Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

The Carpenters drew heavily from often not very well known songs, making them their own in the process. This was not so, however, with what is widely regarded at their signature tune: Close To You had been recorded a few times before the Carpenters got their turn in 1970.

Close To You

It started out as a humble b-side to actor Richard Chamberlain‘s 1963 single Blue Guitar. Within a year both Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield had recorded it, though Dusty’s version was not released until 1967, on her lovely Where Am I Going? LP.

Composer Burt Bacharach was not happy with either of the hitherto published versions when he offered the song to Herb Alpert, who had in 1968 recorded a rather good version of Bacharach’s This Guy’s In Love With You. Alpert, however, declined to do Close To You (apparently he didn’t like the line about sprinkling “moondust in your hair”), and gave the song to the Carpenters, who had released their debut LP on Alpert’s A&M label. A similarly hesitant Richard Carpenter and Alpert arranged the song — with the latter’s prominent trumpet track — and created aversion Bacharach was happy with.

Hurting Each Other

The secret in the Carpenters’ successful appropriation of appropriating songs first recorded by other people owes in part to an astuteness in often picking songs that weren’t very well known. Once Richard Carpenter imprinted his imaginative arrangements and Karen her marvellous vocals on such a song, it almost invariably was theirs. And so it was with Hurting Each Other, which the siblings recorded in late 1971. It appeared on their excellent 1972 album, A Song For You, and the single reached #2 on the US charts.

Hurting Each Other was written by Gary Geld and Peter Udell, whose songwriting credits also included Brian Hyland’s Sealed With A Kiss (another song that has a history as a lesser-known original). The first recording of the song was released in 1965 by teen idol Jimmy Clanton, a white R&B singer from Baton Rouge who had a string of hits in what has been called “swamp pop” and then faded into the sort of obscurity that has nonetheless ensured a performing career that continues to this day, complemented by a line in radio DJing.

Superstar

The genius of the Carpenters resided with their ability, through Richards’s arrangements and Karen’s emotional investment, to make other people’s songs totally theirs. In the case of Superstar, they not only took the song but also usurped its meaning. Sung by Karen Carpenter it no longer is the groupie’s lament it was written as. Indeed, in its first incarnation, by Delaney & Bonnie in 1969, the song was titled Groupie (Superstar), and included more explicit lyrics (“I can hardly wait to sleep with you” became “…be with you”). Released as a b-side, the song was written by the original performers with Leon Russell, and Eric Clapton featured on the recording. A few months later, former Delaney & Bonnie backing singer Rita Coolidge recorded it. According to Leon Russell, she had come up with the concept for it and Delaney Bramlett said she had helped with the harmonies.

But it was Bette Midler’s performance of the song on the Tonight Show in August 1970 that alerted Richard Carpenter, who hadn’t heard the song before, to it. It is said that Karen’s first take, read from a napkin, is the one that which made it on to the record.

A Song For You/This Masquerade

One singer features twice here: Leon Russell (plus, of course, his co-writing credit on Superstar). He released A Song for You on his eponymous debut album in 1970. It was covered to superb effect by Donny Hathaway and to some commercial success by Andy Williams, but it was the Carpenters’ 1972 version which brought the song to an international mainstream audience. The Carpenters recorded This Masquerade a year after it originally appeared on Russell’s 1972 Carney album. In their hands it becomes quite a different animal Read more…

The ABC of the 1950s might be a random selection of songs, with each artist representing a letter of the alphabet, but there are some interesting tracks here.

Listen to The Orioles‘ 1951 song Baby Please Don’t Go, which James Brown surely took more than just a dollop of inspiration from for Please Please Please. That song, better known as the soul classic that had James Brown fall to his knees in exhausted despair, features here in its initial version, which still had to acquire the raw soul of later interpretations.

Singing in 1959 about securing a date with the school’s prettiest girl, during biology class, is Tony Perkins, who a year later would use his formal name as an actor in the Alfred Hitchcock romantic comedy Psycho (I only got as far as just after the girl checks into the hotel run by the slightly geeky but nice young man played by Perkins. I left it when she takes a shower, which I’m sure will lead to screwball comedy stuff. No Spoilers, please).

The Hollywood Flames. In front are (left) Bobby Day and Earl Nelson.

