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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 19 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Mary Ann Fisher
From: Mick Patrick
2. Re: Arthur Lee Harper
From: Rob
3. "C'mon, Let's Live A Little" soundtrack LP
From: Nick Archer
4. Re: bad splicing of "Crimson And Clover"
From: Bob Radil
5. Re: Bob Crewe Productions
From: Bob Radil
6. "Wake Up Sweet Mary", etc
From: John Beland
7. Re: Bob Crewe productions
From: George Schowerer
8. Re: Paul Petersen; Lobo
From: Jeff Lemlich
9. Big Guitars
From: John Beland
10. Sunflower, the label
From: Gary Myers
11. Re: R. B. Greaves
From: Einar Einarsson Kvaran
12. Re: Crewe sessions
From: George Schowerer
13. Re: Jack Larson, Paul Petersen
From: Austin Powell
14. Re: CD reissues
From: Mike Rashkow
15. Re: The bad splice of "Crimson And Clover"
From: Billy G Spradlin
16. Sunflower, the label
From: Clark Besch
17. more on Twins Hits
From: Simon White
18. Thank You
From: Claire Francis
19. Re: Mary Ann Fishers
From: Phil X Milstein
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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 01:27:37 +0100
From: Mick Patrick
Subject: Mary Ann Fisher
Interesting statistic: Mary Ann Fisher is the second most searched
for artist in the S'pop archives. Obviously, people out there are
interested, which is good to see. Mary Ann adorns the cover of
"Early Girls, Volume 4", on which she has a featured track. Find
Country Paul's review of that CD here:
http://www.spectropop.com/recommends/index2005.htm#earlygirls
And here's what is written about Mary Ann in the booklet, enjoy:
According to his autobiography, Ray Charles' songs 'Mary Ann', 'What
Would I Do Without You' and 'Leave My Woman Alone' were all inspired
by MARY ANN FISHER. She was 32 in 1955 when he hired her to join his
entourage as featured vocalist. They soon became lovers. "He had a
woman in every town," Mary Ann rued many years later. "If he had told
me he was married, I would never have left Kentucky. Country girl
like me?"
A native of Henderson, Kentucky, where her father was shot to death
by white racists when she was 4 years old, Mary Ann spent a year in a
Louisville orphanage before being adopted by a family in nearby
Russellville.
After winning some talent shows, she began her career in the 1940s
singing in local nightclubs and at the Army base at Fort Knox, where
she was billed as Little Sister. Eventually, Ray Charles caught her
act and asked her to join his band. She was given a feature spot in
his show and in 1958 provided the lead vocals on his recording 'What
Kind Of Man Are You'. Inevitably, the romance of Mary Ann and Ray ran
its course and, with the coming of Margie Hendrix and the Raeletts,
she embarked on a solo career, signing with Fire Records in 1959.
Switching to the Seg-Way logo, Mary Ann found herself in the pop
charts in 1961 with 'I CAN'T TAKE IT', a curious no-shower on the R&B
lists. She lived in New Jersey for a while with her boyfriend, Little
Jimmy Scott, the fabled jazz vocalist. In 1962 Mary Ann waxed for
Imperial and continued touring for a few years before retreating to
Kentucky, where she dropped out of showbiz.
A return to gigging in the 1980s eventually earned her a reputation
as the area's top female blues singer, with the Mayor of Louisville
declaring February 26, 1998 Mary Ann Fisher Day. Some sixty-five
years into her career she released her first album, "Songbird Of The
South", titled after her local nickname.
Mary Ann Fisher died in 2004, less than a month after her final
public performance. Had she lived a while longer, she would have been
able to witness herself portrayed in the movie version of Ray
Charles' autobiography. Shame.
Hey la,
Mick Patrick
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:31:15 -0000
From: Rob
Subject: Re: Arthur Lee Harper
Phil X Milstein wrote:
> What's the story with the Arthur Lee Harper song "Wintertime"
> currently play at musica? It's a beautiful number! Who is he, and
> where can one find more?
Glad you like it. Arthur had two LPs, "Dreams And Images" (1968),
produced by Lee Hazlewood, and "Love Is The Revolution" (1969).
Unfortunately, he's no longer with us. There's a hard to find 2-on-1
CD of these two albums (Papa's Choice, 2002), which is one of my
favorite recent acquisitions.
