Spectropop - Digest Number 1963

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005

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               SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 12 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

      1. Re: Bob Dylan, Hit Songwriter
           From: Doug Richard 
      2. Re: Del-Fi today
           From: Bryan 
      3. Re: Toys in the park!!
           From: Steve Harvey 
      4. Re: Dean Ford & The Gaylords
           From: Sean 
      5. Re: "Phil's Spectre II: Another Wall Of Soundalikes"
           From: Billy G Spradlin 
      6. Re: Dean Ford & The Gaylords
           From: Bob Rashkow 
      7. Re: Aesops Fables
           From: MopTopMike 
      8. Re: A Whiter Shade Of Pale
           From: Bob Rashkow 
      9. err, the Chipmunks
           From: Bob Celli 
     10. Re: to the Batpoles ...
           From: Phil X Milstein 
     11. Brewers
           From: Kingsley Abbott 
     12. Mod Not Mod
           From: Richard Havers 


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Message: 1
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:08:20 -0000
   From: Doug Richard 
Subject: Re: Bob Dylan, Hit Songwriter

Phil M. asked:
> Does anyone know if a list of hit cover versions of Dylan's 
> songs exists anywhere?

Try this:  http://www.bjorner.com/Covers.htm . It can be sorted by 
either artist or song title. I'll bet that there is going to be a lot 
more of them than you thought! 

Doug




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Message: 2         
   Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:41:18 -0700
   From: Bryan 
Subject: Re: Del-Fi today

S.J. Dibai asked:
> Also, what's the story on Del-Fi Records?

Phil M. replied:
> I can't answer that directly, as I believe the company direction 
> has changed in (very) recent years, but some of the compilations 
> they've put out during the CD era have been revelatory.

There are at least two Spectropoppers on this list who used to work 
for Del-Fi in the 90s, myself and one other person. 

FYI, Bob Keane sold the original 60's Del-Fi masters to Rhino a few 
years ago, and he continues to use the Del-Fi name and logo, but he
can no longer reissue Del-Fi titles he doesn't own. He is, however, 
trying to develop new titles for his newly-founded Keane Records, and 
also works with Rhino on the publicity and marketing for their 
reissue titles. Rhino -- now wholly owned by the Warner Music Group --
have reissued very few of those titles so far ("The Best Of The Bobby 
Fuller Four", "The Ritchie Valens Story" and "Cucamonga", a 
collection of Frank Zappa productions),  but they've licensed several 
others to a third party, Collector's Choice (for which I wrote the 
liner notes). 

83-year old Keane has been working on his autobiography, The Oracle
Of Del-Fi, which he's now self-publishing via his new Del-Fi 
International publishing imprint. I worked on the book for a couple 
of years, as did several other writers. Keane has pressed up the 
paperback book as "advance preview" editions and he's selling those; 
the official publication date (and hopefully he'll correct all the 
misspelled words, etc.) is going to be sometime in August. You can 
contact Keane at Del-Fi's offices in Los Angeles (right next door to 
Gene Norman's Crescendo Records) at info[@]del-fi.com and the phone 
number is listed where phone numbers are usually listed.

http://del-fi.com/
http://www.del-fi.com/book.htm 

Bryan




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Message: 3         
   Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 19:06:44 -0700 (PDT)
   From: Steve Harvey 
Subject: Re: Toys in the park!!

Tony Leong wrote:
> Hey girl-group fans:  The original Toys (Barbara, Barbara, and 
> June) reunited today at a park in Brooklyn to sing at a show 
> dedicated to Vietnam Vets. 

It's always cool when a band gets back together and can make the same 
magic. The Zombies are a good example and Art and Johnny as Love. 
Hope the Yardbirds are as a good this Thursday. Good reason for the 
Toys to reunite. I remember John Fogerty playing his Creedence stuff 
for some Viet Nam vet show. Broke his vow never to play it as long as 
Van Zant was making money off it, but he did it that time for the 
vets. Cool move.

Steve Harvey






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Message: 4         
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 04:42:34 -0000
   From: Sean 
Subject: Re: Dean Ford & The Gaylords

I think I agree with Peter here most. What I was really trying to get 
at, was, were there any 60's Mods, buying "He's A Good Face..." at 
the time, or was the single only picked up by the '79 era Mods, 
simply because it had the word "Face" in the title, probably thinking 
if The Who (High Numbers) released "I'm The Face", then that song 
must be Mod too? Whoeever mentioned Marmalade, I forgot about "It's 
All Leading Up To Saturday Night" which I would consider more mod 
than any of the Dean Ford releases (although Mod at it's most Pop!).  
Also, considering I asked Eddie Phillips of The Creation, if The Mark 
Four (pre-Creation) were a Mod band?, and his reply, was "no we were 
just a Beat band at that time" again makes me think they (Dean Ford 
etc) were also just a Beat band.  I guess, asking the actual band 
members might shed more light on this, although I suspect, their 
answers would be similar to Eddie's.

I should admit now though, I haven't listened to "He's a Good Face..."
recently, but I feel confident if I examined the song again closely I 
would come to the same conclusion.  After all The Beatles had a song 
with the word "Face" in it's title around this time, and that's 
definetely not mod.  Or is it? ;)









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Message: 5         
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 09:46:57 -0000
   From: Billy G Spradlin 
Subject: Re: "Phil's Spectre II: Another Wall Of Soundalikes"

Mick Patrick says "Phil's Spectre II: Another Wall Of Soundalikes" 
will contain:
> THE BEACH BOYS: I DO
> Arranged and Produced by Brian Wilson

Great! Will this be a new remix or the version that appeared on
Capitol's "Surfer Girl - Little Duece Coupe" 2-fer CD?  It's missing
the organ solo that was on the Castells version.

