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Volume #0044 02/18/98
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The Greatest Recording Organization in the World
Subject: Clark in LA
Sent: 2/16/98 8:39 PM
Received: 2/17/98 7:52 AM
From: Jack Madani, Jack_MadXXX@XXXXXX2.nj.us
> The writer goes on to say that reportedly a number of her
> records were cut in Los Angeles with the Wrecking Crew.
> Certain titles such as "this is my song" and "cat in the
> window") sound as though they may have been L. A.
> recordings, but some of the really big Hatch productions
> were allegedly cut on the West Coast as well (e.g., in Hal
> Blaine's autobiography, there is a photo of him receiving
> a gold record for "My Love").
>
> Worth reposting to the list I thought; any further
> clarification?
If you'll look in the "Discography: Performances on Top
Ten Records" in the beginning of that Blaine autobiog
(which is just about the best reason for having that thin
little tome, if you ask me), you'll see listed three
Petula Clark numbers: I Couldn't Live Without Your Love,
My Love, and This Is My Song.
The liner notes to the Sequel reissue of Petula Clark
Today indicate that for This Is My Song, "Hollywood's
United Western Studios was the 1967 location for the
recording of one of Pet's most successful singles ever."
The liner notes to the See For Miles twofer reissue of
The Other Man's Grass/Kiss Me Goodbye indicate that Pet
recorded four numbers with Jack Nitzsche, only two of
which have come to light (Cat In The Window and Fancy
Dancing Man); I would infer that these recordings also
took place in LA.
There are later Petula Clark records which I don't own,
but which were produced by Sonny Burke and so I'm
guessing that they were also recorded in LA with the
Strangers-In-The-Night/Everybody-Loves-Somebody-Sometime
era Wrecking Crew.
And yet, it seems to me that Hatch understood that
GoldStar sound so well that he was well capable of
recreating it in England; there are any number of non
Petula cuts on the Here Come The Girls series that have
elements of the Wrecking Crew sound, particularly in the
drums, and I'm sure that these non-megastars weren't
being transported to LA to record with the absolute cream
of the studio cats crop, on the offchance that they'd
strike a hit despite their non-name-recognition
(Survivors' Pamela Jean, anyone?).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road,
Princeton, NJ 08540 Jack_MadXXX@XXXXXX2.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 - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:53 AM ]---
Subject: UK Teenage Jamboree
Sent: 2/17/98 8:39 AM
Received: 2/18/98 1:47 AM
From: Francesc Sole, fsXXX@XXXXXXs
Hi!
I recently joined this list by the recommendation of
someone who found out that I adore the girl group sound
and Brill Builing pop. Hey, whoever it was, hello and
thanks! Well, I'd like to ask you two questions.
1- I was hearing a very cool 60's radio program the
other day and they were talking about 2 cds named "UK
Teenage Jamboree". They are supposed to feature girls
groups and high school songs from the 60's in the UK.
The songs I heard were really good but I forgot the few
names I swore I'd remember. Anyone has a clue? (label,
and so on).
2- Can anybody recommend me a good book about Brill
Building Pop?
Thanks!
Francesc (a guy)
---[ archived by Spectropop - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:53 AM ]---
Subject: Greenwich and Barry
Sent: 2/17/98 6:08 AM
Received: 2/17/98 7:52 AM
From: David Bash, BashXXX@XXXXXXm
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to let you know about a CD I just received.
It's called "I Can Hear Music: The Songs of Greenwich &
Barry", and it was created by Polygram Publishing. It's
a really wonderful CD, mixing old standards like "Maybe I
Know" by Lesley Gore, "Leader Of The Pack" by The
Shangri-Las, and "Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love" by
Sonny & Cher with contemporary versions like "Be My Baby"
by Jason Falkner, "Chapel Of Love" by Fuzzy, and "Girls
Can Tell" by Redd Kross. All told there are 26 tracks on
one disc. The only disconcerting thing is that there are
no Spector tracks on it because apparently, even though
this is a publishing disc and is not officially released,
Spector put the kabosh on any of his tracks being
included. Oh well, you do get "I Can Hear Music" by The
Beach Boys and "River Deep, Mountain High" by The
Supremes and The Four Tops.
All in all, a worthwhile package. As I said, it isn't
officially released, but you can try to get one from
Polygram Music Publishing Group by calling 213 856-2776,
and asking for Danny Benair, John Baldi, Dan Markell, or
Lisa Zambrano-Delena.
--
Spectropop Rules!!!!!
Take Care,
David
---[ archived by Spectropop - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:53 AM ]---
Subject: KHJ
Sent: 2/17/98 4:32 AM
Received: 2/17/98 7:52 AM
From: Paul MacArthur, rtf_XXX@XXXXXXdu
I was just listening to a two-cassette history of KHJ
Airhcecks from '65 - '80. The airchecks include some of
the great DJs from the era including Roger Christian,
Charlie Tuna, a young Rick Dees, Lee Marshall (that's for
you DF), Robert W. Morgan, Shana, etc.
