_______________________________________________________ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ S P E C T R O P O P _______ _______ _______ _______________________________________________________ Volume #0161 October 7, 1998 _______________________________________________________ the kind of gutsy production that makes a No. 1 single!Subject: The Hook Sent: 10/06/98 3:10 pm Received: 10/06/98 11:59 pm From: Marc Wielage, XXXX@XXXtrax.com Jack Madani <Jack_MadXXXX@XXX12.nj.us> said on the Spectropop List: >Seems like ANYthing can end up being a hook, can be something in >the instrumentation or in the lyrics or in the backing vocals, but >I did get to wondering, just how often is the hook a premeditated >thing? Is it always, or mostly, or half the time, or what? >----------------snip----------------< Reminds me of a radio interview I once heard with ELO's Jeff Lynne. He said it took him a couple of albums to finally figure out what the "pop formula" was for a successful hit, and that the key was coming up with a hook in the melody and rhythm. He claimed it got boring after awhile, and ultimately became too much effort to sustain the formula in the 1980s. But Lynne did divulge that he often came up with a hook first and then write a song around it; that happened on "Sweet Talkin' Woman," once of their biggest hits. The trick to me is that the idea of successful musical hooks changed and evolved differently in different eras. A tricky melody or chord change or whatever might work well in one decade, but not in another. On the other hand, a great song could conceivably be a hit in any era; Burt Bacharach once said he felt that "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" could have been a hit in the 1930s, the 1940s, or the 1950s; but it didn't occur to him to write it until 1969. --MFW -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -= Marc Wielage | "The computerized authority =- -= MusicTrax, LLC | on rock, pop, & soul." =- -= Chatsworth, CA | XXXX@XXXtrax.com =- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: It Sent: 10/06/98 10:46 am Received: 10/06/98 11:59 pm From: john rausch, jXXXX@XXXnet well Jack... when I think of {(HOOKS)} ...To my ear ...I think ...: the organ on 96 Tears The bass on Sugar,Sugar..."thanks Jeff Barry" and of course...Ronnie`s ...Whoah Oh Oh Whoas...! and howbout the drums in all the tommy roe`s mid 60s hits...like... hooray for hazel,sweetpea,dizzy, ...and of course ..."for me" ... the drumbeat on "be my baby" has got to be the best hook of all time! --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: (((STRangeloves))) Sent: 10/06/98 10:10 am Received: 10/06/98 11:59 pm From: john rausch, jXXXX@XXXnet >Did it actually come out on Red Bird? It's good in a >Strangeloves type way.... ... Kieron, the strangeloves are one of my "guilty pleasurers"...aside from the wall of sound and ggs etc... the sonic boom of the strangeloves 45s on bang records are cool ,very much a tip "o" the hat to phil`s "wall'...with less theatrics...but very much "in your face" singles! --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: DL and "originals" Sent: 10/06/98 3:00 am Received: 10/06/98 7:39 am From: Mark Landwehr, mslXXXX@XXXbs.com >>Just heard that Darlene Love has been nominated for induction into >>the RnR Hall of Fame...WELL, IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!! > >Mark, > >Darlene mentioned this at her NYC Barnes & Noble appearance, with >obvious pride and no bitterness. >Dave Feldman > Not surprised, Dave...Darlene is a classy lady. >For John Rausch: Fave Spector cover? I always liked the Beach Boys >doing "I Can Hear Music..." But that's not really a "Spector" >original, is it? > Phil didn't produce it, but he was one of the writers...The Ronettes did the original, so I would call it a "Spector original" in a sense...It's all semantics, I guess (to paraphrase a high Executive, "What do you mean by 'original'?) :-) Mark (Philles PhanatiXXXX@XXX://www.toltbbs.com/~msland/Spector --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Re: Dusty, Free Design and Red Bird Sent: 10/06/98 1:01 am Received: 10/06/98 1:45 am From: Jamie LePage, le_page_XXXX@XXXties.com James Cassidy wrote: >Who else but Dusty could do such an outstanding job in such a wide >variety of musical genres -- from Spector rock ("Stay Awhile") to >Burt B. sophistication ("Look of Love") to Euro/cabaret pop ("You >Don't Have to Say You Love Me") to Memphis soul ("Son of a >Preacher Man") to Philly soul ("Brand New Me," "Silly, Silly Fool") >to Randy Newman to the Pet Shop Boys? Dusty's records are great, and as I said before, sometimes her versions of Bacharach/David are better than the originals. Then you mentioned Brand New Me and Randy Newman. Well, absolutely! Stay Awhile is indeed a great track! Jack wrote: >Just wanted to mention that I've ordered the Free Design comp disc >without having had a chance to hear it. I'll report when I get it. By all means, please do. Free Design are great personal faves. Just adore the jazz approach to the harmonies. The lyrics are sometimes a bit iffy, but what the heck. With harmonies and arrangements like these, who can complain? Our man Bash knows of what he speaks. David Marsteller wrote: >I have a 4 CD set that Charly put out a number of years ago. >It's got 90-something tracks... Yes! I have this as well, and in 1991, I listened to this every night all night during the entire winter. Now, every time I listen to it, I think of that year. Talk about your time warps! Anyway, this collection is essential; the original version of Go Now and the rare Shangri-Las tracks like Dressed In Black are fantastic. -- LePageWeb http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/5030 --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Re: spector covers Sent: 10/05/98 10:26 pm Received: 10/06/98 7:39 am From: Jack Madani, Jack_MadXXXX@XXX12.nj.us Perhaps one of the only spector "covers" to surpass phil's own version might be Jeff Barry and the Dixie Cups' Chapel of Love. Only, I'm not totally sure of the chronology of the competing versions, i.e., which is the "original" and which is the "cover." Jamie LeP. referred to some of the barf-o-rama Spector covers coughed out by Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in the mid to late seventies. I agree