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Volume #0145 September 13, 1998
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Project 3 Records have achieved Total Sound!
Subject: Re: PJ Proby/Len Barry
Sent: 09/11/98 9:09 am
Received: 09/12/98 12:36 am
From: Marc Wielage, XXXX@XXXtrax.com
To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXX@XXXties.com
Jack Madani <Jack_MadXXXX@XXX12.nj.us> said on the Spectropop List:
>Len's "1-2-3" is a personal favorite in the
>category of "songs that WOGL only seems to play in the 'lost hit'
>slot." Years ago I found a scratchy vinyl
>copy of the "1-2-3" lp, and discovered an unintentionally hilarious
>attempt at a follow-up hit, called "I-O-U." You know how the melody
>moves UP on the numbers "one two three?" Well guess what the genius
>songwriter has Len do on the letters "eye oh ewe."
----------------<snip>----------------
I dunno about "I-O-U," but I do know that Barry tried a sequel
called "4-5-6" a few years later. Here's my notes on Barry's 1965
#2 hit:
"Leonard Borisoff's all-time biggest hit, released under his stage
name "Len Barry," the title track from his 1965 album. His only Top
25 hit, apart from several hits with his previous group, The
Dovells. One of the few non-Motown hits written by the songwriting
team of Holland-Dozier-Holland (along with Len and two other
writers). Covered as minor singles by Jane Morgan nine months
later, and by Ramsey Lewis in 1967. Several years after his
original hit, Barry tried a sequel, "4, 05 , 06 (Now I Am Alone),"
which appeared on the Amy Records label, but it failed to chart.
Songwriting credits in dispute: sometimes attributed only to
Holland-Dozier-Holland. No relation to Gloria Estefan's 1988 Top 5
hit."
--MFW
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-= Marc Wielage | "The computerized authority =-
-= MusicTrax, Ltd. | on rock, pop, & soul." =-
-= Chatsworth, CA | XXXX@XXXtrax.com =-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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Subject: Free Design Review
Sent: 09/11/98 2:08 pm
Received: 09/12/98 12:36 am
From: David Bash, BashXXXX@XXXom
To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXX@XXXties.com
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to post a recent review I did of the new Free Design
compilation. Hopefully it will be of some interest to people on
this list. I think they were a group that have been criminally
ignored for many years, and I believe that several of you would
love this disc.
Without further adieu:
The Free Design
Kites Are Fun: The Best Of The Free Design
Varese Sarabande Records
What, you were expecting maybe Nirvana? The title says it all:
Kites Are Fun is a bright, breezy joy of a compilation which pays
tribute to an unjustly forgotten group who released 6 albums in
the late 60s/early 70s on Enoch Light's label, Project 3. The Free
Design had felt that going with a small label would help them get
more attention, but unfortunately Project 3 didn't have the
credibility in the pop music world to bring the group to the
spotlight. This is indeed a shame, because they were an extremely
talented family combo whose sound can be described as a lighter,
jazzier Fifth Dimension or Spanky and Our Gang, and perhaps more
than any other group they were able to construct songs that could
appeal equally to adults and children. Kites Are Fun culls the
cream of the group's 6 albums, starting with the title track,
which pretty much embodies everything the Free Design is about;
up tempo, dizzying vocal arrangements, free flowing instrumental
lines, and a generous helping of wind instruments and strings.
Other tracks in a similar vein are "Bubbles," which offers some
anomalous stinging guitar, "Felt So Good,", the childlike "Kije's
Ouija," and "Now Is The Time". The group could tone it down a bit
as well, as tracks like the beautiful "Felt So Good" and "My
Brother Woody" could calm even the most hyperactive child, and "My
Very Own Angel" and "A Man And A Woman" would make wonderful
lullabies. Perhaps the best of the lot is "2002-A Hit Song", which
could be thought of as a "Tighten Up" for the Wonder Bread set.
The liner notes by Elliot Kendall include an interview with Free
Design leader Chris Dedrick, and offer insight into the evolution
of this fine group. If you like this compilation, which genre fans
surely will, you can also find Japanese reissues of all 6 Free
Design albums.
Varese Sarabande Records
11846 Ventura Blvd., Suite 130
Studio City, CA 91604
Web: www.VareseSarabande.com
--
Spectropop Rules!!!!!
Take Care,
David
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Subject: Jeff & Ellie and Neil Diamond
Sent: 09/12/98 4:22 am
Received: 09/12/98 8:00 am
From: Jamie LePage, le_page_XXXX@XXXties.com
To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXX@XXXties.com
Jack Madani, Jack_MadXXXX@XXX12.nj.us wrote:
>I like Jeff Barry's production style...the lively, sparse
>folky style that he applied to Neil Diamond, the Monkees...
>
>Examples that come to mind would be:
>
>Neil Diamond: Cherry Cherry; You Got To Me; Thank The Lord For The
>Nighttime - Monkees: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You; I'm A
>Believer
>
>I suppose it's no coincidence that those Monkee songs I mention
>were also written by Diamond.
Neil Diamond and the Monkees are part of that one short moment
when the Brill writers wrote for the emerging rock artists. Goffin
& King's Porpoise Song, Going Back and Road To Nowhere are other
examples.