Rob
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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 15:42:29 -0600
From: Nick Archer
Subject: "C'mon, Let's Live A Little" soundtrack LP
I visited my sister who just moved back to town recently, and
realized she still has all of the albums that I had given her during
my radio program director days, including a promo copy of the "C'mon,
Let's Live A Little" soundtrack. It's LRP-3430-1 on the disc edge,
and says "also available in stereo", which I assume means that it's
mono. I borrowed this one to burn to CD, so if anyone is dying to
hear a song from this album, email me off-list.
Nick Archer
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Message: 4
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 22:00:23 -0000
From: Bob Radil
Subject: Re: bad splicing of "Crimson And Clover"
Austin Roberts wrote:
> Speaking of 'odd' splices on past records, I've always been curious
> about the strange splice in Tommy James' Crimson And Clover where
> it goes from one sound to an entirely different one by, what seemed
> to be a strange splice.
Hi, Austin. Your ears are not alone. I'm assuming you're refering to the LP version.
That has to be one of the worst splice jobs in history. The parts joined together just
don't fit. I believe it was the single version that was recorded first, and then the
psycho-delic segment was inserted later for the LP. I understand that this edit has
since been fixed.
Another similarly poor edit was done to "Timothy" by The Buoys. This was done to insert
alternate lyrics that were supposedly more "radio friendly". I was able to fix this
myself on my computer.
Bob Radil
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Message: 5
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 22:33:56 -0000
From: Bob Radil
Subject: Re: Bob Crewe Productions
George Schowerer wrote:
> As for the Crewe stuff, we would complete the mix at Allegro or
> Mirasound, and Bob would take the dam tape to Bell Sound where
> they would add everything you could think of -- sometimes echo,
> sometimes eq.
Who determined how the reverb was used? For example, "Candy Girl" was heavy on
reverb, but "Ronnie" was quite dry. Another thing I've noticed with many of the Four
Seasons' records is that the reverb goes up on the fades, unlike most recordings
that just simply fade out.
> I must get out some safeties of the original mixes from Bob's
> sessions, which included Mitch Ryder, Frankie Valli & the Seasons,
> and Freddie Cannon. I can assure you that they are pristine ...
Could these possibly end up on some future release?
Bob Radil
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Message: 6
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 23:03:14 -0000
From: John Beland
Subject: "Wake Up Sweet Mary", etc
Clark Besch wrote:
> John Beland, so good to have you here. I emailed and talked with
> you a few years ago about one of your first ...
Hi Clark and everyone. It's good to be here. Let me get to your questions;
The song you recorded off of Bandstand, "Wake Up Sweet Mary," was a
demo of the first professional solo recording session I ever did. It
was recorded at Hollywood Central Studios on Selma Avenue in
Hollywood in 1967.
Somehow, my manager Rob DeMars happened to get it over to Dick
Clark's offices at Bandstand and lo and behold they contacted him to
say that they would be reviewing it on Rate-A-Record. I was thrilled,
needless to say, until it actually was broadcast and became painfully
clear that the record was too fast and nobody could dance to it. It
got a bad score, much to my humilliation (lol). Fortunately for me I
had better success in 1969 with a record called "Baby You Come Rollin
Cross My Mind."
Re: Lobo -- I never met him, but I did play on a number of sessions
for his producer, Phil Gernhard, who also produced the Bellamy
Brothers and Jim Stafford. You can catch up with Lobo at
http://www.lobo.com I believe. He still performs oldies shows.
"Kyle" who you mentioned is Kyle Lennign, who produced England Dan &
John Ford Coley before moving to Nashville and producing hits on Dan
Seals (England Dan) and many other top acts. He's a great producer.
For those of you who may be interested, you can catch up to my
adventures by logging into my website at http://www.johnbeland.com .
I have some new CDs, Burritos CDs, instrumental stuff -- check it out.
Good to hear from you, Clark!
John Beland
Austin, Texas
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Message: 7
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:47:32 -0800 (PST)
From: George Schowerer
Subject: Re: Bob Crewe productions
I wrote:
> Gentlemen: I am the engineer on much of the Seasons and Valli's
> sessions. When Rhino put out the "Silver anniv." multiple disc set,
> I called Rhino to complain about the distortion present on many of
> the tracks. I have no idea what tape they used, but I can guarantee
> you that they didn't leave Mirasound studios sounding like that.
