Jerry Butler and Brenda Lee Eager - "Ain't Understanding Mellow" (Mercury Records, 1971)

Last month, we considered [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Jerry Butler[/lastfm]‘s lone Gold record as a solo artist, 1969′s “Only the Strong Survive.” We follow that with propers to Butler and one of his singing partners, [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Brenda Lee Eager[/lastfm], who went Gold a few years later with “Ain’t Understanding Mellow.”

By the time “Ain’t Understanding Mellow” reached the charts in 1971, Jerry Butler had a long list of hit records in his repertoire. [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]The Impressions[/lastfm] hit from 1958, “For Your Precious Love” featured his voice. As a solo artist, “He Will Be Me” had broke the Top 10 in 1960. Butler was no stranger to duets either, having charted records with [lastfm link_type="artist_info"]Betty Everett[/lastfm] in 1964.

Brenda Lee Eager was a gospel-trained backup singer with Butler’s band when she step downstage into the spotlight for duets with her boss. The pair released four charting singles (including the Number 8 R&B hit, “If It’s Real What I Feel”) with “Ain’t Understanding Mellow” doing the best, hitting Number 21 on the pop charts and Number 3 on the R&B charts.

As we noted in our previous post, Butler’s a politician in Cook County, IL while Eager, who spent a number of years recording solo and working as a backup singer, is now conductor of The Heaven on Earth Choir at the City of Angels Church in Culver City, California.

Want to know more about some golden oldies (and not-so-oldies)? Read more about them here…

A Change of Heart

Digital Mischief and Playlist by Warrigal Mirriyuula

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp1F16_7lO0

Jackie De Shannon What The World Needs Now Is Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKvhxapM5zo&feature=fvwrel

Ray Charles Hit The Road Jack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S1VmqyTUBk

Betty Everett You’re No Good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ6zVW3V1hc

Tony Bennett The Good Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sDCmaUKgts

Ry Cooder The Tattler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Enc8KEzdYY

Kate & Anna McGarrigle Heart Like A Wheel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dael4sb42nI

Otis Redding Try A Little Tenderness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sr-3VwUWS0

Al Green How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8tVcgxh990

Oleta Adams Everything Must Change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSep7QJXKlE

Carole King It’s Too Late

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxK8ghb9PU

Dianna Krall Walk On By

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUIVJ6eb8tk

Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl6yilkU1LI

Tracy Chapman Fast Car

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFCnVC2C8As

Boz Scaggs Breakdown Dead Ahead (Tempo’s too slow but the feel is there.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEC4TZsy-Y

Lou Reed Perfect Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xezg3z5IE8I

Don Henley The Heart Of The Matter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiu2CWAGmNg

Rick Price Walk Away Renee (Fabulous big Aussie pub mix for this Four Tops classic.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbZDjnWtK1A

Cyndi Lauper True Colours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ7uXX9K7Sk

The Supremes You Can’t Hurry Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBijZqQ6KMU

Gene Pitney True Love Never Runs Smooth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1OT1jdGp8M&feature=related

Gene Pitney Half Heaven Half Heartache (Listen out for the Cello solo.)

Keywords: Jackie De Shannon, Ray Charles, Betty Everett, Tony Bennett, Ry Cooder, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Otis Redding, Al Green, Oleta Adams, Carole King, Dianna Krall, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty, Tracy Chapman, Boz Scaggs, Lou Reed, Don Henley, Rick Price, Cyndi Lauper, The Supremes, Gene Pitney

Syleena Johnson performs live in Chicago. (Photo by Jason Squires/WireImage)

You’ll probably remember her smoldering debut “I Am Your Woman,” a tune penned by R. Kelly on her first project Chapter I: Love, Pain & Forgiveness. Since then, she’s offered the world of R&B/soul music four albums that have fallen short of mainstream popularity in some cases, but her devoted fan base knows where to find her every step of the way.

Now she’s seemingly back in the habit and ready to pay homage to the best of the bunch. We hear she’s been promising old school soul covers and tributes left and right on Twitter these days and her legion of R&B/soul music fans (affectionately known as the “Syleegions”) are making sure she holds true to those promises.

Check out what she recently put together just for us and the special message tagged along with it. If you’re not following Syleena Johnson, now’s the time to do so. Keep up with her via the following official links.

Syleena Johnson – Official Website

Syleena Johnson – Official Twitter

Syleena Johnson – Official Myspace

“Another tribute to my Syleegion on Twitter. This song is a cover of Betty Everett who is most famous for “The Shoop Shoop Song”. This recording reunites me and my father, Syl Johnson for his upcoming project tentatively titled “The Rebirth Of Soul” featuring artists of today singing vintage soul music. Originally recorded in 1969, this is Rhythm & Blues in its purest form. It’s a rough mix. Enjoy and thank you all so much.” — Syleena (@Syleena_Johnson)

Are you a Syleena Johnson fan? If not, what other artists satisfy your R&B/soul cravings? Let us know by posting on the message board a comment or two and share with us what you thought of the new music from Syleena as well.

