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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 25 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Gary Chester
From: Dennis Diken
2. Re: Tandyn Almer
From: andrewweiner2002
3. Re: Tex & The Chex
From: Phil X. Milstein
4. Ambrose by Linda Laurie
From: Al Quaglieri
5. Re: Clifford Rhodes / Pastel 6 / Billy Abbott's Jewels
From: Gary Myers
6. "Penn Station"
From: Al Kooper
7. Kenny Dino, Howie Farber, Steve Shlaks
From: Al Kooper
8. Re: Accuracy of Top 40 Playlists
From: Mike McKay
9. Rick Nelson - "Your Kind Of Loving"
From: S.J. Dibai
10. Long Island & Queens acts
From: Al Kooper
11. Re: Kenny Dino
From: Martin Roberts
12. Lovely Anita Humes & the Essex
From: Bob Rashkow
13. Bobby Vinton versus Buddy Greco
From: S.J. Dibai
14. love that Dirty Water
From: Phil X. Milstein
15. Song Hits
From: Phil X. Milstein
16. Re: Long Island rock'n'roll
From: TD
17. Exciters on Shout
From: Ken Silverwood
18. Re: Nick Venet
From: Fred Clemens
19. Now, a tale from Strange World of Northern Soul
From: Simon White
20. Bobby Day
From: Ken Silverwood
21. Re: Fred Anisfield
From: Doug Richard
22. "Pamela Jean" - damaged master?
From: thirteen_eagle
23. The Embassy label
From: Fred Clemens
24. Fred Anisfield / Baby Jane & the Rockabyes
From: Al Kooper
25. Re: Bobby Vinton & "Mr. Lonely"
From: Clark Besch
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:59:51 -0400
From: Dennis Diken
Subject: Gary Chester
Hello Hal, I am a major fan of Gary Chester. Please let me know
of efforts to get the man into the Hall Of Fame.
best,
Dennis Diken
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:06:44 -0000
From: andrewweiner2002
Subject: Re: Tandyn Almer
I got curious about Tandyn Almer after I discovered the Ballroom's
version of You Turned Me Around, the greatest hit the Association
never had.
I came across this: http://www.wusb.org/psycdeli/reviews/tandyn.html
A good fit with the author of Along Comes Mary. But I wonder how many
more great songs he might have written if he hadn't been busy
inventing bongs.
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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 10:46:04 +0000
From: Phil X. Milstein
Subject: Re: Tex & The Chex
Alan, did you ever find out where the name "The Chex" came from? More
to the point, did Tex/Rod really name his group after his favorite
breakfast cereal?
Snap crackle POP,
--Phil M.
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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 12:22:42 -0400
From: Al Quaglieri
Subject: Ambrose by Linda Laurie
I have just posted to musica Linda Laurie's follow-up to "Ambrose
(Part 5)", called "Forever Ambrose." Next week or thereabout I'll
follow up with the ridiculously scarce "Jose, He Say."
Al Q.
NY
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Message: 5
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 10:30:19 -0700
From: Gary Myers
Subject: Re: Clifford Rhodes / Pastel 6 / Billy Abbott's Jewels
Max Weiner (No relation to Herb?):
> ... your question the other day about Johnny Tillotson's song,
> "Why Do I Love You So?", the writer on that song was an individual
> by the name of Clifford Rhodes.
Thanks, Max. Yes, we had a couple of answers to that, one of which
provided a link to the publisher, which stated that Rhodes was a
Florida friend of Tillotson's.
> Does anyone know what happened to the Pastel 6?
A friend of mine did a gig with one of the members (sax player, I
think) a few years ago and gave me his number, but that's all I
remember at the moment.
> ... "Cinammon Cinder", the song named after Bob Eubanks' old club
> in North Hollywood in the early '60s.
There was also one in Long Beach. In fact, I was thinking there was
a 3rd one somewhere (?).
> I'm still waiting to hear if anyone has any info on Billy Abbott &
> The Jewels, who did "Groovy Baby" back in 1963.
Love that record, and it brings great memories of my first summer in
SoCal. I did a little research a few years ago and found Abbott's son.
