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Volume #0402 April 4, 2000
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Exemplifying the Best in Popular Music
Subject: More Girl Group Moments.....?
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: jake tassell
To: Spectropop!
.....Well no, not really. Here are some Spectorial
Sonic-Overload Moments instead:-
1) The Big Hurt - Susan Rafey.
This has got to be one of the aurally biggest Wall Of
Sound type records I've ever heard. I can only guess that
this record was produced by Godzilla, arranged by King
Kong and engineered by Ben Grimm from The Fantastic Four.
You need to hear this to believe it.
2) My Love Grows Deeper - Clydie King.
You'd probably find there was more echo on this record
than if you simultaneously sent/'verbed/returned every
cathedral in Italy. Classic Motown-type slingback beat. A
truly exquisite record. If you thought the string sound on
The Cake record was wild - wait until you hear this one!
3) If My Car Could Only Talk To Me - Lou Christie.
Beautiful clanging production on this one. Jack Nitszche's
much-beloved Well Of Sound. Who were those backing
vocalists?!?!?!
4) That's Not Love - Holly St. James.
25 chromatic orgasms laid end-to-end for your
head-exploding pleasure. 'The Liebestod' from Richard
Wagners' 'Tristan Und Isolde' has got nothing on this.
5) All The Obvious Spector Output, Although:-
Lord If You're A Woman' by Darlene Love hardly gets a
mention around here these days. Phil Spector's Wall Of
Sound! With Synthesizers! Love It! Also The 60's 'Philles'
Crystals Greatest Hits has an absolutely unbelievable mix
of 'Gee Whiz Look at His Eyes' which is not on the 'Phil
Spector International' one (released in the Seventies). In
Echo terms, The Philles version takes you way, way off the
map.
Anybody else on the list got any barnstorming production
favs?
Jake Tassell
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Subject: defining moment
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: Jack Madani
To: Spectropop!
The defining moment of 60's girlgroup records? I thought
loooong and hard about this:
Like Jamie LePage, I concur with just about every "moment"
that's been mentioned so far; but for myself, I'd like to
recommend two far less well-known records. It's not that
these are necessarily the *greatest* records ever made,
although they are undeniably swell. But being less famous,
it's easier for these two records to deliver with a fresher
feel that essential sine qua non that for me defines the
greatest girlgroup records, namely: the longing, yearning,
melancholy, even desperation that actually can get inside
me and make my stomach hurt when I listen to the best of
the best. My two nominations are The Carolines' "Can't
Stop Lovin' The Boy" (Here Come The Girls Vol.3) and
Beverly Warren's "Let Me Get Close To You" (Touch The Wall
Of Sound).
HCTG's liner notes have absolutely nothing to say about
the Carolines' number, beyond mentioning that the track
was co-written and produced by Larry Weiss, who also later
wrote "Rhinestone Cowboy." But CSLTB is drenched in the
kind of "whatamigonnadowithyou" pathos that Lesley Gore
did so well. Plus it doesn't hurt that it's got a killer
Phil-Spector-by-way-of-David-Gates production style
(credits indicate it was arranged by Artie Butler). The
track dates from 1966.
"Let Me Get Close To You" is a slice of pure Goffin/King
genius, with a heaven-sent bridge section that floats into
another world atop a pedal-point bass, in the way that only
Carole King could do time after time. I first heard the
song as a 1964 Skeeter Davis recording, arranged by Anita
Kerr and produced by Chet Atkins. But I think the Beverly
Warren recording (I don't know its origins) trumps the
Skeeter version because Beverly's got that
uptown-tough-girl-hiding-the-broken-heart thing in her
voice, plus it's got the full faux-spector treatment. And
at the end of that heavenly bridge, just after the final
line of the turnaround ("so come on baby, don't make me
regret it"--which btw is sung over a monster triplet
rhythm by the whole orchestra), only the strings and the
piano play while Beverly sings the first two lines of the
final verse, and then for a split second you're hanging in
space waiting for the drums to kick in and the rest of the
orchestra to return and bring us back to tempo. Oh man.
And longing/yearning/melancholy/desperation? It's all
here, boiled down to 2:45. Dig:
I know I never felt this way before
I can't remember ever wanting anyone more
How can you turn me down when I need you the way that I do?
Come on baby let me get close to you
Aw you won't be sorry
I'll do anything that you ask of me
I'll be the kind of girl that you want me to be
So won't you let me be that someone you tell your troubles to
Come on baby let me get close to you
[bridge]
How long I'll never know
I waited to tell you that I love you so.