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Syleena Johnson performs live in Chicago. (Photo by Jason Squires/WireImage)

You’ll probably remember her smoldering debut “I Am Your Woman,” a tune penned by R. Kelly on her first project Chapter I: Love, Pain & Forgiveness. Since then, she’s offered the world of R&B/soul music four albums that have fallen short of mainstream popularity in some cases, but her devoted fan base knows where to find her every step of the way.

Now she’s seemingly back in the habit and ready to pay homage to the best of the bunch. We hear she’s been promising old school soul covers and tributes left and right on Twitter these days and her legion of R&B/soul music fans (affectionately known as the “Syleegions”) are making sure she holds true to those promises.

Check out what she recently put together just for us and the special message tagged along with it. If you’re not following Syleena Johnson, now’s the time to do so. Keep up with her via the following official links.

Syleena Johnson – Official Website

Syleena Johnson – Official Twitter

Syleena Johnson – Official Myspace

“Another tribute to my Syleegion on Twitter. This song is a cover of Betty Everett who is most famous for “The Shoop Shoop Song”. This recording reunites me and my father, Syl Johnson for his upcoming project tentatively titled “The Rebirth Of Soul” featuring artists of today singing vintage soul music. Originally recorded in 1969, this is Rhythm & Blues in its purest form. It’s a rough mix. Enjoy and thank you all so much.” — Syleena (@Syleena_Johnson)

Are you a Syleena Johnson fan? If not, what other artists satisfy your R&B/soul cravings? Let us know by posting on the message board a comment or two and share with us what you thought of the new music from Syleena as well.

MORE MUSIC EXCLUSIVES:

Kevin McCall Releases “Un-Invited Guest” Mixtape

Chrisette Michele Performs Live in Cincinnati

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This song is a tribute to your deception and subsequent punking of the American people.

FYI: they are over you!

Enjoy this song from Betty Everett entitled, “You’re No Good.”

Having been away for a year, this Christmas was a good opportunity to visit kith and kin, for heartfelt reunions and all that. Nice though it has been to see the Family Rope again, I am reminded of the words of Betty Everett: “It’s getting mighty crowded, to crowded for me”.

There are six adults crammed into this house, with ages running from 23 to 93, and everyone is under everyone else’s feet. I miss my nice apartment in Buenos Aires. I miss the sun streaming through the balcony windows every morning. I miss padding about the place in my pants. I miss having excellent music to accompany my every move. I miss having space to dance in the nude, then realising that the neighbours are almost certainly watching. I miss work. Now there’s something I never thought I would say.

I have exchanged the sun, wine, beef, and romance of Buenos Aires for the cold and grey of Liverpool, hoping that David Cameron will write me a cheque every week rather than have me shot and used as fuel for the elderly.

Instead of employing the time to write, job-hunt, or indeed anything else that may be construed as constructive, I am  allowing myself to vegetate slowly. I haven’t even signed on yet and I am already aping the mannerisms of the lethargic dolite. ‘Cept I don’t watch television. This is in some small part because it is terrible but mostly because I cannot work out how to turn it on. Old Ma Rope’s TV is so big and shiny and off-putting.

Television has changed while I have been away. And I don’t mean the programming, which, if my morning sessions reading the Radio Times out loud to Old Granny Rope are anything to go by, appears to be the same non-list celebrity-centred tripe as before.

View from my BA flat

No, rather the actual television sets themselves have changed. Everyone I know now seems to have a huge flat contraption that would look more at home on a spaceship in a George Lucas film. All shiny and black and sleek and big and intimidating. I keep expecting the commander of some alien fleet, or Orwell’s Big Brother, to flash onto the dormant screen at any moment. Television is in a bad enough state that I have to write “Orwell’s Big Brother”, because bizarrely the words are more synonymous with Davina McCall; without having to fear the electrical device in the corner itself.

The TV may be off, but I am still on the sofa too often. In order to nip this indolence in the bud, I have decided on a plan of action.

I have not lived in this city for a long, long time and it too has changed considerably. I intend to rediscover Liverpool. To visit parts I once knew that are unrecognisable and to revisit those that may well be the same, but I have not paid any heed for donkey’s years.

From what I have seen, the city now seems to be one gigantic shop, in the interests of getting us all to spend money we don’t have. Instead, I will seek out the free and the fabulous, the fun and the frugal. There are, at a conservative estimate, six bazillion museums, galleries, parks and flower gardens in the city, many of which have not been blessed with my presence since I was a wee lad.

There are walks and hidden treasures that have the temerity to hide right under my very nose in this old town. As I never tired of telling my Argentine students, Liverpool is over 800 years old and has more to offer than the terrifying shopopolis of Liverpool One.

I mean, I’ve never even been down the Williamson Tunnels, a labyrinthine subterraneous network built by the rich 19^th century eccentric Joseph Williamson. Is there anything more warming to the heart than the words “rich 19^th century eccentric”…? That was a time when men of leisure were not idle. If only I had a Victorian fortune at my disposal, I could really get shit done every day. Perhaps I should say that at my forthcoming  Jobseekers Interview.

The historian James Stoneshouse described the tunnels as “Vaulted passageways cut out of solid rock: archways thrown up by craftsman’s hands, beautiful in proportion, elegant in form, but supporting nothing. Tunnels formed here – deep pits there.”

