Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

The theme of this month’s instalment of The Originals is soul classics. The alert reader will notice, with possible alarm, that none of the tracks featured were Motown hits. But that reveals that I’m planning to do a special of lesser-known originals of Motown hits at some point.

Sweet Soul Music (Yeah Man)
Before Arthur Conley wrote Sweet Soul Music, his tribute to the living soul legends, he just wanted to cover Sam Cooke’s posthumously released Yeah Man. Otis Redding rewrote the lyrics, and got himself a namecheck — but excluded the man who was being plagiarised. It was a strange omission, since Sam Cooke influenced pretty much every soul singer of the 1960s, including and especially Otis Redding.

Try A Little Tenderness
Indeed, it was Cooke’s interpretation of the old standard Try A Little Tenderness which inspired Otis Redding’s reworking of the song. Once Otis was through with the song, with the help of Booker T & the MGs and a production team that included Isaac Hayes, it bore only the vaguest semblance to the smooth and safe standard it once was. Redding in fact didn’t even want to record it, ostensibly because he did not want to compete with his hero Cooke’s brief interpretation of the song on the Live At The Copa set. His now iconic delivery was actually intended to screw the song up so much that it could not be released.

It isn’t quite clear who recorded the original version: the versions by the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra and the Ray Noble Orchestra are both cited as having been recorded on December 8, 1932.

At Last
When Beyoncé Knowles was invited to sing At Last — Barack and Michelle’s special song — at Obama’s inauguration events in January 2009, Etta James was not best pleased. The veteran soul singer stated her dislike for the younger singer, who had portrayed Etta in the film about the Chess label, Cadillac Records. “That woman; singing my song, she gonna get her ass whupped,” James declared (she later relegated her outburst to the status of a “joke”).

It is her song, of course, certainly in the form covered so competently by Beyoncé. But many people recorded it before her, and it was a hit at least twice. The first incarnation came in the 1941 movie Orchestra Wives, in which it was performed by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, who also recorded the first version to be released on record on 20 May 1942. It was a #9 hit for Miller. At Last became a hit again ten years later, for Ray Anthony with Tom Mercer on vocals. This version is typical 1950s easy listening fare, done much better in 1957 by Nat ‘King’ Cole (who tended to do music much better than most people).

In 1960 Etta James recorded the song, with Phil and Leonard Chess producing with a view to accomplishing crossover success. Her version, released on Chess subsidiary Argo, was a #2 R&B hit in 1961, but crossover success was limited, reaching only #47 in the pop charts. Over the years it did manage to cross over, being especially popular at weddings. As a result, it has been covered prodigiously, by soul singers (such as the wonderful Laura Lee and, in a gloriously upbeat version, Stevie Wonder), folk legends (Joni Mitchell) and difficult listening merchants (Céline Dion, Michael F. Bolton and Kenny G) alike.

I Got You (I Feel Good)
For one of his most iconic songs, James Brown covered his own composition, with a few adaptations. But first it was recorded, under Brown’s supervision, by his back-up singer (and lover) Yvonne Fair in 1962 as I Found You. Released on single by King Records, it went nowhere.

Two years later, Brown dug out the old song and recorded it, having to withdraw it at first because of a legal conflict with King Records. It became famous when Brown lip-synched it in the 1965 movie Ski Party.

Yvonne Fair went on to record on Motown, scoring a UK #5 in 1976 with It Should Have Been Me, originally a Kim Weston song from 1963.

It May Be Winter Outside – Under The Influence Of Love – Love Theme
Before becoming an icon of baby-making music, Barry White was something of an impresario. He discovered and produced the girl band Love Unlimited, whose success in 1972 set him off on his successful solo career. Just a decade or so earlier, White had been in jail for stealing the tyres of a Cadillac. After leaving jail, he started to work in record production, mostly as an arranger. Among his early arrangement credits was Bob & Earl’s 1963 song Harlem Shuffle. By 1967, White worked for the Mustang label. In that job, White wrote for Bobby Fuller, Viola Wills and a young soul singer named Felice Taylor.

Felice Taylor, born in 1948 in Richmond, California, had previously released a single as part of a trio with her sisters, The Sweets, and a solo single under the name Florian Taylor. White’s It May Be Winter Outside provided Taylor with her only US hit, reaching #42 in the pop charts. It is a rather lovely version that sounds a lot like a Supremes song (with a break stolen from the Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There). White also wrote and arranged Taylor’s I’m Under The Influence Of Love. The arrangement and Taylor’s vocals are inferior, and the single failed to make an impact. The flip side was the original recording of the Love Unlimited Orchestra’s Love Theme, performed by the Bob Keene Orchestra. This and Under The Influence are included as bonus tracks.

Taylor’s biggest success was with another White song, I Feel Love Comin’ On, a bubblegum pop number that reached #11 in the UK charts in late 1967. By the early 1970s Taylor had ceased to record. In 1973 Love Unlimited recorded totally reworked, luscious versions of It May Be Winter Outside and (title shortened) Under The Influence Of Love for the sophomore album. Both were released as singles, with Winter reaching #11 in the UK charts.

On Broadway
Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were among the giants of the Brill Building songwriting collective. According to Weil, her future husband Mann had wanted to write a “Gershwinesque” pop song, and she, being a Broadway fan, was delighted to put appropriate lyrics to the melody. They first had the song recorded by The Cookies (whose Chains the Beatles had covered), who ordinarily recorded songs, mostly demos, by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. Their demo was not released, but that by fellow girl-group The Crystals recorded soon after was, opening side 2 of their 1962 Twist Uptown album. It’s their version that features here; The Cookies’ demo is included as a bonus track.

In February 1963, Brill bosses Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber were in need of a song for The Drifters. At their request, Mann & Weil offered their On Broadway. Leiber & Stoller didn’t quite like their arrangement, and revised it overnight with the original composers. Next day The Drifters recorded the song, with Leiber & Stoller protégé Phil Spector on guitar and Rudy Lewis (successor of Ben E. King as the group’s lead singer) making one of his final appearances as a Drifter before his sudden death of a heart attack in 1964. Released in March ’63, the Drifters’ version became a hit, reaching #9 in the Billboard charts.

George Benson’s jazzed-up 1978 live recording did even better, reaching #7 in the US. Recorded in LA, the crowd clearly agrees with the statement that Benson “can play this here guitar”.

Mustang Sally
Mustang Sally is the karaoke number of blues and soul, thanks in large part to The Commitments’ spirited performance in the eponymous 1991 film. But it was in overuse before that: John Lee Hooker’s San Francisco blues club sported a sign on its stage warning: “No Mustang Sally”.

The song was written by the songwriter Bonnie “Sir Mack” Rice (who also wrote the soul classic Respect Yourself) as a bit of a gag on somebody’s desire for a Ford Mustang, calling it first “Mustang Mama”. Reportedly it was Aretha Franklin who suggested the renaming to Sally. Mack had a minor (and his only) hit with it in 1965; in late 1966 Wilson Pickett recorded his now legendary version — which almost died the moment it was finished. Apparently the tape snapped off the reel, fragmenting on the floor of the Muscle Shoals studio. The engineer, Tom Dowd, gathered the pieces and spliced them back together again. With that, he saved one of the great soul performances. Of course the great story of the broken tape ignores that Pickett could have simply recorded the thing again.

Midnight Train To Georgia
In 1972 former All-American quarterback Jim Weatherly released a country song that told of a girl whose fading dream of stardom in Los Angeles led not to a life of waitressing or pornography, but ended on a plane back to her home in Texas. In fact, Weatherley initially wanted his protagonist’s dreams shattered in Nashville, for his genre was country music.

The choice of Houston as the failed star’s home was inspired, according to Weatherley, by the actress Farrah Fawcett, who at the time was more famous for dating Lee Majors than her thespian accomplishments. “One day I called Lee and Farrah answered the phone,” Weatherly later told songfacts.com. “We were just talking and she said she was packing. She was gonna take the midnight plane to Houston to visit her folks. So, it just stayed with me. After I got off the phone, I sat down and wrote the song probably in about 30 to 45 minutes.”

Some months later, the Janus label sought permission to record the song with Cissy Houston, but asked whether they could adapt the lyrics to make the destination Georgia (seeing as Ms Houston going to Houston might seem a bit awkward). Weatherly accepted that, as well as a change in the mode of transport.

Whitney’s mom’s lovely performance became a minor hit in 1973. Gladys Knight heard it and decided to record it with her Pips. Houston’s endearing version, included here among the bonus tracks, might have been the template, but Knights’ cover demonstrates the genius of the sometimes unjustly ridiculed Pips. What would Gladys Knight’s interpretation be without the interplay with and interjections by her backing singers: “A superstar, well he didn’t get far”, “I know you will”, “Gotta go, gonna board the midnight train…” and, of course, the choo-choo “Hoo hoo”s?

It was fortuitous that Georgia was also Knight’s homestate. The song also sparked a collaboration with Weatherley with whose songs Knight populated the Imagination album on which Midnight Train appears, including Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me, originally recorded by easy listening crooner Steve Lawrence (some sources suggest Ray Price issued his version first). The Lawrence version is among the bonus tracks.

Rainy Night In Georgia
Louisiana-born “swamp rocker” Tony Joe White was only19 when he wrote Rainy Night In Georgia in 1962. He didn’t release the song until seven later, and even then it was his Polk Salad Annie which grabbed all the attention (covered to good effect by Elvis).

At the same time, deep-voiced soul veteran Brook Benton was looking for a hit to launch his comeback on an Atlantic subsidiary, Cottillion Records. The legendary Jerry Wexler alerted Benton to White’s song, and the singer scored a massive 1970 hit with his version, produced by the great Arif Mardin. Ex-Temptations singer David Ruffin put down a version at about the same time as Benton did; it was not released until 2004.

Georgia On My Mind
Georgia On My Mind was a standard long before Ray Charles recorded it, but when he did, he made the song his own. It was written by Hoagy Carmichael and lyricist Stuart Gorrell in 1930. The Georgia of the title was originally intended to refer to Hoagy’s sister, but realising that the words could apply also to the southern US state, Carmichael and Gorrell were happy to keep things ambiguous. The plan worked: the song was a massive hit especially in the South, and since 1979 it has been the state song of Georgia (a better choice than the tourist-unfriendly Rainy Night In Georgia, the loser-comes-home Midnight Train To Georgia, or the infrastructure-deficient The Lights Went Out In Georgia).

Carmichael’s version features jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke on cornet. He died a few months later at 28, but Carmichael went on to enjoy a long career, and is perhaps even better known for Stardust and Heart And Soul than he is for Georgia (which he nonetheless re-recorded a few times). Frankie Trumbauer scored a hit with the song in 1931, as did Mildred Bailey with her very appealing version.

Ray Charles, who was born in Georgia but grew up in Florida, recorded his version in 1960, reportedly at the advice of his driver who had heard Ray sing it to himself in the car. It was an instant hit, topping the US charts, and became something of a signature tune for Ray.