The lead singer of R&B and doo wop band Hollywood Flames on their hit Buzz-Buzz-Buzz was Earl Nelson, half of the 1960s R&B duo Bob & Earl. And the writer of the song was fellow Hollywood Flame Bobby Day, who went on to be the original Bob in Bob & Earl. By 1962, Nelson recruited a new Bob and had a hit with Harlem Shuffle. By then Byrd had already a hit under his belt with Rockin’ Robin (later covered by Michael Jackson). Byrd also wrote the hits Over and Over by The Dave Clark Five and Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris. He died in 1990 at 60.

The singer of Real Wild Child, a cover of Australian rock & roller Johnny O’Keefe’s original and precursor of Iggy Pop’s version, is called just Ivan. That was Jerry Ivan Allison, drummer of The Crickets, who is backed here by Buddy Holly on guitar.

Few people on this mix were really likely to score a disco hit two decades after the setting of this ABC. Yet, this is just what R&B singer Dee Clark did in 1975 when he reached #16 in the UK charts with Ride a Wild Horse. Here, in 1959, he still fantasises about the content of high school girls’ sweaters. Clark died in 1990 at only 52.

Fifty-two was also the age at which Amos Milburn died, in 1980. Initially a jazz pianist and singer of those blues and boogie and jump songs that helped pave the way for rock & roll, Milburn’s line was good-natured songs about women and drinking too much which in his day were timeless stuff. His biggest fan was the similarly good-natured Fats Domino, who often cited Milburn as a major influence.

Even younger at the time of her death was Una Mae Carlisle, who was only 40 when she passed on of pneumonia in 1956. A performer since the age of three, the singer-pianist was discovered in the 1930s by Fats Waller. A bandleader in her own right (Lester Young was among her sidemen), Carlisle had as radio show, toured internationally, and wrote many songs, which were covered by the likes of Cab Calloway and Peggy Lee.

The Bobettes, whose record company made them turn their contempt for a teacher into a song of inappropriate infatuation.

And younger yet was Jannie Pought of the teenage R&B group The Bobettes, who was stabbed to death in a random killing at the age of 34 in 1980. Her group’s Mr Lee is about a schoolgirl’s crush on the eponymous teacher, though their song was initially intended to satirise their teacher, who apparently was indeed a Mr Lee. Atlantic Records ordered that the lyrics be rewritten. The song became a huge hit. The Bobettes continued to record into the early 1980s and performed together even longer. By now four of the five members are dead.

This mix was prepared before the death on December 28 of Christine McGuire of The McGuire Sisters, whose Rhythm ‘n’ Blues (Mama’s Got The Rhythm, Papa’s Got The Blues) is rather more entertaining than their dreary signature tune Sincerely.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-brylcreemed covers. PW same as always.

1. Amos Milburn and his Aladdin Chickenshackers – Bad, Bad Whiskey (1951)
2. Bobettes – Mr. Lee (1957)
3. Connie Francis – No Other One (1956)
4. Dee Clark – Hey Little Girl (In The High School Sweater) (1959)
5. Everly Brothers – Bird Dog (1958)
6. Four Aces – Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (1956)
7. Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps – Be Bop A Lula (1956)
8. Hollywood Flames – Buzz-Buzz-Buzz (1957)
9. Ivan – Real Wild Child (1958)
10. James Brown with The Famous Flames – Please Please Please (1956)
11. Kirby Sisters – Red Velvet (1956)
12. Little Richard – Ooh My Soul (1958)
13. McGuire Sisters – Rhythm ‘n’ Blues (Mama’s Got The Rhythm, Papa’s Got The Blues) (1956)
14. Nutmegs – Story Untold (1955)
15. Orioles – Baby Please Don’t Go (1951)
16. Penguins – Earth Angel (1954)
17. Quin-Tones – Ding Dong (1958)
18. Roy Orbison – Go! Go! Go! (1956)
19. Spaniels – Goodnight Sweetheart (1954)
20. Tony Perkins – Prettiest Girl In School (1959)
21. Una Mae Carlisle – Long (1950)
22. Valentines – The Woo Woo Train (1955)
23. Wrens – Come Back My Love (1955)
24. Xavier Cugat & Abbe Lane – Cuban Mambo (1955)
25. Youngsters – You’re An Angel (With The Devil In Your Eyes) (1956)
26. Ziggy Talent – Please Say Goodnight To The Guy, Irene (1950)

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Coming just over six weeks after the release of the White Album, The Beatles released the soundtrack LP for the animated Yellow Submarine movie on 13 January 1969. Its release exactly fifty years ago yesterday was not massively popular, partly since Side 2 comprised only George Martin instrumentals, and in any case, it was always going to be overshadowed by the epoch-making double album.