Al Kooper:
> I have been close to Charlie Calello since 1966, when he arranged a
> song I wrote called "Stormy" for the wonderful 4 Evers. Charlie and
> I became a team on my first solo album "I Stand Alone" in 1968, and
> pretty much worked together until 1995 including stints with
> Michael Mann, John Waters, and Ray Charles. George's name, to the
> best of my knowledge, had never come up. ......Here is Charlie
> Calello's reply re: engineers on the Four Seasons and Frankie Valli
> records. Charlie, as most of you recall, was the lone arranger on
> 90% of those sessions:
> "When we worked at Stea-Phillips (all the early hits) it was Gordon
> Clark, when we went to Atlantic and recorded "Dawn" it was Tom
> Dowd, we then moved to Olmstead on 40th St. and it was Bill
> McMeekin. "Rag Doll" was recorded at the demo studio Allegro.
> "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was recorded at MiraSound and I don't
> remember who the engineer was."
>
> ........I'm sure George did not intentionally mean to take credit
> away from the above hard workers.
In earlier replies to other S'pop members I stated that Gordon Clark
(who I shared many hours with at Allegro and who threw my bachelor
party) had done many of their sessions. Gordon was a very dear
friend to the end. Lenny Stea also engineered sessions along with
Gordon. Bill Mc Meekin will surely remember me. Don't forget, my
contact with Crewe, was at Allegro from 59-62 and again at Mirasound
from 67-70. But during those times, I recorded most of Bob's stuff
unless he couldn't get into Mirasound because we were working around
the clock (literally) after the 16 track first MM-1000 was delivered.
I virtually lived in the studio with 3 to 5 hours sleep between
sessions. Many of the sessions for Crewe at Mira were arranged by
Hutch Davie, who was Crewe's arranger of choice during that latter
period. I have never implied that I had done all of the Seasons
recordings, but I will stack those sessions I did as some of the best
sounding stuff they did, sans the much later stuff, which was done
(for stereo) while I spent ten years with Dolby.
I will make a list in the coming days of the songs I did.
Notice that the earlier recordings done at Stea Phillips are not full
range. That is because the sync (record head) playback response for
overdubbing was terrible ... and adding equalization to correct that
impaired response was lacking in true fidelity. At Mirasound, I
pioneered using the playback head for full range response. This
required me to bounce all tracks by the end of the session, except
for the final vocal track. Although that required much more effort,
the recording retained full response to the final mix without having
to cause the recording to suffer less than full fidelity ... if you
listen to "Beggin'" and the other sessions done this way, you can
clearly hear the difference. Don't forget, these sessions were all
done with monaural as the final mix, hence the sort of ping pong mix
for stereo, made at later times. Better sounds yet, came from the
later recordings because they were done for stereo as the final
product. "Beggin'", and most of the other dates done at Mirasound on
an 8-track Ampex AG-300 and if you've ever worked for Bob Crewe,
you'll instantly understand why an engineer needed 16 & 24 tracks.
Crewe and Gaudio routinely did more overdubbing than Phil Spector
ever dreamed of. I stand by my "fingerprint" on those sessions. We
all put our hearts into our work....and Al, you didn't suffer from
your engineer's efforts, of which I'm very aware.
Contrary to your belief, Al, we have met ... to my distinct pleasure.
I think it was at Columbia, where I was employed for three years
before becoming frustrated that according to union seniority, I would
have been an old man before getting back into the studio as a mixer,
which is why I left to do my own work at Mirasound including helping
to design the first 16-track machine, and recording the first 16-
track session with producer Luther Dixon, for the Platters "With This
Ring" and other sessions with the Skyliners. It truly was a great
time to experience art of recording with all the artists I've worked
with ... from Every Mother's Son up through Mahler's Third Symphony.
Regards,
George Schowerer
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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 01:51:21 -0000
From: Jeff Lemlich
Subject: Re: Paul Petersen; Lobo
Phil X. Milstein asked:
> Is the Paul Petersen of "Donna Reed Show" and Colpix Records fame
> the same as the Paul Petersen who recorded two singles for Motown
> in the late 1960s?
'Tis him. Paul did the original version of "Chained" (before Marvin
Gaye). I really like "Don't Let It Happen To Us", an old favorite
spin of mine from when I used to host the Soul Coal Factory.
Clark Besch asked:
> Whatever happened to Lobo?
He's back home in Florida now, and still writing and playing music.
Jeff Lemlich
http://www.limestonerecords.com
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Message: 9
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 03:01:19 -0000
From: John Beland
Subject: Big Guitars
Here's a shameless self promotion, but because Im new here I thought
"what the heck??" Ive seen my name pop up here from time to time
...very cool site. I have a few new CDs out..I think you may dig the
latest, "JOHN BELAND'S BIG GUITARS VOLUME ONE." Rock and roll
instrumental classics that inspired me as a player. I also have
"Burrito Works"..my best stuff with the Flying Burrito Brothers.