Strawberry Letter #23
Shuggie Otis, a gifted guitarist, indeed multi-instrumentalist, and son of R&B legend John Otis, released his ode of appreciation for the 22th in an exchange of love letter on strawberry-scented paper in 1971. Remarkably, Otis was all of 18 when he recorded the song.

Six years after Otis recorded the track, Brothers Johnson recorded it in a more upbeat mood, produced by Quincy Jones (who, happily, amplified the opening hook) with Lee Ritenour taking over the guitar solo duties so integral to the song. TYhey came to the sing through George Johnson, who had heard it through his girlfriend who was also Shuggie’s cousin.

Otis is still recording, having released an instrumental album last year.

Who’s That Lady
One act here covered itself: This slice of funky soul from The Isley Brothers’ classic 1973 album 3+3 was a cover of their 1964 recording, which had been inspired by Curtis Mayfield’s band The Impressions. Released just before the Isleys signed for Motown, the original has a vague bossa nova beat with a jazzy brass backing, but is immediately recognisable as the song they recorded nine years later. The 1964 recording was a flop. The latter version, with reworked harmonies and without the brass, added Ernie’s distinctive guitar, Chris Jasper’s new-fangled synthethizer, Santanesque percussions, and the menacing interjection “Look, yeah, but don’t touch”. It became their first Top 10 hit in four years.

Lady Marmalade
Lady Marmalade was written by Bob Crewe (a recurring name in this series for his association with the Four Seasons) and Kenny Nolan (who may be remembered for his 1977 ballad I Like Dreaming). Nolan was a member of the Eleventh Hour, who included the song on their rather grandly titled 1974 LP Eleventh Hour’s Greatest Hits (the number of actual hits were restricted to none, and the title was doubtless ironic).

The same year the legendary Alain Toussaint heard it and decided it would be the perfect song for the act he was producing, Labelle, led by Histrionic Patti. It became a US #1, replacing another Crewe & Nolan composition, Frankie Valli’s My Eyes Adored You. And Valli features on this mix as well.

Native New Yorker
The mystery of who recorded Native New Yorker first may never be resolved because all documents that could point to conclusive dates have been destroyed. Maybe it was Odyssey, who had the big hit with it, or maybe it was Frankie Valli.

The fact that the song’s co-writers, Charlie Calello and Sandy Linzer, also produced the Odyssey recording points to the disco trio. BUT: Calello and Linzer were producers for the Four Seasons already in the 1960s, so that could swing it back to Frankie Valli’s version. It seems that Valli’s version was released first in 1977 on his Lady Put The Light Off album before Odyssey had a hit with it in late 1977.

As always: CD-R length, home-funked covers, PW in comments.

1. Sam Cooke – Yeah Man (1964)
The Usurper: Arthur Conley (as Sweet Soul Music, 1966)

2. Chris Kenner – Land Of A 1000 Dances (1962)
The Usurpers: Cannibal & the Headhunters (1965), Wilson Picket (1966)

3. Yvonne Fair – I Found You (1962)
The Usurper: James Brown (as I Got You (I Feel Good}, 1965)

4. Connie Stevens – Keep Growing Strong (1970)
The Usurper: The Stylistics (as Betcha By Golly Wow, 1971)

5. Felice Taylor – It May Be Winter Outside (1966)
The Usurper: Love Unlimited (1973)

6. Chairmen Of The Board – Patches (1970)
The Usurper: Clarence Carter (1970)

7. Tony Joe White – Rainy Night In Georgia (1969)
The Usurpers: Brook Benton (1970), Randy Crawford (1981)

8. Jim Weatherly – Midnight Plane To Houston (1972)
The Usurper: Gladys Knight & The Pips (as Midnight Train To Georgia, 1973)

9. John Henry Kurtz – Drift Away (1972)
The Usurper: Dobie Gray (1973), Uncle Kracker (2003)

10. Johnny Darrell – The Son Of Hickory Hollers Tramp (1968)
The Usurper: O. C. Smith (1968)

11. Joe Haywood – Warm And Tender Love (1965)
The Usurper: Percy Sledge (1966)

12. Lowell Fulsom – Tramp (1966)
The Usurper: Otis Redding & Carla Thomas (1967)

15. Sir Mack Rice – Mustang Sally (1965)
The Usurper: Wilson Picket (1966), The Commitments (1991)

14. Mel & Tim – Groovy Situation (1969) (1973)
The Usurper: Gene Chandler (1970)

15. Shuggie Otis – Strawberry Letter #23 (1971)
The Usurper: Brothers Johnson (1977)

16. Eleventh Hour – Lady Marmalade (1974)
The Usurper: LaBelle (1974)

17. Frankie Valli – Native New Yorker (1977)
The Usurper: Odyssey (1977)

18. Marilyn McCoo – Saving All My Love For You (1978)
The Usurper: Whitney Houston (1985)

19. The Isley Brothers – Who’s That Lady? (1964)
The Usurper: The Isley Brothers – Who’s That Lady? (1973)

20. Thelma Jones – The House That Jack Built (1968)
The Usurper: Aretha Franklin (1968)

21. The Crystals – On Broadway (1962)
The Usurpers: The Drifters (1963); George Benson (1978)

22. The Five Keys – Close Your Eyes (1955)
The Usurper: Peaches & Herb (1967)

23. Hoagy Carmichael – Georgia On My Mind (1930)
The Usurper: Ray Charles (1960)

24. Glenn Miller with Ray Eberle and Pat Friday – At Last (1942)
The Usurper: Etta James (1960)

25. New Mayfair Dance Orchestra – Try A Little Tenderness (1933)
The Usurper: Otis Redding (1966)

Bonus Tracks:
Lamont Dozier – Going Back To My Roots (1977)
The Usurper: Odyssey (1981)

Steve Lawrence – The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me (1973)
The Usurper: Gladys Knight & The Pips (1973)

Felice Taylor – I’m Under The Influence Of Love (1967)
The Usurper: Love Unlimited (1973)

Bob Keene Orchestra – Love’s Theme (1967)
The Usurper: Love Unlimited Orchestra (1973)

Plus: The Cookies – On Broadway (1962)
Cissy Houston – Midnight Train To Georgia (1972)

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More Originals:
The Originals: The Classics
The Originals: 1960s Vol. 1
The Originals: 1970s Vol. 1
The Originals: 1980s Vol. 1
The Originals: 1990s & 2000s
The Originals: : Elvis Presley Edition Vol. 1
The Originals:  Elvis Presley Edition Vol. 2
The Originals: : Carpenters Edition
The Originals: Burt Bacharach Edition
The Originals: Schlager Edition
The Originals: : Christmas Edition

While this site is moving servers, with all the problems this creates, here’s a selection for the dog lovers first posted six years ago: 26 songs about canines — and one by dogs. Excluding some of the obvious choices, they range from the happy to the spooky to the amusing to the sad. I’ve tried to keep the sad ones to a minimum; as any dog or cat owner will know, the time when a pet has to be put down is nearly as traumatic as losing a family member.

Ken-L Ration Commercial – My Dog’s Better Than Your Dog (1960s)
Kids usually brag about whose Dad is the strongest; in this TV commercial, the kids don’t argue: the kids with the Ken-L Ration eating dog win by dietary default. The jingle was based on a song by the great singer-songwriter Tom Paxton.

The Beatles – Martha My Dear (1968)
Martha was Paul’s dog that roamed his overgrown garden in St John’s Wood, London. Paul never wrote as lovingly about Jane Asher…

Harry Nilsson – The Puppy Song (1969)
Lonely Harry wishes for a puppy with whom to “share a cup of tea” and escape from alienating society.

Cat Stevens – I Love My Dog (1967)
Yup, Cat loves his dog.

Johnny Cash – Dirty Old Egg Suckin’ Dog (1969)
Call the pet protection agency! Cash might like his dog, but if he messes with the chicken again, he will visit violence upon the hound. And this is a light-hearted song…

Dolly Parton – Me And Little Andy (1977)
Dark spooky stuff about a death-bound visitor and her dog. One for opening those tear-ducts.

Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians – Ghost Of A Dog (1990)
Some years ago Edie put her dog to sleep – and now he is nocturnally spooking the yard. Cold shivers!

Nellie McKay – The Dog Song (2004)
Adopted dog turns around singer’s pitiful life by being tail-wagging and cute.

Bobby Bare Jr – Your Adorable Beast (2004)
Country giant’s son sings a love song to his dog. All dog owners think about playing it for their pooch.

Bright Eyes – Stray Dog Freedom (2006)
Oberst digs the freedom of the stray dog. Or he means himself. Does anyone ever really know with that guy?

Klaatu – All Good Things (1980)
The band that wasn’t The Beatles after all sing about losing their best friend: “I never had a closer friend than you, but all good things must end.” Start up those tear-ducts again.

Jerry Jeff Walker – Mr. Bojangles (1968)
The original version. Bojangles is sobering up in jail and tells his fellow inmates about his hoofing life on the road, and about his beloved dog. *** SPOILER ALERT *** The dog died.

Anonymous – Your Dog Loves My Dog (1960s)
From an album of recordings from the civil rights movement, the song tells the story of two dogs, one owned by a black person and the other by a white man, who are great friends. The metaphor is patently obvious, but some people still do not get it.

Tom T. Hall – Old Dogs, Children And Watermelon Wine (1972)
An old guy tells Tom about the three things “that’s worth a solitary dime”. Superannuated canines rank among these.

Jean Shepard & Ray Pillow – I’ll Take The Dog (1966)
Jean and Ray are getting divorced and amicably settle on who gets what, until it comes to the custody of the pooch, at which point they turn into Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney – a Pillow fight, so to speak (oh come on, everybody loves a putrid pun!). Watch out for the surprise ending.

Webb Pierce – I’m Walking The Dog (1953)
In questions of romance, Webb values his freedom, preferring to walk his dog. Unless the song’s title serves as a euphemism.

Elvis Presley – Old Shep (1956)
An old country lament for a dog that gone died. Originally recorded by Red Foley, Old Shep was the favourite song of the young boy Elvis down Tupelo way – so much did young Elvis love the song that he sang it at his first ever public performance, as a ten-year-old at a talent show at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. Elvis didn’t win (and the winner either never had to buy a drink again, or felt like a total fraud when Elvis became famous), but he recorded Old Shep on his debut album.

Three Keys – That Doggone Dog Of Mine (1933)
The Three Keys’ mutt cannot do much but it cost only 15 cents, in 1933 money. And what follows is a lovingly compiled doggy CV.

Dolly Dawn and her Dawn Patrol – Where Has My Little Dog Gone (1939)
The nursery rhyme rendered in big band style. It’s quite brilliant.

Hank Williams – Move It On Over (1947)
Hank is in the dog house, now the big, mad dawg is moving in, so scratch it on over, small dog.