I am curious when in the Brill story Diamond came on the scene.
According to the liner notes in the PolyGram Jeff/Ellie CD, Barry
introduced Diamond to the Monkees. That seems strange for a few
reasons. Wasn't Diamond an Aldon/Screen Gems writer before the TV
show was conceived? Did he have any notable covers before the Bang
records? It would seem to me Diamond wrote for the Monkees through
the "suggestion" of the Kirschner people, not because Diamond and
the Monkees became friends after Jeff Barry introduced them. I
wish someone could put these events in a time frame, because Barry
as a writer was not part of the Aldon/Screen Gems family, and I
wonder if Diamond didn't already have the songs placed when Barry
came on the scene. In the same connection, since Barry was outside
the Screen Gems family, how did he get the Monkees productions?
Also, did Bert Berns sign Diamond? Who engineered that deal? Jeff
& Ellie?
>From Jeff & Ellie to Neil to Monkees. There must be some great
behind-the-scenes stories there. The fictional film Grace of my
Heart depicted the Brill people moving out west just around I
would guess 1966. We know what happened after the whole Lou Adler/
Carol King thing exploded, but I find that brief moment in time
between the GG era and the singer/songwriter era to be fascinating.
Whenever the Monkees come up for discussion, inevitably there is
the "they didn't even play their own instruments" debate which
most fans of Wrecking Crew and Brill couldn't care less about. I
would much rather hear about how the Brill writers were contracted
to work with them, and how the surrounding events of the scene were
influenced by the westward movement of the New York based Brill
people. It seems to me to have been an exciting time for music,
and it was arguably the last gasp for tin pan alley entrepreneurs
and the Brill Building writers.
I'm struggling here. Can anyone shed some more light on this
fascinating era?
--
le_page_XXXX@XXXties.com
RodeoDrive/5030
P.S. I was lucky enough to get a copy of the Jeff & Ellie promo CD
PolyGram Music did recently. Many of the original 60's tracks on
the CD are well known; a few 90's bands on there too. Some don't
work. Others do, like the Honeydogs track "It's So Strange" -
exactly in the early Diamond style Jack writes of. When I first
heard it, I was shocked. It has the folky Diamond feel, but it
also has the 3 minute hook filled Brill structure. btw, it was
written by Greenwich/Barry/Diamond and never previously recorded.
It's like hearing a Monkees song that never was.
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Subject: Re: Len Barry --IOU
Sent: 09/11/98 6:59 am
Received: 09/11/98 8:00 am
From: james fisher, JHFAXXXX@XXX.net
To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXX@XXXties.com
Jack Madani - In fact I do know that follow up to 123! Pretty sorry
attempt indeed. It always reminded me a bit of Del Shannon's follow
up records--poor copies of good tunes.(And I like Del a lot, he just
should have skipped every other song.) 123 is a fave of mine from
day one but sadly a local oldies station used it recently to
promote a long-running contest --"winning is as easy as..." and
I'm now suffering from a bad case of Len Barry Burnout. This too
shall pass.
Len gets a mention in Ian Whitcomb's book "Rock Odyssey" as they
were roomies while on one of Dick Clarks Caravan tours in '65--it
seems that Len borrowed 15 bucks off him ( I guess Dick didn't pay
all that well) so perhaps the origins of IOU lie somewhere in there
...try and get hold of Whitcomb's book, it's a great read, very
funny and just about anyone who figured in pop music from '57 to
'66 is in there.
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Subject: Dionne, Bacharach et al
Sent: 09/11/98 8:05 am
Received: 09/12/98 12:36 am
From: james fisher, JHFAXXXX@XXX.net
To: Spectropop List, spectroXXXX@XXXties.com
All this talk of the above, and others, drove my refreshed soul out
to a local thrift shop to scour their record piles (" all records
25 cents") in search of discarded gems. Mitch Miller and the Gang
seemed to have cornered the Unwanted LP's market, with Andy Williams
and Perry Como neck and neck in the Most Abandoned Single Artists
category. Boy, those guys were dumped in droves...I would have
needed a wheel-barrow just to haul Andy's Christmas Albums out.
Interestingly enough the single most tossed away LP was Herb
Alpert's "Whipped cream and other Delights"...how can this be?? On
the grounds of its cover alone it's a keeper. Anyway, while I
failed to unearth any true nuggets (at least by my uncertain
knowledge of the real rarities) I did come home with a copy of Tom
Clay's album "What the world needs now" (MOWEST MW103 L) so at
least a Burt B. tune has been has saved (In fact TWO Burt tunes
as "This guy's in love with you" are also given the inimitable Tom
Treatment on this LP). "What's Goin' On" and "MacArthur Park" are
taken out for a trot as well--the results are best left to the
imagination. Anyone who just has to have this classic outing to
complete their collection should get in touch with me, I'll trade
you for a compilation CD.
I'm so inspired by my new found hobby that I'll be stopping at
garage sales this weekend so if there's some hard-to-find vinyl
you want then let me know and I'll keep an eye peeled for it. Jim.
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