Now my heart's finally said it
so come on baby don'y make me regret it
It's not as if I'm asking for the world
All I want is just the chance to be your girl
So won't you find it in your heart to make all my dreams come true
Come on baby let me get close to you
If I heard this song played in a restaurant in a Muzak
arrangement, I think I would silently weep (thanks to Dave
Feldman for that touching anecdote).
Can't Stop Lovin' The Boy.
Let Me Get Close To You.
They stand for that thing that is in all of the best girl
group records.
jack
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Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road,
Princeton, NJ 08540
"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred."
--Henry Cabot Henhouse III
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Subject: Four Seasons
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: Kieron Tyler
To: Spectropop!
Hello there,
I know this has been touched on before, but...
At the weekend I was listening to a selection of Four
Seasons compilations, which unfortunately didn't have much
in the way of credits. I was struck by the consistency and
clarity of their sonic punch. Did they always use the same
studio (in NYC I assume), and if so which one? I wondered
how much of the sound was due to the studio?
Thanks in advance, Kieron
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Subject: Grrrrls again
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: DJ JimmyB
To: Spectropop!
Speaking of "Leader of the Pack", does anyone remember the
1981 release by The Plasmatics? I can't remember the title,
but the lyrics and melody were a direct Shangri-La's
tribute with some thrash/punk ingredients: "You pushed
that guy and he pushed you back. You knocked him into the
amplifier stack."...JB
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Subject: Re: Brill Building
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: claudia
To: Spectropop!
J. H. Ket wrote:
> I remember some Spectropop subscribers were asking for
> cd's with Brill Building Pop. I just got a 2cd set with 57
> tracks (31 prev. unreleased demos) sung by Carol. I don't
> remember this one is ever mentioned in the Spectropop list.
> The right girl, Carole King, Complete recordings 1958-
> 1966, Brill Tone Records 1995 ckw 222. Germany. The claim of
> mastertape quality on the cd's is true.
>
> Hans Ket
Hello..
That was probably me,I am still looking for the cd box set
THE BRILL BUILDING SOUND: SINGERS & SONGWRITERS
WHO ROCKED THE 60'S.
I just purchased a British cd called "On Broadway.Hit
Songs And Rarities From The Brill Building Era"
It is very good,really unique. They have the Brill singers
singing Brill songs,but not the ones we knew them for.
Raindrops singing,The kind of boy you can't forget. The
Cookies singing On Broadway..
Little Eva Singing Up On The Roof!
Essex singing Be My Baby.
But Yes !! I am still looking for that box set.
Name your price !!
By the way..isn't the Phil Spector era great?
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Subject: Spector & Duane Eddy
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: J. H. Ket
To: Spectropop!
I remember an article mentioning Spector playing guitar on
Crazy Caravan prt 1 & 2. I'm sorry but I don't remember the
status of the article, it was about 25 years ago.
Hans
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Subject: the hairer! the hairer!
Received: 04/04/00 3:15 am
From: Jack Madani
To: Spectropop!
>recall the early 60s in my Brooklyn
>neighborhood, when girlz used to do each other's hair. They
>would all gather together Saturdays on Florence Burke's
>front stoop and tease, rat, comb, spray, and (it seemed
>sometimes) de-louse until the sun set. Gabbing, wearing
>pedal pushers and dirty white sneakers or open-toed
>walkers
....
>As well, there always seemed to be
>a pink plastic transistor radio in the vicinity, forever
>getting knocked over when accidentally kicked by a stray
>cha-cha heel.
This may have been the alltime spectropop post of alltimes
. I swear I shed a tear while reading this.
There's a Nickelodeon cartoon called Hey Arnold! that's
pretty funny yet sweetnatured, all about this bunch of
fourth graders, and in one episode that's about my
favoritest, Arnold and his pal Gerald get picked up by a
couple of sixth grade girls who are trying to make their
boyfriends jealous. Those two girls have the above-quoted
look and sound down pat. Down pat.
Back in the day, my best friend Tom Fairchild's older
brother Andy got one of those early Chevy Camaros with the
thick black stripe that wrapped around the front end. Then
he got into a band named "Lime Fire," for which he was the
drummer. I'd go over to Tom's house to play with our Hot
Wheels, and I'd hear Andy practicing for what seemed like
hours, playing nonstop the opening drum riff from the
Turtle's "You Baby."
Seems like it was also about the same time that I saw the
album cover of The Association's "Renaissance." From that
time forward, I've been a total sucker for a striped
pullover like Ted Bluechel, Jr. wears on the back cover.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road,
Princeton, NJ 08540
"You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred."
--Henry Cabot Henhouse III
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
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