Rufus Thomas – Stop Kickin’ My Dog Around (1964)
Rufus, whose moniker is a popular canine name, had a string of songs about man’s best friend: Walk The Dog, The Dog, Somebody Stole My Dog , Can Your Monkey Do The Dog and this song counselling somebody to mind their bad temper.

Nancy Sinatra – Leave My Dog Alone (1966)
People, leave the dog alone. And her cat. And Nancy.

Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia (The Full Horror Mix) (1986)
Because I Want A Dog is much too obvious.

Ferlinghetti & Dorough – Dog (1958)
An existential poem about dogs set to jazz (“Congressman Doyle is just another fire hydrant to him.”). Snoopy would dig it.

The Monkees – Gonna Buy Me A Dog (1966)
The Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart song about getting a pet to recover from a break-up was intended to be performed straight, and The Monkees recorded it thus on a version that went unreleased for the next three decades. On this take, released in 1966, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones certainly don’t play the song straight, instead lacing it with some really bad jokes.

Homer & Jethro – That Hound Dog In The Window (1953)
Yes, we’re well into the novelty section of dog songs now. Comedy duo Homer & Jethro corrupt that nice Patti Page hit about the price for the pooch in the store window. It probably was quite hilarious in 1953.

Don Charles and the Singing Dogs – Oh! Susanna (1955)
Doggies bark a song. There is a reason this song comes at the end of this collection…

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R. Home-bred covers are included. I borrowed the graphic for the front cover from papillonpalsrescue.com, an adoption agency for dogs. If you are in the market for a canine, please consider adopting a dog.

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More CD-R Mixes

For most of you, summer is on the way. Spare a thought for us in the southern hemisphere for whom winter is about to break. See poor me shiver to near-death when the daytime-high temperature hits 13°C (that’s 56° in Fahrenheit). The brrrrutality of it!

That is when my thoughts turn to warm days at the beach. And that is what the third mix of songs on the beach is for: to prepare the northern hemisphere folks for summer, and for us in the southern half of the earth to remind us that summer is just half a year away.

Of course, there are two previous beach mixes and five summer compilations to fall back on. All links should be working.

As ever, CD-R length, home-tanned covers, PW in comments.

1. Larry & The Loafers – Let’s Go To The Beach (1966)
2. Frankie Avalon – Beach Party (1964)
3. Skeeter Davis – Under The Boardwalk (1966)
4. Tony Orlando & Dawn – Summer Sand (1971)
5. Chairmen Of The Board – Down At The Beach Club (1983)
6. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Pleasure Beach (1978)
7. Van Halen – Cabo Wabo (1988)
8. Weezer – Surf Wax America (1994)
9. Ramones – Rockaway Beach (Live) (1979)
10. Jim Steinman – Surf’s Up (1981)
11. Men At Work – Down By The Sea (1981)
12. Chris Rea – On The Beach (Live) (1988)
13. Dierks Bentley – Somewhere On A Beach (2016)
14. Richard Ashcroft – On A Beach (2000)
15. The Cure – A Strange Day (1982)
16. Bob Dylan – Sara (1976)
17. Vanity Fare – I Live For The Sun (1968)
18. The Beach Boys – Surfer Girl (1963)
19. Jan & Dean – Ride The Wild Surf (1964)
20. Stevie Wonder – The Party At The Beach House (1964)
21. Frank & The Top Ten – Beach Bunny (c.1975)

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Previously in Any Major Summer
More Mix-CD-Rs

After last month’s relative quiet time, the Reaper returned with a vengeance, killing off the old and a young star who had just enjoyed a massive summer hit, and cutting a swathe through late 1960s/early 1970s soul.

Not brought up that way

The obituaries have covered all there’s to know about Doris Day, though the emphasis was mostly on her acting career, and correctly so. The casual reader might have thought that Day’s music output, especially the ubiquitous Que Sera Sera, owed to her film career. But before she was a movie star, Doris Day was an accomplished jazz singer, starting her career as a teenager in 1939, and scoring a few big hits in 1945, including the original version of Sentimental Journey with Les Baxter’s Orchestra, which features here.

The Mod Squadder

Famous mostly as a TV actress on The Mod Squad and later Twin Peaks, or as a model, or as the wife of Quincy Jones and mother of actress Rashieda Jones, Peggy Lipton also recorded a bunch of Lou Adler-produced songs, including one album. One of these songs, the gorgeous but largely unknown Red Clay Country Line from 1969, featured on the Any Major Jimmy Webb Vol. 2 mix. Three of Lipton’s singles reached the lower ends of the US charts, with one of them, the Laura Nyro-written Stoney End, later being covered by Barbra Streisand. Lipton is, oddly, credited as a co-writer of Frank Sinatra’s 1984 song L.A. Is My Lady, which was produced by then-husband Quincy Jones.

The bass singer

In 2012 the 60-year-long career of The Dells came to an end when founder members Marvin Junior and Chuck Barksdale retired due to illness. The former died the following year; bass singer Barksdale left us in May. The Dells were one of the groups that made the transition from doo wop to soul, having scored a classic in 1957 with Oh What A Night (most recently featured in the Any Major Music From The Sopranos Vol. 1 mix), and becoming a soul fixture in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

The Ageless Singer

1980s TV viewers may be familiar with the voice of Leon Redbone from the theme of the sitcom Mr. Belvedere. Championed by Bob Dylan, the Cyprus-born singer with roots in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem had his own anachronistic style, singing old classics – Tin Pan Alley, blues, ragtime – at a time when the world sought disco, rock or punk. Known for his bushy moustache, hat and sunglasses, Redbone was cagey about his private life, to the point of denying to know how old he was (he was 69 when he died). Redbone released his final album in 2016.

Look at him!

With the death of bass singer Willie Ford, only one member of the classic early-’70s line-up of soul group The Dramatics survives in founder member Larry Demps. Ford joined the band as a 20-year-old after it had recorded initial success in 1970 (after the Algiers Motel incident), having previously sung with The Capitols, albeit after their solitary hit, Cool Jerk. With The Dramatics Ford scored a soul classic with 1972’s Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get (he does the famous “Look at me”). He stayed with The Dramatics for the duration of their career, including a stint when, due to the band splitting in two, it had to go by the name A Dramatic Experience. In the end, The Dramatics were again two entities, one led by Ford and the other by L.J. Reynolds (who had joined the band in 1973). In 1993, The Dramatics, who once sang of sweet love and social justice, assisted Snoop Dogg in his misogynist rapey anthem Doggy Dogg World.

The Mad Lad

On the same day as Ford, another soul singer joined the heavenly chorus in John Gary Williams, the lead singer of The Mad Lads whose high tenor gave that vocal group its sweet sound. The Tennessee group had some success on Stax in the mid-1960s, but their efforts at reaching stardom were halted when Williams and co-member William Brown were drafted into the army in 1966. After his release from the army, Williams was reinstalled as lead singer, scoring a couple more hits before The Mad Lads disbanded in 1973. Williams embarked on a solo career which produced good songs but little success before reforming The Mad Lads, releasing a final album in 1990.

Tony Soprano Drive-time

Heading the Any Major Sopranos mix mentioned earlier was, of course, the theme track, Woke Up This Morning by Scottish acid house band Alabama 3, which accompanied us as Tony Soprano drive from New York to Newark. Jake Black, co-writer and co-leader of the group, died in May. A3 (as they had be called in the US at the threat of court action by country act Alabama) wrote the song as a feminist anthem about a woman who shot dead her abusive husband. Black saw a paradox in the track being used to score a TV show about the mafia: “It’s totally ironic that we, who disapprove of anything villains do, should be picked for the theme song of a show that shows the human side of villains,” he said in an interview.

Summer Hit Tragedy

Just a few months ago, Gabriel Diniz had a huge summer hits in Brazil with Jenifer, achieving the big breakthrough after releasing three albums, On May 26, the 28-year-old died in a plane crash.

From Punk to Bench

Few career paths led from punk to the judge’s chair, but so it was with Susan Beschta, who with her art-pink band Erasers were a fixture on New York’s CBGB scene in the 1970s. The band attracted great reviews for their live shows but won no recording contract. They ended up recording only three songs. After the band split in 1981, Beschta tried her hand at a solo career, which didn’t take off. A feminist and social activist, she turned to the world of law as a means of making a difference. After doing nine years of legal work for Catholic Charities in New York and then for an immigration firm, she joined the US Department of Homeland Security, with a special brief on immigration. In November she was sworn in as a judge, before the cancer that eventually killed her returned.

President of Ska

Long before he became the right-wing Jamaican premier through the 1980s, Edward Seaga (or CIAga, as the Reagan ally was called by his opponents) was a producer of ska records, many of which he released on his own label, WIRL. As such, the future political leader was influential in spreading ska music.

John Starling, 79, bluegrass musician with The Seldom Scene, on May 2
The Seldom Scene – Wait A Minute (2014, on vocals)

Juan Vicente Torrealba, 102, Venezuelan harpist and folk-composer, on May 2
Los Torrealberos – Los Garceros (1954)

Susan Beschta, 67, punk pioneer and judge, on May 2
Erasers – Funny (1970s)

Patrick Gibson, 57, Australian musician and radio producer, on May 3
Ya Ya Choral – Waiting Time (1982)

Mose ‘Fan Fan’ Se Sengo, 73, Congolese Soukous pioneer, on May 3
Mose Fanfan – Papa Lolo (2004)

R. Cobb, 75, songwriter and guitarist with Classics IV, Atlanta Rhythm Section, on May 4
The Classics IV – Stormy (1969, also as co-writer)
Atlanta Rhythm Section – Do It Or Die (1979, also as co-writer)

Pekka Airaksinen, 73, Finnish avant-garde composer and musician, on May 6

Chris Holmes, 73, keyboardist of English psychedelic rock band Timebox, in May
Timebox – Don’t Make Promises (1967)

Fritz Novotny, 78, Austrian jazz saxophonist and composer, on May 7

Luther Jennings, 86, gospel singer with The Jackson Southernaires, on May 8
The Jackson Southernaires – Can’t Make It By Myself (1978, also as co-writer)

Preston Epps, 88, percussionist, on May 9
Preston Epps – Bongo Rock (1959)

Lee Hale, 96, songwriter and director/producer of dance-troupe The Golddiggers, on May 10

Peggy Lipton, 72, actress, model and singer, on May 11
Peggy Lipton – Stoney End (1968)
Peggy Lipton – Lu (1970)

Glenn Martin, 86, country songwriter, on May 12
Merle Haggard – It’s Not Love (But It’s Not Bad) (1972, as co-writer)
Millie Jackson – If You’re Not Back In Love By Monday (1978, as co-writer)

Doris Day, 97, singer and actress, on May 13
Les Brown with his Orchestra – Sentimental Journey (1945, on vocals)
Doris Day – Again (1949)
Doris Day – Move Over Darling (1963)

Mari Griffith, 79, Welsh folk singer, author and radio presenter, on May 13
Mari Griffith – Dona, Dona (1968)