I have to go and see them. I should also go and see the Naked Willy Men of Crosby, or whatever they are called. Those metal sentinels who stand bullock-naked in the sea and local wags put traffic cones on their heads. You know the ones.

Last time I was in Liverpool I paid a visit to Speke Hall, a former stately home I had played football in the grounds of many times as a kid, but not paid much real attention to. The house was being ‘relaunched’ for the public and was full of characters in period costume lording it about and banging on about how they used to live and how they came to be so fabulously, insultingly wealthy. It was great.

There are doubtless many more hidden (or, to be honest, not so hidden if I just paid attention) nuggets to be found if I apply myself. Suggestions welcome.

It’s a shame I lost my portable music playing device (other portable music playing devices are available) in Peru, because I would like to have made myself a series of self-serving soundtracks to score my forthcoming adventures. I think I’ll make them anyway and share both the music and the exploits with Old Rope readers.

Betty Everett (November 23, 1939 – August 19, 2001), American soul music singer,

Midweek and the weather up here is miserable.

I hate the first week after the clocks go back not least as I have to try and remember how to reset the bloody timer on the boiler, you think that I would be able to remember as it’s only been six months since I last had to do it but no!

Time for a bit of life affirming soul music I think.

First up we have Dobie Gray with his version of the song first recorded by John Henry Kurtz, me neither, Drift Away. This song has been covered by hundreds of people, however I think out of the versions I have heard this is my favourite. Gray’s name will forever to me at least be synonymous with Out On The Floor a classic northern tune.

Dobie Gray – Drift Away

Secondly we have another cover, this time a duet from Jerry Butler and Betty Everett another two very well known voices to the soul fraternity. Here they cover Let It Be Me, best known version to me is by the Everley Brothers whom I must confess, I thought wrote it until I thought that I better check  before posting. It turns out that it was originally a French song first performed by Jill Corey in 1957. Another track which has been covered extensively and probably extremely badly by David Hasselhoff.

Jerry Butler & Betty Everett – Let It Be Me

Now isn’t that better.

Wede

Betty Everett – Too Hot To Hold

Betty Everett – I Don’t Hurt Anymore

]]> http://halfhearteddude.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/the-originals-vol-29/ Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:00:20 +0000 halfhearteddude http://halfhearteddude.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/the-originals-vol-29/ By the end of this instalment of the lesser-known originals, we’ll have covered (as it were) the 150th song since the series started last October. And there are still so many songs to go… So here are Not Fade Away, The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss), La Vie En Rose, China Girl and the extraordinary story of Just Walkin’ In The Rain.

* * *

Buddy Holly and The Crickets – Not Fade Away.mp3
Rolling Stones – Not Fade Away.mp3
Unlike many artists in the early days of rock ’n’ roll, Buddy Holly and his Crickets were no overnight success. After being dropped by Decca records (not always the greatest judges of talent either side of the Atlantic) in late 1956, Holly and his newly formed Crickets struggled to find a distributor to market the songs they recorded at Norman Petty’s studios in Clovis, New Mexico. Eventually, That’ll Be The Day gave the group its first hit; before that, Holly kept writing future hits which would be billed either as Crickets or Buddy Holly records — purely a marketing ploy, for Holly saw himself as part of as collective. One of these songs recorded before fame came knocking in August 1957 was Not Fade Away (put down in May that year), which cheerfully plagiarised Bo Diddley’s seminal stop-start beat from his eponymous hit. Charlie Watts and Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham later bizarrely claimed that the Stones innovated on the Crickets’ original by introducing the Bo Diddley beat. Bill Wyman is more honest, saying that the Stones merely amplified it.

The song’s writers are credited as Charles Hardin (Holly’s Christian names) and Norman Petty, a result of the arbitrary designations which were supposed to let all Crickets members get a piece of royalty action. In reality, drummer Jerry Ivan Allison (on the left in the cover pic) had contributed significantly to the lyrics, while producer Petty had written nothing, but in any case took a writing credit for every Holly/Crickets song (and added his name to the writing credits of songs written by others for his charges, such as Sonny West and Bill Tilghman’s Oh Boy). In return, Allison would receive credit for songs to which he had contributed nothing, including Peggy Sue, to which he furnished little else but the name of his future wife.

Much as Elvis Presley inspired the American and British youth to seek musical fame, arguably the more profound influence on the future of rock ’n’ roll was that of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Chuck Berry and (certainly in the case of the Beatles) Carl Perkins. Unusually for the time, these acts wrote most of their own songs, inspiring the likes of Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards to do likewise. Holly, Perkins and Berry were also quite exceptional in that they played their own guitars, laying down solos which would be imitated by virtually every band that a few years later would “invade” America (think about Holly’s Peggy Sue solo). Indeed, Holly’s arrival in Britain coincided with the decline of skiffle, the musical form that involved guitars plus whatever you could find in the kitchen (especially washboards). Stuck with guitars and a dying genre, the likes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney sought a new muse. The guitar-wielding Buddy Holly provided just that. That’ll Be The Day was the song the Beatles (whose punning name was motivated by the Crickets) performed on their very first demo.

