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Volume #0363 January 1, 2000
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A lifetime of pure listening enjoyment
Subject: Happy Holidays from a Spector
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: Spxxxxxm.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Hello All.
I would like to wish all the Fans of Phil Spector a
wonderful Holiday Season.
I have enjoyed all the kind words about him and even the
inside stories about Gold Star Studios (which I have seen
only 3 times as a kid with my other brothers).
I am sure Phil Spector will be enjoying another Christmas
birthday again this year. I will wish him my best on 25
Dec, 1999 as I am sure all of the Fans reading this do as
well.
I know I will be listening to his Christmas CD this Year.
Here's to PS2K.
Happy Holiday's from,
G. P. Spector
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Subject: Doowop and Spectropoppers
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: David Feldman, fexxxxxnderables.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
While watching the PBS two-hour plus doowop special for
the second time, it occurred to me that there has been
remarkably little discussion of doowop on this list.
In some ways, doowop is the antithesis of Spector and
Brill Building stuff -- it shares the emotion but often
lacks the superimposition of production and technical
prowess that emerged with the session folk on both coasts
(and in Detroit and Memphis). I have a feeling this is why
there is so little discussion of R&B harmony music on
Spectropop. Personally, I love doowop.
Just a couple of observations:
1. Doowop is usually considered to be "fifties music,"
yet the quality of the music did not degenerate in the
early 60s. It might seem like it was a decade between the
Flamingo's "I Only Have Eyes For You" and Shimmy Shimmy Ko
Ko Bob," but it was less than a year. Tons of great doowop
songs were released in the early 60s.
2. Has there been any genre within R&B in which white
singers worked with such distinction? Doowop is perceived
as black music, yet relatively early on, in groups like
the Crests and Del-Vikings, racially mixed groups were not
unknown, and audiences were often well-integrated, too.
Groups like The Capris (whose vocal chops are totally
intact today), the Regents, Skyliners, Brooklyn Bridge,
the Belmonts (with or without Dion), Passions, and the
Duprees are just a few of the white groups who were still
around in the 60s (in some cases, they *started* recording
in the 60s) who made great contributions. [On the pledge
breaks on the NYC PBS station, the Capris sang an acapella
version of "Morse Code of Love" that rocked the joint.]
3. I have a distinct preference for emotional popular
music. While Spector could "make the phonebook sound good,"
I actually think he was very song-dependent. When a song
was weak, his Wall of Sound somehow sounds hollow,
incapable of bolstering the weak emotional content. That's
one reason why doowop sounds so vital and fresh to me.
Stripped of extraneous production and instrumentation, the
sincerity and beauty of the singers shine through, and when
they grab hold of a transcendent song, be it "A Sunday Kind
of Love" (still my favorite song title ever), "Since I
Don't Have You," or "Daddy's Home," my reaction is primal
and overwhelming.
Dave Feldman
RIP: Curtis Mayfield
Song of the Week: "I'm So Proud" (Impressions)
Board Game of the Month: Malarky
Best Gender Survey on the Net: More than 40 new questions
at http://www.imponderables.com
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Subject: King of the plinky Triangle
Received: 12/30/99 4:49 pm
From: Jack Madani, Jack_Mxxxxxk12.nj.us
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Boy, it actually does pay to read liner notes. I finally
put the pieces together to come up with a new name that we
may have to discuss here at greater length.
Claus Ogerman.
I think that some months ago his moniker was briefly
bounced around on the list here, but if memory serves it
was little more than a name-check. But I just bought
myself a groovy little Polydor disc called "Connie Francis:
RockSides (1957-1964)" and there are some swingin'
Brill Building tunes on the latter half of the cd that
really caught my attention. First of all, the two Connie
songs that are on the Mercury Girl Group Anthology came
from this RockSides disc, but in this different context
they suddenly reveal their secrets like that episode of
Star Trek on the Native American Planet where Kirk totally
by accident triggers the Meteor Laser gizmo which hits him
on the head and he gets amnesia and becomes Kurok the
Shaman--and maybe I'm getting off the track here. Hmm. I'll
l start over.
What I think I finally discovered is the whole NYC Brill
Building version of the LA/Wrecking Crew/Gold Star axis.
Hey, there's even a bunch of jazz musicians listed in the
session credits: Bucky Pizzarelli, Milt Hinton, George
Duvivier, Doc Severinsen, Urbie Green, among others. And
instead of Gold Star or Western, the NY studio with magic
in the walls would be A&R. Would this be a correct
assessment?
