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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 25 messages in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
From: Alan Gordon
2. Re: Hank Ballard
From: Mike Rashkow
3. Re: McCartney
From: Steve Harvey
4. Re: "What is rock and roll?"
From: TD
5. Re: Thomas Fritsch
From: Mark Wirtz
6. More Superman-Related Requests
From: Rex Strother
7. Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
From: Richard Gagnon
8. Re: Ronnie Dante (with Vance & Pockriss)
From: Jeff Lemlich
9. Bonnie, SAR, more
From: Country Paul
10. Tracey Dey
From: Rosemarie Edwards
11. Re: Telephone songs
From: Bill Craig
12. Re: Question for Artie Wayne
From: Artie Wayne
13. Re: He'll Have To Go
From: David Coyle
14. Re: Early Rock n' Roll
From: Stratton Bearhart
15. McCartney
From: Stratton Bearheart
16. Re: Hank Ballard
From: Scott Bauman
17. Re: Hank Ballard
From: Peter Lerner
18. Re: Hank Ballard
From: Guy Lawrence
19. Re: McCartney
From: Richard Havers
20. Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
From: Mike Rashkow
21. Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
From: Mike Rashkow
22. Jeff Barry/The Spartans
From: Stuffed Animal
23. Re: Telephone songs
From: David Bell
24. Re: More Superman-Related Requests
From: Phil Milstein
25. Re: Ronnie Dante (with Vance & Pockriss)
From: Mike Rashkow
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 17:04:59 -0800
From: Alan Gordon
Subject: Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
> From: Mike Rashkow
> Subject: WHAT IS ROCK AND ROLL? You tell me.
As per usual, a great dissertation, sir.
There is a book that came out in '92 called "What Was The First Rock 'N'
Roll Record? that is pretty darn interesting as an historical treatise.
It doesn't really name a specific song, more it offers 50 choices and
many whys and wherefores for each. It leaves it up to the reader to draw
his/her conclusions from the "facts".
As for my opinion: I have a love/hate relationship with labeling music.
It's fun, but in the end just an exercise in frustration for me.
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 20:43:48 EST
From: Mike Rashkow
Subject: Re: Hank Ballard
Simon writes:
> Sad to hear of Hank Ballard's passing ...without his version of
> The Twist there would be no Chubby Checker, Cameo wouldn't have
> gone in the direction they did which means no Dee Dee Sharp, Orlons
> etc. The knock on effect of that is possibly no Gamble and Huff
> and the repercussions of that are too awful to even think about!
Puff Daddy, all this is true furshure: and long, long before The Twist,
The Midnighters upset America with things like "Work With me Annie" and
the follow up, "Annie Had A Baby"..(can't work no more). Both banned on
many stations. From that period I liked their "House On The Hill".
The problem with getting older is that more of one's heroes and friends
keep dying.
Rashkovksy
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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 18:01:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Steve Harvey
Subject: Re: McCartney
What made McCartney's bass patterns so great were the chord progressions
of his songs. The Beatles stuff traveled in and out of keys. When
recording Macca always put the bass on last so the chord progression
somewhat dictated his choice of bass notes. Interesting songs make
interesting bass patterns. The guys in the 50s had it rough with the
same old chord progressions, rarely straying out of the same key. He is
a great player. Would love to hear him play some slapbass on Bill
Black's old upright (which Linda bought him for a birthday present).
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 00:01:01 -0500
From: TD
Subject: Re: "What is rock and roll?"
Ten Seminal Rock and Roll Records
1. Bill Haley and the Comets - Rock Around the Clock
The song meets Chuck Berry's requirements--Its got a back-beat
you can't lose it! The guitar solo is the benchmark of Rock and
Roll guitar solos--12 bars of dynamite. What separates rock-and-
roll from country-and-western and from Kansas City jump starts
with Bill Haley and the Comets. I don't care if the words rock-
and-roll are found in a letter from George Washington to Martha,
what rock and roll music sounds like starts with Bill Haley's
"Rock Around the Clock".
2. Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
When Heartbreak Hotel started climbing the music charts, the
question was What kind of music is that?--the answer was Rock and
Roll. When Elvis was with Sun, he was playing road house music
and cat music. After Heartbreak Hotel, it was called Rock and Roll.