And it was the Crickets’ Not Fade Away, originally released as the b-side of Oh Boy, with which the Rolling Stones had their first cross-Atlantic hit. It is an amusing sidenote that the Crickets’ Not Fade Away unwittingly exercised a skiffle mentality: instead of drums, Jerry Allison beat out his rhythm on cardboard boxes, an idea borrowed from Buddy Knox’s hit Party Doll. It is said that on the Stones version, Phil Spector contributes to the recording by shaking a cognac bottle (“donated” by Gene Pitney) with a coin inside, doing the part Jagger does on stage with the maracas.

The Rolling Stones version, recorded in January 1964 and released in February, was the UK follow-up single to I Wanna Be Your Man — the song the Beatles donated to the Stones to help the London group break through — and their first US single (backed by I Wanna Be Your Man). Peaking at #3, it was their first UK Top10 hit. In the US it reached #48, a creditable placing for a foreign debut single and a basis from which the Stones could launch their career there.

Also recorded by: Bobby Fuller (1962), Dick and Dee Dee (1964), The Rolling Stones (1964), Dave Berry (1964), The Supremes, 1964), The Scorpions (Dutch band, 1964), The Beachers (1965), Corporate Image (1966), The Pupils (1966), The Why Four (1966), The End (1966), The Barracudas (1967), The Walflower Complextion (1967), Joe Pass (1967), Group Axis (1969), Grateful Dead (1971), Rush (1973), Everly Brothers (March 1973), Fumble (1974), Bo Diddley (1976), Sutherland Brothers & Quiver 91976), Steve Hillage (1977), Black Oak Arkansas (1977), Tanya Tucker (1978), Stephen Stills (1978), Eddy Mitchell (as Comment ça fait?, 1979), Joe Ely (1980), Mick Fleetwood (1981), Eric Hine (1981), The Knack (1982), Andy J. Forest & Snapshots (1982), Amiga Blues Band (1983), Happy Flowers (1987), The Purple Helmets (1988), The Razorbacks (1989), The Infidels (1989), Trout Fishing in America (1990), Peter Belli & De Nye Rivaler (1992), The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1992), Foreigner (1993), Roy Rogers (1994), Dave Plaehn & Jeff Hino (1996), Mike and the Mellotones (1996), Hank Marvin (1996), Johnny Hallyday (as Je vais te secouer, 1996), John Entwistle (1997), Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez (1997), Sean Kennedy and the King Kats (1998), JGB (1998), Zydeco Flames (1998), James Taylor (1998), Darrel Higham (1999), Mike Berry (1999), The Jailbirds (1999), The End (1999), Status Quo (1999), Ned Sublette (1999), Jorma Kaukonen Band & Guests (1999), Michigan Mark DePree (2000), Lemmy & Friends (2000), Scott Ellison (2000), X (2001), The Pirates (2001), Cory Morrow (2001), Two Tons of Steel (2002), Jon Butcher Axis (2002), The Rocking Chairs (2002), Noel Redding (2004), The Head Cat (2006), David Kitt (2006), The Bees (2006), Sheryl Crow (2007) a.o.

.

The Prisonaires – Just Walkin’ In The Rain.mp3
Johnnie Ray – Just Walkin’ In The Rain.mp3
The Prisonaires – Please Baby.mp3
Not many pop classics were written in jail. Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley were incarcerated in 1952 at the Tennessee State Penitentiary when a chance conversation about the wet weather — Bragg, the story goes, remarked to Riley as they were hanging out in the jail’s courtyard: “Here we are just walking in the rain, and wondering what the girls are doing” — inspired the song’s composition (unnervingly, the comment was made by a man who was serving a sentence for six counts of rape). Bragg wrote the song but was illiterate; burglar Riley’s contribution was committing it to paper.

The Prisonaires: rape, murder, manslaughter, larceny, sweet harmonies

Bragg was part of a gospel quintet at Tennessee State. His bandmates comprised two murderers, a fraudster and one convicted for manslaughter. Undesirable characters as they were, the Prisonaires had talent. They were discovered by a local radio producer, Joe Calloway, who recorded the group for a radio broadcast. A tape of the radio performance came to Sam Phillips, founder of the Sun Studio which a year later would introduce Elvis Presley to the public. Although not a big fan of the proto-doo wop style, he negotiated with the authorities to have the Prisonaires delivered, under heavy guard, to his Memphis studio to cut a record, Baby Please (posted above as a bonus), backed with Just Walkin’ In The Rain. The single was a big local hit, selling 50,000 copies. Thereafter they were allowed to tour, performing on occasion even for the state’s governor. The good times didn’t last long; by 1954 rock ’n’ roll was on the up, and Ink Spot type groups — especially if they were jailbirds — were falling by the wayside. In 1955 the Prisonaires disbanded. By 1959, Bragg’s was paroled, but was in and out of jail for the next ten years. He passed away in 2004 at 78, long after his former bandmates had died.

In 1956, the most rueful of all ’50s singers, Johnnie Ray, recorded Just Walkin’ In The Rain, which despite the Prisonaires regional success was an obscure track. The original certainly was despondent, but the so-called Prince of Wails invested it with a different sense of mournfulness. In a word, his first-person protagonist is pathetic. Rat’s version, produced and whistled by Ray Conniff (he of serial easy listening crimes) and arranged by Mitch Miller (still alive at 98), was a massive hit, reaching #2 in the US and #1 in the UK.

