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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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There are 8 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Barbara English
From: Mick Patrick
2. Re: Bacharach & David's "Try To See It My Way"
From: Anthony Parsons
3. Re: Lesley Gore's "The Look Of Love"
From: Phil Hall
4. Re: Dark End Of The Street
From: Margaret G. Still
5. Sadie The Cleaning Lady
From: Sean
6. Re: Sadie The Cleaning Lady
From: Patrick
7. Re: Dark End Of The Street
From: Bill Reed
8. Here's what became of BETTY WILLIS
From: Tony Ronette
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:53:51 +0100
From: Mick Patrick
Subject: Barbara English
Joop:
> By the way I own an album of Barbara Jean English from 1973 on the
> Alithia-label. Is this the same Barbara English we're talking about?
Barbara began her career in a doo-wop group, the Clickettes, before
going solo. Of special interest to you might be the fact that, in
addition to "It's My Party", she recorded the original versions of
some other well-known songs, such as "Small Town Girl", as covered by
Dusty Springfield. That track is available on CD, so I've posted
another example to musica, S'pop's listening lounge.
Details are: Barbara English "Tell Me Like It Is" (Reprise 0349,
1965); written by Al Kooper, Bob Brass and Irwin Levine; arranged
and conducted by Arnold Goland; produced by Aaron Schroeder and Wally
Gold for Past, Present & Future Productions. Wee Lulu did a great
version of the song for the UK market. Find musica here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spectropop/files/musica/
A search of the S'pop archives throws up much more info about
Barbara, including some reminiscences from her old friend Al Kooper.
See: http://tinyurl.com/ao7op + http://tinyurl.com/965nf
But the best place to discover more about her is in John Clemente's
book, Girl Groups: Fabulous Females That Rocked The World - the
Clickettes chapter. Find out about the book here:
http://www.spectropop.com/gg/girl.html
Swelp me if copies aren't going for just 5 bucks at Amazon. One'd
have to be some sort of div not to grab a copy at that price:
http://www.spectropop.com/gg/girlbuy.html
Which is all a very roundabout way of saying, yes, Barbara English
and Barbara Jean English are one and the same lady.
Hey la,
Mick Patrick
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Message: 2
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 14:22:10 -0500
From: Anthony Parsons
Subject: Re: Bacharach & David's "Try To See It My Way"
Joop:
> I found another Sue Raney single written by Bacharach/David. The
> song in question is "Try to see it my way". On the 45 (Imperial
> 66222) it says: "From the ABC TV special "On the flip side". This
> single was released at the end of 1966. Peggy March also released a
> version of this song at the end of 1966. But can anyone tell me
> from which year (and month to be precise) this TV special "On the
> flip side" was and who were the performers.
According to the Internet Movie Database, On The Flip Side was
originally broadcast on December 7, 1966 as part of the "ABC Stage
67" television series which was "a weekly anthology of one-hour
plays, both original and adapted from literary sources". The Decca
cast album (of which I have the Japanese issue CD) lists Joanie
Sommers (courtesy of Columbia Records), Donna Jean Young and of
course, Rick Nelson. Peter Matz is credited with arranging and
conducting the music. Hope this helps!
Antone
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Message: 3
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 19:28:26 -0000
From: Phil Hall
Subject: Re: Lesley Gore's "The Look Of Love"
Antone:
> When Mercury decided to release (Lesley Gore's "The Look Of Love")
> as a single in late 1964, Quincy Jones went back into the studio
> and over-dubbed extra background vocals as well as sleigh bells and
> possibly some other things.
Peter Andreasen:
> It´s clearly good old Ellie on those added back-up vocals - I just
> love that woman.
>From Spectropop's own archives:
> One of my favorite things about Lesley's great hits is her
> excellent pick of background singers...mostly girls. Interesting
> that Ellie Greenwich sang backup on most of her albums. Does
> anyone else know which singers, by name, she used ...especially on
> "Look of Love" which still gives me chills after thirty plus years.
According to Ellie Greenwich in Alan Betrock's book the singers
on "Look of Love" and "Maybe I Know" were Ellie, Jean Thomas, and
Mikey Harris (pg. 117).
Googled by Phil H.
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Message: 4
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:13:00 -0000
From: Margaret G. Still
Subject: Re: Dark End Of The Street
What- has no one mentioned Dan Penn? My apologies if I missed any
mention of Dan Penn's really good recording of his song "Dark End
of the Street" which is on the Dan Penn CD "Do Right Man".
Best,
Margaret G. Still
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Message: 5
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 05:40:27 -0000
From: Sean
Subject: Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Hello Everyone! Pray tell, who did this song "Sadie The Cleaning
Lady" originally? Is it any good? What's it like? How many obscure
covers are there of this song??? Could someone please post a sound
file of it to musica? Thanks.
Best, Sean
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Message: 6
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 02:57:00 -0000
From: Patrick
Subject: Re: Sadie The Cleaning Lady
Sean wrote:
> ...who did this song "Sadie The Cleaning Lady" originally? How many
> obscure covers are there of this song?
John Farnham is the only one I know who has done it. I could be wrong
though.