The Beatles weren’t too keen either; they put together their contribution only because of a contractual obligation to United Artists, which was releasing the film.

Two of the six songs on Side 1 had been previously released on single (All You Need Is Love and the title track). George Harrison’s sarcastic Only A Northern Song was recorded during the Sgt Pepper’s sessions in February 1967, but rejected for that album.

All Together Now, which McCartney called “a throw-away track”, was recorded in May 1967 for the film project, as was John Lennon’s Hey Bulldog, recorded in February 1968. May 1967 also saw the recording of Harrison’s LSD-influenced It’s All Too Much.

A song that might have been included was Across The Universe, which was first recorded in February 1968, then appeared in its original version on a charity album in 1969, and then in a rearranged form on Let It Be in 1970.

A cover of Across The Universe, by folkie/poet Rod McKuen, is included in this collection of covers, as part of a putative Side 2, which might also have included single tracks and their b-sides that were released in 1968.

Ella Fitzgerald gives Hey Jude a whole new treatment (it was on the b-side of her cover of Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream), as does Richie Havens on his cover of Lady Madonna.

The most interesting interpretation here, however, is the jazzy slow-burn by Jimmy McGriff and Junior Parker of Harrison’s The Inner Light, which divests the song of its Indian sound.

Of the Side 1 stuff, it’s rather unexpected to have hirsute Tony Soprano-favourites Journey cover the formerly druggy It’s All Too Much, with a hard-rocking guitar solo.

But most surprising – other than a soul band deciding to cover the banal Yellow Submarine – is the fine version here of the otherwise pedestrian (and annoying) All Together Now by German soul band Joy Unlimited. The group was fronted by the late Joy Fleming, who had a mighty and soulful voice which the bland pretenders of the likes of Adele would kill for. And the band strips the Beatles song of its triteness and infuses it with a gospel vibe, supported by Fleming’s committed ad libbing.

I’ve posted Elvis Costello’s Live Aid version of All You Need Is Love before. Oddly, there aren’t many very good covers of that song.

One Beatles performance is included here. Not Guilty was one of several songs recorded during the White Album sessions that were rejected for inclusion. Those tracks were pretty bad; Not Guilty is the least bad of the lot.

1. The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – Yellow Submarine (1967)
2. Sun Dial – Only A Northern Song (1991)
3. Joy Unlimited – All Together Now (1970)
4. Bill Deal & The Rhondels – Hey Bulldog (1970)
5. Journey – It’s All Too Much (1976)
6. Elvis Costello – All You Need Is Love (1985)
7. Ella Fitzgerald – Hey Jude (1968)
8. Jimmy McGriff & Junior Parker – The Inner Light (1970)
9. Richie Havens – Lady Madonna (1968)
10. Rod McKuen – Nothing’s Gonna Change My World (Across The Universe) (1971)
11. The Beatles – Not Guilty (1968)
12. Sesame Street – Yellow Submarine (1976)

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(Link updated. PW in comments)

More Beatles Recovered:
Beatles Recovered: A Hard Day’s Night
Beatles Recovered: Beatles For Sale
Beatles Recovered: Help!
Beatles Recovered: Rubber Soul
Beatles Recovered: Revolver
Beatles Recovered: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club  Band
Beatles Revovered: Magical Mystery Tour
Beatles Recovered: White Album
Beatles Recovered: Yellow Submarine
Beatles Recovered: Abbey Road
Beatles Revcovered: Let It Be

Wordless: Any Major Beatles Instrumentals
Covered With Soul Vol. 14 – Beatles Edition 1
Covered With Soul Vol. 15 – Beatles Edition 2
Any Major Beatles Covers: 1962-66
Any Major Beatles Covers: 1967-68
Any Major Beatles Covers: 1968-70
Any Bizarre Beatles

Beatles Reunited: Everest (1971)
Beatles Reunited: Live ’72 (1972)
Beatles Reunited: Smile Away (1972)
Beatles Reunited: Photographs (1974)
Beatles Reunited: ’77 (1977)
Beatles Reunited: Let It See (1980)

This is the second compilation of tracks that appeared on mixes posted in 2018, with links to the particular posts — just in case you missed something good. The first mix is here.