Also recorded by: Judy Kileen (1956), Four Jacks (1957), Jim Reeves (1962), Shakin’ Stevens (1983), Eric Clapton (2001)

.

Marianne Michel – La Vie en Rose.mp3
Edith Piaf – La Vie En Rose.mp3
Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose (full version).mp3
This is one of those orginals which was recorded first by somebody other than the writer (and even then, the authorship is disputed). Piaf’s lyrics were put to music by Louis “Louiguy” Guglielmi (who also wrote the song known in English as Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White). For legal reasons, Piaf’s name could not be credited. At the time, that didn’t seem to matter much, since the composers failed to see much hit potential in the song — even if, in 1945 France, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the notion of seeing life through rose-tinted glasses must have seemed particularly attractive. So the song, then titled Les Choses en Rose, was farmed out to Piaf’s friend, the singer Marianne Michel. It was Michel who proposed the title by which the song became world famous, albeit in Piaf’s 1946 recording.

The song became a chanson and easy listening staple until Grace Jones discofied it with her rather excellent vocals, a bossa nova beat and glittering production values in 1977 (as she did with other standards, such as Autumn Leaves and Send In The Clowns). It was a massive hit in Europe, though not in Britain until eight years after its original release.

Also recorded by: Werner Schmah & Walter Dobschinski und die Tanzkapelle des Berliner Rundfunks (as Schau’ mich bitte nicht so an, 1948), Louis Armstrong (1950), Gene Ammons (1950), Tony Martin (1950), Michel Legrand and his Orchestra (1954), The Mantovani Orchestra (1958), Dean Martin (1962), Jacques Faber (1964), Dalida (1964), Tony Mottola (1965), Bobby Solo (1965), Peter Alexander (as Schau’ mich bitte nicht so an, 1966), Josephine Baker (1968), Nana Mouskouri (as Schau’ mich bitte nicht so an, 1973), Alain Goraguer (1976), Dalida (1976), Grace Jones (1977), Bette Midler (1977), Richard Clayderman (1979), Grand Orchestre Mario Robbiani (1981), Taco (1982), James Last And His Orchestra (1982), Franck Pourcel (1983), Diane Dufresne (1985), Michèle Torr (1987), Melissa Manchester (1989), D’Erlanger (1998), Trio Esperança (1992), Donna Summer (1993), Patricia Kaas (1993), Nicole de Monde (1994), Wendy Van Wanten (as Duizend regenbogen, 1995), Madeleine Peyroux (1996), Toots Thielemans & Diana Krall (1998), Jo Lemaire (1999), Manlio Sgalambro (2001), Romy Haag (2001), Bernard Peiffer (2001), Tony Bennett & k.d. lang (2002), Miguel Wiels (2002), Petula Clark (2002), Liane Foly (2003), Zazie (2003), Cyndi Lauper (2003), In-grid (2004), Dee Dee Bridgewater (2005), Montmartre (2006), Princess Erika (2006), Alfons Haider (2007), Belinda Carlisle (2007), Victoria Abril (November 2007), Suarez (2008) and lots more

.

Merry Clayton – It’s In His Kiss.mp3
Betty Everett – The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss).mp3
Soul purists will have been quite scandalised by Cher’s version of the Shoop Shoop Song, declaring with considerable indignation that it does not measure up to Betty Everett’s original. While the assessment on respective quality is correct, we erred in ascribing originality to Everett. The first version was recorded by Merry Clayton and released in 1963, a few months before Everett’s version came out in December 1963 to give the singer her first Top 10 hit.

Written by Rudy Clark (whom we shall encounter again in this series) and produced by Jack Nietzsche, It’s in His Kiss was a flop for Clayton, then all of 15 years old. Indeed, Clayton never had a big hit of her own; the highest-charting one, at #48, came in 1987 with the song Yes from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Yet she was involved in many famous recordings, first as one of Ray Charles’ Raelettes, then as Mick Jagger’s duet partner on Gimme Shelter, and as a backing vocalists on such songs as Lynyrd Skynrd’s Sweet Home Alabama and Tori Amos’ Cornflake Girl. She was also the original Acid Queen in The Who’s London production of their rock-opera Tommy.

Shortly after Clayton released It’s In His Kiss, Betty Everett recorded it very reluctantly, finding the song childish. Although credited to Everett alone, she as backed by a band called The Opals, effectively creating one of the supreme girl-group songs of the age. A month after Everett’s version was released on Chicago’s Vee-Jay Records, Warner Bros in LA issued a version of the song by Ramona King. To differentiate Everett’s version from King’s, Vee-Jay changed the title to The Shoop Shoop Song, after the catchy backing vocals.

In 1991, Cher’s version from the 1990 movie Mermaids introduced The Shoop Shoop Song to a new generation. While Everett’s version was a Top 10 hit in the US, but barely reached the Top 40 in the UK, now Cher’s version sold sluggishly in the US, but topped the UK charts, and was one of the biggest hits of 1991 throughout Europe as well as in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Also recorded by (under different titles): Aretha Franklin (1964), The Hollies (1964), Sandie Shaw (1964), The Searchers (1964), Linda Lewis (1975), Kate Taylor (1978), Nancy Boyd (1986), The Nylons (1996), Vonda Shepard (1998), The Neatbeats (1999), Bob Rivers (as It’s in His Piss, 2002), Lulu (2005)

.

