vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 7, 2013 9:40:27 GMT 1
Fire & Rain (30 June 1973)Pfft. Americans always have to go one better. We have a 75 track chart, they have 100. We have an act that has two peaking there, so do they. We have Calibre Cuts staying at 75 for 2 weeks, they have Brian Auger - and others - do likewise in the basement spot. And they also have Fire & Rain, who stayed there for three weeks... Tucson’s Manny Freiser was one of many who tried to make it in the industry in the sixties. Some of those he met along the way did do so. Linda Ronstadt, for example, who was two years ahead of him at college and a friend of his then-girlfriend. Or Jerry Kasenetz, who broke through with The Monkees; he liked some demos Freiser recorded in 1964 so much he ponied up for another, more professional, set (on which Gary Paxton, who made the top and bottom of the charts, played). And at the same time as Freiser was working on the demo, Gary Lewis & The Playboys were in the same studios, recording a chart-topper. Jerry Bruckheimer took over management from Kasenetz and put Freiser with a group (The Grodes) that went nowhere, other than a local success. But out of that group came Freiser’s chart success. And a marriage. In 1968 a 16 year old girl called Patti McCarron was recommended to Freiser and after an audition she took over lead vox in The Grodes from Freiser. And after the band broke up the next year Freiser and McCarron went west to try to make it in LA. After three years, in which McCarron had a brief solo deal, Mercury signed the now-married couple as a duo, and they called themselves Fire & Rain, on the basis that McCarron had a volcanic approach to the stage and Freiser was more laid back. On label instruction, they included three covers on their debut album Sweet Home Music, and the second single selection was “Hello Stranger”, a hit a decade earlier for Barbara Lewis; it picked up airplay on the easy listening stations, and given that the F&R audience was not really one for 45 purchasing (the cover is so anaemic it makes The Carpenters look like Extreme Noise Terror) it’s reasonable to assume it was airplay points that brought them into the Hot 100. One more single failed to chart and Mercury dropped them, they recorded an even more easy listening album (just seeing the sleeve shows how wet it was) for 20th Century Records, and that was pretty much it for Fire & Rain. They both ended up working as staff at A&M, and divorced in 1985. The next year Freiser almost had a hit under the pseudonym Ian Messenger, with a very new wave sound, but when nothing further came of it Freiser withdrew from the industry and recorded for his own pleasure. McCarron became a session singer, and ironically ended up working on the Ian Messenger album...
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 7, 2013 20:11:31 GMT 1
May as well put in a second one, on the basis that a) it's Sunday, b) I don't have much to say about this chap and c) I'll be away most of next week.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 7, 2013 20:14:36 GMT 1
^ suppose I should put an NSFW on it, but probably obvious when you click on the spoiler
Nipsey Hussle (25 February 2012)
One I am sure will come off the list, and one who only just made it onto the credit, behind YG, Tyga and Snoop Dogg. He’s basically an Eritrean-American called Ermias Asghedom who made his chart debut in a rather high profile project, the We Are The World 25 for Haitian earthquake victims, which peaked at number 2; however as he was not separately credited I’m sticking him here. And doubtless when debut album iHussle is released - it ought to be his second, his planned 2009 debut never saw light - he will surely score a hit single, probably a big one, sadly, under his own steam.
As it is, his one chart hit to date is thanks to YG (aka Young Gangsta) inviting him along on his cover of Dre’s diss of Eazy-E and Jerry Heller, unfortunately adapted in such a way as to make me think that they took it literally. You might think it misogynistic, pre-juvenile, pathetic. I couldn’t possibly &c.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 8, 2013 17:15:27 GMT 1
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 8, 2013 17:21:51 GMT 1
Natalia Jimenez (19 February 2011)And another “featuring”, this time a Spanish singer teaming with Ricky Martin. Lead singer of the Spanish group La Quinta Estacion (The Fifth Season), they broke through when in 2002 one of their singles was used as the theme tune for a Mexican telenovela; from then to the close of the decade they were a near-constant presence in the Latino charts, with two Grammy awards and three number one singles in Spain and Mexico each. By 2010 though La Quinta was down to a duo of Jimenez and guitarist Angel Reyero, and they decided to pursue separate projects pro tem. Jimenez had the good fortune to be invited to perform with Martin at the 2010 Latin Grammy awards and ended up replacing Joss Stone on the Spanish version of “The Best Thing About Me Is You”. Martin & Stone topped the Hot Latin Songs chart, and made it as far as 74 on Billboard; Jimenez’ version was less successful, but still reached number 1 on the former as well as 100 on the latter. Jimenez is currently recording a solo album and a single is due imminently. So she might yet exit the list quite sharpish.
