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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 25 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: Nightriders - "It's Only The Dog"
From: Claire Francis
2. Re: The Chantays
From: Mike Bennidict
3. Re: Dino Desi & Billy, etc
From: Anthony Parsons
4. Re: Nightriders - "It's Only The Dog"
From: Claire Francis
5. Re: The Nightriders - "It's Only The Dog"
From: Charles Ulrich
6. Nico
From: Scott Swanson
7. Motown UK
From: Frank Murphy
8. Re: The death of vinyl
From: Matt Spero
9. Motown re-issues
From: Frank Murphy
10. Re: Mark Thatcher
From: Norm D. Plume
11. Both sides covered
From: Dave Heasman
12. Re: Nico / Tim Hardin / Lenny Bruce
From: Norm D. Plume
13. Petula Clark Live DVD and in person
From: Bill Mulvy
14. song lyrics
From: Steve Jarrell
15. Re: Nightriders/Idle Race CD situation
From: David Biasotti
16. Luther Dixon aka Barney Williams
From: Alan Warner
17. I. Kadez on HIT
From: Paul Urbahns
18. Re: covers on "Hit"
From: Joe Nelson
19. The Flirtations
From: James
20. Re: The Chantays & Lawrence Welk
From: Mikey
21. Re: Stacy, the label
From: Einar Einarsson Kvaran
22. Hit Records ... of Florida
From: Paul Urbahns
23. Re: Stacy, the label
From: Gary Myers
24. Re: Yet another Hit Records question
From: Peter McCray
25. Re: Dino Desi & Billy
From: Frank Jastfelder
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 14:47:05 EST
From: Claire Francis
Subject: Re: Nightriders - "It's Only The Dog"
Hi Artie,
It's nice to know I produced one of your songs!
It just sold on E-Bay for 151$... What a trip!
Love & Light,
ClaireFrancis
http://www.clairefrancis.com
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 02:06:42 -0000
From: Mike Bennidict
Subject: Re: The Chantays
Mikey:
> Yea, that clip of the Chantays on Lawrence Welk is AMAZING. I
> especially like that guy at the end who says "Well they certainly
> are 5 fine looking young men".
You're serious? They were on Lawerence Welk? I've only been alive 32
years but I know Welk was a Big Band Leader and though I think he
had some country acts, having a surf rock group on the show suprises
me.
Mike
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Message: 3
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 07:18:44 -0000
From: Anthony Parsons
Subject: Re: Dino Desi & Billy, etc
Frank Jastfelder w
> If there's interest and space I will upload another single only
> track from DD&B "It's Superman". A nice stomper with a funny spoken
> intro. The song is from a musical by Adams/Strouse.
Both "If You're Thinking What I'm Thinking" and "Superman" are
available on Sundazed's DD&B "Best Of" CD. I'm always surprised when
no one mentions these things right away.
Here are some catch up comments of my own.
To the person who got the Sylvie Vartan 45 I mentioned, glad it went
to someone who obviously appreciates it so much. To the guy who
offered to send me an MP3 of the song, could you please write to me
again, I accidentally deleted your e-mail.
I LOVE the Hit Records discussion and really enjoyed seeing the
websites devoted to them. My mom used to bring home Hit Records
every week but I think some may be shocked at how. They came in bags
of potato chips! That's right, they were bagged separately in
plastic and included in bags of potato chips with a different
selection every week. I don't remeber what brand of chips, though.
I was really young then and at first I used to wonder how the 45s
kept from getting greasy until she showed me the packaging. At first
she would take them out right away before I got home from school. I
think I first realized these were NOT the actual artists when we got
Blowin' In The Wind by Jimmy, Wayne & Betty!
For those of you wondering where this happened, we grew up in an
unincorporated community outside Tuscumbia, Alabama (birthplace of
Helen Keller). Tuscumbia is also part of the quad-cities area which
includes Muscle Shoals. When I was in college, I was lucky enough to
become the "unofficial" fifth member of the Muscle Shoals Horns. I
was majoring in music at the University of North Alabama and a friend
from college was working at Wishbone Studios for Clayton Ivey & Terry
Woodford. When an unnamed flute player from Atlanta didn't show for
a recording session, I was called in to do it due to my friend, and
went immediately the next day to Birmingham to join the AFM so it
would be "legal". For the next two years I played many sessions with
the Horns, as well as some without them, in all the Muscle Shoals
studios and I traveled with them more than once to Nashville to
record. I played a few live gigs with them too and they always
treated me very well, unlike one or two of the local producers who
shall remain nameless. My last recording session was for Jack
Tempchin, author of the Eagles' hit Peaceful Easy Feeling, for his
own version of that song recorded at what was then the brand-new home
of Muscle Shoals Sound after they left the classic 3614 Jackson
Highway address. Not long after that, the discos of Chicago beckoned
to my dancing feet and I moved away. My path since then has been
pretty winding, but included a 15 year 'career' as a nightclub dj
which started in SF and eventually led me back to Chicago and much
semi-professional work in the community theatre scene of Chicago, a
past-time I am currently in the process of reviving. I often wonder
what my life would've been like had I remained in Alabama. When I
met Jerry Wexler at a session for the Staple Singers, he was very
encouraging to me and said I had a bright future as a musician. But
overall I really have no regrets. Regrets are pointless anyway.