Patrick
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Message: 7
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 04:47:55 -0000
From: Bill Reed
Subject: Re: Dark End Of The Street
Margaret G. Still wrote:
> What- has no one mentioned Dan Penn? My apologies if I missed any
> mention of Dan Penn's really good recording of his song "Dark End
> of the Street" which is on the Dan Penn CD "Do Right Man".
And it is also sung by Penn on his and Spooner Oldham's classic
1998 "live" (in Britain and Ireland) album, "Moments From This
Theatre." On his intro to the song, Penn says:
"Everybody keeps asking me what's my favorite version of 'Dark End of
the Street', as if there was any other than James Carr's. Not even
mine. But I'll with sing it anyway. Wish we had James here."
What these two guys achieve here with two voices, one guitar and a
funky old Wurlitzer electric piano is NOT to be believed! Will there
ever be a CD encore?
Bill Reed
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Message: 8
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 05:51:02 -0000
From: Tony Ronette
Subject: Here's what became of BETTY WILLIS
Back in 1980 at the age of 18, I started working at the post office
in Santa Ana, California. I would sort letters at a cubicle and on
occasion this black woman by the name of 'Betty' would come and work
in the cubicle next to me. She kept to herself and was almost always
wearing dark sun glasses and tuning everything and everybody out with
her 'Walkman' headphones stuffed into her ears. She would be singing
and humming softly to what ever she was listening to. I got her
attention one day and said that she had a pretty good voice and then
we started small talk about music. I mentioned to her that I
collected records and had a fondness for early 60' girl groups, soul,
motown, etc. I said that I thought The Righteous Brothers' 'You've
Lost That Lovin' Feelin' was one of the best records ever made to
which she replied that she sang with Bill Medley in the 60's. She
also said that they both lived near each other in Santa Ana and sang
at local lounges in and around Santa Ana, one of them being 'The
Brown Derby'. She said that she recorded a song with him that he had
written entitled, 'My Tears Will Go Away' but that it was never
released. I was quite interested with her musical past and asked if
she had recorded any other songs that I may have heard. She laughed
and said that I wouldn't have heard of them since none of them were
hits. She said that she recorded a single on RENDEZVOUS Records by
the name of 'Take My Heart' which she proceded to sing but at that
time I wasn't familiar with it. Then she said that she recorded
another single that was produced by Leon Russell by the name
of , 'Act Naturally' I didn't recognize the title so she started
explaining that it was really a country & western song but that The
Beatles recorded it too. So I asked her to sing it. After about two
or three bars I started singing it with her in her same vocal style
still without thinking anything until she stopped, pushed her sun
glasses down to the tip of her nose and just looked at me. I stopped
and said, "What...? And then it finally hit me......"Wait....you're
Betty Willis, YOU'RE BETTY WILLIS!!" She just stared at me and asked
how I knew that tune. I said that I had a copy of an LP from the UK
which contained 'Act Naturally' and also the intended follow-up, 'If
I Had A Hammer'. Her jaw dropped. She didn't believe me because
she said those songs were never on an LP. I went home for my lunch
break and brought back the record to her and she was amazed and
couldn't believe it. She no longer owned a copy of the Rendezvous
single or of 'Act Naturally' She said she was given a box of both
45's at the time but they somehow got lost in the various moves over
the years. But what she really was in awe over was that 'If I Had a
Hammer' was included on this album. She said that she hadn't heard
that tune since the day she recorded it. She said that it was
through Bill Medley that she hooked up with Leon Russell. She said
that she had rehearsed the tunes at Leon's house and then on the day
she arrived at Gold Star for the session, she felt very intimidated
by what was going on. She said there were all of these musicians,
and "...even a french horn"! She couldn't believe that The Blossoms
were there to do background vocals for her. She said that Darlene
had the most beautiful perfect white teeth. She said that a couple of
years after the Phi-Dan single she recorded another one entitled,
'Gone With The Wind Is My Love'. That 45 is the only one of hers
that she still had. The next year I had bought the WALL OF SOUND box
of LP's also from the UK and on one of the various artists LP's were
etty's two Leon Russell produced tunes. After I showed these to her
she went and hired a lawyer and had a couple letters sent to Spector
which went unanswered. She got fed up with shelling out money to the
lawyer who didn't seem to get anything accomplished, and just dropped
perrsuing it. On June 2nd, 1981, Betty and I went to MEDLEY'S in
Fountain Valley, California where at that time, Bill Medley himslf
owned a restraunt/night club. Darlene Love was peforming there.
After the show, while talking to Bill and Darlene, I mentioned to
Bill that I was with someone that he hadn't seen for awhile. He
looked across the room at her, paused and said, "....Betty....?"
They began talking to each other and I mentioned to Darlene that she
and the Blossoms had sang on a couple of songs that she had recorded
but she said that she didn't remember. I took a few photos that
night. One was of Betty by herself, and then Darlene used my camera
to take a photo of Bill, Betty and myself. I continued my friendship
with Betty until 1990 when I changed my work hours to a different
shift and we didn't see eachother as frequently. Shortly after that
I heard that she was no longer working for the post office but was
still living in Santa Ana and was still in contact with a few people
who she worked with. As of June of 2005, I learned from one of her
friends that she was now living north of Los Angeles in the San
Fernando Valley near her daughter, Stephanie. I imagine this
information will be of interest to some of the members.
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SPECTROPOP - Spectacular! Retro! Pop!
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