Spectropop - Digest Number 671

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002

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______________        S  P  E  C  T  R  O  P  O  P        ______________
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                        Jamie LePage (1953-2002)
                  http://www.spectropop.com/Jamie.htm
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There are 4 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

      1. Re: Artie Wayne
           From: Artie Wayne 
      2. Re: Welcome Artie Wayne
           From: Artie Wayne 
      3. Re: A Christmas Gift...
           From: Phil Chapman 
      4. Re : Really Bad Music
           From: Tony 


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Message: 1
   Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 19:05:24 -0800 (PST)
   From: Artie Wayne 
Subject: Re: Artie Wayne

Mick....Thanks for the welcome.....please call me Artie. 
Yes..I'm that Artie Wayne. I co-wrote " You Should've Told Me" 
by the Angels with Ellie Greenwich and Danny Jordan [of the 
Detergents]. Ellie did a piano voice demo on it....I wish I 
had a copy of it !!
regards, 

Artie



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Message: 2
   Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 18:50:09 -0800 (PST)
   From: Artie Wayne 
Subject: Re: Welcome Artie Wayne

Ian:
> A question, Artie – can you tell us who did the U.S. 
> original of "Queen For Tonight"?
 
Thanks for your warm welcome. I've been watching the site and 
have enjoyed the discussions, observations and speculations...
and I feel at home. As far as "Queen For Tonight".....There 
never was a US record on it. Ben Raleigh and I were asked by 
Arnold Shaw at E.B.Marks music to write something for this 
"hot" British artist Helen Shapiro. He played a couple of her 
hits...and we came back the next day with the song.

Since it never was a hit in the US, and I never heard it on 
the radio, I never knew how big it was in the UK....until 
John Lennon sang the chorus back to me when I met him in '64.
regards, 

Artie Wayne



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Message: 3
   Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 03:16:13 -0000
   From: Phil Chapman 
Subject: Re: A Christmas Gift...

Guy Lawrence:
> .....This album has been lovingly recorded as 
> a tribute to Phil Spector, featuring faithful versions of the 
> original thirteen tracks and three new recordings done in a 
> similar style. The end result is an album that is as close to 
> the original as you could hope to find. It is 'A Christmas Gift 
> To You'....."

Well, the 'Delta Wall Of Sound' isn't a BAD record, just not quite 
good enough to claim to be "..as close to the original as you could
hope to find." This album has been around for a while - if you were 
in a noisy bar and full of the festive spirit (which is how I first 
heard it) you might say to yourself "Hey, they're playing the 
Christmas Album". However, given a more sober listen, it's a wet 
imitation, the kind you might hear in an elevator or supermarket.

All the tracks are played/programmed on synthesisers and samplers,
which cheapens it somewhat. The intro to "The Bells Of St Mary" sounds
like a spare piece of scaffolding, followed by a typist on speed. Hal 
Blaine's outro signature is nowhere to be found, nor have they been 
as faithful to the parts or harmonic structure as I would have liked. 

But for me the main turn-off is the vocals themselves, which are 
drenched in reverb. Either this was their idea of the Spector vocal 
sound, or more likely to mask the fact that (I suspect) it's the same 
girl singing all the cuts, even the Bobby Sheen leads. I might hazard 
a guess that this is the very versatile Marsha Raven, who sang on an 
earlier incarnation of the same idea by 'The Jingle Belles'. 
(Ian, do you have any info about this?) 

Nonetheless, it makes for interesting listening, well, at least once.
And it's fun to hear the 'Christmas Gift.....' style applied to the 
three extra titles: "Let It Snow", "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"
and "Jingle Bell Rock". 

I hate to be so hard on this album, but I feel it is a disingenuous
attempt to exploit the demand for the unavailable original, and could 
have been much better.

On an up note, checkout a track done closer to the "Christmas Gift.." 
style, "Silver Bells" by Rachel Sweet (played to musica).

Phil



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Message: 4
   Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2002 02:14:17 -0000
   From: Tony 
Subject: Re : Really Bad Music

A record so bad I cannot understand why it was written, let alone 
recorded .. "Doggie Heaven" by Johnny Frye. A Capitol release .. 
# 4889. A Countryish song, the first line is .. "My doggie's gone 
away, but he spoke to me today, from doggie heaven" ... a youngster 
is the singer .. I don't know if he ever recorded anything else.
I have the record simply because it is so bad, but not, alas, so 
bad that it is good. It is kept so that I can play it to people 
and ask "can you believe that this would ever be released?".

Tony



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