Elvis out-sobs Johnny Ray (the Nabob of Sob) and Scotty Moore blasts
a lead that gave millions of people who had never heard Willie
Johnson with Howlin Wolf or Pat Hare their first taste of Memphis
aggresive guitar.
3. Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Rhythm 'n Reverb! Before 1955, it was hambone, patting juba, and,
afterward, it was doing the Bo Diddley. The Everly Brothers added
a little Bo Diddley strum to Bye Bye Love (added a little rock and
roll to a country and western honky-tonk song) and it wasn't a
country and western song anymore. Bo Diddley is the source for
Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away, the first hit for The Rolling Stones,
the world's greatest rock and roll band.
4. Little Richard - Lucille
--that one-beat tempo and frantic vocal!
5. Fats Domino - Ain't That a Shame
--rhythm piano and dialect.
6. The Coasters - Poison Ivy
the metaphor!
7. The Chantels - Maybe
--the girl groups--not even a hint of jazz....
8. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers - Why Do Fools Fall in Love
...it's the seminal moment for do wop
9. Chuck Berry - Oh Carol
...Chuck Berry has so many great songs, but the topic is who/ what
defines the genre. I am missing a literary opportunity by suggesting
Oh Carol rather than School Day (otherwise known as Hail, Hail, Rock
and Roll), but Oh, Carol has the clever lyrics, the stops, the piano,
and the Chuck Berry Johnny B. Goode guitar chops.
10. Jerry Lee Lewis - "Great Balls of Fire"
...written by Otis Blackwell (who also wrote All Shook Up and Don't
Be Cruel)... produced in Memphis by Sam Phillips at Sun (who produced
Howlin' Wolf, Elvis, and Johnny Cash)... sung by the world's most
imitated piano player
TD
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Message: 5
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 23:06:56 -0500
From: Mark Wirtz
Subject: Re: Thomas Fritsch
> Anyone know anything about this guy?
Regarding Thomas Fritsch (with a name like that you GOT to be good!
LOL), allow me to put in my piece:
Mark F:
> I can't offer any more information than can be gleaned from
> comments by Mark W. He was apparently pretty well known in
> Germany at the time Mark was asked to do arrangements for two
> of his LPs. Nils Noboch was the producer and from the sound of
> it quite a competent one at that. The recording facilities in
> Germany must have been light years ahead of the US and UK
> because the sound of the records is really amazing....
*** Well, well, well, if this doesn't prove the adage that
"one man's meat is another man's poison", I don't know what does.
You see, the sound of the Thomas Fritsch recordings (and other
things recorded at EMI/Electrola's fabled Cologne studios - a
perennially awarded classical facility), is the very reason why,
at EMI's Abbey Road "sister studio", Syd Barrett, Paul McCartney,
Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick and I had to battle so very hard to
"get rid of THAT sound", and get a more gritty, gutsy "US" sound!
Allow me to bore you with technicalities... EMI studios (by
convention) recorded in the CCIR curve at 30 ips (extremely
clean, soft "antiseptic" middle, very airy high end, very deep,
round, soft, low bottom end, but no "intenstines." PERFECT for
classical recording! EMI/Electrola went one step further and not
only used BASF tape (highly sensitive, alas, abrasively burning
expensive recording "heads" at the rate of logs in a fire place)
mastered all their vinyl "mothers" at 16 rpm (Abbey Road didn't
quite go that far, but didn't win as many classical awards as
Electrola either).
Now, for most part, US studios, and most independent UK, London
studios of note (i.e. the legendary "Olympic Sound" and "IBC"
studios), lined up their machines to the NAB curve - lowered high
end, lifted extreme bottom, and much more "belly" and "skin." In
other words, a far "sexier" sound.
If you want a clear example of the difference, listen to the
Beatles' Abbey Road stuff, then compare it with their "Trident
Studios" recordings (most of the White album and "Hey Jude") when
they were finally allowed to record outside of Abbey Road. Irony
of ironies was that Ken Scott, a virtual "relief pitcher" engineer
at Abbey Road, whom - I am ashamed to admit - we used to make fun
of, rose to great heights when he quit EMI and went to work for
Trident, where he not only engineered but produced "classics" like
David Bowie, Queen and - whoa!!! - Supertramp (Ken's "Crime Of The
Century" production is, to me, the best produced and engineered
pop-rock album EVER).