Abbott is deceased and his real last name was Vaughn. I spoke briefly
with his widow and with songwriter Roy Straigis, who also co-wrote
the Tymes "So Much In Love".
gem
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Message: 6
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 14:17:01 EDT
From: Al Kooper
Subject: "Penn Station"
Previously:
> The guy who put out "Child Is Father To The Man" wrote "Penn
> Station", eh? Didja get your meds altered in '67.
I went from smoking pot & eating cream cheese on datenut bread
chased by a chocolate shake at work everyday for Penn Station
TO cleaning up for CIFTTM. Believe me - that's med/mind altering.
Al "still clean" Kooper
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Message: 7
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 14:29:10 EDT
From: Al Kooper
Subject: Kenny Dino, Howie Farber, Steve Shlaks
Martin Roberts:
> ...The marvellous Kenny Dino...had other 45s written and produced
> by the Schlacks-Farber production team...
No c in Shlaks. Grew up with Howie Farber & Steve Shlaks. Great guys.
Howie went into the porn biz and made zillions, opened the first
videostore in NYC, than partnered with Vince McMahon for pro-
wrestling videos and made another zillion. He's happily retired now.
Shlaks moved to Spain and became a new age idol probably under
another name.
When I scored the TV series CRIME STORY in '86/'87, I also was hired
to pick the records played in the show. The very first piece of music
heard in show #1, accompanying a mass murder in a beauty parlor in
the early 60's? Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night by
Kenny Dino. And MAN!!!!! did that work gggg-reat !!!!!
Al "Grime Stories" Kooper
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Message: 8
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:08:12 EDT
From: Mike McKay
Subject: Re: Accuracy of Top 40 Playlists
I worked at a 500-watt daytimer in 1971 (which nevertheless gave the
big, established Top 40 station in town a run for its money for a
time). We were independently owned, and no one in management knew or
cared anything about the music we played. I can recall any number of
records we kept on our local survey for several weeks after they'd
stiffed nationally, just 'cause we really liked 'em! "That's Fine"
by Brownsville Station and "Give Up Your Guns" by The Buoys are two
that come to mind from that summer.
Mike
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Message: 9
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 20:39:28 -0000
From: S.J. Dibai
Subject: Rick Nelson - "Your Kind Of Loving"
Hello, Spectropoppers! I was watching an "Ed Sullivan" clip that I
taped just to get Rick Nelson doing his groovy 1966 (?) record "Your
Kind Of Loving." It seems like he's miming to a recording, so I'm
assuming that what I hear there is what I would hear on the 45. I've
been looking for a while now to see if this track is available on
CD, but I haven't found it yet. Does anyone know of a CD release?
S.J. Dibai
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Message: 10
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 14:37:41 EDT
From: Al Kooper
Subject: Long Island & Queens acts
> ...Long Island...Billy Joel...The Vagrants, The Rascals (via New
> Jersey), Mountain, Vanilla Fudge, Stray Cats, Twisted Sister,
> Taylor Dane...
Include adjacent Queens (the borough, not the people) and ya get KISS,
Run DMC, Steve Katz, Harvey Brooks, James Brown (St. Albans-dweller)
Maggie Thrett, The Rockin' Chairs, Paul Harris and....
Al Kooper
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Message: 11
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 09:50:17 +0100
From: Martin Roberts
Subject: Re: Kenny Dino
Gary Myers wrote:
> (Kenny Dino) He sat in with us a couple of times in summer '67. I
> believe he was out here (L.A. area) to see about an acting gig.
Thanks Gary,
I'd assume he was a very confident young man! I'm sure I have a
Goldmine or Discoveries interview somewhere but I can't recall
anything that interesting. But as I said I do love his records, sort
of 50s Rock n Roll with a 60s sensibility. My favourite "You Had
Your Chance", a real loud rocker, sounds in my frenzied imagination
as if Elvis Presley was still recording RnR in the mid 60s with Phil
Spector producing. I must confess though that all I've played the
record for and advanced this theory have assumed I'm loopy.