Mike Wilhelm, 77, guitarist, songwriter with The Charlatans, Flamin’ Groovies, on May 14
The Charlatans – The Shadow Knows (1966)
Flamin’ Groovies – Move It (1978)

Leon Rausch, 91, country & western singer, on May 14
Leon Raush – Brand New World (1967)

Chuck Barksdale, 84, bass vocalist in soul band The Dells, on May 15
The Dells – Q-Bop She-Bop (1957)
The Dells – Please Don’t Change Me Now (1968)
The Dells – If You Go Away (1971)

Leola Jiles, 77, soul singer, on May 16
The Apollas – Just Can Get Enough Of You (1965)
Leola Jiles – Keep It Coming (1967)

Sol Yaged, 96, jazz clarinetist, on May 16
Phil Napoleon – Bonaparte’s Retreat (1950, on clarinet)

Mick Micheyl, 97, French singer and artist, on May 16
Mick Micheyl – Un gamin Paris (1961)

Eric Moore, 67, singer and bassist of hard rock band The Godz, on May 17
The Godz – Gotta Keep A Runnin’ (1978)

Geneviéve Waite, 71, South African actress and singer; mother of Bijou Philips, on May 18
Geneviéve Waite – Femme Fatale (1974)

Melvin Edmonds, 65, R&B singer, brother of Babyface, on May 18
After 7 – Ready Or Not (1989)

Nilda Fernández, 61, Spanish-born chanson singer, on May 19
Nilda Fernández – Yo le decía (1992)

Jake Black, 59, singer of Scottish house act Alabama 3, on May 21
Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning (Acoustic) (1997)
Alabama 3 – Sad Eyed Lady Of The Low Life (2000)

Gabriel Diniz, 28, Brazilian singer, in plane crash on May 27
Gabriel Diniz – Jenifer (2018)

Edward Seaga, 89, ska producer and Jamaican prime minister, on May 28
Laurel Aitken – Stars Were Made (1961)

Willie Ford, 68, singer with soul band The Dramatics, on May 28
The Dramatics – Watcha See Is Watcha Get (1972)
The Dramatics – Hey You! Get Off My Mountain (1973)
The Dramatics – You’re The Best Thing In My Life (1980)

John Gary Williams, 73, lead singer of soul group The Mad Lads, on May 28
The Mad Lads – Patch My Heart (1966)
The Mad Lads – So Nice (1969)
John Gary Williams – The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy (1973)

Tony Glover, 79, blues harmonica player, on May 29
Koerner, Ray & Glover – Down To Louisiana (1963)

Jeff Walls, guitarist of pop group Guadalcanal Diary, on May 29
Guadalcanal Diary – Trail Of Tears (1984)

Leon Redbone, 69, singer-songwriter and actor, on May 30
Leon Redbone – Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now) (1978)
Leon Redbone – Theme Of Mr. Belvedere (1985)
Leon Redbone – Save Your Sorrow (2014)

Roky Erickson, 71, rock singer-songwriter, on May 31
13th Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss Me (1966)

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(PW in comments)

–

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that The Originals are running monthly now. This month we cover the 1990s and 2000s. My stash of lesser-known originals from that era is limited; so much so that I’m adding a few bonus tracks to exhaust those decades.

It’s Oh So Quiet
Bjork showed just how madcap crazy she is on the big band pastiche It’s Oh So Quiet. But the song was actually a cover of actress Betty Hutton‘s 1951 English version of the song, titled Blow A Fuse. It is no less maniacal than Bjork’s 1995 cover, right down to the frantic screams.

It’s fair to say that back in the day Hutton was a bit of a cook in her own right; her goofy performance in the musical Annie Get Your Gun (with which you apparently can’t get a man) testifies to a certain lack of restraint which is very much on exhibition on Bjork’cover.

Blow A Fuse itself was a cover of a 1948 German number by Austrian jazz musician Horst Winter, who knew it as Und jetzt ist es still (And now it’s quiet). It is included here as a bonus track.

Torn
When Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn had its long run in the upper reaches of the British and US charts in 1997, word was that the song was a cover of the Norwegian hit by Trine Rein. The truth is that it wasn’t even the first cover, or even the first Scandinavian version.

The song’s journey to hit-dom is a little complicated. The song was written by Ednaswap members Anne Preven and Scott Cutler in 1993. The same year it was recorded in Danish by Lis Sørensen as Brændt (“Burnt’) but by Ednaswap only in 1995. Still, those who overplayed the Norwegian angle aren’t entire wrong though: Imbruglia’s cover is a straight copy of Rein’s version, right down to the guitar solo.

Ednaswap were a not very successful ’90s grunge band, who came by their name when singer Anne Preven had a nightmare about fronting a group by that name being booed off the stage. Well, with a name like that… Preven has become a songwriter, receiving an Oscar nomination for co-writing the song Listen from  Dreamgirls.

I Swear & I Can Love You Like That
Before it was a worldwide mega-hit for soul crooners All-4-One, I Swear was a country song. In late 1993, singer John Michael Montgomery issued I Swear as a single. It did very well in the country charts and won the 1995 Grammy for Best Country Song, but reached only #42 in the Billboard charts.

Later in 1994, producer David Foster took the song, written by written by Gary Baker and Frank J. Myers, to the soul boy band All-4-One, who topped the charts in many countries with it.

They repeated the trick a year later when All-4-One had a huge hit with I Can Love You Like That—also originally recorded earlier that year by John Michael Montgomery (his version of that is included as a bonus track). Here I think the All-4-One version is better than the pedestrian origi

Nothing Compares To U

It’s well-known that Sinead O’Connor’s mega hit of 1990 was written by Prince, for his funk side project The Family. Released in 1985, the song made no impact. Oddly, Prince recorded it as well but never released it on record, though he regularly sang it in concert.

O’Connor tells a story that Prince summoned her to Paisley Park around the time she had her debut hit with his song to berate her for using bad language in interviews, provoking a confrontation that culminated in a physical fight. Just a “Thank you for writing my hit” might have been the better response.

You Raise Me Up

The rather cloying, hymn-like You Raise Me Up became famous in the 2003 version by Josh Groban and later by the dreaded Westlife. In its original form it was released by Norwegian new-agey outfit Secret Garden, whose members had written it, with vocals by Northern Irish singer Brian Kennedy. He performed it at the 2005 funeral for football legend George Best, and hit a UK hit with it.

Secret Garden, who had won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995 for Norway with the near-instrumental Nocturne, were sued last year by Icelandic composer Jóhann Helgason who claims that his 1977 song Söknuður was plagiarised.

Make You Feel My Love

One could argue, with some justification, that the original of Make You Feel My Love is the 1997 version by Billy Joel, rather than that of the song’s writer, Bob Dylan. Joel released his recording of it a month before Dylan’s came out. But Dylan’s was the first to be recorded, so here I’ll give him the nod (I have a playlist of other first-recordings-released-later in my collection which might become another mix).

Billy Joel deservedly had little success with his single (included here as a bonus track), but Make You Feel My Love became a big hit first for Garth Brooks in 1998 and a decade after that for Adele.

Am I The Same Girl

Soul singer Barbara Acklin must have been very pleased when her husband Eugene Record, future soul legend as leader of The Chi-Lites, gave her a song he had co-written with arranger Sammy Sanders. Acklin duly recorded Am I The Same Girl, a catchy number with a great hook which had hit written all over it. And it became a hit — minus Acklin’s voice. Producer Carl Davis took the backing track, added a piano solo and released it as Soulful Strut by Young-Holt Unlimited (though Eldee Young and Red Holt are not believed to have played on the track). Released in November 1968, it became a million-seller. Acklin’s version was issued in February 1969, to little notice.

Soulful Strut was frequently covered and later liberally sampled. Am I the Same Girl was covered by Dusty Springfield, who had a minor hit with it in 1969. It was her version that inspired the 1992 Swing Out Sisters cover, which later became famous in the US as a theme for Martha Stewart’s show.

Round Here
Before the Counting Crows, there were The Himalayans. That was the band which singer Adam Duritz fronted in the early 1990s. And it was with fellow Himalayans that he co-wrote Round Here, which was the second single off Counting Crows’ 1993 debut album August and Everything After.

Don’t Know Why
Don’t Know Why is the song that made Norah Jones an instant star in 2002, winning her a Grammy. The song was given to her by songwriter Jesse Harris, who contributed four other songs to Jones’ debut album.

Harris had recorded Don’t Know Why with his band The Fernandinos in 1998. His version sounds more like the alt.country band Bright Eyes than the smooth jazz of Norah Jones. And, sure enough, Harris went on to play guitar on Bright Eyes’ superb 2005 album I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.

When You Say Nothing At All
The regrettable Ronan Keating scored a huge worldwide hit in 1999 with When You Say Nothing At All, his first single outside Irish boy band Boyzone, on the back of the Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts rom-com Notting Hill (Julia Roberts is said to have cried when she first heard the song, no doubt overcome by Keating’s herculean soulfulness).

It’s not as mediocre a song as Keating and his terrible arrangement would make us believe. In the beginning, it was a quite excellent country #1 for Keith Whitley. Whitley was on the cusp of country superstardom when he died in on 9 May 1989 at the age of 33, one of the many musicians to fall the victim to the bottle.

When You Say Nothing At All was written by Paul Overberg and Don Schlitz, both prolific songwriters and occasional recording artists (Schlitz recorded the first version of the Kenny Rodgers hit The Gambler, which he also wrote).

Alison Krauss, once a child prodigy, recorded When You Say Nothing At All for a Whitley tribute album. Her lovely version was so popular that it was released as a single, providing the bluegrass singer with her first hit, reaching #2 on the country charts. And yet, this lovely song is known as a Ronan Keating number. Where’s justice?

Who Let The Dogs Out?

A repeat contender for Worst Song of the 2000s”, Who Let The Dogs Out was originally a man-bashing song (the “dogs” in the title are misogynist men) titled Doggied, written for Trinidad & Tobago’s carnival season 1998 by musician Anslem Douglas.

It was first covered by English radio personality Jonathan King, before his conviction for sexual abuse of teenage boys, as Fat Jakk and his Pack of Pets. His version was picked up by the manager of the Bahamian dance band Baha Boys, who recorded it only very reluctantly. The Baha Boys clearly were men of discernment but awful commercial judgment: the song was a big hit and earned them a Grammy, which is always a guarantee of unimpeachable quality.

Who Let The Dogs Out was a huge hit everywhere except in the US. But even that nation eventually succumbed to its dubious charms: Who Let The Dogs Out has become part of US culture thanks to its use at sporting events. Meanwhile Anslem Douglas was sued for having plagiarised the chorus from Canadian radio jingle writers. The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

From A Distance
Julie Gold was a secretary at HBO while she was writing songs on the side. Gold had pitched one song she had written to various record companies and artists, but nobody picked it up. Through a mutual friend she got that sing, From A Distance, to folk-country singer Nanci Griffith, with a request that the singer might point out what exactly was wrong with the song to merit its serial rejection. Griffith found nothing wrong with it. On the contrary, she recorded it for her 1987 album Lone Star State of Mind.