Iggy Pop – China Girl
David Bowie – China Girl
Iggy and Bowie wrote China Girl together for the former’s 1977 album The Idiot, at a time when both stars dwelled in Berlin to wean themselves off heroin (Berlin seems an odd choice of refuge from smack, but nobody ever accused those two of being eminently sensible). Indeed, there is a good case that the song is about heroin, a drug sometimes referred to as China White, or about an opiate known as China Girl. The locale of composition also explains the swastika reference.

In 1983 Bowie revived the song, which in Iggy’s version made few waves, in his besuited Let’s Dance period, polishing it under Nile Rodger’s production, and frolicking to it in the Australian waves in the video. His co-star in the video is a New Zealand actress of Vietnamese extraction named Geeling Ng. Although they dated afterwards, according to Geeling, the popular rumours that they actually had sex in the video are, as one would expect, false. The video created further controversy surrounding — goodness, hold on to your drawers! — Bowie’s bared buttocks; later versions excised his arse.

Also recorded: Nick Cave (1978), Piggy Stardust (1998), James (1998), Trance to the Sun (1999), Moogue (2001), Pete Yorn (2002), Rhonda Harris (2003), Winter (2004), Anna Ternheim (2005), Silver (2005), Voltaire (2006)

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More Originals

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Labi Siffre – It Must Be Love.mp3
Madness – It Must Be Love.mp3
Perhaps I’m stretching the concept of this series a little here; some may well say that they know the Labi Siffre original better than the remake. Still, it is the 1981 Madness cover that was the bigger hit and gets the wider airplay. In my view, their version is better than Siffre’s, though I fully expect to receive dissenting comment calling into question the intactness of my mental faculties (or, indeed, refer to my complete madness). Madness reached the UK #4 with the song; in 1971, Siffre (one of the first openly gay singers in pop) reached #14 with it. Rather endearingly, Siffre made a cameo appearance in the video for the Madness single (he is a violin player).

Siffre periodically retired from the music industry. He most propitiously returned in 1987 when he released his anti-apartheid song Something Inside (So Strong), which has been frequently covered, and then proceeded to co-write most of Jonathan Butler’s fine 1990 album Heal Our Land, which in part was a love letter to South Africa at a time when it had become clear that apartheid was dead.

Also recorded by: Marian Montgomery (1972), Lyn Paul (1975), Jasper Steverlinck (2004), Jeroen van der Boom (2006), Paolo Nutini (2007)

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Mel Tillis – Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town (1967).mp3
Kenny Rogers & First Edition – Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town
Mel Tillis – Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town (1976).mp3
A Korean war veteran comes home from doing his “patriotic chore” without his legs and his beloved wife treats him like dirt and goes cheating on him. Much as it may sound like a country music cliché, songwriter Mel Tillis, who released the song in January 1967, said he based the lyrics on a couple in his neighbourhood, with the man having been wounded in Germany in Word War 2, not in Korea. Tillis spared us the bitter end of the story: The ex-GI killed his straying wife and then himself. Though the protagonist of the song imagines putting Ruby into the ground, he has no concrete plans to kill her.

The song had been recorded a couple of times before Kenny Rogers decided it would serve to move his group, the First Edition, closer to the country scene. He and the group recorded the song in one take. It became a hit in 1969 (at the height of the Vietnam War), reaching #6 in the US and #2 in the UK. For Rogers it became a signature tune which he would record twice more, in 1977 and 1990. Apparently Rogers likes to send the song up in concerts; it seems to have become a bit of a gag, with the not very humorous Right Said Fred honouring it with a cover version. Personally, I fail to see the capricious angle.

Also recorded by: Johnny Darrell (1967), The Statler Brothers (1967), Red Sovine (1969), Dale Hawkins (1969), Peter Law & The New Pacific (1969), Leonard Nimoy (1970), Waylon Jennings (1973), Carl Perkins (1974), Gary Holton & Casino Steel (1980), Sort Sol (1985), The Gorehounds (as Ruby, 1989), Right Said Fred (1996), Cake (2005), The Killers (2007) a.o.

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t in their original form were far superior to the versions that made them famous. Great though Guthrie’s version (and Willie Nelson’s) is, City Of New Orleans is one such song. Goodman wrote it after travelling on the eponymous train which was about to be decommissioned, recording faithfully what he saw. The song helped to reprieve the line. Having been discovered by Kris Kristofferson, who introduced him to Paul Anka, Goodman recorded the song in 1971. One night in a Chicago bar he approached Arlo Guthrie with a view to introducing the song to Woody’s son. Arlo was not really interested in hearing another songwriter trying to peddle a song, but on condition that Goodman buy him a beer, he mustered some patience. Later he would recall it as “one of the longest, most enjoyable beers I ever had”. The meeting would provide him with his biggest hit, released in 1972. Johnny Cash, no stranger to the subject matter of trains, released his take in 1973.