My own Spectropop favorites are Lesley Gore, Cliff Richard, The Mamas
& The Papas, Petula Clark and the Shangri-Las, although I love all
music of this very broad spectrum. In closing, I'd like to say that
I really love the Spectropop group and am continually fascinated by
the information which surfaces here. Thanks to all the contributors!
Anthony Parsons
aka Antone
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 07:58:15 EST
From: Claire Francis
Subject: Re: Nightriders - "It's Only The Dog"
Yo Dogs..... Good Morning you Groovy Spectropop people....Here is
a copy of an email I received from Rock of Ages!!!
> "After years of searching I finally found myself a copy of my very
> favourite Claire Francis production, It's Only The Dog by The
> Nightriders, The Nightriders being David Pritchard, Greg Masters,
> Roger Spencer and at the time the complete unknown Jeff Lynne who
> had just replaced Roy Wood on lead guitar. A year later after this
> release the "Nightriders" became the Idyll (then Idle) Race. Both
> the A and the B side of this single can be found on "Back To The
> Story" CDs by Idle Race which if you find for under $100 these days
> you're doing well. And for the single I got a bargain at $151...
> Boothferry"
I also wrote to the seller of the single and told him to join
Spectropop and told him about all the wonderful people in this group
and told him he will meet some very groovy and talented people. I
hope he listens to me....So, yet another record comes around and I
really would love to hear this one since he says it his favourite
production. I am in such a state of awe about this all...
Artie, so tell me...are we cosmically connected here in
CyberSpectroLand?
Love & Light,
Claire Francis
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Message: 5
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 11:43:10 -0800
From: Charles Ulrich
Subject: Re: The Nightriders - "It's Only The Dog"
Phil X Milstein:
> The label credits reveal some pretty interesting things going on here.
> This "Claire Francis Production" is of a song by "Wayne-McCracken." I
> don't know if Carl Wayne was in The Nightriders,
He wasn't. By this time he was in the Move. Before the Move, Roy Wood
had been in Mike Sheridan & the Nightriders, while Carl (as well as
Bev Bevan and Ace Kefford) had been in Carl Wayne & the Vikings.
--Charles
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Message: 6
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:14:44 EST
From: Scott Swanson
Subject: Nico
Bill Reed:
> Nico, who also wasn't long for this world, had the nerve to sing
> "Deutshland Uber Allas" in person.
Brave lady trying to play that before a crowd ... actually anyone
trying to listen to the album with her version on it is equally brave.
Scott
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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 08:28:18 +0000
From: Frank Murphy
Subject: Motown UK
Someone asked:
> I've been looking for a UK Motown website -- is there one?
I don't think there is an official UK motown site sponsored by
Universal music but the unofficial ones are pretty good:
http://www.sixtiesmotown.co.uk/
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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:30:51 EST
From: Matt Spero
Subject: Re: The death of vinyl
Clark Besch:
> By the way, I got a message from Tim at Sundazed that despite the
> closing of their vinyl manufacturer, Sundazed will ALWAYS make vinyl
> records! Yippee!
Joe Nelson:
> The question is: how?
It is possible they have their own vinyl pressing units. . . I'm sure
they are out there from companies that have shut down. . . I even know
someone who has the equipment in their garage to make pressings.
Matt Spero
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Message: 9
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 21:53:03 +0000
From: Frank Murphy
Subject: Motown re-issues
I was in Fopp records today and noted about 3/4 Marvin Gaye re-isues
on 12" singles. I thought someone might have had the gumption to put
some unreleased but sought after Northern or modern soul tracks on
the B sides to Grapevine, let's get it on etc but no. I believe
Motown had a success with the recent Motown 45 single re issues but
they would have had an even bigger success if they had combined a hit
A with an unreleased (or CD only) song on the B.
Frankm
reflections on northern soul Saturday's two thirty pm
www.radiomagnetic.com or listen to an archive show
http://www.radiomagnetic.com/archive/index.php?genre=&show=65
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Message: 10
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 14:28:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Norm D. Plume
Subject: Re: Mark Thatcher
Tom Diehl wrote:
> Does anyone have any info on Mark (Thatcher)? Is he still alive,
> and if so, doing what these days?