From A Distance, a rather mawkish number, became a mega-hit in 1990 in the version by Bette Midler. Opinion on the song is rather divided: it sold by the shedloads and won the Grammy for Song of the Year (as I said, always the seal of quality). On the other hand, it resides comfortably on most lists of “Worst Ballad of the 1990s”. Personally, I don’t like it much.

She’s The One
In his cover of She’s The One, Robbie Williams hardly bothered to interpret the original by World Party; his vocals follow the template of the first version faithfully, almost as if he has no powers of interpretation. Those vocals which Williams karaoked were put down by former Waterboys member and multi-instrumentalist Karl Wallinger, for whom World Party is practically a solo project.

Wallinger wrote the song, and won an Ivor Novello Award for it in 1997. But he had no commercial success with the World Party recording of it. That came with Robbie Williams’ inferior 1998 cover which topped the UK charts.

Ain’t That Just The Way

Twenty years before the unusually named Lutricia McNeal had a European hit with Ain’t That Just The Way, it was recorded by the girlfriend of Playboy honcho Hugh Hefner, Barbi Benton. Hefner and Benton became a couple, for seven years, after the then 18-year-old pretended to be his girlfriend in episodes of the Playboy After Dark TV series in 1968.

Born Barbara Klein (the more Playboy-friendly name was suggested by Hefner, of course) in New York and growing up in California, Benton was primarily an actress, appearing in a few unsuccessful movies as well as in the TV show Hee Haw. Between 1978 and ’81, she had three cameos playing three different characters on the Love Boat. In the meantime, she recorded six albums (including a live set) between 1974 and 1988, scoring a country chart top 5 hit in 1975 with Brass Buckles. She also appeared several times in Playboy, making it to the cover in July 1969, March 1970, May 1972 and October 1985 — but never as a Playmate.

Benton first released Ain’t That Just The Way, which she co-wrote with film composer Stu Philips, as a single in 1976, possibly for the TV series McCloud, which Philips scored. Benton re-recorded a slowed-down version of the song, produced by Deep Purple’s Roger Glover, for her 1978 album of the same title. The version featured here is the 1976 single.

Ain’t That Just The Way song was covered in 1977 by Dutch singer Patricia Paay, retitled Poor Jeremy. Two decades later, American R&B singer McNeal had a big hit throughout Europe with her version, restored to its original title, reaching #5 in Britain and the top 10 in every European chart, as well as topping the Billboard Dance charts. In a bit of a twist, McNeal posed in the German edition of Hefner’s Playboy magazine in 2004.

CD-R length. Home shell-suited covers included. PW in comments.

1. Barbara Acklin – Am I The Same Girl (1968)
The Usurper: Swing Out Sister (1992)

2. Lis Sørensen – Brændt (1993)
The Usurper: Natalie Imbruglia (as Torn, 1997)

3. The Family – Nothing Compares 2 U (1985)
The Usurper: Sinead O’Connor (1990)

4. Nanci Griffith – From A Distance (1988)
The Usurper: Bette Midler (1990)

5. Keith Whitley – When You Say Nothing At All (1988)
The Usurpers: Alison Krauss (1994); Ronan Keating (1999)

6. John Michael Montgomery – I Swear (1994)
The Usurper: All-4-One (1994)

7. The Judds – Change The World (1988)
The Usurper: Eric Clapton (1996)

8. Bob Dylan – Make You Feel My Love (1997)
The Usurpers: Garth Brooks (1998); Adele (2008)

9. The Himalayans – Round Here (1991)
The Usurper: Counting Crows (1993)

10. World Party – She’s The One (1997)
The Usurper: Robbie Williams (1998)

13. Brenda Russell – Get Here (1987)
The Usurper: Oleta Adams (1990)

12. G.C. Cameron – It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday (1975)
The Usurper: Boyz II Men (1991)

13. Linda Clifford – All The Man I Need (1982)
The Usurper: Whitney Houston (1990)

14. Barbi Benton – Ain’t That Just The Way (1976)
The Usurper: Lutricia McNeal (1997)

15. Jesse Harris & The Ferdinandos – Don’t Know Why (1998)
The Usurper: Norah Jones (2001)

16. Randy Newman – You Can Leave Your Hat On (1972)
The Usurpers: Joe Cocker (1986); Tom Jones (1997)

17. Secret Garden – You Raise Me Up (2000)
The Usurper: Josh Groban (2003), Westlife (2005)

18. Betty Hutton – Blow A Fuse (1951)
The Usurper: Bjork (as It’s Oh So Quiet, 1995)

19. Anslem Douglas – Doggie (1998)
The Usurper: Basha Men (as Who Let The Dogs Out,2000)

20. Tori Alamaze – Don’t Cha (2004)
The Usurper: The Pussycat Dolls (2005)

Bonus Tracks:
Horst Winter – Und jetzt ist es still (1948)
The Usurpers: Betty Hutton (as Blow A Fuse, 1951); Björk (as It’s Oh So Quiet, 1995)
John Michael Montgomery – I Can Love You Like That (1995)
The Usurper: All-4-One (1995)
Billy Joel – To Make You Feel My Love (1997)
The Usurpers: Garth Brooks (1998); Adele (2008)
Shalamar – This Is For The Lover In You (1980)
The Usurper: Babyface (1997)
Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah (1984)
The Usurpers: Jeff Buckley (1994); plus thousands others

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More CD-R Mixes

The great soul tracks on this mix are 40 years old – which means that no autotune is in sight. It was a time when disco was at its height, but I suppose when I put this playlist together I was in no disco mood. Indeed, a few tracks are old school soul, especially Shirley Brown‘s After A Night Like This. A couple of tracks later, 1960s star O.C. Smith makes an appearance here with a track that sounds at once old-fashioned and very much of its time.

I realise that I’ve fostered one track already on the faithful reader, though that was six years ago. The closing track here by David Ruffin appeared on the Any Major Morning Vol. 1 mix (one Is still play regularly, as I do Any Major Morning Vol. 2).

There are a few acts whom we have not met yet in this long series (Any Major Soul 1960-63 was posted in 2012, and there was a series of Any Major Soul mixes, covering two years each, before that).

Lowrell is one of them. Born Lowrell Simon, he was a member of a couple of groups – The Vondells and The Lost Generation – before acting mostly as a songwriter and producer. Among the songs he co-wrote was How Can You Say Goodbye by Sydney Joe Qualls, which featured on Any Major Soul 1974-75. In 1979 he released his one solo LP on a label owned by, of all people, Liberace. Lowrell died in June 2018.

Featuring here with Heaven Must Have Made You, recorded the same year by Tower Of Power, is jazz-funk/soul outfit Pieces, which later that year became jazz-funk/soul outfit L.A.X. And that’s probably as interesting as it gets, perhaps other than to note that all four members had surnames starting with L.

Also from a jazz-funk background was spelling-bee nemeses Niteflyte, who released two albums. The band worked with high-calibre singers such as Phyllis Hyman and Jean Carn, and musicians such as David Sanborn, Michael & Randy Brecker and drummer Stephen Ferrone. With the present track Nyteflite even broke the Billboard Top 40.

Two acts here did not live to see the end of 1979. Minnie Riperton, whose album Minnie was released two months before her death, died of breast cancer on July 12 that year. She was only 31.

Donny Hathaway didn’t even see the release of the song here, a duet with Roberta Flack. He died on January 9 from an apparent suicide. The Stevie Wonder co-written You Are My Heaven was released on single in November 1979. The album that featured the two duets he recorded shortly before his death with Flack, which also included the hit Back Together Again, would be released only in 1980.

So, now we have covered the 1960s and the 1970s. Should I enter the 1980s, or has this thing run its course? You tell me.

As always, CD-R length, home-souled covers, PW in comments.

1. Candi Staton – Ain’t Got Nowhere To Go
2. Kool & the Gang – Too Hot
3. Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway – You Are My Heaven
4. Brenda Russell – So Good, So Right
5. Shirley Brown – After A Night Like This
6. Commodores – Sail On
7. O.C. Smith – Love To Burn
8. Minnie Riperton – Lover And Friend
9. Earth, Wind & Fire – Wait
10. Ronnie Dyson – Long Distance Lover
11. Patrice Rushen – Giving It Up Is Giving Up
12. High Inergy – Will We Ever Love Again
13. Pieces – Heaven Must Have Made You
14. Lowrell – You’re Playing Dirty
15. Ray, Goodman & Brown – Special Lady
16. Niteflyte – If You Want It
17. Leon Ware – What’s Your Name
18. Deniece Williams – Turn Around
19. Terry Callier – Pyramids Of Love
20. David Ruffin – Morning Sun Looks Blue

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As I have already done with albums by Bruce Springsteen, Carole King, David Bowie and many Beatles albums, here’s another track-by-track covers mix. Except there are some songs on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road for which no covers seem to exist, so I have filled gaps with three live performances by Elton John himself, from his Hammersmith Odeon concert on 22 December 1973. One song had to be omitted altogether, for lack of any alternative versions.

In 1973 there was no indication that one day Elton John would become one of the leading Friends of Dorothy, but he unintentionally hinted at the yet-to-be-invented codeword with the metaphors in the title and on the cover of his double album.

The album’s title, also the name of the lead single, seems to be at odds the artwork on the cover. Both, song and cover, take their imagery from The Wizard Of Oz, in which the yellow brick road played as much a central role as any thoroughfare ever did in the movies. Where the song tells of disillusion at the end of that bright road, the cover promises the beginning of an escape from reality as Elton– spangly mauve platforms instead of ruby slippers – steps into a poster and on to a yellow brick road.

The poster is on a tatty wall, covering a previous poster (the font of which suggests that it might have advertised a music hall), with chimneys in the background telling of a drab existence, quite at odds with Elton’s flamboyant get-up.

The cover was drawn by the illustrator Ian Beck, who was 26 at the time. Beck has since illustrated magazines, greeting cards, packaging and a few children’s books. He has also written a few novels.

Beck came to LP cover design through John Kosh, whose credits included the Abbey Road cover. They shared a studio at 6 Garrick Street in London’s Covent Garden when Kosh arranged for Beck to do illustrations for an LP cover he was designing for Irish folk singer Jonathan Kelly, Wait Till They Change The Backdrop.

Elton John bought that album on strength of the cover, and wanted the same graphic for his new album. Beck told him that this was not possible but offered to create new artwork for the cover.

He was given tapes of the songs (which included future classics like Benny And The Jets, Saturday Night Is Alright For Fighting, Candle In The Wind and the title track), and typed lyrics sheets, and began working on a concept. His friend, fashion illustrator Leslie McKinley Howell, stood in as a model for Elton John in polaroids which Beck took (hence the long legs) in preparation for his watercolour, pastel, and coloured crayon pencils artwork. The piano on the front cover and the teddy bear at the back were placed there at the request of Elsie, as Beck only later realised Elton was known to his staff.