As mentioned in the first volume of the 2018 retrospective, the coming year will see quite a few posts on The Originals. There will be two Beatles Recovered mixes, the first of which will run within the next few days. And a whole lot of other fine stuff.

Thank you to all the people who post comments. They are the oxygen for this endeavour.

This year I’m thinking of taking the step of asking readers for some support in covering the costs of hosting this site. I’m still considering the best way of doing that; I just want to cover the costs, rather than receive remuneration for what is really a labour of love, so something like Patreon wouldn’t seem most suitable. Your good ideas in that regard would be very welcome.

But in the meantime, enjoy this mix of great songs, which is timed to fit on as standard CD-R (though this time without covers). PW in comments.

1. The Main Ingredient – Everybody Plays The Fool (1972)
Any Major Soul Train

2. Odyssey – Native New Yorker (1977)
NYC: Any Major Mix Vol. 2

3. The Dells – Oh, What A Night (1969)
Any Major Music from ‘The Sopranos’ Vol. 1

4. Mel Tormé – Blue Moon (1960)
Song Swarm: Blue Moon

5. Elvis Presley – If I Can Dream (1968)
Any Major MLK

6. Johnny Cash – Roll Call (1967)
Any Major Jones Vol. 2

7. The Hollies – Bus Stop (1966)
Any Major ABC: 1960s

8. Mott The Hoople – All The Way From Memphis (1973)
Any Major Music From The Wonder Years

9. Commander Cody – Cry Baby Cry (1978)
Beatles Recovered: White Album

10. Emmylou Harris – Racing In The Streets (1982)
Great Covers: Darkness On The Edge Of Town

11. Bright Eyes – First Day Of My Life (2005)
Stars Pick Your Songs Vol. 3: Celebs

12. Karma – Pachelbel (1998)
Any Major Impossible Love

13. Michael Kiwanuka – Cold Little Heart (2017)
Any Major TV”ˆTheme Songs Vol. 4

14. Camelle Hinds – Sausalito Calling (1995)
Any Major Flute Vol. 5

15. Fatima Rayney – Hey (1997)
Any Major Happy Songs Vol. 1

16. Stevie Wonder – Knocks Me Off My Feet (1976)
Any Major Soul 1976 Vol. 2

17. Isaac Hayes – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again (1972)
Covered With Soul Vol. 23

18. Ben E. King – Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You (1970)
Any Major Dylan Covers Vol. 5

19. Labi Siffre – It Must Be Love (1971)
Any Major Originals: The 1980s

20. Abba – Waterloo (German version, 1974)
Stars Sing German

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The relatively benign year 2018 (in terms of music deaths) ended with a vengeful bang. Most distressing was the death of three members of a band that was swept to sea in the Indonesian tsunami while as they were playing live on stage. It was a bad month too for guitarists. And an old correspondent with yours truly, a legendary songwriter, also exited the musical stage.

The All-Rounder

It may be that Nancy Wilson‘s versatility prevented the jazz, soul and pop singer from becoming a legend in any of these genres. Her talent and her powers of interpreting other people’s songs should qualify her as a Queen of Soul or Duchess of Jazz. But the singer herself insisted on not being confined to any one genre. She described herself as a “song stylist”. Wilson had crossover potential. She even hosted her own TV show, imaginatively titled, The Nancy Wilson Show, which won an Emmy, but for some reason ran only from 1967-68. She also acted in several TV series. Wilson had a long career, still winning a Grammy in 2007 for her last album, Turned To Blue.

The Patch

After pursuing an unsuccessful music career in his native Alabama, in 1967 Ray Sawyer drove to Oregon to become a logger. On the way there he had a car accident in which he lost an eye. That was the end of the logging career and Sawyer returned to music, eventually helping to form a band — which would be called Dr Hook & the Medicine Show in reference to his piratesque eye cap. Although for much of the band’s existence Sawyer was not the main lead singer — that was Dennis Locorriere — Sawyer was the visual focal point of the band, even when he stood to the side in group photos. Of course, many people assumed that Sawyer was Dr Hook himself. Locorriere took the lead vocals on almost all of the band’s big hits, but Sawyer did the honours on Shel Silverstein’s The Cover Of The Rolling Stone — which landed the band on the cover of the magazine, in cartoon form. Sawyer left Dr Hook in 1981 for a solo career.