Am I the only person in the UK who finds the idea of Mark Thatcher
singing a bluebeat song hilarious? So, Maggie Thatcher gave birth
to a bluebeat singer? Gevalt! Doesn't Mark give her enough problems
as it is?
Norm D.
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Message: 11
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 22:40:12 -0000
From: Dave Heasman
Subject: Both sides covered
Davie Gordon wrote:
> It looks as if they were issued more or less simultaneously. Curious
> that both singles couple both the same songs -- that must be pretty
> unusual.
Lyn Nuttall:
> The double-sided duplication is interesting: it reminds me of the
> Diamonds covering both sides of The Rays' "Silhouettes " /"Daddy
> Cool," but no doubt there are other cases.
The English Wild Willie Harris covered Bobby Rydell's Wild One/Little
Bitty Girl and someone whose name I forget covered Eddie Smith & The
Hornets' Upturn/Border Beat. Smith's "Upturn" is the best guitar
instrumental ever made. I reckon.
Dave
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Message: 12
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 14:23:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Norm D. Plume
Subject: Re: Nico / Tim Hardin / Lenny Bruce
Phil X Milstein wrote:
> Nico recorded a Hardin composition, "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce," on her
> first solo album. Is Hardin's version readily available? ... The
> nexus of Hardin/Nico/Bruce is especially fitting, in a tragic way,
> in that all three died from the effects of heroin.
There is a concert version by Tim Hardin on "T.H. 3"; he never did a
studio version. It is stunning and may be the one on the Lenny Bruce
tribute album. Tim H. did live at Lenny Bruce's for a while.
And didn't Nico die in a rather bizarre way, by falling off her
bicycle? She was living in the UK at the time and had, apparently,
cleaned up, so I guess heroin was not directly or immediately involved.
Tragic all the same. And to bring the circle back to Lenny Bruce - he
told the story, on one of his records, about actor Bela Lugosi, who
was a junkie for years, "he cleans up, then drops dead".
Norm D.
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Message: 13
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:52:06 -0600
From: Bill Mulvy
Subject: Petula Clark Live DVD and in person
Anthony Parsons:
> My own Spectropop favorites are Lesley Gore, Cliff Richard, The
> Mamas & The Papas, Petula Clark and the Shangri-Las, although I
> love all music of this very broad spectrum. In closing, I'd like
> to say that I really love the Spectropop group and am continually
> fascinated by the information which surfaces here. Thanks to all
> the contributors!
Anthony, I am also a big Petula Clark fan. I would highly recommend
the Petula Clark DVD, Live in Paris. The performance is excellent.
Circuit City dot com sells it online. Also Petula will be appearing
live with Andy Williams (separately), in Branson Missouri in the
spring and fall of this year. I think each run is for six straight
weeks. She is also doing some east coast dates as well.
Bill Mulvy
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Message: 14
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:04:58 -0000
From: Steve Jarrell
Subject: song lyrics
S'poppers,
Normally I wouldn't bother the group with trivia, however, I need
some help. A caller called my radio show today and said that she had
been looking for 30+ years for a song with a repeated lyric phrase,
"The children of St. Monica". She said she thought it came out
between 1966-68. Any idea? I'm at a lost so I thought I would ask
the group.
Thanks,
Steve Jarrell
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Message: 15
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 00:25:44 -0000
From: David Biasotti
Subject: Re: Nightriders/Idle Race CD situation
Scott's quite right about the frightening prices being asked for
the "Back to the Story" Idle Race anthology. As for that long-
gestating EMI box, my understanding is that it is happening, but the
question is when. Dave Pritchard of the Nightriders/Idle Race had
told me as early as September, but, from talking to Rob Caiger,
who's putting the set together, I don't think that's so. (I think
EMI _is_ finally reissuing the Move's "Message from the Country"
that month, though. (That one's been held up for 4 years, waiting
for liner note contributions from Roy Wood, that he never got around
to writing - they're just going with what Jeff Lynne & Bev Bevan
contributed.)
Having never myself heard the Nightriders single under discussion, I
can't add anything there, but, for anyone interested in this kind of
thing, the spring issue of Ugly Things will feature Part One of a
fairly lengthy interview I did with Mike Sheridan & Rick Price a
couple of months ago, on the occasion of the recent President
reissue of their album "This is to Certify That." The first
installment covers the Nightriders up through when Roy Wood & then
Mike Sheridan split the band, & Rick Price's pre-Move bands, the
Cimarrons & Sight and Sound.
all the best,
David
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Message: 16
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 16:33:22 -0800
From: Alan Warner
Subject: Luther Dixon aka Barney Williams
Previously:
> The book I'm currently reading, Genya Ravan's memoir "Lollipop
> Lounge," cryptically refers to Dixon as "aka Barney Williams."