You can get them both by accessing my website at: www.johnbeland.com
I'll be happy to sign each copy if desired.
Great to see old buddies and fellow soldiers in arms like Austin
Roberts and Al Kooper here. Glad to be aboard.
See Ya
John Beland
Austin, Texas
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Message: 10
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:05:14 -0800
From: Gary Myers
Subject: Sunflower, the label
Leslie Fradkin wrote:
> I recorded for Sunflower as their first artist back in 1970 ...
Sunflower had a 1972 release by Storm titled "This I Find Is
Beautiful", which I love. It got some airplay in SoCal.
gem
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Message: 11
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:14:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Einar Einarsson Kvaran
Subject: Re: R. B. Greaves
Les Fradkin asked:
> Whatever happened to R. B. Greaves? I worked with him on "Take A
> Letter Maria". Always wondered what became of him.
I feel a little bit like I'm playing Abbott to someone else's Costello, but is this the
same "ex" that the song is about? Or is "Maria" now an "ex" too?
Einar
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Message: 12
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 20:43:48 -0800 (PST)
From: George Schowerer
Subject: Re: Crewe sessions
Billy G. Spradlin asked:
> Any reccolections on a recording where Crewe really tampered with
> what you did? One of my favorites is Tracey Dey's "I Won't Tell,"
> where Crewe went crazy with the reverb, volume, compression, etc.
> It sounded like he added those effects in the final mastering stage.
I didn't do Tracey Dey's sessions, I think that was after I started
with Dolby in '70. You have to understand the psyche of Bob in that
he was always noodling stuff, whether in the studio via overdubs or
in the final cutting stage. Thankfully, I have preserved some of my
own mixes of his sessions. One I recall was "What Now My Love" with
Mitch Ryder, where I did a separate mix for my own collection. Also
on the "Girl Watchers" album, I ran some of my own tastes in mixes
for myself. I really have to get to pulling out the library I have
stored and log those efforts once and for all. There's all sorts of
goodies buried at the moment. Funny, no one seems to remember the two
or three really big orchestra sessions (albums) that Bob did at
Columbia's 30th Street studios, arranged by Ralph Burns. They were
really quite good -- not rock stuff, though.
Regards,
George Schowerer
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Message: 13
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:50:41 +0100
From: Austin Powell
Subject: Re: Jack Larson, Paul Petersen
Phil X Milstein asked about Larson and Petersen:
The Fraternity/Dot Larson is not the same as the actor Larson. The
former was an artist introduced to the label by John Gary. I have no
further bio info on him.
Paul Petersen is the same P.P., however. His "Chained" was the first
recording of that song. Bit of a collectors' item that one. His other
Motown release was straight "pop". Just for the "time-line", Chuck
Jackson joined Motown at the same time.
Austin P.
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Message: 14
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:08:33 EST
From: Mike Rashkow
Subject: Re: CD reissues
Billy G. Spradlin wrote:
> So true and sad - there's been so many classic tracks tampered with.
> Some of today's remastering engineers weren't even born when these
> songs were recorded. Most have no clue and wont take the time or
> have the money to find out how they sounded on the orginal vinyl.
Well, I've been doing a bit of work on some of my own lousy
recordings and mixes from back in 1967-69. I'll bet you a dollar to a
donut they sound better coming out of CoolEdit now than they did back
in the day. At least most of them do -- some seem beyond help and
should be euthanized. But, there are better hands than mine out
there, and maybe they can rescue the disasters.
Di la,
Rashkovksy
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Message: 15
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:04:00 -0000
From: Billy G Spradlin
Subject: Re: The bad splice of "Crimson And Clover"
Austin Roberts wrote:
> Speaking of 'odd' splices on past records, I've always been curious
> about the strange splice in Tommy James' Crimson And Clover where
> it goes from one sound to an entirely different one by, what seemed
> to be a strange splice.
The way I've heard it is that Tommy James recorded "Crimson" as a
3:26 single, but Roulette or Tommy wanted a longer LP version for FM
airplay, so they spliced a guitar solo into the middle section, bring
it up to around five minutes. It's a really bad splice, sounds like a
rush job.
Billy
http://listen.to/jangleradio
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Message: 16
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 16:44:19 -0000
From: Clark Besch
Subject: Sunflower, the label
John Beland wrote:
> Whatever happened to R. B. Greaves? I worked with him on "Take A
> Letter Maria". Always wondered what became of him.
Leslie Fradkin wrote:
> One interesting thing that happened to R.B. is that he did a single
> for Sunflowere (MGM) Records called "Margie, Who's Watching The
> Baby?" I recorded for Sunflower as their first artist back in 1970
> and always thought RB's disc quite cool.