Billy G. Spradlin
http://listen.to/jangleradio
"Playing what I want!"




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Message: 6         
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:24:57 EDT
   From: Bob Rashkow 
Subject: Re: Dean Ford & The Gaylords

Thanks Richard Havers for the info on Marmalade.  I knew nothing of 
their earlier efforts when "Reflections of My Life" grazed the Top 10 
in the States in spring 1970.  Nowadays, I am very fortunate indeed 
to have a copy of "Baby Make It Soon" with that magnificent little 
brass riff on "I can't wait another day..." and a DJ copy of "Can't 
Stop Now" on Epic (1967).  I LOOOOOOOVE that song.  "Can't stop now, 
too close together NOW my love, too close together......"  That's a 
Bobster Top 10 would-have-been on my chart!!!  

Bobster





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Message: 7         
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 03:00:20 -0000
   From: MopTopMike 
Subject: Re: Aesops Fables

Stefano asked about:
> ... Aesops Fables (produced by Bob Gallo), on Cadet...

Aesop's Fables were a Long Island, NY based group, featuring the lead 
vocals of Sonny Bottari, a blue-eyed soulful cat.  I like their 
slowie ballad, "Hidin' My Love" on Atco from December 1966, went Top 
10 on WAVZ in New Haven in the spring of '67. One of their tracks is 
a good mod spin at clubs, can't recall the title.

MopTopMike




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Message: 8         
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 00:58:12 EDT
   From: Bob Rashkow 
Subject: Re: A Whiter Shade Of Pale

Thanks Unsteady Freddie for clarifying the Fisher-Brooker battle from 
the fog in my poor overworked mind.  (Part-time employment after 3 
years of none at all has done this to me, I have to blame 
something!) Has anyone heard any more about this?  Is Fisher going to 
claim responsibility for "Homburg" and "In The Wee Small Hours of 
Sixpence" too?  Could it be true or has Matthew merely lost his mind?

Bobster




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Message: 9         
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:53:54 -0000
   From: Bob Celli 
Subject: err, the Chipmunks

Bob Rashkow:
> Can someone please refresh my memory on this?  Si (Waronker) was 
> the inspiration for "Simon" of the Chipmunks, who did Ross 
> Bagdasarian (if indeed it was him who named them) name "Theodore" 
> and "Alvin" after? ? Weren't they also involved with Liberty 
> Records or in the L.A. music business?  

Theodore was Ted Keep and Alvin was Al Bennett. I believe Ted was the 
engineer on the project but I can't be 100% sure. His wife Kathy 
worked for the label also. I had some communication with her in 1983 
while researching a project that was to include Bobby Vee's 
unreleased Clovis sessions and the unreleased Vee/Crickets takes, most
of which finally came out in 1990/91.

Bob Celli




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Message: 10        
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 12:44:24 -0800
   From: Phil X Milstein 
Subject: Re: to the Batpoles ...

Frank Uhle wrote:
> Impressionist and actor Frank Gorshin recently died at the age of 
> 72. He memorably played The Riddler on TV's Batman in the '60s and 
> cut an enjoyable cash-in 45 for A&M.  Written by Mel Torme, 
> arranged and produced by David Gates, it features a female vocal 
> background chorus and a spot or two of fuzz guitar.

This might be a good time to toss into the forum the idea of a
comprehensive catalog of Batman-related recordings. The "Batmania!"
bootleg of a few years ago was a good start, but over time it's become
evident that it barely scratched the surface of this unique 
phenomenon. Just the versions of the Hefti theme alone could fill a 
boxed set, and beyond that there are hundreds of other songs that 
were either, like the Gorshin record Frank writes about, closely 
related to the TV show, or sought to exploit its success from a more 
distant location.

Any thoughts on this matter? All replies strictly OFF-LIST please.

--Phil M.




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Message: 11        
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:25:45 +0100
   From: Kingsley Abbott 
Subject: Brewers

Thanks for the Brewers postings - I suspected it was something like 
that.  Last Saturday I bought the old first issue of Vox, where there 
was a great unreleased albums feature that mentioned it.  I guess 
they were stabbing in the dark a bit...the article began with the 
bold statement that Smile ever getting released was as likely as hens 
teeth or some such - Hah!

Kingsley

BTW - Congratulations to Mick P for the new volume of Phil's Spectre -
right now i'm split between The Fantastic Vantastics and Clydie King, 
both of which shine brightly in their new context.




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Message: 12        
   Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 22:22:10 +0100
   From: Richard Havers 
Subject: Mod Not Mod

Sean wrote:
> Also, considering I asked Eddie Phillips of The Creation, if The 
> Mark Four (pre-Creation) were a Mod band?, and his reply, was "no 
> we were just a Beat band at that time" again makes me think they 
> (Dean Ford etc) were also just a Beat band.

Sean, I think you're spot on here. I think that most any of the 
groups that had a 'mod' following probably thought of themselves as 
a beat band. In my days as a trainee mod it was much more likely to 
be R&B and soul that were the faves de jour. There were songs that 
were played in mod circles by British bands and artists. Records that 
come to mind are;

Baby You Got It - the Action
Bert's Apple Pie - The Quik
Emergency 999 and Headline News - The Alan Bown Set
I'm A Man - Spencer Davis Group
The Go Go Train - Mike Stevens and the Shevelles
Ain't Love Good, Ain't Love Proud - Lucas & The Mike Cotton Sound

Richard




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