Martin
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Message: 12
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 16:28:47 EDT
From: Bob Rashkow
Subject: Lovely Anita Humes & the Essex
Anita Humes had a SOLO single!? I'm intrigued. The Essex was the
bomb, I love everything they ever did, I'm desperately trying to
find "What Did I Do?"/"Curfew Lover" on a single. It did not
chart nor bubble under to 130 and I have not heard that cool
record since 1964! Bobster
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Message: 13
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 20:21:29 -0000
From: S.J. Dibai
Subject: Bobby Vinton versus Buddy Greco
Thanks for sharing Buddy Greco's version of "Mr. Lonely." I recall
reading Bobby Vinton's recollections of the affair--how Epic didn't
believe in him as a singer and they considered Greco to be a "real"
singer, so they released it by Greco and kept Vinton's record in the
can for a while. Glad they finally came to their senses. Yes,
Greco's delivery is assured and professional, but where's the
vulnerability? The raw emotion? The strained falsetto, adding that
extra layer of pathos?? I'll take Bobby Vinton's version any day.
S.J. Dibai
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Message: 14
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 17:08:13 +0000
From: Phil X. Milstein
Subject: love that Dirty Water
The front page of the Metro section of today's Boston Globe gets in an
all-too-appropriate reference to The Standells -- an article about water
quality. In a story about the federal Environmental Protection Agency's
lowering of the Charles River's cleanliness rating, local water resource
expert Robert Zimmerman said, "This is not the 'Dirty Water' of the
Standells -- nor has it been for quite a while." Perhaps not, but I've
yet to see anybody dare to swim in it.
--Phil M.
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Message: 15
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 17:17:42 +0000
From: Phil X. Milstein
Subject: Song Hits
Some weeks back I attempted to load scans of some articles from the Feb.
1962 issue of "Song Hits" magazine to the Photos page of our Yahoo site,
but people reported having trouble viewing them. I've since retooled the
project, improving it by including virtually ALL the issue's feature
stories as well as formatting it for HTML, assuring (I hope) full
viewability for nearly all of us. I've posted it to my own site, at
http://www.aspma.com/temp/SongHits; there you'll find articles about and
photos of The Paris Sisters, The Tokens, Jerry Butler, Dick & Dee Dee,
Ann-Margret (with one nice photo and one rather unfortunate one), The
Marcels, Donnie Brooks, Patsy Cline, Gene Krupa and Mike Clifford. As a
bonus, I also threw in an ad for a Record Riot.
Dig,
--Phil M.
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Message: 16
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 18:27:00 -0400
From: TD
Subject: Re: Long Island rock'n'roll
Larry Lapka:
> I have seen very little about Long Island musically in the press
> ...Any thoughts on this?
Two of the greatest vocalists to ever sing were Janet Vogel (from
Pittsburgh's Skyliners) and Lynn Nixon (from Long Island's Aquatones).
-- TD
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Message: 17
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 23:27:10 +0100
From: Ken Silverwood
Subject: Exciters on Shout
Does anyone out there know if The Exciters' recordings for Shout
label have been compiled on CD as i've come across a 45 by them
"Soul Motion" written by Berns/Barry, arranged by Garry Sherman &
produced by Bert Berns from 1967?
Ken On The West Coast
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Message: 18
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:29:32 -0000
From: Fred Clemens
Subject: Re: Nick Venet
Though I don't have any recordings by Nick Venet, I did find at least
evidence of some existence of actual recordings. In Joel Whitburn's
'Billboards 1958 Singles Reviews', Nick shows up for one record on
June 2, 1958. It's on Imperial 5522, "Love In Be-Bop Time" b/w "Honey
Baby". The first side was given a '72' and said "Rocker with hoedown
feeling is delivered neatly by chanter". The second side got a '70'
and "Rocker with a Latin beat has Venet yodeling, which is mixing
styles an awful lot".
I just checked my Goldmine Price Guide (a fairly dependable
discographical source), and this appears to be his only 1950's release.
His only other release shown was in 1966 on Decca 31919, "Theme From
'Out Of Sight'" b/w "Camp Side".
Fred Clemens
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Message: 19
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 23:51:45 +0100
From: Simon White
Subject: Now, a tale from Strange World of Northern Soul
Howard (collector of obscure British cover versions!!):
> ...do you also remember Woolworth's sold records on their own label
> 'Embassy', which were cover versions of all the current hits of the
> time?
I was brought up in Walthamstow, the home of the UK budget label
"Avenue".
