vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 22, 2012 0:01:56 GMT 1
Heh, which was the flipside to "Downtown", and also made the Hot 100 as a separate entry (at no. 95).
And, along with your new record, here it is...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 23, 2012 23:27:54 GMT 1
Basically a project of Zoot Money between the Big Roll Band and a stint with The Animals, this one-off single was one of Britain's first psychedelic releases - and the band's guitarist was Andy Summers who would become a bit more famous 10 years later...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Feb 21, 2012 0:15:37 GMT 1
Daytona 500 this weekend, and one of the stalwart privateer racers in NASCAR throughout the sixties and seventies was Marty Robbins, so it seems fitting to include something for which he was more famous. "El Paso" nudged the top 20 here but was a US chart-topper, indeed the first new one of the sixties. Robbins had far more success in music than he did in racing, setting 16 country number one singles and a Hot 100 chart-topper against a fifth at Michigan in 1974 (when he was 48 years young) as his best result in the Winston Cup. Robbins only qualified for NASCAR's biggest race of the year twice, in 1973 when he crashed at about quarter distance and 1975 when he got caught up in an early pile-up. Still, not bad for someone who raced as a hobby. Indeed his final start came just a month before he died following heart surgery in December 1982. He usually used the number 42 on his cars (usually painted a garish purple and yellow to stand out to the faster drivers lapping him), so in his honour NASCAR re-named his local Nashville race after him and ran it to 420 miles. Note how long "El Paso" was, this live version is quicker than the seven inch. Very rare for anything over 150 seconds in those days, yet the tale of gunfighting and lost love ran for five minutes on vinyl. Robbins, who had written the song, wrote a cut version for the b-side just in case, but stations preferred the longer one. He won the Grammy for Best Country Song in 1961 for the Texan tale and revisited it twice - once from the love interest Felina's perspective and once as a meta-song about someone who remembered it (" El Paso City"). The song features Rosa's cantina, later revisited on Brian Wilson's "Smile" and the alternative take of "Heroes And Villains". By all accounts a genuine bloke. RIP Marty.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 10, 2012 10:43:51 GMT 1
Doing research I heard "Patches" by Clarence Carter for the first time. My GOD, that man had a VOICE. But that in turn led me to this song, which is a totally different song, and one of the many deathdiscs that permeated the early sixties. Only this one ends in...well, just listen. As might be expected for someone who dealt in death on disc, Dickey Lee moved into country music and had a C&W chart-topper in 1975 with a cheery tale about a dying wife. But in the sixties the man born Dickey Lipscombe had five US chart hits, including a second death disc (based on a ghost story written by a teenager), and this one, his debut, was his biggest, peaking at number 6 in 1962. Dunno if it was ever released in the UK, if it was it wasn't a hit.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jun 7, 2012 22:33:50 GMT 1
Lesley Gore burst onto the US music scene when Quincy Jones discovered her singing at a hotel. Her debut hit "It's My Party" became a US number one (and fittingly it was released as she turned 17). Her next three singles all made the top five but she never hit the top ten afterwards. This was her 19th and last hit, from 1967, staggering to 82 on the Hot 100. Just 2 British hits several years before. But this is quite an engaging tune, quite complex in structure with a self-dialogue going on. An attempt to merge girl group sound with bubblegum.
Although she never had success again, brother Michael did - he had a number one hit and an Oscar via writing the theme from Fame. Bad luck for Lesley, who had co-written some of the other film songs with him.
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Post by thehitparade on Jun 21, 2012 23:01:57 GMT 1
A day late for Brian Wilson's birthday, but here's one of his non-hits anyway. Maybe it would have done better had it not been released in February?
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jul 21, 2012 23:03:16 GMT 1
It's been said Bill Oddie was a frustrated rock star; it's also been said that he WAS a rock star, on the basis that he was one of the five most successful songwriters of 1975.
But in 1964 Bill Oddie was fresh out of Footlights and working for the BBC on what would become ISIRTA, including writing the musical numbers; George Martin had produced comedy albums for many BBC colleagues; Oddie's agent added two and two together and got Oddie a deal with Parlophone.
And in the same way as Ken Dodd relied on serious songs rather than comedy for chart success, Oddie did the same. Only his sound was a bit more contemporary.
This is actually a very, very good pop song, with excellent vocals and production. Had it not been Bill Oddie I reckon it would be hailed as a lost pop-soul classic, ripe for revival at Wigan Casino a decade later...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Aug 23, 2012 20:48:40 GMT 1
I was having a mooch around just now and this performance came up. It crossed my mind I had no idea how big a hit this was in the UK. So I looked it up, and found that it, er, never made the charts. WTF?
At least not the retro-official charts. It did sneak in the NME listing at number 29. Joint. With Johnnie Spence's version of the Dr Kildare theme and a Russ Conway throwaway. Somehow that seems even worse.
Credited to Gene Chandler, this was actually by his group, The Dukays, but their label in their infinite wisdom turned this song down and Chandler was allowed to offer it to another label. Who took it to the top of the US charts. For later performances Chandler became the genuine Duke, as in this extract from a Twistploitation film.
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Post by snowqueen on Aug 24, 2012 19:55:52 GMT 1
I loved the Dart's version of Duke Of Earl.
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