The Close And Personal Friend

The famed songwriter Norman Gimbel once wrote me a grumpy e-mail, objecting to my having repeated the story that his lyrics for Killing Me Softly With His Song were basically the work of Lori Lieberman. I can’t say that I found him to be a particularly sweet man, still, he took the time to write. He did decline my offer of an interview, which was his prerogative. Gimbel leaves an impressive legacy. Apart from Killing Me Softly, he also wrote the words for the themes of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley (whose Penny Marshall died just two days before Gimbel), Andy Williams’ Canadian Sunset, and the English lyrics for The Girl Of Ipanema and Sway. He won an Oscar for the song It Goes Like It Goes from 1979’s Norma Rae, and in 1984 was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The Hitmaker

I paid tribute to the legendary Wrecking Crew bassist Joe Osborn with a mix posted a couple of days after his death. The post noted the number of massive hits Osborn played on; among the Wrecking Crew bassists, maybe only Carol Kaye can match his resumé. When a Wrecking Crew alumnus dies, it is always good to refer to the outstanding 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew, produced by the son Osborne’s frequent collaborator Tommy Tedesco, which I believe is available on Netflix. On top of the four songs included here, Osborn also features on the bass on the featured tribute to Galt MacDermot, The 5th Dimension’s Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In.

The Punk Pioneer

Few rock legends, it’s fair to say, tend to retire to Estonia. But so it was with Pete Shelley, Read more…

As I have done for the past few years, I am putting up two compilations of tracks from the compilations I posted over the past year, with one song chosen from each mix (except for the Any Major Favourites 2017 mixes, the Christmas selections, the Any Major Disco Vol. 7 mix I posted just before New Year-s, and In Memoriams).

In 2018 I put up a total of 46 mixes, plus the 12 monthly In Memoriams. Among those 46 mixes were the first three in the series of The Originals — lesser-known originals of famous hits, sorted by themes. I plan to post more of these this year. And the supply of these lesser-known originals is endless; my collection numbers more than 800 of them.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a CD-R length. I’ve not bothered with home-distilled covers for this offering. PW in comments, where you are always welcome to say something.

1. Rodriguez – I Wonder (1970)
Any Major ABC: 1970s

2. The Allman Brothers Band – Blue Sky (1972)
Any Major Guitar Vol. 2

3. Steely Dan – Kid Charlemagne (1976)
The Larry Carlton Collection

4. Jackson Browne – Somebody’s Baby (1982)
Not Feeling Guilty Mix Vol. 9

5. Aretha Franklin – Something He Can Feel (1976)
Aretha Sings Covers

6. Thelma Houston – I Just Gotta Be Me (1969)
The Joe Osborne Collection

7. Darondo – Didn’t I (1972)
Any Major Music from ‘The Deuce’

8. Gil Scott-Heron – New York City (1976)
Any Major New York City Vol. 1

9. Badfinger – Without You (1970)
Any Major Originals: The 1970s

10. John Lennon – Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down And Out) (1974)
Beatles Reunited: Photographs

11. Wilco – Impossible Germany (2007)
Any Major Guitar Vol. 1

12. Andre Williams – Pardon Me (I’ve Got Someone To Kill) (2000)
Any Major Murder Songs Vol. 1

13. Ben Kweller – On Her Own (2009)
Any Major Women Vol. 1

14. Garth Brooks – Friends In Low Places (1990)
Any Major Friends Vol. 1

15. Roy Clark – Thank God And Greyhound (1972)
All The People Who’ve Died 2018

16. Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream (1966)
Any Major Whistle Vol. 2

17. Jerry Jeff Walker – Mr. Bojangles (1968)
The Originals: The Classics

18. Earth, Wind & Fire – I’ll Write A Song For You (1977)
Any Major Soul 1977

19. Pacific Express – Give A Little Love (1978)
Any Major Soul 1978

20. Vicky Leandros – L’amour Est Bleu (Love Is Blue) (1966)
Any Major Eurovision

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