Now, a tale from Strange World of Northern Soul:
One of the Avenue recordings, a budget version of the late Soulmaster,
Mr Edwin Starr's "S.O.S (Stop Her On Sight)" was played on the
Northern scene briefly and 'covered up' as Frank Wilson, legendary
Motown producer and performer of the most expensive Northern Soul
record to date, namely "Do I Love You".
Errr...that's it really.
Simon.
"Hey hey, I'm sending,
Out an S.O.S."
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Message: 20
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:26:01 +0100
From: Ken Silverwood
Subject: Bobby Day
Hi Simon,
Re Bobby Day's "Pretty Girl Next Door". Do I know of it by another
artist? It's been nagging away at me since I played it.
Ken On The West Coast
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Message: 21
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:31:59 -0000
From: Doug Richard
Subject: Re: Fred Anisfield
Mick Patrick wrote:
> ...Ruby & the Romantics cut "Does He Really Care For Me" and
> "We'll Meet Again" (no, Dame Vera fans, not that song!), two
> more top of the range Anisfield co-writes.
The Searchers did a great version of "Does She Really Care For Me."
Doug
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Message: 22
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:58:33 -0000
From: thirteen_eagle
Subject: "Pamela Jean" - damaged master?
Now that I've got the Brian Wilson "Pet Projects" CD, I've noticed
that the song "Pamela Jean" by the Survivors seems to be cut off at
the opening; it starts with "A-wap-a-wa-da-doo...". Other releases on
the "Summer Means Fun" and "Pebbles" (boot) LPs sound the same.
The "Still I Dream of You" boot comp, however (disc dub?) has the
complete "Wap-a-wap-a-wa-da-doo" opening. Is the master tape damaged?
Why didn't they disc dub the first "Wap" and use the master for the
rest?
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Message: 23
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 02:14:50 -0000
From: Fred Clemens
Subject: The Embassy label
Howard (collector of obscure British cover versions!!):
> And would anybody be interested in hearing more on Woolies' Embassy
> label?
I have but one release for the label, that I acquired when compiling
my Lion listing:
Bobby Stevens - Embassy 45-WB 497 - 1961 - "Wimoweh" b/w "Can't Help
Falling In Love" - Campbell
The "Wimoweh" side is a note-for-note remake of the Karl Denver issue
(I'm presuming it's from the same year). Have you any info on Bobby
Stevens?
Fred Clemens
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Message: 24
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:09:02 EDT
From: Al Kooper
Subject: Fred Anisfield / Baby Jane & the Rockabyes
Mick Patrick:
> As you (and Fred Anisfield) were both supplying songs for Pitney,
> and others in the Aaron Schroeder stable, I was wondering if you
> ever crossed paths? I heard he worked on the road as Gene's music
> director. Can you verify that? Any stories you'd care to share?
>
> Btw, as you seem such a fan of Baby Jane & the Rockabyes (aka
> Henrietta & the Hairdooz), I thought I'd check that you knew
> that, thanks to girl group maven John Clemente, the outfit have
> their own page here at S'pop. Well, they *would*, wouldn't they?
> Click here: http://www.spectropop.com/BabyJane/index.htm
I sent your query off to Pitney himself as I never crossed paths
with Fred.
Also, I had no idea that The Rockabyes were the Hairdooz. So bizarre.
Kooperincidence or fax? You decide...........
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Message: 25
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 05:13:21 -0000
From: Clark Besch
Subject: Re: Bobby Vinton & "Mr. Lonely"
Ken, I actually like lots of Bobby Vinton songs. "Mr. Lonely" is one
of my faves, along with the similar "Coming Home Soldier". Both
songs were memory makers from the respective Christmastimes they were
out. One of my first 45s was "Blue Velvet" and still love it today.
Say what we will about Bobby, so many artists died off with the
coming of the Beatles, but Vinton just kept on a rollin along. As
for Buddy Greco's version having the same backing track--no way.
As for the writer of "What Color is a Man", I was surprised to find I
did not have that 45! Amazing, with all the Vintons we all pick up
thru the years. I don't remember it, but I've seen it often at shows
and such.
Along the Vinton topic, was listening to Kim Mitchell's "Patio
Lantern" from the 80's the other day and realized he says something
about his first date and listening to "Roses are Red". I wonder what
Paul Evans thought about that song?
Dum-de-da, Clark
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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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