|
|
vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
|
Post by vya on Jul 8, 2013 20:31:29 GMT 1
Oh dear...I keep clicking on these videos, thinking there might be one, just one, I'd care to hear a second time. I'm still waiting....
This really puts the state of the UK charts in recent years, or for that matter Eurovision, into perspective. Most of these have been dreadful, even painful to listen to - and from such a range of genres and periods, too!
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 8, 2013 22:14:35 GMT 1
In which case, I dread to think what you'd make of this one... I suppose one could say it's of its time. It is worth sticking with the list though - somewhere near the end there is a genuinely brilliant single. Plus a couple of other worthy ones (including a rare Motown flop), and one that shocked me. But doing this research made me aghast at the total desert that was the US singles chart in the 1970s in particular. Then again, there are reasons. Just popping this in, as I'll be away for the week, and if I do get online I won't have access to my notes.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 8, 2013 22:21:50 GMT 1
(Paul on the left, Lee on the right) Lee & Paul (30 March 1959)“Catch A Falling Star”, “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini”, “Playground Of My Mind”...er, “ Leader Of The Laundromat”...well, two of them were number one hits written by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance. They also wrote “Tracy” by The Cufflinks, who were effectively the same Ron Dante who had voiced LOTL under the name The Detergents, and of course who topped the charts worldwide with “Sugar Sugar” under the name The Archies. Pockriss also topped the charts as a co-writer for "Johnny Angel", a number 1 hit for Shelley Fabares (the Vanessa Hudgens of the 1950s, she was a teen TV star; backing vocals came from Darlene Love & The Blossoms, naturally) and both wrote other big hits both together and with other collaborators. During their purple songwriting patch there were quite a few successful duos of two blokes identified by their first names. Santo & Johnny, Jan & Dean, Peter & Gordon all topped the charts; so did Tom & Jerry, but only by ditching their novelty pseudonyms for their surnames of Simon & Garfunkel. So, surely, Lee & Paul, with the talent, the songs, and the name, were bound to be successful? Sometimes things just don’t work out logically. They put out a straightforward rock track, “ Valentina My Valentina”, with a novelty record - “The Chick”, with an anonymous singer (known only as Nancy) contributing - on the flip. And of course the DJs loved the flip and played it enough to nudge Lee & Paul to number 100. Cashbox, with a higher sales bias, was a little more generous, putting them at 83. You might not see exactly why anyone would be interested in a proto-Natalie Casey, unless you stick with it for the first minute. But otherwise that was it for Lee Pockriss and the Billboard chart as a performer. Paul Vance made a slight return in 1966, when he sent out a demo of a song he had written called “ Dommage Dommage” to Scepter Records, who were so taken with it they released it as was. Vance solo did not do that much better, he just made it to 97. So it was back to the songwriting, which at least gave them some bona fide chart-toppers. Vance is alive and well and in a Florida retirement; Pockriss died in 2011, aged 87.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 13, 2013 9:13:22 GMT 1
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 13, 2013 9:16:27 GMT 1
Toby Love (18 November 2006)
The penultimate of the “featureds”, but this time it’s the other way around to most. He got help from others to get into the charts, rather than tag along with someone else.
