Their chart career begin in Britain with Sweets for my sweet (Drifters) and was followed by Sugar and spice, a song written by Tony Hatch, who is best remembered for Downtown and the other songs he wrote for Petula. For their third single, they covered Needles and pins, which was first recorded by Jackie De Shannon but was actually written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche. The group Smokie revived it in the seventies.
Although Jackie De Shannon didn't write Needles and pins, the Searchers recorded several songs that Jackie did write, most famously When you walk in the room - interestingly, this song was revived by Pam Tillis, who had a number two American country hit in the early nineties with the song. Don't throw your love away and Goodbye my love were also huge British hits. What have they done to the rain? was a top 20 hit and was one of the first ecological songs to hit the British charts.