Guthrie changed some of the lyrics: Goodman’s “passing towns” became “passing trains”, the “magic carpet made of steam” was now made of steel, “the rhythm of the rails is all they dream” was now felt. Goodman didn’t seem to mind; he and Guthrie remained good friends until the former’s premature death at 36 in 1984 from leukaemia, the disease he had been diagnosed with in 1969. He won a posthumous Grammy for the song on strength of Willie Nelson’s 1984 version. Read the quite dramatic story of The City of New Orleans train here, and more about Steve Goodman here.

Also recorded by: John Denver (1971), Chet Atkins (1973), The Seldom Scene (1973), Joe Dassin (as Salut les amoureux, 1973), Sammi Smith (1973), Hank Snow (1973), Johnny Cash & June Carter (1973), Henson Cargill (1973), Ted Egan (1973), Hopeton Lewis (1973), Jerry Reed (1974), Johnny Cash (1975), Judy Collins (1975), Rudi Carrell (as Wann wird’s mal wieder richtig Sommer, 1975), Yoram Gaon (as Shalom Lach Eretz Nehederet, 1977), Louise Féron & Jérôme Soligny (as Salut les amoureux, 1993), Randy Scruggs (1998), Maarten Cox (as ‘t Is weer voorbij, die mooie zomer, 2005), Beth Kinderman (2006), Discharger (2006), Lizzie West & the White Buffalo (2006), Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (2007) a.o.

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Ted Weems & his Orchestra – My Baby Just Cares For Me.mp3
Nina Simone – My Baby Just Cares For Me.mp3
Written by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn for the 1928 musical Whoopee (not to be confused with the rubbish actress going by a similar name), My Baby Just Cares For Me was recorded by a host of artists in the following few years. Ted Weems’ was not the first, but certainly among the earliest recordings. His take shows just how great an interpreter of songs Nina Simone was. She recorded it in 1958. It was not her most famous number, much less her signature tune, really becoming well-known when it featured in a British TV commercial for Chanel No. 5.

The bandleader Ted Weems was a star by the time he released his version of My Baby Just Cares For Me in July 1930, having had previous hits with Somebody Stole My Gal (1924), Piccolo Pete, and The Man from the South (1928), and later with Heartaches, which he recorded in 1933. At around that time he became even more famous thanks to a regular spot on Jack Benny’s hugely popular radio show. His band broke up with World War 2, and was reformed briefly in the early ’50s. Weems toured until 1953 when he became a DJ in Memphis and then a hotel manager. Weems died in 1963 at the age of 62. Take a look at this great video of Weems and a chorus line of flappers.

Also recorded by: Ethel Shutta (1930), Ted Fiorito & his Orchestra (1930), Mel Tormé (1947), Nat ‘King’ Cole (1949), The Hi-Lo’s (1954), Tony Bennett (1955), Somethin’ Smith and the Redheads (1955), Tommy Dorsey (1958), Tab Hunter (1958), Mary Wells (1965), Frank Sinatra (1966), Cornell Campbell (1973), Alex Chilton (1994), George Michael (1999), Julie Budd (2000), Natalie Cole (2002), Cyndi Lauper (2003), Laura Fedele (2005), Jaqui Naylor (2006), Amanda Lear (2006) a.o.

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Gilbert Bécaud – Je t’appartiens (1955).mp3
Jill Corey – Let It Be Me (1957)
Everly Brothers - Let It Be Me (1960)
Betty Everett & Jerry Butler – Let It Be Me (1964)
Skeeter Davis & Bobby Bare - Let It Be Me (1965)
Peaches & Herb - Let It Be Me (ca 1967)
Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry – Let It Be Me (1968)
Bob Dylan - Let It Be Me (1970)
Roberta Flack – Let It Be Me (1970)
Rosie Thomas - Let It Be Me (2005)
All nine cover versions in one file here
Let It Be Me is one of those pop standards that cannot be ascribed to any one particular artist. Most commonly, it might be considered an Everly Brothers song. To me, it is Betty Everett & Jerry Butler’s song; perhaps the most gorgeous version. Some may have heard it for the first time in its vulnerable interpretation by the wonderful Rosie Thomas, duetting with Ed Hardcourt. Not many will think of it as a French song, co-written and first released by the brilliant Gilbert Bécaud as Je t’appartiens (I belong to you) in 1955.

It was not the biggest hit for Bécaud (born François Silly), but it has been prodigiously covered. It took two years to cross the Atlantic, when Jill Corey – the youngest singer ever to headline at the Copacabana — recorded the first English-translation version. It was not a big hit, barely scratching the Top 60. It did become a hit with the Everly Brothers’ in 1960, their first recording made outside Nashville — it was made in New York — and their first to incorporate strings in the arrangement. Let It Be Me became a hit again in 1964 for Butler & Everett, in 1969 for Glenn Campbell & Bobby Gentry, and in 1982 for Willie Nelson. Bob Dylan recorded it twice; featured here is the first of these, which appeared on his 1970’s Self Portrait album. The same year Roberta Flack gave the song a whole new treatment on her second album. I am also partial to the version by the delightfully named Skeeter Davis with outlaw country pioneer Bobby Bare, which includes aspoken bit by Skeeter, as was her wont.