It was the last LP cover Ian Beck designed, though this had nothing to do with his experience of creating the iconic sleeve for one of the great double albums in a decade of many double albums.

The album is regarded by many as Elton John’s finest work. It is indeed filled with many great songs, too many to be released on single, and too many to find inclusion on retrospectives. Songs like Sweet Painted Lady (a song Paul McCartney might have written), I’ve Seen That Movie Too, This Song Has No Title, Roy Rogers and Harmony could have been hits (and Harmony was intended to be the album’s fourth single release); now they are remembered only by fans of the album.

1. Dream Theater – Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (1995)
2. Sandy Denny – Candle In The Wind (1977)
3. Paul Young – Bennie And The Jets (2006)
4. Sara Bareilles – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (2013)
5. Elton John – This Song Has No Title (Live) (1973)
6. The Band Perry – Grey Seal (2014)
7. Judge Dread – Jamaica Jerk-off (1977)
8. Elton John – I’ve Seen That Movie Too (Live) (1973)
9. Bridget St. John – Sweet Painted Lady (1974)
10. Elton John – The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) (Live) (1973)
11. Emeli Sand̩ РAll The Girls Love Alice (2014)
12. Imelda May – Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n’ Roll) (2014)
13. The Who – Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) (1991)
14. Kacey Musgraves – Roy Rogers (2018)
15. Jesse Malin – Harmony (2008)
Bonus: Diana Ross – Harmony (1976)
Hickoids – Bennie & The Jets (2011)

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After a long time, we return to the Life In Vinyl series, with the year 1986. Why the long delay of almost two years? Well, I had written what I thought was a great piece on my relationship with music in 1986 – and lost it in a hard-drive crash. The lost essay was so good, I was put off by the thought of trying to replicate it. I have now come to terms that I won’t.

You can blame the revival of this series to my recent viewing of the film Pretty In Pink, which virtually defines 1986, and certainly the first half of that year, which is the range of this collection.

In 1986 I was turning 20 and living in London. That year I was a pop-crazed youngster caught up in chart music. The UK charts were like a sport. As it was in 1985, I’d still be an early adopter, finding records to champion, and see them climb the charts (or, sometimes, fail to do so). It seems I was particularly good at spotting hits that would get stuck just outside the Top 10. So, fittingly, the average chart position of the 17 tracks here is #18 (the spot at which the It’s Immaterial track here peaked). The whole exercise had as much to do with love for music as it had with the charts as a sport.

It meant that I bought some records which I would not buy today. I shall not inflict some of them on you, stuff like Hollywood Beyond’s What’s The Colour Of Money. But some of these hits are also coloured by nostalgia for that first half of 1986, when I was young and clever enough to get into the fancy Stringellows club in London’s West End. Supposedly it was a hang-out for popular stars, though the only one I recognised there on my two visits was singer Belouis Some, who hardly was a star. I do have photos of our small group shooting the breeze with two prostitutes who might have been men. Let it be recorded that Stringellows was not my scene.

Anyhow, among those nostalgia-tinged tracks is Calling All The Heroes by It Bites. That summer hit was discussed last year on Chart Music, the superb podcast which clinically dissects episodes of Top Of The Pops. The experts were emphatically dismissive of the artistic merits of It Bites. I revisited the song to mop up the blood. I don’t think it’s as awful as the Chart Music pundits say; it’s an innocuous and fairly catchy slice of pop. But I also think that I enjoy it only through the haze of nostalgia of that glorious summer of ’86.

And so back to Pretty In Pink. Did anybody in American high schools really dress like James Spader, the slightly less evil version of Donald Trump?

As always, CD-R length, home-legwarmed covers. PW as usual.

1. Full Force – Alice, I Want You Just For Me
2. Fine Young Cannibals – Suspicious Minds
3. The Damned – Eloise
4. P.I.L. – Rise
5. Hipsway – The Honeythief
6. Blow Monkeys – Diggin’ Your Scene
7. David Bowie – Absolute Beginners
8. George Michael – A Different Corner
9. Big Audio Dynamite – E=Mc2
10. New Order – Shell Shock
11. Big Country – Look Away
12. Itâ’s Immaterial – Driving Away Form Home
13. OMD – If You Leave
14. The Bangles – If She Knew What She Wants
15. Stan Ridgway – Camouflage
16. Freddie McGregor – Push Comes To Shove
17. It Bites – Calling All the Heroes

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April was shaping up to be a gentle month, and then there was a death that shook me, even if I had never heard of the artist before. But more about that later…

If there was an impossible-not-to sing-along-to English pop song in the charts in the 1960s, chances were that Les Reed co-wrote it (often with Geoff Stephens). His classic hits include It’s Not Unusual and Delilah (Tom Jones), The Last Waltz, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize and When There’s No You (Engelbert Humperdinck), There’s A Kind Of Hush (Hermanâ’s Hermits and later Carpenters), Everybody Knows (Dave Clark Five), Here It Comes Again (The Fortunes), I Pretend (Des O”™Connor), Leave A Little Love (Lulu) and many others. He also wrote song for Elvis and Bing Crosby.

In the 1980s, Earl Thomas Conley was one of the biggest country stars, notching up 18 Billboard Country #1s, plus a bunch of #2 hits – but he never achieved crossover success. That amazing run of hits came after a time of struggle in the 1970s, kicking off with the 1981 country chart-topper Fire And Smoke and neatly ending in 1989 with Love Out Loud. Another #2 hit followed in 1991, and that was the end of Conley’s chart dominance. He continued to record and write songs, including Blake Shelton’s 2002 hit All Over Me. Conley was the first (and possibly only) country star to appear on Soul Train when he performed his duet with Anita Pointer, Too Many Times, on the show.

Almost exactly a month after Danny and the Juniors member and songwriter David White died, baritone Joe Terry (or Terranova) passed away. While White had washed his hands off the Juniors by the 1960s, Terry led the group right to the end, with the now only surviving original member Frank Maffei and Maffei’s brother Bobby. Terry’s death has probably put an end to the 62-year career of Danny and The Juniors.

The month’s most heartbreaking pop death is that of teenage Brazilian singer and TV personality Yasmim Gabrielle. Well-known in Brazil as a child-singer on the TV shows of Raul Gil Junior, Yasmin died at only 17 of suicide, brought on by clinical depression, probably aggravated by personal tragedy and a sense of loss of purpose after her child career ended. Yasmim’s death is a reminder that depression is a disease that can kill, even teenagers – and perhaps especially such young people who have had no chance to accumulate the life skills to fight it, even by knowing to seek help.

William Carvan Isles II, 79, co-founder of the O’Jays, on March 25
The O”™Jays – Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette) (1965)

Armando Vega Gil, 64, composer, bassist of Mexican band Botellita de Jerez, suicide on April 1
Botellita de Jerez – El Zarco (1986)

Kim English, 48, house and gospel singer-songwriter, on April 2
Kim English – Treat Me Right (2010)

Rick Elias, 64, musician, member of A Ragamuffin Band, on April 2
Rick Elias – Confession Of Love (1990)

Einar Iversen, 88, Norwegian jazz pianist and composer, on April 3

Tiger Merritt, 31, singer-guitarist of rock band Morning Teleportation, on April 4
Morning Teleportation – Eyes The Same (2011)

Alberto Cortez, 79, Argentine singer and songwriter, on April 4

Sam Pilafian, 69, tuba player, on April 4
Sam Pilafian – Tiger Rag (1991)

Davey Williams, 66, guitarist with free-jazz band Curlew, music critic, on April 5

Shawn Smith, 53, alt.rock singer and songwriter, on April 5
Brad – The Day Brings (1997, on vocals)

Pastor Lopez, 74, Venezuelan cumbia singer-songwriter, on April 5
Pastor Lopez y Su Combo – Cali bonita (1982)

Ib Glindemann, 84, Danish jazz composer and bandleader, on April 5

Jim Glaser, 82, American country singer and songwriter, on April 6
Tompall & The Glaser Brothers – Rings (1972)
Jim Glaser – You’re Gettin’ to Me Again (1984)

Paul Severs, 70, Belgian singer, on April 9

Earl Thomas Conley, 77, country singer-songwriter, on April 10
Earl Thomas Conley – Holding Her And Loving You (1983)
Earl Thomas Conley & Anita Pointer – Too Many Times (1986)
Blake Shelton – All Over Me (2001)

Johnny Hutchinson, 78, drummer of English rock & roll band The Big Three, on April 12
The Big Three – Some Other Guy (1963)

Dina, 62, Portuguese singer, on April 12

Paul Raymond, 73, keyboardist (Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, UFO, on April 13
Chicken Shack – Maudie (1970)
UFO – Young Blood (1980)

Joe Terry (Terranova), 78, baritone of doo wop band Danny & the Juniors, on April 15
Danny & The Juniors – Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay (1958)

Les Reed, 83, English songwriter, on April 15
The Fortunes – Here It Comes Again (1965, as co-writer)
Herman’s Hermits – There’s A Kind Of Hush (1967, as co-writer)
Peter Alexander – Delilah (1968, as co-writer)
Elvis Presley – Girl Of Mine (1973, as co-writer)

Kent Harris, 88, American songwriter and producer, on April 16
The Coasters – Shoppin’ For Clothes (1960, as co-writer)

Eddie Tigner, 92, blues singer, keyboardist and songwriter, on April 18
Eddie Tigner – Home At Last (2009)

MC Sapão, 40, Brazilian singer, on April 19

Omar Higgins, 37, bassist of reggae-punk band Negro Terror, on April 20

Yasmim Gabrielle, 17, Brazilian singer and TV personality, of suicide on April 21

Dave Samuels, 70, percussionist of jazz-fusion band Spyro Gyra, on April 22
Spyro Gyra – Morning Dance (1979)

Dick Rivers, 74, French rock and roll singer with Les Chats Sauvages, on April 24
Les Chats Sauvages – Twist a Saint Tropez (1961)

Reijo Taipale, 79, Finnish singer, on April 26

Phil McCormack, 58, singer of rock band Molly Hatchet (after 1996), on April 26
Molly Hatchet – Mississippi Moon Dog (1998)

Jack de Mello, 102, Hawaiian music composer and producer, on April 27

Jo Loesser, 91, musical theatre actress, on April 28

Beth Carvalho, 72, Brazilian samba singer and guitarist, on April 30
Beth Carvalho – Coisinha do Pai (1979)

Boon Gould, 64, guitarist of Level 42, on April 30
Level 42 – Starchild (1981, also as co-writer)
Level 42 – Something About You (1985, also as co-writer)

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(PW in comments)

In this instalment of The Originals we look at some of the lesser-known first releases of songs that would become huge 1960s hits for others, starting with (what I will assume is) the innocence of My Boy Lollipop and ending with the national anthem of Orgasmia. There are 30 songs on the mix; I’m telling the story of 17 of them. Of the remaining 13, it may be noted that two were written by Laura Nyro, the one featured here in her first recording and the later Blood, Sweat & Tears hit And When I Die.