Les, I had no idea you or RB recorded for Sunflower. I have NEVER
seen any records on this label but Frank Mills' great 45 "Love Me
Love Me Love". I have an RB Greaves record from 80's I believe on a
small label.
Clark
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Message: 17
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 08:59:52 +0100
From: Simon White
Subject: more on Twins Hits
I'm sure this all came up before but pressing on regardless, I have
a "Twin Hits" 45 by the previously metioned Val Palmer, singing The
Supremes' "Back In My Arms Again" b/w "Uptight" credited to Ritchie
Brown. Val is not even close to sounding like Ms. Ross and has more
of an R & B feel about her voice but she's obviously an accomplished
singer which prompts me to ask: who was she?
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Message: 18
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:06:49 EST
From: Claire Francis
Subject: Thank You
Dear Groovy S'pop Nation,
Even though I have been so busy taking care of what is needed for my
April 7th surgery date....I still read the digest every few days
because as you all know S'pop is totally ADDICTIVE.... it is so
great!! The thing that makes it great is that we all love the music
and the legend so much, music is such an important part of our
lives...the past..the present...and the future...but not only the
music...the S'pop people that make up this site are really such
beautiful and kind and generous souls...
I want to thank you all for all your e-mails, and good wishes...from
my heart to your hearts..Thanks and bless you. I want to thank Phil
M. for making me cd's of my work to listen to while I am recuperating
...I want to thank Mick, and Martin and Phil C. for all the cd's they
have sent to me over the months... and Dear Eddy (the kollectionist)
for making a discography for me with out my even knowing he did
this...(which you can see on my website;) I especially love the
Emails from Artie Wayne who is one of the most Spiritual Cats on
this planet...I know this web site is about the music, but I really
can't help but feel this connection with you all...even though I have
never met most of you...you guys are such a bunch of good hearted
guys, and it is so wild how some of us that have never met are so
connected on many levels now,.... based on the work we did in the
past...for example..."It's Only The Dog"...written by our dear Artie
Wayne and produced by me....and "The Last Two People on Earth"
produced by me...written by our very funny and really hip cat Al
Kooper and man oh Manashevwich, I would have never met these cats if
it weren't for S'pop and a post written about me by our dear Ian
Chapman that I found when I "googled" my name 7 months ago... I could
go on and on...but the orchestra is giving me the cue to cut it
short...so again thanks for bringing it all back to me..I listened
to "I've Got My Own Thing Goin" the other day (thanks Phil M!! for
reminding me)..I had so much fun making all these records...I loved
every minute of it...and I really and grateful to you all for
accepting me into your site and treating me so special. I just
thought I would let you know how I feel before next week just in case
I am not able to write for a while. So April 7th, the day of my
surgery is Buddah's birthday...and hopefully my lucky day.
Love & Light,
ClaireFrancis
www.clairefrancis.com
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Message: 19
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 13:13:39 -0800
From: Phil X Milstein
Subject: Re: Mary Ann Fishers
Mick Patrick wrote:
> Interesting statistic: Mary Ann Fisher is the second most searched
> for artist in the S'pop archives. Obviously, people out there are
> interested, which is good to see. Mary Ann adorns the cover of
> "Early Girls, Volume 4", on which she has a featured track. Find
> Country Paul's review of that CD here:
> http://www.spectropop.com/recommends/index2005.htm#earlygirls
> Mary Ann Fisher died in 2004, less than a month after her final
> public performance. Had she lived a while longer, she would have
> been able to witness herself portrayed in the movie version of Ray
> Charles' autobiography. Shame.
What a cool chick -- shacked up (at different times, natch) with both
Ray Charles and Jimmy Scott, not to mention being a recording artist
in her own right (who, I ruefully admit, I have yet to hear). I
wonder if she was the go-between who brought Jimmy to Ray's Orange
Records for his ill-fated "Falling In Love Is Wonderful" album.
Anyhow, just for grins and giggles (or however that expression goes),
and because I happened to find myself with a spare 10 minutes on my
hands yesterday, I went on a bit of a Photoshopping spree with the
cover of "Early Girls 4." With apologies to Betty Johnson, whose
inset photo was tossed to the curb like a used hanky, the modified
cover displays the movie version of Mary Ann Fisher (as played by
actress Aunjanue Ellis) alongside the flesh-&-blood version who
graces the actual cover.
See both Mary Ann Fishers now at the Photos section.
Dig,
--Phil M.
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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