As for Claus Ogerman, he's be like the East Coast version
of Jack Nitzsche (cripes! why can't I remember how to
spell his name?). Only, in Ogerman's case his trademark
sound would be those steady eighth-note triangle plinks,
the mixed-chorus background singers singin' staccato "yeah
yeah's," fairly prominent use of harpsichord in the rhythm
section, and the xylophone/marimba accents at the end of
each line in the second verse.
Think Lesley Gore's It's My Party or Judy's Turn To Cry,
and you get what I'm after. Heck, I finally go read the
liner notes on Lesley Gore's Mercury anthology and there I
see Herr Ogerman's name all the heck over her recordings.
Well, on Connie Francis's RockSides disc there are two
Ogerman-arranged cuts that have those signature sounds all
over them as well: Whatever Happened To Rosemarie, and My
Best Friend Barbara. A third tune, No Better Off, also has
the sound, although the liner notes don't say who arranged
it (there's an oblique reference to NBO being recorded at
the same session as "Don't Ever Leave Me," and the
arranger for the DELM is listed as Artie Butler, but until
someone else can confirm or deny, I'm still holding out for
Claus as being the guy responsible for the sound of NBO).
Oh hey, here's another thing that seems to be an Ogerman
trait: the slow non-rhythmic opening intro, followed by an
explosive drum blat and then the song properly springs to
life. Like Lesley Gore's version of The Old Crowd, whose
beginning has exactly the same orchestral palette as
Connie's My Best Friend Barbara. On the other hand, that
slow-opening trick COULD have been a Carole King thing,
since she wrote The Old Crowd, and Carole did the same
slow-opening thing on her own recording of It Might As
Well Rain Until September. Hmm. Little help here, someone?
But those other sound traits seem really to belong to
Ogerman, so much so that I'm going to go out on a limb and
guess that he was responsible for the orchestration of Neil
Sedaka's I'm Livin' Right Next Door To An Angel.
And maybe Betty Everett's Shoop Shoop song as well? Okay,
so now I'm just guessing wildly. But I'm serious about the
Sedaka tune. Can anyone provide an answer?
Back to the Connie Francis disc. There's some great tracks
on it, with contributions from Greenwich and Barry both
musical and vocal (on top of which, Ellie also adds some
written material to the booklet), as well as a track with
backing vocals by the Tokens. There are also recordings of
Sedaka/Greenfield songs, Pomus/Shuman songs, and even a
couple terrific Countrypolitan tracks recorded in
Nashville and overseen by Bill Justis that have that
killer real clear bass sound that's doubled by a distorted
electric guitar, so that you not only hear the note but
also get this crystal-clear plectrum hit on the string
coming through. Jamie can perhaps shed light on what I'm
trying to describe here.
Connie Francis's voice may have been clear on the other
side of town from Mary Weiss's [Shangri-Las] pipes, but
with that Brill Building machinery surrounding her she
could do a purty fair cop of girlgroup.
So, Claus Ogerman. Eventually ended up scoring the very
best of AC Jobim's Verve albums, as well as the Reprise
collaboration disc between Jobim and Sinatra. Finally
turned to "serious" music, as I have a 1988 disc of
symphonic music composed and conducted by Claus "Ogermann."
The notes on this classical disc make absolutely no
reference at all to Ogerman's life in the pop music biz.
Any more to this story?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road,
Princeton, NJ 08540 Jack_Mxxxxxk12.nj.us
"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred."
--Henry Cabot Henhouse III
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Subject: Re: King/Goffin compilations
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: Ed Rothstein, eroxxxxx.net
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Jamie LePage wrote:
>
> Heavy Blinker Jason got a few answers about King/Goffin
> compilations, but I just wanted to throw in the fantastic
> Carole King Masterpiece Volumes 1, 02 , 03 on A-Side. These
> are mostly mastered from vinyl, but they are wonderful
> collections.
>
> For track listings, go to
> http://www2.gol.com/users/davidr/aside/
>
> The A-Side discog is definitely worth checking out.
Jamie,
Where can you buy these titles? They look great!
ed rothstein
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Subject: BMI Top 100 Songs
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: James F. Cassidy, casswxxxxxhlink.net
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
I wonder what the winner would be of the "most played
*record* of the century"?