Also recorded by: The Blue Diamonds (1960), Chet Atkins (1961), The Lettermen (1962), Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass (1962), Andy Williams & Claudine Longet (1964), Sonny & Cher (1965), Brenda Lee (1965), Molly Bee (1965), The Shadows (1965), Barbara Lewis (1966), The Escorts (1966), Nancy Sinatra (1966), Arthur Prysock (1966), Chuck Jackson & Maxine Brown (1967), The Sweet Inspirations (1967), Sam & Dave (1967), Claudine Longet (1968), Earl Grant (1968), Petula Clark (1969), The Delfonics (1969), Jim Ed Brown (1969), Tom Jones (1969), Connie Smith & Nat Stuckey (1969), Roberta Flack (1970), Elvis Presley (1970), Bob Dylan (1970), Nancy Wilson (1971), New Trolls (1973), The Pointer Sisters (1974), Demis Roussos (1974), Nina Simone (1974), Mary McCaslin (1974), Melanie (1978), Kenny Rogers & Dottie West (1979),Jay & the Americans (1980), Bob Dylan (again, 1981), Willie Nelson (1982), David Hasselhoff (1984), Collin Raye (1992), Marc Jordan (1999), Nnenna Freelon feat Kirk Whalum (2000), Justin (2000), Lauro Nyro (2001), Anne Murray & Vince Gill (2002), Mike Andersen (2003), The Willy DeVille Acoustic Trio ( 2003), Paul Weller (2004),Pajo (2006), Frankie Valli (2007), Charlie Daniels Band with Brenda Lee (2007), Roch Voisine (2008), Jason Donovan (2008) a.o.

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]]> http://nationalworld.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/apparently-retro-is-where-were-going-where-weve-been-going/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:49:49 +0000 MrWitter http://nationalworld.wordpress.com/2008/06/05/apparently-retro-is-where-were-going-where-weve-been-going/ So, when I first heard Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album I thought: cool. A refitting of those standard ’50′s and ’60′s motown background beats with a little modern revision and some actual bass. Great. Everything works out. Except her lyrics were much more modern and concerning questionable things. But that was really the only difference. But now that I look at it, this has been the direction for a while.

Iguess the Indie bands had the idea first really. They kept alive to old traditions without much addition. Take Guster’s “All the Way Up to Heaven” to feel like they’ve done nothing to the Beach Boys’ style except added whistling–which is still in the same vein. And that came out in 1999. Or really, just listen to most of Spoon’s album Kill the Moonlight, which draws heavily on the style of the lesser bands from the British invasion, and the funky/psychedelia of the ’70s. Then there’s the almost Mamas and the Papas style of the current indie band She and Him. It’s all been around for a while, in one form or another: blatant borrowing. Good borrowing. Worthwhile borrowing. But borrowing nonetheless.

And the big name now: Duffy (who I like). He beats, her music, much like Amy Winehouse is a very obvious note taken from motown. If I could compare her to anyone ti would be a modern motown version of Dusty Springfield. Decidedly British, decidedly a very good singer. With the solid band background emphasizing the drums and, in the case of Mercy, the keyboard sounding like an organ, a few stringed instruments to emphasize the drama and importance of the chorus, and a few very classic background singers “hoo hoo”-ing and “yeah, yeah, yeah”-ing in the background. (They probably have matching outfits and hairdos.) Let me see if I can find that anywhere else.

Why not try Betty Everett’s “Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)”, or Little Eva doing “The Locomotion”? It’s not like she stole the hook to Heat Wave, but I think it’s great that this style of music is going through a major revitalization in a big way, considering Duffy is all over the British Billboards these days, and Amy Winehouse’s Rehab single was a huge success last year. At least, I heard about it. Which means it was at least a little popular.

witness the reasons for a lot of girls born circa 1985 called kayleigh and janay…

download here

andre cymone – kelly’s eyes

betty everett – lucinda

daniel saluheka – lorraine

father mc – lisa baby

freddie jackson – janay

just ice – latoya

kool and the gang – joanna

le klass – jan

marillion – kayleigh

ray parker jr – jamie

riff – judy had a boyfriend

zakiya – jimmy

Betty Everett sang gospel growing up in Greenwood, MS, before relocating to Chicago and moving into secular music. She began recording for Cobra in 1958, then joined Vee-Jay in the early ’60s and started to land hit records. Her original version of “You’re No Good,” though sung with fire and verve, didn’t make much impact until it was turned into a number one pop hit by Linda Ronstadt in 1975. Her next single, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss),” was her first major release, peaking at number six pop in 1964. Her next success was the duet “Let it Be Me” with Jerry Butler, a soul version of the Everly Brothers tune that reached number five R&B that same year. Everett’s finest song as a solo act was 1969′s “There’ll Come a Time,” which reached number two on the R&B charts and also cracked the pop Top 30 at number 26. Everett was now on Uni, where she remained until 1970. She continued recording for Fantasy until 1974 and made one other record for United Artists in 1978. A comeback performance for the 2000 PBS special Doo Wop 51 was her last public appearance; she died at her Wisconsin home in August 2001.