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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 5 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: Arkade and "Sentimental Lisa"
From: Austin Roberts
2. Re: what's a 45? / creative risk
From: Tom Taber
3. Re: Pitney & Sedaka
From: Mick Patrick
4. "Captain Of Your Ship" by Reparata and the Delrons
From: Louis Wendruck
5. Re: Nervous Norvous
From: Phil X Milstein
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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 13:13:35 EDT
From: Austin Roberts
Subject: Re: Arkade and "Sentimental Lisa"
Peter,
I believe Rhythm Of The People was on the B side of the hit version
of 'Morning' with Dan Walsh on lead. Any other releases on 'Morning'
I don't know about; when I left, our last single was Where You Lead,
which led us nowhere (certainly wasn't the song's fault). That's when
I left to record as a solo artist. I think Walsh and Price put out a
couple more records as Arkade and Fool's Way Of Lovin' could well
have been one of them. When I was with them, I sang the lead vocals
on Morning Of Our Lives, Sing Out The Love, Where You Lead and a
couple of unreleased sides, with Danny Walsh usually singing the
leads on the B sides and probably the singles after I left. He also
did a great job on Sentimental Lisa.
Best from ex Arkade guy, Austin R.
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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 10:52:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tom Taber
Subject: Re: what's a 45? / creative risk
Mark Wirtz wrote:
> Virtually gone are instinct, impulse, vision, creative risk and
> autosyncratic decision making.
I stink of the above, and, so far, Almeron Records has sold 3 copies
of "The Skeletons 'LIVE'," two of which were to people in group
therapy with me!
Tom "I'd do it all again" Taber
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Message: 3
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 20:44:28 +0100
From: Mick Patrick
Subject: Re: Pitney & Sedaka
Previously:
> Although I'm sure it wasn't him, some of the vocal bg on one
> Pitney song always sounded to me like Sedaka. IIRC, I think it's
> "It Hurts To Be In Love."
Al Kooper:
> Don't be so sure. Neil wrote it. He sang 'em. Originally a demo.
> So much so that there is no "real" stereo version available
> anywhere.
Joe Nelson:
> I think you mean "Gene wrote it"...
AHEM! I think you BOTH mean that Howard Greenfield and Helen Miller
wrote "It Hurts To Be In Love". They also arranged and produced it.
See below.
Matt Spero:
> I have always wondered about this. . . . almost all of Gene
> Pitney's recordings are stereo and this one falls right in
> the time frame that it should be stereo as well. So what's
> the story here Al?
We've been here before. It seems like yesterday, but apparently
it was longer ago. Thank goodness for the S'pop Forum Archives,
from which I unearthed the following epistle of mine from
December 2002, back in the days when I used to use rather too
much upper case:
-------------------------------------------------------------
> John Rausch:
> I read a recent thread on another website referring to Neil
> Sedaka making a demo of "It Hurts To Be In Love", which was
> ultimately given to Pitney who recorded on the mono track
> with drums added and it was mentioned that one can hear Neil
> in the background on the mono version. Now that I read this
> it makes sense to me that this could have been a Neil Sedaka
> recording, since it sounds like the same groove of many other
> Sedaka hits of the era. Anyone?
>
> I replied:
> Allow me. The following is in the words of Gene Pitney, as told
> to my pal Roger Dopson, from the massive foldout booklet that
> comes with Sequel NEECD 380, "Looking Through Gene Pitney - The
> Ultimate Collection". It's the best Pitney interview I've ever
> read:
>
> Gene Pitney:
> "...My next really big one was "It Hurts To Be In Love", which
> came about as a result of one of those things that happen to you
> in your career, over which you have no real control, but which
> exert a really strong influence. I'd gone to see Don Kirshner at
> Screen Gems Music...Don was very good because he was one of the
> few successful publishers who, instead of playing things which
> sounded as close as they could to your last hit, would play
> things which were different, that took you down other avenues.
> He played me the Neil Sedaka demo of "It Hurts To Be In Love",
> and I said to him,'That's a hit song...why are you playing that
> for me?' He said that Neil had just changed producer, and his
> new people didn't want any baggage coming with him from his
> previous deal, and they'd thrown it out! So I told Don, 'I'll
> take it - and the backing track is so good, can you get me that
> also?' Don called me back later and said, 'You got it'. I took
> the track into the same studio where Neil had cut his demo, and
> I brought in the same girl who'd done the background vocals on
> the demo, Toni Wine - she went on to become a successful
> songwriter - and I did the song exactly as Neil did it. That
> record was Gene Pitney singing Neil Sedaka!..."
>
> Me again:
> For the record, "It Hurts To Be In Love" was written by Howard
> Greenfield and Helen Miller, who are also the accredited joint
> producers and arrangers on the original single. I do not own a
> stereo version of this track, but I can confirm that there is no
> trace of Neil Sedaka's original demo vocal on mono pressings.
> Toni's backing vocals ("to be in lurve") are dee-lish. Maybe
> Allan could get her side of the story for us.
------------------------------------------------------------------
So there you have it from Gene Pitney's own mouth.
Hey la,
Mick Patrick
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Message: 4
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 20:36:09 -0000
From: Louis Wendruck
Subject: "Captain Of Your Ship" by Reparata and the Delrons
Does anyone know of any groups that have recorded the song "Captain
Of Your Ship?" besides Reparata and the Delrons and the Paper Dolls?
Does anyone have a video clip of Reparata and the Delrons or the
Paper Dolls perfoming any of their songs?
Thanks,
Louis Wendruck
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Message: 5
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 14:47:34 +0000
From: Phil X Milstein
Subject: Re: Nervous Norvous
Austin Powell wrote:
> I seem to remember reading somewhere that the sound of the crash was
> lifted from a sound effects tape and the company that created/owned it
> sued and copped lots of royalties.
According to Red Blanchard, the radio DJ who added the skid-and-crash
sound effect to Norvus's spare original recording of the gory
"Transfusion," that was indeed the case. From "The Many Mysteries Of
Nervous Norvus" ( http://www.aspma.com/drake ):
----------------------------
Dot released "Transfusion" in May 1956, flipped with another brilliant
novelty, the jaunty and equally hep "Dig" (Dot 15470). The record was
unlike anything America had ever heard, and the country responded by
making it an out-of-the-box sensation, reportedly snapping up a
half-million copies within two weeks of its release, and going on to
double that number before its run was through. Drake would earn the bulk
of the artist royalties, of course, but Blanchard's share of one cent
per copy was overshadowed by an unexpected third party -- the creators
of the sound effects. "It turned out to be one of these commercial sound
effect records. They recognized their crash and we had to pay them three
cents a record." Blanchard, by the way, says he was paid royalties on
sales of only 300,000 copies; most likely, his royalty statements were
underreported while the press claims of a million copies were exaggerated.
----------------------------
Dig,
--Phil M.
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
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