> Anyone know what that means?
As I understand it, Barney Williams is Luther Dixon's brother and
is credited as co-writer on the Shirelles hit song BABY IT'S YOU
alongside Burt Bacharach and Mack David, Hal's brother.
Rock on!
Alan Warner
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Message: 17
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 19:26:26 EST
From: Paul Urbahns
Subject: I. Kadez on HIT
Unfortunately there are no files left from Hit as I understand it
talking to some of the primary folks involved. However there are
several times an artist name is used only once. I always assumed
I Kadez was for I Can Dance. But seems like that would have been
a better name to put on Do You Love Me (The Contours hit, notice
the small h) because the phrase is used there. However I keep
remembering an incident in Hit Records where a hardware store
operator in Texas was selling so many Hit singles out of his rack
that as a joke (and a thank you or sorts) they put his name on one
of the records as an artist. Supposedly, the little girls in town
would not leave him alone or believe that he only sold Hits and
did not make them. So there is always a possibily I Kadez was a
hardware salesman.
Paul Urbahns
the Hit man
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Message: 18
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 17:44:29 -0500
From: Joe Nelson
Subject: Re: covers on "Hit"
Sometimes the whole "cover version" matter that Hit epitomized can
backfire. My wife has a cassette of an LP of "movie themes" (if you
believe the title) played by some faceless orchestra. Through that
record she became enamored with the song "Music Box Dancer". Trouble
is, she grew up listening to this pointless fake and prefers it to the
less familiar (to her) original by Frank Mills. Try finding that cover
on CD :-|
Joe Nelson
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Message: 19
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 02:26:01 -0000
From: James
Subject: The Flirtations
Legendary Girl Group Singers came across another "Blues and Soul"
article from 1974 promoting the Flirtations' single "Dirty Work."
I can post the article if anyone wants it icludes a rare picture of
the group.
If its not too much trouble - I have every song by the Flirtations
EXCEPT for "Dirty Work" and "No Such Thing As A Miracle.." the b-side.
Seeing this article has only only made me more ashamed of being their
#1 fan and not having those songs. If there is anyone who can put the
song up in musica or e-mail it to me at jmccoymoniz@comcast.net I
would be estatic!
--James
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Message: 20
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 19:25:39 -0400
From: Mikey
Subject: Re: The Chantays & Lawrence Welk
Yes, The Chantays appeared on the Lawrence Welk Shpw in mid 1963,
miming to the 45 of 'Pipeline" playing in the backround. The story
is this:
Pipeline was first distributed in California to stores on the local
Princess Label. After the song became a strong regional hit, Dot
records of Los Angeles picked up the record for National distribution.
As it happened, Lawrence Welk was also on DOT Records. So, the
powers that be at DOT asked Welk to feature The Chantays on the show
to give the 45 a very strong National boost. And it did. Interviewed
in the 1970s, Wlek admitted that he really liked the sound of
"Pipeline" and thought is was a "great little record by boys so young".
That Lawrence Welk.....what a Cut-up!!!!
Mikey
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Message: 21
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:08:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Einar Einarsson Kvaran
Subject: Re: Stacy, the label
Previously:
> Would anybody have any input on this label, and maybe an idea who
> else recorded on it?
It is my understabding that Al Casey is living in Phoenix now, or
was fairly recently. I wonder if he is approachable for this sort
of question?
Einar
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Message: 22
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 22:19:07 EST
From: Paul Urbahns
Subject: Hit Records ... of Florida
Chris Rowling wrote:
> In my 5000-strong collection of sixties 45s there is only one
> single on the Hit label and that is Chuck Reed's Just Plain Hurt
That is a Florida label and not related to the Nashville Hit label.
Paul Urbahns
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Message: 23
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 21:23:25 -0800
From: Gary Myers
Subject: Re: Stacy, the label
Bobster:
> Also on Stacy was The Torkays' "Karate" / "I Don't Like It," from
> 1963... I know next to nothing about the group.
The Stacy guy whom I mentioned in my response to the same post was
the leader of the Torkays.
gem
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Message: 24
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 19:44:37 +1100
From: Peter McCray
Subject: Re: Yet another Hit Records question
I've been following the various threads on Hit Records with great
interest. Does anyone know if Status Quo's 1968 psychedelic classic
'Pictures of Matchstick Men' ever got the Hit treatment?
Peter
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Message: 25
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 09:58:01 +0100
From: Frank Jastfelder
Subject: Re: Dino Desi & Billy
Sorry, I was not aware of the Sundazed CD. Of course this supercedes
my offer for uploading "Superman".
Frank Jastfelder
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