they're pretty tough going, although I always liked the [admittedly rough!!] vibe that Brian managed to generate on the choruses of You've Lost That Loving Feeling. However, go back to 1965 and the Beach Boys' Today! album, and notice that fine little remake of Then He Kissed Me, now sung from the male pov and rechristened Then I Kissed Her. It may not surpass the original, but it's got the required oomph and authenticity to at least raise it to something *like* equal footing with Phil's original. Plus, Brian manages to get nearly the same effect as Phil does, only with remarkably better sound quality. Two other small comments: 1. On the Endless Harmony documentary about the Beach Boys, there's a short clip of maybe twenty seconds of modernday Brian Wilson sitting at a drum kit and banging out the drum riff to Be My Baby. It was like actually peering into Brian's mind, to hear what Brian Wilson apparently heard every day for several years.... 2. In the liner notes to Marshall Crenshaw's latest release, a compilation of battery-powered demos and other unreleased 4-track rarities, MC describes how he cut You're My Favorite Waste Of Time. He explains that the opening bass drum boom boom boom's were *meant* to sound like the drum fill from The Best Part of Breaking Up. jack ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road, Princeton, NJ 08540 Jack_MadXXXX@XXX12.nj.us "It is when the gods hate a man with uncommon abhorrence that they drive him into the profession of a schoolmaster." --Seneca, 64 A.D. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Waronker's "hot" recordings Sent: 10/06/98 11:24 pm Received: 10/06/98 11:59 pm From: Doc Rock, docroXXXX@XXXcom An excerpt that may be of interest from my book, "Liberty Records." Si is Si Waronker, the founder of Liberty, who is now 86 years old. Back to Eddie's first hit, "Sittin' On The Balcony," one advantage it had over John D. Loudermilk's original was the much greater gain (volume) that the Liberty record had. Eddie's record was "hot!" Besides working with talented youth like Eddie Cochran, and knowing hit material when he heard it, Si was an innovator in the studio. A lot of credit for making "hot" recordings has gone to producers like Phil Spector with his Wall of Sound girl-group records on Philles Records, and Frank Guida with his noisy Gary U.S. Bonds waxings on LeGrand Records. Certainly compared to pop and band recordings of the pre-rock days, these producers were doing something new. But it was not something new at Liberty. Si was recording "hot," way beyond what the experts and the engineers thought was acceptable, in the mid-'50s. "I had a habit of recording at a high level. I always figured that if we could get more volume on the record itself, the customers could put the record on and it would sound better at a lower level. It was an idea I was playing with. I put the recordings to the limitations of all the volume I could get on the master and hoped that it worked. I was the one that started that. It was a way to get the hiss and the scratches out, make the music loud." Si may have been an expert at economizing, such as when he recorded Julie London and Patience and Prudence with a small combo instead of a full orchestra, but he also knew when it was worthwhile to spend a little extra. "I tried to press on better material. It used to cost me a penny a record more to use a little more vinyl on the 45's. By using a little more, we were able to get a little more volume, too. That helped. Most of the Liberty records you heard were louder than other labels; maybe not as good, but loud. God, I'd put on as much as the record would take, as much as the [cutting] needle would take before it chattered off the disk!" --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Spector covers Sent: 10/06/98 9:47 am Received: 10/06/98 11:59 pm From: Frank Youngwerth, FMXXXX@XXXom I have a great CD from Japan called Touch the Wall of Sound v.3 ( thanks, Ron) which has 2 very good Spector covers: Linda Scott's " You Baby" and Keely Smith (Louis Prima's ex-) doing a breathtaking "No One Ever Tells You". The latter is "arranged and conducted by" Jack Nitzsche. --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Re: Red Bird and I Can Hear Music Sent: 10/06/98 7:40 am Received: 10/06/98 7:57 am From: Stos, William, wsXXXX@XXXtyenet.com The Red Bird two cd set from Charly records, (it came out sometime after the 4 cd set one), is definately high quality! It has songs from Leiber/Stoller's Tiger and Daisy labels, like Cathy Saint's amazing "Big Bad World," as well as the essential Red Bird/Blue Cat, and obscurities. I laugh every time I hear Shadow Morton singing a demo of "Dressed In Black." Give me the Shangri-las or the Nu-Luvs any day! It also has an echo-heavy version of Ellie Greenwich's "You Don't Know," that's differnt from the on the best of the Girl Groups Vol 2. The first time I heard the Ronettes' "I Can Hear Music," was on a tape fellow Spectropoper John Rausch sent me. I think it would be hard pressed to find a better version. When Ronnie starts off with "This is the way..." in her beautiful vibrato I just melt! I played it on my show two weeks ago and got some positive feedback. Surprisingly I didn't like it the first time I heard it, but it's really grown on me. --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- Subject: Spector Covers/Rhondels Sent: 10/06/98 8:18 pm Received: 10/06/98 11:59 pm From: Richard Globman, rglobXXXX@XXXmm.net John SED: >Just got a new batch of Spector cover versions 45s, some I have >heard and some not, and while playing them I was completely blown >away by a version of the Ronettes "Do I Love You" done by Bill >Deal and the Rhondells. As a former member of The Rhondels, I must comment that, in fact, "Do I Love You" ain't all that good. The arrangement was done by Bill Deal and "Fat" Ammon Tharp, the founding fathers of the group. We had enjoyed success by covering Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs' "May I", The Tams' "I've Been Hurt" and also The Tams' "What Kind Of Fool (Do You Think I Am)". Compared to those three, "Do I Love You" just didn't cut it. Regarding successful covers, let's start with "I Can Hear Music" by the Beach Boys. DICKYG --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]-------------------- END
