columbia. But they didn’t make it on the next label – Immediate – either, despite the hit potential of Gouldman’s You stole my love, produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and ex-Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith and with Julie Driscoll doing the background vocal. Moving on to Decca the Mockingbirds recorded Gouldman’s One by one, which didn’t do anything either. How to be find a lover, written by Peter Cowap, proved to be the swan song for the Mockingbirds; Gouldman’s dream of an appealing band of his own fell apart literally. Vague plans to start a new band with Animals-guitarist Hilton Valentine and Samwell-Smith didn’t get a follow up. Also nothing came out of a Gouldman solo-recording (although with Basso on bass and Jacobson on guitar), Stop! Stop! Stop! (or honey I’ll be gone).