Toby Love is an unlikely name for any sort of pop star, let alone a Latino, but I suppose in the Latin market he stood out more with something out of Brideshead Revisited rather than his birth name of Octavo Rivera. To be precise, Love isn’t merely a Latino star, but a bachata star, performing music of Dominican Republic origin, the love of which he got from his Dominican stepfather. By lucky hap there was a bachata band in his Bronx neighbourhood and one of the members suggest he join as vocalist. The band, Aventura, which took him a little higher in the Hot 100 - in the same way as the previously mentioned Paul Vance was a bit higher, as Aventura's one chart hit to date, “Ella Y Yo”, peaked at 97 in 2005. And by one of those coincidences, the last “featured” is also a bachata singer...
In 2006 Love went solo, and the second single from his eponymous debut gave him a top five hit in the Latin charts - an achievement he is yet to repeat - as well as his Hot 100 appearance. Perhaps thanks to the remix work by Rakim and Ken-Y, who received credits, and translated his work from the margins to the more urbanized mainstream.
None of his eight singles since then have received similar oofle dust, and he has since lain in uncharted waters. I would ordinarily think he might get off this list, but he’s had plenty of chances, and has plans to move into acting, so perhaps not...
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 14, 2013 9:56:17 GMT 1
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 14, 2013 9:58:10 GMT 1
The Lovers (14 May 1977) (2 weeks)One of the most anonymous names possible, surely? There are half-a-dozen bands minimum with this name, including a husband-and-wife duo who charted in the States in 1957, and the similarly-named Four Lovers, who changed the latter for Seasons when Joe Pesci introduced Bob Gaudio to Frankie Valli. Yet it hides a couple of rather successful stories. Chap behind them is very well known. Jacques Morali was a French producer who got into the early wave of disco, and thanks to a contact at Philadelphia International got in touch with American-domiciled French DJ Henri Belolo. Morali convinced him that a discofied version of opera could be successful. They went to the States, as Morali had a contact with Philadelphia International, and used the Philly in-house backing singers for their project. Also known as The Sweethearts Of Sigma (sisters Carla Benson and Evette Benson, and cousin Barbara Ingram) and named for the Sigma Sound studio which they frequented), Morali and Belolo re-christened them The Ritchie Family for the purposes of the project, but when their version of “Brazil” went top twenty Stateside in 1975 Morali and Belolo had to recruit three different singers for promotional purposes as the Sweeties were busy fleshing out the sound of Philadelphia. For the follow-up singles, these new singers were used, and they scored The Ritchie Family’s biggest worldwide hit (a UK top ten and Australian top five) with “The Best Disco In Town”, a medley of disco songs (and also an epithet akin to the world’s tallest dwarf). If a cheap session-sang medley knockoff worked once, though, Morali and Belolo must have reasoned, it would work again... ...and of course they still had access to the Philadelphia backing trio. So Morali and Belolo had them record a soundalike medley, called “Discomania”, attributed to The Lovers, with the addition of staff songwriters Buddy Turner and Phil Hurtt as the male vocals. As you can see it bombed; as did the remaining Ritchie Family singles. However, with the flop of The Lovers, it was time for plan B (not Plan B). Morali and Belolo were scouting for talent in Greenwich Village when a Hispanic chap dressed as an American Indian sauntered past. Morali, intrigued (and slightly smitten), suggested they follow him into a bar, and in there they saw the “Indian” go behind the bar to serve a cowboy. Instantly they had the idea. A group of stereotypes that would overall represent everyone. You may have heard of The Village People. But presumably not The Lovers, the name being discarded and forgotten. The Sweeties left the industry in 1987; Carla to look after her family and become a music teacher, Evette to work for a charity and Barbara (who sang lead on “Discomania”) to recover from illness (she sadly died in 1994) and it made sense to quit when they were still wanted. Morali himself continued with his disco and hi-NRG writing until his death in 1991; Belolo still owns the Village People rights.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 15, 2013 17:50:41 GMT 1
OK, we finally get to a good one...