But, hey, let's go all the way. When Spector worked at Abbey Road
on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album, it was initially
a total disaster, because - believe me - it was virtually impossible
to get a true "Spector Sound" with the CCIR curve! Burgeoning audio
genius. Alan Parsons saved the day (he had worked on both of my
Spector tributes, by the way, as a tape jockey, and learned, LOL)
when he took over and got as close to Spector's vision as was humanly
possible under the circumstances. I don't know what Alan did exactly,
all I know is that the only way I was able to pull off my "Spector"
efforts, was by "bastardizing" the pristine Abbey Road sound by
recording at 7.5 ips!!!
(Prior to my EMI tenure, I had no trouble at all producing my most
Spectoresque effort of all, Dany Chandelle's "Lying Awake", at Bond
Street's small "Oriole" studios with dynamite engineer Mike Ross.
Oriole was later bought out by CBS, then Sony, and Mike is still with
the company, having engineered many, many UK hits and classics).
In those early days, Mike and I (often in the company of Kim Fowley)
were like kids building and then playing in a tree house. Even though,
once I joined EMI, Geoff Emerick and I became (and still are) like
brothers-in-sound, Geoff always was and still is Paul (McCartney)'s
"guy". Conversely, Mike was, and in spirit always remained "mine." I
would love nothing more than to one day again walk up to a board with
him and work like we did on "Touch Of Velvet" and all those goodies
that built the foundation of my career.
As a final note on this particular segue, I must state that it was
Phil Chapman who not only most brilliantly, but creatively, succeeded
in not only emulating, but surpassing the Spector sound at Olympic
Studios, putting my efforts, as well as those of my then UK colleagues
to shame. Phil Ch. not only captured the essence of the sound, but
infused it with a breathtaking viscera that even Spector wasn't capable
of (and the lack of which I believe to have been the real reason for
the demise of his once characteristic concept).
Flash-back to the actual topic of this address and closing my verbose
circle - back to Thomas Fritsch. It so happens that one of the tracks
Thomas and Nils and I cut together was a cover of - "You've Lost That
Lovin' Feeling" (on which I even took over the piano chores, because
the local session guy booked to play the part must have thought this
was a polka). And - it sucks. I never got involved in sound matters
during these Cologne sessions, having my job cut out arranging and
conducting the charts with the "Schlager Fritzen" musicians. Whatever.
Just a bunch of echo does not make a Spector sound-alike record make...
Patrick Grant, I admire you for your courage to admit in public that
you liked Thomas Fritsch's records. Thomas was actually very talented
and wonderful to work with; an absolute professional; and as charming
as he appeared (hey - he had the "hair" and the "image" long before
David Hasselhof or Mel Gibson!). So, if you want to know anything else
about him, feel free to e-mail me, or ask on the board. I'd be happy to
tell you. (If, by any chance at all, you have also heard of "Connie"
Froboess - Nils Nobach produced her and co-wrote most of her many hits
with Rudi Lind - all I can say is that I used to have a major crush on
her and I "hated" Thomas for actually having scored her, and I used to
"jealously" tease the crap out of him for it, LOL.
> As to the music, well, I have a tough time with German language
> pop as it is.
**Indeed. One really remarkable exception to that, however, is the
work of "(Muenchener) Freiheit," to me one of the very best harmony
pop groups ever (and darn good material to boot!). Do yourself a favor
- check 'em out. In fact, "ease" into them by getting their original
English version, Abbey Road recorded, "Fantasie" LP, and you might be
happily amazed. How can ANY pop fan resist "Keeping The Dream Alive"???
Now I'm gonna shut up!
Best,
Mark Wirtz
P.S. Hey, come and visit me at my web site again sometime, would ya?
I need the web hits to brag! LOL. http://www.markwirtz.com
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 6
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2003 22:18:44 -0700
From: Rex Strother
Subject: More Superman-Related Requests
Spectropoppers, the list of Superman songs is going very good;
I appreciate all the help (some great obscure ones). It came
to me that I should possibly expand my request using keywords
like: "Metropolis", "Daily Planet", "Kryptonite", "Man of Steel",
"Fortress of Solitude" and "Lois Lane" ("Lex Luthor" anyone?)
Anyone game to continue the search?
Rex
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Message: 7
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 00:30:05 -0500
From: Richard Gagnon
Subject: Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
Shawn writes:
> Big Momma Thornton should be the the #1 influence in Rock and
> Roll her song is first Rock and Roll song. Little Richard should
> be #2 and the King of Rock and Roll.