So, get a good cup of the hit beverage of your choice, settle in and enjoy the journey through the originals of 1960s classics.

My Boy Lollipop

Millie’s My Boy Lollipop, widely regarded as the first crossover ska hit which helped give reggae a mainstream audience. In its original version, My Boy Lollypop (note the original spelling) was a song recorded in 1956 by the white R&B singer Barbie Gaye, at 15 two years younger than Millie Small was when she had a hit with the cover in 1964.

As so often in pop history, the story of the song’s authorship is cloaked in controversy. By most accounts, it was written by Bobby Spencer of the doo wop band The Cadillacs, with the group’s manager, Johnny Roberts, getting co-writer credit. Barbie Gaye’s single became a very minor hit, championed by the legendary rock & roll DJ Alan Freed. It was Spencer’s misfortune to come into contact with the notorious mafia-connected record executive and music publisher Morris Levy, who implausibly claimed that he had in fact written My Boy Lollypop, using the moniker R Spencer as a pseudonym. The real Spencer was later reinstated on the credits which nonetheless still list Levy as a co-writer. Levy’s name is attached to other classics which he had no hand in writing, such as Lee Dorsey’s Ya Ya, Frankie Lymon’s Why Do Fools Fall In Love, and The Rivieras’ California Sun. We’ll encounter him again in the story of the next song in this post.

My Boy Lollipop was revived in 1964 by Chris Blackwell, boss of the nascent Island Records label in England, which had recorded no big hit yet. He chose young Millicent Small to record it. As half of the duo Roy & Millie she had already enjoyed a hit with We’ll Meet in Jamaica. Her version changed Island’s fortunes: the song became a worldwide hit, reaching #2 in both US and UK. Island, of course, went on to become the label of Bob Marley, Roxy Music, Robert Palmer and U2.

Hanky Panky

Among the inhabitants of cubicles with pianos at the Brill Building in New York were Ellie Greenwich (who in her earlier singing had named herself Ellie Gaye in tribute to Barbie Gaye) and her husband Jeff Barry, who together wrote so many of the songs we now associate with Phil Spector’s girl groups. In 1963, Greenwich and Barry recorded a demo of a song called What A Guy. It was intended for a doo-wop group called The Sensations, but the band’s label, Jubilee, was so impressed with demo’s girl-band style (which was in fact Greenwich’s multi-tracked voice, with Barry providing bass voice) that they decided to release it, in the name of the songwriters’ band, The Raindrops.

Trouble was that Greenwich and Barry had no song for the flip-side, so they thrashed out Hanky Panky in the space of 20 minutes. They were not particularly satisfied with the song, and when a group called The Summits released it soon after as the b-side of He’s An Angel (or it might have been released before What A Guy came out; it’s unclear), it didn’t do brisk business either.

And yet, the song had become popular among garage rock live bands, including one called The Spinners (not the soul band), from whom the teenage musician Tommy Jackson heard it. He recorded it with his band, The Shondells, in 1964 at a radio station in Michigan. It was a local hit, but Tommy decided to break up his band and complete his schooling. The following year he was contacted by a Pittsburgh DJ who had discovered the record and now wanted Tommy and his Shondells to perform it on air. He hurriedly put together a new line-up of Shondells, and changed his name to Tommy James. He then sold the 1964 master to Roulette Records, which released it without remixing, never mind re-recording it. The single went to #1 in July 1966. James later explained in a Billboard interview: “I don’t think anybody can record a song that bad and make it sound good. It had to sound amateurish like that.”

There is a great story of how the small New York-based Roulette label got to release Hanky Panky. It seems that a whole gang of labels, some of them majors, wanted to buy the record. Suddenly, one after another, they withdrew their offers, much to Tommy James’ surprised dismay. In the end Jerry Wexler of Atlantic told the singer, still a teenager, what was going on: Roulette’s Morris Levy (on whom The Soprano’s Hesch Rabkin is based) had called all rival labels telling them that Hanky Panky belonged to him. Intimidated, the rivals bought the bluff, and James had to go with Levy.

Needles And Pins
Needles And Pins was written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nietzsche and first recorded by the vastly underrated Jackie DeShannon in 1963, crossing the Atlantic the same year in Petula Clark’s version before the Searchers finally scored a hit with it in 1964 (DeShannon’s version, while not a hit in the US, topped the Canadian charts). The story goes that The Searchers first heard Needles And Pins being performed by Cliff Bennett at the Star Club in Hamburg and immediately decided that the song should be their next single. It became the second of their three UK #1 hits. They did retain DeShannon’s pronunciation of “now-ah”, “begins-ah” and “pins-ah”.

I’m Into Something Good
In the late 1950s Ethel “Earl-Jean” McCrea was a member of the R&B girl group The Cookies, which was absorbed into Ray Charles’ backing band, The Raelettes. Only Earl-Jean didn’t join the backing singer gig, instead becoming part of a new incarnation of The Cookies, who recorded the original of The Beatles’ Chains.

The Cookies did much demo work for Carole King and Gerry Goffin at Aldon Music, doing backing vocals on pop songs such as Little Eva’s The Loco-motion (it was through Earl-Jean’s recommendation that King and Goffin employed Little Eva as a babysitter) and Neil Sedaka’s Breaking Up Is Hard To Do. Along the way, they had a top ten hit with Don’t Say Nothing Bad About My Baby.

Earl-Jean left The Cookies in 1964 to try for a solo career, and it was King and Goffin who wrote her first (and only) solo hit: I’m Into Something Good, released on Colpix Records. It did a creditable job, climbing to #38 in the Billboard charts. Alas, her follow-up single, Randy, didn’t do as well, and when in 1966 Colpix folded, her solo career was over.

In Britain, the record producer Mickey Most – fresh from discovering The Animals – had heard I’m Into Something Good, and decided it was a perfect vehicle for his new protéges, Herman’s Hermits. The single became a UK #1 hit in September 1964, and then went on to reach #13 in the US, ringing in a golden period for Herman’s Hermits, who remarkably became the best-selling act in the United States in 1965, ahead of even The Beatles

Galveston

Jimmy Webb sat on the beach of Galveston on the hurricane-plagued Gulf of Mexico when he wrote this song, which might appear to be about the “Spanish-American War” (which we really should call the Cuban Independence War) but was just as applicable to the Vietnam War, which in 1966 was starting to heat up (“While I watch the cannons flashing, I clean my gun and dream of Galveston” and “I’m so afraid of dying”). The composer subsequently said it was about the Vietnam War but at other times also denied it. Whatever Webb had in mind, its theme is universal about any soldier who’d rather be home than on the killing fields.

The original of Galveston was recorded by the relatively obscure Don Ho, a Hawaiian lounge singer and TV star who was known for appearing with red shades and died in 2007 aged 76. Campbell later said that, while in Hawaii, Ho turned him om to Galveston. Campbell sped it up a bit to create his moving version. Apparently, after “giving” the song to Campbell, Ho would not sing it any more.

Gentle On My Mind
Another Glen Campbell hit. Even without a chorus, Gentle On My Mind made a great impact when it first appeared in the late 1960s. John Hartford, who wrote the song, picked up two Grammys for best folk performance and best country song, but that was eclipsed by Glen Campbell, for whom it became a signature tune (literally; it was the theme of his 1969-72 TV show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, on which Hartford frequently appeared). Campbell, who discovered the song when he heard Hartford’s record on the radio, also won two Grammys for his version, for best country recording and solo performance.

Gentle On My Mind was not a typical John Hartford number. The singer is better known for his bluegrass roots which found expression in his accomplished use of the banjo and fiddle (shortly before his death at 63 in 2001, Hartford won another Grammy for his contributions to the bluegrass soundtrack for the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Hartford – the son of a New York doctor who grew up in St Louis and later acquired a steamboat pilot licence – said that he wrote Gentle On My Mind after watching the film Doctor Zhivago. “While I was writing it, if I had any idea that was going to be a hit, it probably would have come out differently and it wouldn’t have been a hit. That just came real fast, a blaze, a blur.” The song is said to have spawned some 300 cover versions.

Guantanamera
A patriotic Cuban song, Guantanamera came into the US via Pete Seeger, who used it (with the translated lyrics of the island’s independence hero José Marti) to promote peace during the time of the Missile Crisis. It became a worldwide hit in 1966 in the version by easy listening crooners The Sandpipers. The song’s origins go back to 1928 at the latest, when Cuban singer Joseíto Fernández improvised commentary on current affairs to the song’s tune on his radio programme. The earliest recording of Guantanamera seems to be that made in New York by the Cuban dance band Cuarteto Caney. Led by Fernando Storch, the band (which, contrary to its name, at times had up to seven members) did much to popularise Cuban music in the US in the 1930s and ’40s.

Yeh-YehWritten by jazz musicians Rodgers Grant (piano) and Laurdine “Pat” Patrick (saxophone), Yeh-Yeh was first recorded in 1963 by Afro-Cuban jazz percussionist Mongo Santamaría, whose band Grant and Patrick were members of at the time. Still an instrumental — though Santamaría’s single version includes what might be described as vocal ticks — it appeared on his Watermelon Man album. It soon came to the attention of jazz singer Jon Hendricks, one of the great purveyors of scat singing and a third of the jazz-vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Hendricks had a long line of instrumental songs to which he added lyrics, doing so most famously for an album of Count Basie standards. Hendricks recorded Yeh-Yeh with the trio, in which Yalande Bavan had by now replaced Annie Ross, for the At Newport ’63 live album.

Here Comes The Night
Sometimes in pop, as we have already seen in this series (and see again), a song written for a particular artist is not always the first to be recorded by them. Or, in this case, by Them. Here Comes The Night was written by Bert Berns, the Brill Building graduate whose songwriting credits included Twist And Shout, Hang On Sloopy, Tell Him and Piece Of My Heart. His splendid career was cut short by his sudden death at 39 from a heart attack in late 1967. Somehow, possibly because they were labelmates on Decca with Them, Lulu & the Luvvers (she ditched the backing band in 1966; the same year Van Morrison ditched Them) got to go first with Here Comes The Night in 1964. This, their third single flopped, reaching only #50 in Britain. Them’s version, with Jimmy Page on guitar, was released in May 1965, peaking at #2 in the UK and #24 in the US.