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 15, 2013 18:03:43 GMT 1
The Monitors (16 April 1966)One reason why Tamla Motown was such a powerful force in the sixties was because of the label’s hit rate. Comfortably above those of other labels. 20 number ones and 110 top tens in the sixties. Not bad when the Tamla, Motown and Tamla-Motown labels only had a couple of dozen artists signed up over the piece. Which makes this a comparative rarity. A flop. The Monitors were signed up to a Motown subsidiary label (VIP), albeit one of the more obscure ones; the most notable artistes signed up to VIP were R Dean Taylor and The Velvelettes. Another obscure subsidiary label was Miracle, which, when Smokey and his mates became successful, was re-christened Gordy and became a lot less obscure, but, in 1961, one of the twelve Miracle singles released was “ Greetings (This Is Uncle Sam)” by The Valadiers, the first all-white band signed up by Berry, and who had written the song themselves. It was not a hit. However Berry Gordy evidently thought the song had potential, just not with the writers as performers. Perhaps Motown thought even 1966 was too soon for a white group to sing such a song; better with a black group, given the discontent at the disproportionate number of Afro-Caribbeans being drafted. Most famously Muhammad Ali, for whom the draft was especially extended as a way to get the world heavyweight title off him (just think how many e.g. racing drivers were drafted at this time). Enter The Monitors, part of the second string at Motown. Richard Street and Warren Harris were schoolfriends of two Temptations (indeed Harris had sung with Otis Williams, Al Bryant and Melvin Franklin in The Distants before the merge with The Primes), and together with Sandra and Maurice Fagin formed a three-boy one-girl quartet, simultaneously something of a novelty and a throwback, and with one unsuccessful single under their belts. With something of a subtly rebellious song, perhaps Gordy thought it better to try G(TIUS) on an unknown act, rather than turning mainstream America off someone like The Temptations. Second time unlucky though. Airplay was obviously important to get songs into the charts. Which an anti-Vietnam song was not going to get on conservative American radio. Indeed, Vietnam was so popular at the time that the number 1 throughout March 1966 - a month before The Monitors charted - was “ The Ballad Of The Green Berets” by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, a song which certainly did not sell because of its musical quality. Even in 1967 Victor Lundberg could have a top ten with a tendentious, boring and myopic lecture entitled “ An Open Letter To My Teenage Son” (closing words: “ if you decide to burn your draft card, then burn your birth certificate at the same time. From that moment on, I have no son”). So without many of Billboard’s chart points the song was destined to be a flop in Billboard. It didn’t do that much better in Cashbox - spending a week at number 99 - or Music Vendor - two weeks to get to 94, making it the most unsuccessful successful record (none of the other 100 Clubbers that reached both other charts had such a low combined peak). Nobody could buy it if they didn’t hear it. Although it was popular with those who did. It gave The Monitors their biggest hit in the R&B charts, peaking at 21; interestingly, fellow Motowners The Marvelettes were just above them at the time, only their song, with proper airplay, went top 50 in Billboard... After two more flop singles, Richard Street went back to his Temptation roots, replacing the ill Paul Williams on a number of tours, and when Williams quit in 1971 Street stepped up full time. It was the end of The Monitors, but the start for Street - he featured on perhaps the greatest Motown single ever released (“Papa Was A Rolling Stone”). Maurice Fagin and Harris re-teamed in the 1980s for an unexpected UK Monitors deal which went nowhere. Sadly Street died in March this year, nine days after his contemporary Temptation Damon Harris.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 16, 2013 19:22:15 GMT 1
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 16, 2013 19:26:31 GMT 1
1927 (26 August 1989)Aussie pub rockers Moving Pictures had had a couple of minor homeland hits in 1981, with their debut album bouncing around the lower chart reaches, but then came their third single, “ What About Me?”, at the end of the year. It topped the charts in early 1982 and brought the album up top with it. The single even reached the Billboard top 30. Then Second Album Syndrome set in and guitarist Garry Frost quit. Which killed off the band’s hits as Frost had written their biggest. Frost formed a duo, which flopped, and he retreated to his home studio in Sydney to regroup. Then he saw a singer in a talent segment in a Saturday morning show and was so taken he drove to the television studios in Melbourne to get his details. And so Eric Weidemann agreed to front Frost’s songs, plus with Frost’s brother Bill on bass and drummer James Barton signed up, a band was formed. They needed a name, so all put their suggestions in a hat. Bill Frost wrote 1927 after a favourite saying of his brother’s - “I haven’t done that since 1987” - and that was the one that emerged. Their debut album ...Ish was a gigantic success in Australia, a chart-topper and the second-biggest seller in 1989, so there was quite a bit of a promotional push for the band in the UK (I remember they were all over Blue Suede Views, the Channel 4 teletext, for a while). Which was unfortunate given that their U2-lite bog-standard Antipodean rock was well passé. “That’s When I Think Of You” sputtered out at 46. Perhaps the Americans would be more welcoming? As you can see from their listing here, no... This time Frost didn’t bother hanging around to suffer Second Album Syndrome, and he quit during the recording. Weidemann took over on songwriting and the LP The Other Side made the Aussie top five, but it was the last hurrah as they disintegrated via a third album into the inevitable final break-up in 1993. Weidemann tried a solo career which went nowhere and re-formed the band in 2011 for nostalgia tours and the delayed fourth album.