With all due respect, nah. There isn't a thing Little Richard
did in the Fifties that Louis Jordan wasn't doing a decade earlier.
Try listening to "Caldonia" (also known as "Caldonia Boogie").
If you're going to give the title to a woman, you'd probably be
better off handing the crown over to, say, Memphis Minnie. Big Mama's
"Hound Dog" wasn't much of a rocker, frankly. Elvis made it one.
Maybe the world thinks that rock and roll began with Bill Haley's
"Rock around the clock", but this being Spectropop, I don't have
to give anyone a history lesson...not that I could!
Seminal recordings?
Here's a few contenders:
I want to Rock and Roll ------- Scatman Crothers (40s)
Saturday Night Fish Fry ------- Louis Jordan (1949)
Good Rocking Ronight ---------- Wynonie Harris (1947)
Rock Awhile ------------------- Goree Carter (1949)
Rockin' the house ------------- Memphis Slim (1947)
Rock Little Baby -------------- Cecil Gant (1951)
Rock the joint boogie --------- Big Joe Turner (194?)
We're gonna rock -------------- Wild Bill Moore (1947)
House near the railroad track - Tommy Brown (1951)
Sausage Rock ------------------ Doc Sausage (1950)
Regarding Telephone songs, did anyone mention "Woman to woman"
by Shirley Brown?
And Superman is mentioned (or maybe it's the archetype) in
Tony Romeo's "Blessed is the rain".
That's all!
Rick
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Message: 8
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 05:40:24 -0000
From: Jeff Lemlich
Subject: Re: Ronnie Dante (with Vance & Pockriss)
Laura Pinto wrote:
> A few years later, the team of Vance/Pockriss would also
> bring us a group called the Cuff Links and a Top-Ten hit
> called "Tracy." The debut LP was also entitled "Tracy," and
> the "Cuff Links" initially were just one guy overdubbing his
> vocals some eight or nine times. That guy, of course, was
> Ron Dante!
Dante sang lead on another Vance/Pockriss project around the
same time, THE TWO DOLLAR QUESTION:
Aunt Matilda's Double Yummy Blow Your Mind Out Brownies/
Cincinnati Love Song (Intrepid 75001)
The A-side is a tribute to some "mmm mmm good" brownies (with
a certain extra ingredient) that just happened to be popular
at "Alice's Restaurant". The flip is just as interesting. It
would later be recorded for the Epic label by Michael "my name
is Michael, I've got a nickel" Vance. Vance's record was retitled
"Michael's Love Song", with some lyric changes (including a
biting dog that didn't score many points in the playground in
Michael's mind).
I heard a story that the female voice on David Geddes' "Run
Joey Run" was also one of Paul Vance's sons. Any truth to this?
Jeff Lemlich
http://www.limestonerecords.com
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Message: 9
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 01:37:36 -0500
From: Country Paul
Subject: Bonnie, SAR, more
To all involved: Thank you for the Bonnie/Charlotte O'Hara pages!
As her "Close Your Eyes" has become a favorite of mine, having
recently discovered it, I took special interest in the compilation
of articles. I never knew "Close Your Eyes" was on WB - thanks for
the scan! (Also check the link to Phil Milsteins article on
Charlotte O'Hara at AS/PMA: http://www.aspma.com/news.htm#bonnie
If that doesn't get you directly to it, the article is 9 items
down on the news page.) All this plus the Galens, too!
Bob Rashkow wrote, "I've never heard The Valentinos." They didn't
get airplay on that many pop stations when they were new. I don't
know if there are any albums, but the two-disc "Sam Cooke's SAR
Records Story" on Abkco is worth chasing down. Their biggest songs
are there, plus much more amazing soul, gospel and pop. Cooke
expected from his artists what he delivered himself: top quality
performance, production and lyrical enunciation. One can only
imagine what he and Jesse Belvin would have done if they'd lived.
Both these men were remarkable artists, writers and producers, who
truly shone in a studio. In a way I think of them as "the black Phil
Spector and Brian Wilson" - though I don't know who would be who in
that comparison!
And the other Rahkow "brother", Mike: "As for me, I'm stuck on Alison
Krauss and Union Station." I join you, and highly recommend "New
Favorite", the excellent CD and heartbreaking title song. Spectropop
goes 2000s down a country road.