Looking down the list of most played songs, some obviously
benefitted from multiple versions and multiple hits:
"Lovin' Feelin'": 2 (Righteous Bros. and [blechh!] Hall &
Oates)
"Never My Love": 2 (Association and [5th Dimension?
Marilyn McCoo solo?])
"Yesterday": 1 hit by The Beatles but a million cover
versions
"Stand By Me": I think this hit twice, both by Ben E. King,
and many covers
"Can't Take My Eyes Off of You": 2 (Frankie Valli,
Lettermen) and many covers
"Dock of the Bay": 1 (Otis)
"Mrs. Robinson": 2 or 3 (S&G, Lemonheads, even Sinatra)
and many covers
"Baby I Need Your Loving": 2 (4 Tops, Johnny Rivers)
"Rhythm of the Rain": 2 (Cascades, Dan Fogelberg)
"Georgia on My Mind": At least 2 (Brother Ray and [gag!]
Michael Bolton) and a million covers.
Am I wrong or was "Dock of the Bay" the only one at the
top with only 1 hit version and very few covers?
Happy New Year to all!
Jim Cassidy
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Subject: Ronnie Spector
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: john rausch,xxxxx.net
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Here`s a new article/interview with Ronnie Spextor at
http://www.theavclub.com/avclub3534/avfeature3534.html
John Rausch
Presenting The fabulous Ronettes featuring Ronnie
Spexxxxxp://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/2469/
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Subject: She Trinity
Received: 12/31/99 12:18 am
From: Scott Swanson, swxxxxxa.rdrop.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Does anyone out there have any recordings by the obscure
British girl-group called She Trinity? If so, please get
in touch with me.
Thanks,
Scott
(swxxxxxa.rdrop.com)
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Subject: from CK
Received: 12/29/99 3:48 pm
From: Carol Kaye, caroxxxxxhlink.net
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
From Brad Elliott:
>I appreciate your sensitivity...
The Musicians' Union Federation will be getting in touch
with you -- no-one is to post contracts on the web at all.
They almost took legal action against one and he quickly
took the contract off the url. Our contracts are not in
books either - but 2 of them were purloined out of the
Union and found their way on bootlegs one time which
shocked us all. I've also notified Billy Strange.
Russ Wapensky is doing very meticulous work to work out
all the wrong entries in some of the Musicians' Union
contract, such as some of the Beach Boys contracts, Phil
Spector contracts etc. Many things that are wrong
sometimes gets on those contracts. Russ is the only one to
have interviewed all of us, arrangers, studio musicians,
producers, background singers, copyists, just 100s of
interviews....his book will be the only book that is
well-researched from so many people involved in our
sessions.
The Union doesn't allow anyone access like what Russ has...
they've had too many contracts stolen and missing...
there's so many who obsessed with this kind of thing. No,
I didn't have a good afternoon. BTW our Pension records
have always been totally off-limits except to Russ and
much can be re-constituted from them if need be.
Just heard from my daughter that data will start to be
collected from Terra middle of Jan.
http://terra.nasa.gov/EVENTS/terralaunchstatus.html
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/
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Subject: Re: Dancer Prancer and Nervous
Received: 12/29/99 1:01 am
From: WASE RADIO,xxxxxt.org
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Hi Ian:
I have the Dancer Prancer and Nervous song on a compact
disc of novelty Christmas songs on Priority. Even though
the song is considered a novelty, it actually has a nice
tune. I have no way of slowing the compact disc down to
hear whether or not they sound like the Lettermen or the
Four Preps. Speaking of that situation, if you played the
45 of the Murmaids' "Popsicles and Icicles" at 33 speed,
they sound like the Beach Boys. I kid you not!! Well any
way to all Spectropppers, a happy and :):):):):):):):):):)
millenium.
Happy Listening
Michael G. Marvin
WASE radio
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Subject: Fave Christmas Track?
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: Jimmy Cresitelli, Jimxxxxxcom
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Hi Ian! In response to your wondering, my favorite
Christmas cut has to be the Crystals' "Santa Claus Is
Coming to Town." When La La Brooks begins her thunderous
assault with that quiet "Jimmy...," I get chills. : ) The
entire production leaves me breathless. It blows away any
other versions I've heard. To me, this is what rock and
roll is all about: volume; super-sonic rhythm; and a
million voices raised in song. Can't believe I've been
playing that original Spector LP since I bought it (new)
back in 1970 for $5.00... now THAT was a Christrmas gift
for ME!