|
|
vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
|
Post by vya on Jul 16, 2013 20:38:16 GMT 1
Oh Good Lord I actually know, like, and owned the 7" single of this one. I'd got the impression it was a more substantial hit in the US. But evidently not...
Although "U2-lite bog-standard Antipodean rock" is not an unfair description, I suppose....
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 17, 2013 21:05:15 GMT 1
No. Indeed fairness is my middle name. (Thanks to a printing error on the birth certificate.) Anyway, I think it's fair to say nobody will want to own up to owning this one.
|
|
vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,465
|
Post by vastar iner on Jul 17, 2013 21:09:30 GMT 1
The Philarmonics (12 March 1977) (2 weeks)You can blame Walter Murphy and the vacuity of the industry for this one. Remember: the record industry is only ever looking for the last big thing. And in October 1976 a disco version of Beethoven, prepared by jazz musician/jingle artist Murphy, topped the US chart. The mind is at its boggliest. At least it wasn't Debby Boone. I mean, my GOD. TEN WEEKS! Dear sweet Zarathustra. Anyhoo, naturally, having stumbled upon a dead horse, the US music industry prepared to flog it into total and utter oblivion. Step forward Steve Gray. Gray was a self-taught pianist and saxophonist (not simultaneously) session musician and studio arranger from Middlesbrough, who had become a notable studio arranger and composer, and who was approached by the Belgian label Biram to jump on the dread bandwagon. Which he did, assembling an orchestra to perform more Beethoven (and Tchaikovsky on the b-side - evidently the old Ludwig Van didn't meet the high standards demanded by disco). But for the contemporary disco feel he brought together more contemporary session musicians to plonk on top of the strings; and a couple of them had significant chart success. Namely Herbie Flowers, the genius behind “Grandad” (and, less famously, the bassline for “Walk On The Wild Side”), and Mike “not Lynsey De Paul” Moran on keyboard, making it two Philarmonics who had Eurovisioned - Gray himself accompanied Olivia Newton-John in 1974. The line-up was completed by Alan Parker on guitars, John Edwards on trombone and Jim Lawless, Ray Cooper and Barry Morgan on sticks. The resulting ensemble managed to get so far as a series of singles and two albums (the second of the latter however only for European release, which shows just how little taste was on the continent that in the era brought us such earth-shattering delights as Sylvia, La Belle Epoque and Baccara) before finally the horse was flogged into atoms; Gray returned to arrangement (including The Shadows’ String Of Hits and the soundtrack to The Sweeney). But there was a happy follow-up for Gray, as Flowers soon became part of the permanent line-up of muso favourites Sky, and when in 1981 they needed a keyboardist Gray was tabbed into the replacement spot. In time for their third album, giving him a top five UK hit, albeit only a top, er, 181 album in the States. Post-Sky Gray went back to arrangements and library composition, including writing a guitar concerto for Skyman John Williams in 1988, and was the go-to arranger for the NDR Big Band in Germany. Sadly Gray died in 2008, aged 64.
|
|
vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
|
Post by vya on Jul 17, 2013 22:29:24 GMT 1
Hmm. Very "Music for Pleasure". Which often was nothing of the sort.
|
|