Paul Urbahns asked about Canadian information. A good starting place is
http://www.1050chum.com homepage of Canada's biggest oldies network.
Interesting stuff about them, plus good links. Happy surfing!
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 10
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 11:16:39 -0000
From: Rosemarie Edwards
Subject: Tracey Dey
Could anyone help ...does anyone know how we can contact Tracey Dey.
This is an extract from a recent post from Eddie Rambeau - from our
fan club site...
"As for Tracey Dey...she is one of the sweetest people I've met in
the business. I loved her to death and would love to get in touch
with her to see how she's doing. If anyone out there knows how to
get in touch with Tracey, please let me know or let her know I'm
trying to get in touch with her."
Lots of Love
Rosemarie
hppt://www.edrambeau.com
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Message: 11
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 13:23:56 -0000
From: Bill Craig
Subject: Re: Telephone songs
Has anyone mentioned The Stones "It's Off The Hook"?
Cool song. Did they write that? I can't remember.
Bill Craig
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Message: 12
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 05:42:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Artie Wayne
Subject: Re: Question for Artie Wayne
Mikey.........I'm sorry , but I don't know anything about
any of the cuts on the Brian Hyland album "The Joker went Wild"
except for "3000" miles which was cut in NY. regards,
Artie Wayne
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Message: 13
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 07:11:38 -0800 (PST)
From: David Coyle
Subject: Re: He'll Have To Go
I am certainly impressed by the lengthy "revisiting"
of the classic Jim Reeves hit "He'll Have To Go." I
had never thought too much of how Reeves's deceptively
smooth crooning made all evidence of illicit sexual
relations sound non-existent.
While I don't particularly subscribe to the idea that
Reeves's version is BETTER because of its
"country-white" diction, I can believe that the sexual
undertones would probably sound more prevalent in a
classic soul singer's version, particularly since soul
and R&B has always been dripping with sex and passion.
A while back I read somewhere where somebody mentioned
"M.T.A." by the Kingston Trio, and said that there was
a more sinister sad undertone to that song as well.
The song talks about a guy who is stuck riding the
Boston subway because the fare was increased by a
nickel while he was on it, so the conductor told him
he couldn't disembark. The last verse talks about how
the guy's wife comes to the station every day at
lunchtime and hands him a sandwich. The writer made a
good point -- why didn't the guy's wife just give him
the nickel so he could get off the train?? Could it be
because she didn't WANT him to come home? Much less
get to work? Tragic...
Someone ought to write a book about all these classic
songs with hidden meanings. It didn't just start in
the bubblegum era with the Ohio Express singing about
having love in their tummy...
David
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Message: 14
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 19:17:42 -0000
From: Stratton Bearhart
Subject: Re: Early Rock n' Roll
Strange as this association might seem, I think there's a definate
thread between R&R and these sources:-
Scott Joplin - Elite Syncopations (1908)
Claude Debussy - Le Petit Negre (1909)
And what an association in itself!.
Stratton Bearhart
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 15
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 19:26:41 -0000
From: Stratton Bearheart
Subject: McCartney
Actually McCartney Bass playing only became sonic once he
changed from the stylistic "tea chest bass" he produced from
the Hofner to the Rickenbacker sound around 66'.
He was envious of bass sounds he heard on soul records, Duck
Dunn would be an example, and, he loved the dexterity of James
Jamerson and Carol Kaye on Motown records.
Most of all he aspired to the magic of Brian Wilson's lyrical
bass lines, and Sgt Pepper is full of them.
McCartney belongs to a number of great bass players, not quite
so innovative as the people he admired who came before him and
a figure of inspiration to players after him such as Chris Squire
of Yes, Kenny Gradney of Little Feat and the plethora of jazz/rock
musicians who pushed the envelope further in years to come.
Stratton Bearhart
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 16
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 20:49:05 +0000
From: Scott Bauman
Subject: Re: Hank Ballard
Several years ago, I attended a Brian Wilson in-store appearance
at Tower Records in Hollywood. While walking through the parking
lot I saw none other than Hank Ballard. I didn't know him
personally, but I introduced myself and asked him what he was
doing at a Brian Wilson in-store. He told me that he was there
to "pay respects to the master." I never would have guessed that
Hank Ballard was a Brian Wilson fan! I also remember that he was
very gracious and told me about all of the projects that he was
working on at the time.