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Subject: Holiday Hits
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: john rausch,xxxxx.net
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
In reply to Ian`s Christmas tracks post:
Darlene Love`s "Christmas Baby Please Come Home" has got
to be the grandaddy of them all without a doubt. Did
anyone see her performance on Letterman? I heard it was
over the top this year. And Darlene`s "Nobody Ought To Be
Alone At Christmas" is truly a phenomonal track for a new
generation. Also on my playlist this year is Ronnie
Spector and Darlene Love`s cover/duet of "Rockin Around
The Christmas Tree". New from last year but kind of got
lost already is Ronnie Spector and Eddie Money doing
"Everybody Loves Christmas". Also enjoyable are the Roy
Wood/Wizzard songs Ian mentioned. Great Spector sound. A
few other faves this year (although not really holiday
songs but still are fun) are Pixies Three`s Cold Cold
Winter and Connie Francis` I`m Gonna Be Warm This Winter.
John Rausch
Phil Spector`s Wall Of Soundat
http://members.tripod.com/~rauschj/
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Subject: Trackin' Christmas songs
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: Jamie LePage, le_pagxxxxxities.com
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Ian Chapman wrote:
>I was wondering which Christmas tracks Spectropoppers have
>been playing for their own enjoyment lately...
"Wonder Christmas" by Japanese femme pop star Chocolat. On
her new NeoSITE (Japan) EP "Fargo". For all the right
reasons, highly recommended to everyone and especially
fans of Rag Dolls and Diane Renay. It doesn't often get
much better than this. I only wish she sang in English.
Drifters' "White Christmas". Ever notice that Spector copped
the ending of this for Darlene's version?
Regardless of what musical styles happen to be in vogue at
the time, the popularity of secular holiday songs lives on.
In the 70s and 80s many Christmas records were "novelty"
one-shot records, but a growing number of contemporary
artists are making new recordings of holiday classics
(often mixed with one or two originals). The Wilsons'
Christmas album is quite good, with more than a few nods
to Mr. Spector. Even Hanson's "Snowed In" album has merit,
including covers of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" and
"Little Saint Nick". Solid A&R on both of these records;
despite the slick modern sound, there is quite a bit
everyone can appreciate.
As far as Christmas *songs* go, I wanted to
mention "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" as a
personal fave. I adore the lyric to this Christmas
standard. "Little Drummer Boy" and "Do You Hear What I
Hear" are wonderful too. And of course, "The Christmas
Song" (Chestnuts roasting...) has to be on everyone's
list.
I spent a quiet Christmas with three generations at the
dinner table, and holiday recordings from Bing Crosby to
the Chipmunks to 98 Degrees. Nearly everyone is familiar
with them. The holiday standards: They play an important
part in bringing people together at this time of the year.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday season, everyone.
Jamie
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Subject: Christmas Top Ten
Received: 12/28/99 9:18 am
From: John Hesterman, Zacxxxxxoffice.worldnet.att.net
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Greetings All :)
Ian Chapman wrote . . . "I was wondering which Christmas
tracks Spectropoppers have been playing for their own
enjoyment lately....."
Here's my holiday Top Ten in no particular order:
Father Christmas - The Kinks
The Holy & Ivy - Laurence Juber
Christmas Time Is Here Again - Ringo Starr
Child Of Winter - The Beach Boys
Nuttin' For Christmas - The Fontaine Sisters
White Christmas - Charlie Spivak & Jimmy Saunders (a very old oldie)
Merry Christmas Darling - The Carpenters
Christmas Auld Lang Syne - Bobby Darin
Green Christmas - Stan Freeberg
Oh Holy Night - Montavani
I know this is a rather eclectic mix, but Christmas spans
a lot of time and facilitates a lot of styles :)
Happy Holidays All!
John H.
A Grape :)
Also an Offbeat :)
With a TRACE of music in there somewhere!
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Subject: GREAT CD
Received: 12/31/99 12:36 pm
From: JAMESxxxxxcom
To: spectxxxxxe.com
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SPECTOR CD AND RIVER DEEP
MOUNTAIN HIGH! ELECRIFYING! FANTASTIC! IT IS GREAT!
THE SOUND IS SUPERB!
HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Subject: HAPPY NEW YEAR
Received: 12/30/99 1:04 pm
From: Daniel Rozic, daniel.xxxxxel.hr
To: Spectropop List, spectxxxxxities.com
Hi, everyone
To all members:
Happy New Year
Daniel from Croatia
daniel.xxxxxel.hr
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
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