Dream A Little Dream Of Me
Dream A Little Dream Of Me is one of those songs where one cannot pinpoint a definitive “most famous” performance or hit version. To some, it’s Mama Cass’ song. Others will remember it as Frankie Laine’s or Ella Fitzgerald’s song. Written by Fabian André and Wilbur Schwandt — there are claims that one Milton Adolphus wrote it —with lyrics by Gus Kahn, it was first recorded on 16 February 1931 by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra, with Ozzie on vocals and Jack Teagarden on trombone, beating a recording by Wayne King’s orchestra by two days. Ozzie, who had a radio and then TV show with his wife Harriet Hilliard and two sons — the late rock & roll singer Ricky Nelson and TV producer David— got his break in 1930 when as an unknown he won a popularity poll by the New York Daily News. Realising that kiosk vendors claimed for unsold newspapers with only the torn-off front page, Ozzie and pals picked up the discarded newspapers and filled in the poll forms in their favour. The ruse worked, and throughout the 1930s, Ozzie and his orchestra enjoyed a fine run of success — even if their version of Dream A Little Dream Of Me was not a hit.

The song seems to have maintained a presence in many concert repertoires. But it made a big comeback with the versions by Laine and Fitzgerald only in 1950. It made the rounds in the jazz and easy listening circles, but it required the death of one of its co-writers to cross over into pop. Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas grew up knowing Fabian André as a family friend. When he died in 1967, after falling down an elevator shaft, she (or possibly Cass Elliott) proposed that the band record the song Michelle remembered from her childhood. A decision was made that Cass should sing it solo, and when the song was released as a single, it was credited in the US to Mama Cass with The Mamas and The Papas (elsewhere just to Mama Cass). A re-recorded version also appeared on Cass’ debut album, not coincidentally titled Dream A Little Dream.

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
Pino Donaggio is best known as a composer of the scores for films such as Don’t Look Now, Carrie and Dressed To Kill. But before that, he was a big pop star in Italy, having abandoned the classical training he received as a teenager (and which prepared him for his soundtrack career) for pop after performing with Paul Anka in the late 1950s.

He performed Io che non vivo (senza te), which he wrote with Vito Pallavicini, at the San Remo Festival in 1965 with the country singer Jody Miller. Dusty Springfield was there and then asked Vicki Wickham, producer of the British music TV show Ready Steady Go! and a songwriter, to set the song to English lyrics for her. Wickham asked Simon Napier-Bell (one-time manager of the Yardbirds, Marc Bolan and Wham!) to help her. Napier-Bell later remembered that they wrote the lyrics in a taxi. Springfield’s version (reportedly recorded in 47 takes) was released in 1966 and became one of her signature hits.

Universal Soldier

Early in the Vietnam War, Canadian folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie saw an injured soldier return from active duty and decided to write an anti-war song. It would become one of the most potent songs in the peace movement, even if her good advice to you and me evidently has not been taken. By her own account, the song was written in a Toronto café to impress a college professor, Buffy, then in her early 20s, sold the rights to Universal Soldier to a man she had just met in Greenwich Village’s Gaslight Café, for a dollar (the contract was written on a paper napkin). Two decades later she bought the rights back for $25,000. In the interim, she made it on the White House’s blacklist for her anti-Vietnam and Native American rights activities, spent five years on Sesame Street (on which she breastfed her child), in 1966 became the first singer to release a quadraphonic album (4.0 stereo) and apparently the first to release an album on the Internet (in 1991). She also co-wrote Up Where We Belong, the hit for Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes from 1981’s An Officer And A Gentleman, with then-husband Jack Nitzsche.

The year before Sainte-Marie released Universal Soldier on her 1964 debut album, It’s My Way, it was recorded by folk-group The Highwaymen (not to be confused with the country supergroup), who enjoyed their commercial peak in 1960 with the hit version of Michael (Row The Boat Ashore). It’s not clear how the Highwaymen got to record Universal Soldier first; one may guess that they were given the song by Buffy’s new friend from the Gaslight Café. Released as a single and on the group’s penultimate album, March On Brothers, it was not a huge success.

Universal Soldier’s breakthrough came with the version by Scottish folkie Donovan, who released it in 1965 at the age of 19, having already two UK Top 10 hits with Catch The Wind and Colours. Young Mr Leitch’s softer version, which adopted Buffy’s arrangement (and using strange pronunciation of the name Dachau). Released as an EP in Britain, it topped the EP charts there and reached #14 in the singles charts.

Green, Green Grass Of Home
Written by Claude “Curly” Putman Jr, the execution ballad Green, Green Grass Of Home was first recorded by Johnny Darrell, the ill-fated associate of the Outlaw Country movement. Darrell’s 1965 version failed to make much of a splash, but country star Porter Wagoner did gain some attention with his recording made in June 1965. Both versions communicate empathy with the protagonist, a dead-man-walking who is awakening from a dream of being reunited in freedom with the scenes of his childhood but in fact is awaiting his execution in the presence of the “old padre” (not “peartree” or “partridge”).

Tom Jones was introduced to the song through Jerry Lee Lewis’ version, also a country affair recorded a few months after Wagoner’s, and proceeded to turn it into hackneyed easy listening, selling more than a million records of it in 1966. Who said pop was fair?

Those Were The Days
It’s difficult to say which version of the Mary Hopkin hit Those Were The Days should be regarded as the original. Strictly speaking, it’s a Russian song called Dorogoi dlinnoyu, which was first recorded in 1925 by Georgian singer Tamara Tsereteli. It reached the West in 1953 when it was sung by Russian singer Ludmila Lopato in the film Innocents in Paris. It was subsequently recorded by folk icon Theodore Bikel. Enter Greenwich Village folkie type and playwright Gene Raskin who wrote English lyrics for his singer-wife Francesca, and then summarily copyrighted not only the words but the music as well.

Folk band The Limeliters first recorded the song in 1962. Six years later Paul McCartney heard it performed by the Raskins in a London club, and decided Mary Hopkin should record it on Apple Records. She did and had a worldwide hit with it. The song would be used in ads, and Raskin – by then an academic who surely reviled plagiarism – became very rich from the royalties. Today he’d be sued to kingdom come, but those were the days…

Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying
It’s not really fair to call Gerry & The Pacemakers “usurpers” of Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying, since the song was written by Gerry Marsden and his fellow Pacemakers. But before they could record it, Decca had teenage singer Louise Cordet commit it to record. Cordet, who had a minor single hit in 1962 with I’m Just A Baby, was among the supporting acts ion the 1963 Beatles/Roy Orbison tour of the UK. Also on the bill were Gerry & The Pacemakers. And it was their George Martin-produced version of Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying that became a huge hit soon after Cordet released her record. Cordet is the god-daughter of Prince Philip, on account of her parents’ friendship with the exiled Greek royals, and the mother of singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch.

Good Lovin’
One of the defining songs of the 1960s, Good Lovin’ was first recorded by soul singer Lemme B. Good, but co-writer Rudy Clark wasn’t happy with the lyrics. Soon after, soul group The Olympics recorded the song with tweaked lyrics. Their Jerry Ragavoy-produced version was recorded with practically the same arrangement by The Rascals, who had the huge hit with it. Lemme B. Goode, real name Limmie Snell, went on to found Limmie & Family Cookin’ which had two UK Top 10 hits in the 1970s.

Je t’aime… moi non plus
The story goes that the national anthem of Orgasmia, Je t’aime… moi non plus, was written in 1967 by Serge Gainsbourg at the request of Brigitte Bardot, who did record it but asked Gainsbourg to withdraw its release. Her version came out in 1986, almost two decades after Jane Birkin had a hit with it. Bardot’s version is the first recorded with that title and that arrangement. But already in 1966 the Gainsbourg composition was recorded under the title Scène de Bal by arranger Michel Colombier for the film Les cœurs verts. So effectively there are three originals: Colombier’s Scène de Bal, Bardot’s unreleased recording, and Birkin’s 1969 release.

As always, the mix fits on a standard CD-R and includes covers. PW in comments.

1. Barbie Gaye – My Boy Lollipop (1956)
The Usurper: Millie (1964)

2. Earl-Jean – I’m Into Something Good (1964)
The Usurper: Herman”™s Hermits (1964)

3. The Exciters – Do-Wah-Diddy (1963)
The Usurper: Manfred Mann (1964)

4. The Four Voices – Sealed With A Kiss (1960)
The Usurper: Brian Hyland (1962)

5. Jackie DeShannon – Needles And Pins (1963)
The Usurper: The Searchers (1964)

6. The Raindrops – Hanky Panky (1965)
The Usurper: Tommy James and the Shondells (1966)

7. The Outsiders – Bend Me, Shape Me (1966)
The Usurper: The American Breed (1967)

8. Lulu & The Luvvers – Here Comes The Night (1964)
The Usurper: Them (1965)

9. The Valentinos – It’s All Over Now (1964)
The Usurper: The Rolling Stones (1964)

10. Frankie Valli – The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore (1965)
The Usurper: The Walker Brothers (1966)

11. Peter, Paul & Mary – And When I Die (1966)
The Usurper: Blood, Sweat & Tears (1969)

12. The Highwaymen – Universal Soldier (1963)
The Usurper: Donovan (1965)

13. The Limeliters – Those Were The Days (1962)
The Usurper: Mary Hopkin (1968)

14. Cuarteto Caney – Guajira Guantanamera (1938)
The Usurper: The Sandpipers (as Guantanamera, 1966)

15. Mongo Santamaria – Yeh-Yeh (1963)
The Usurper: Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames (1965)

16. Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra – Dream A Little Dream Of Me (1931)
The Usurper: The Mamas & The Papas (1968)

17. Tony Bennett – Blue Velvet (1951)
The Usurper: Bobby Vinton (1963)

18. Eddie Miller – Release Me (1950)
The Usurpers: Ray Price (1954), Engelbert Humperdinck (1967)

19. Johnny Darrell – Green, Green Grass Of Home (1965)
The Usurpers: Porter Wagoner (1965), Tom Jones (1966)

20. Don Ho with The Oak Ridge Strings – Galveston (1968)
The Usurper: Glen Campbell (1969)

21. Pino Donaggio – Io che non vivo (senza te) (1965)
The Usurper: Dusty Springfield (as You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, 1965)

22. Louise Cordet – Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying (1964)
The “Usurper”: Gerry and the Pacemakers (1964)

23. Laura Nyro – Wedding Bell Blues (1966)
The Usurper: The 5th Dimension (1969)

24. Lemme B. Good – Good Lovin’ (1965)
The Usurper: The Young Rascals (1966)

25. Sam the Sham & Pharaohs – Ready Or Not (Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie) (1966)
The Usurper: Jay & the Techniques (as Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie, 1967)

26. Will-O-Bees – Make You Own Kind Of Music (1968)
The Usurper: Mama Cass Elliot (1969)

27. Vicky Leandros – L’amour Est Bleu (1967)
The Usurper: Paul Mauriat (as Love Is Blue, 1967)

28. John Hartford – Gentle On My Mind (1967)
The Usurper: Glen Campbell (1967)

29. The Stokes – Whipped Cream (1965)
The Usurper: Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass (1965)

30. Michel Colombier – Scéne de Bal (1966)
The Usurper: Jane Birkin (as Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus, 1968)

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