-- Scott
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Message: 17
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 22:45:21 -0000
From: Peter Lerner
Subject: Re: Hank Ballard
I want to join in the tributes to Hank. I love the raunchy 50s material
and the 60s dance craze stuff, but there's a special place in my
collection for a thoughtful and sensitive 70s southern soul 45 of Kris
Kristofferson's "Sunday morning comin' down". And I didn't know that
Hank was Florence Ballard's cousin till I read the obituary in the
London Times today.
Peter
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 18
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 22:59:17 -0000
From: Guy Lawrence
Subject: Re: Hank Ballard
Simon White wrote:
> Sad to hear of Hank Ballard's passing ...without his version of
> The Twist there would be no Chubby Checker, Cameo wouldn't have
> gone in the direction they did which means no Dee Dee Sharp, Orlons
> etc. The knock on effect of that is possibly no Gamble and Huff
> and the repercussions of that are too awful to even think about!
Of even more importance...without Hank there would have been no
Round Robin!
Guy.
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 19
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 22:57:49 +0000
From: Richard Havers
Subject: Re: McCartney
Steve Harvey wrote:
> Would love to hear him play some slapbass on Bill Black's
> old upright (which Linda bought him for a birthday present).
I did once.....he caressed it, revered it....and made it hum!
Richard
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 20
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:07:53 EST
From: Mike Rashkow
Subject: Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
Alan Gordon wrote:
> There is a book that came out in '92 called "What Was
> The First Rock 'N' Roll Record?" that is pretty darn
> interesting as an historical treatise. It doesn't really
> name a specific song, more it offers 50 choices and
> many whys and wherefores for each.
I will try to find that book--and thanks for the compliment.
Rashkowsky
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 21
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 23:57:38 -0000
From: Mike Rashkow
Subject: Re: What Is Rock & Roll?
Alan Gordon wrote:
> There is a book that came out in '92 called "What Was
> The First Rock 'N' Roll Record?" that is pretty darn
> interesting as an historical treatise. It doesn't really
> name a specific song, more it offers 50 choices and
> many whys and wherefores for each.
I will try to find that book--and thanks for the compliment.
Rashkosvky
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 22
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 23:12:27 +0000
From: Stuffed Animal
Subject: Jeff Barry/The Spartans
Guy Lawrence:
> What's the sum total of the group's knowledge about Jeff
> Barry's time with the Spartans? All I know is that their
> "Can You Waddle?" is one of the greatest dance craze
> records ever made.
In the grand tradition of The Raindrops, The Archies and
Milli Vanilli, The Spartans (at least the group that recorded
"Can You Waddle?") were merely a studio group. What you hear
on that record is the overdubbed voices of Jeff Barry.
Logically, he also arranged and produced the song (actually,
I like the instrumental flipside better than the topside).
If "Can You Waddle?" had sprung for a hit, a touring group
might've been recruited after the fact, but whether or not
Jeff himself would've gone on tour is open to speculation.
Stuff
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 23
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:16:51 EST
From: David Bell
Subject: Re: Telephone songs
Just thought of Little Miss Dynamite's "Ring A My Phone".
Great early track from the diminutive songstress.
David.
-------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------
Message: 24
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:09:26 +0000
From: Phil Milstein
Subject: Re: More Superman-Related Requests
Rex Strother wrote:
> Spectropoppers, the list of Superman songs is going very good;
> I appreciate all the help (some great obscure ones). It came
> to me that I should possibly expand my request using keywords
> like: "Metropolis", "Daily Planet", "Kryptonite", "Man of Steel",
> "Fortress of Solitude" and "Lois Lane" ("Lex Luthor" anyone?)
Stewart Copeland did an early turn under the name of Klark Kent,
for one of his brother's labels. I think I may still have one or
both of those records.
--Phil M.
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Message: 25
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2003 18:11:36 EST
From: Mike Rashkow
Subject: Re: Ronnie Dante (with Vance & Pockriss)
Jeff Lemlich:
> The flip is just as interesting. It would later be recorded
> for the Epic label by Michael "my name is Michael, I've got
> a nickel" Vance. Vance's record was retitled "Michael's Love
> Song", with some lyric changes (including a biting dog that
> didn't score many points in the playground in Michael's mind).
Paul Vance ripped that song from a old PD children's gospel thing
--I think it is titled " Jesus The Light Of The World".
Melody is note-for-note.
Rashkosvky
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