What's interesting to note is that from '65 - circa '74,
the music is almost uniformly excellent (you don't hear
the songs, just the intros, outros). But from '75 - '80
there is a significant decline in the consistency. Some
good songs, some real bad ones (though many of the bad
ones stand up well to that black period of the late
80s/early 90s, which we are slowly recovering from with
more emphasis on the the singer/songwriter).
Whne I interviewed Pat Metheny a couple weeks ago, he
stated the sixties were the highpoint of the 20th century
for American music. Just by listening to the aircheck, I
would have to agree - and that's not even factoring in
the great Miles Davis quintets, John Coltrane, etc.
Some say the sixties began when Kennedy was shot and
ended with Nixon's resignation. I think in terms of
musical excellence, it started a little earlier than that,
circa Phil Spector, but after Nixon's resignation we had
a dramatic down turn in the quality of popular (and less
popular) music. Sure there were exceptions, but from
'75 - '95, think of how much GREAT music was created
compared to '63 - '74. Truly the 20th century
rennaissance, (with the notable expection of Classical
music, who did have some innovators - Reich, Carlos,
Glass, but by and large has not had much of worth written
since the forties).
If anyone is interested in obtaining the KHJ Airchecks,
check out California Aircheck's homepage. It's under the
classic issues section.
http://www.californiaaircheck.com/
- Paul
----------
Album of the Week: Beach Boys HOLLAND
RIP: Carl Dean Wilson (1946-1998)
----------
---[ archived by Spectropop - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:53 AM ]---
Subject: jack the sponge (revising saturation levels)
Sent: 2/16/98 8:21 PM
Received: 2/17/98 7:52 AM
From: Jack Madani, Jack_MadXXX@XXXXXX2.nj.us
Yes, well, I guess I haven't maxed out on non-psych 60's
pop yet, after all. In regards to Nino Tempo & April
Stevens' Varese Sarabande best-of cd: Upon further
ree-viewwwwww...there's more here to listen to than just
Deep Purple and All Strung Out.
The first half of the skimpy (46 minutes) cd is still
firmly in the mold of Deep Purple, eight of the first ten
tracks being Big-Beat updates of Tin Pan Alley standards.
But one of them, Tea For Two, does feature some crazy key
changes in the manner of what Brian Wilson did in Louie
Louie. Following the old-fogie numbers, there's a Barry
Mann/Cynthia Weill song called "The Coldest Night of the
Year," a sort of revision of the standard "Baby It's Cold
Outside," only in this Mann/Weill update the girl lets
the guy stay over. TCNOTY features some chord
progressions that will put the listener in mind of other
Mann/Weill numbers like You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
and Walkin' In The Rain. However, it's not a reverby
wall of sound, but rather an intimate recording with a
picked spanish-harlem acoustic guitar.
"I Love How You Love Me" is recast as an upbeat, almost
Rubber Soul-sounding track, and features a Zip A Dee Doo
Dah fuzz guitar solo; but unfortunately, there's also
this incredibly annoying bagpipe ostinato. Ouch!
Following "All Strung Out" are two numbers that came from
the same original lp as ASO: "You'll Be Needing Me Baby,"
and "I Can't Go On Livin' Baby Without You." YBNMB was
written by David Gates, and has seriously gotten under my
skin since first listening to it. It's got a steady
eighth-note rhythm on keys and quarter-note handclaps,
while the chords descend gradually over a pedal point
bass. There's an appealing la-la-la wordless break in
the middle of the song instead of the more typical
instrumental section. ICGOLBWY was written by Nino and
Jerry Riopell, the same team that wrote All Strung Out
(liner notes indicate that Nino had originally meant ASO
for the Righteous Brothers); this number is more than a
little redolent of a Bacharach tune in its use of rhythms
and instrumentation.
Liner notes mention indirectly that various Wrecking Crew
musicians played on at least some of these cuts, and that
the Blossoms sang backup on at least one track.
According to the back of the cd, Coldest Night of the
Year and I Love How You Love Me both come from a 1965
album called "Hey Baby," while All Strung Out, You'll Be
Needing Me Baby and I Can't Go On Livin' Baby Without You
all come from a 1967 lp called "All Strung Out." Rather
than putting out a scrawny 46minute best-of compilation
that relies so heavily on earlier cookie-cutter numbers
and includes two latter-day "previously unreleased"
recordings (utter throwaways IMO), Varese might have been
better off reissuing the Hey Baby and All Strung Out
albums as a twofer cd, and I'll bet they could've jammed
Deep Purple on as a bonus cut as well.
A final note: here's yet another terrific David Gates
song. Am I just not familiar enough with the history of
sixties music, or does Gates not receive enough credit
when the great pop svengalis are written about?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Madani - Princeton Day School, The Great Road,
Princeton, NJ 08540 Jack_MadXXX@XXXXXX2.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 - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:53 AM ]---
Subject: Nino & April (was Jack Reaches Saturation)
Sent: 2/17/98 1:10 PM
Received: 2/18/98 1:47 AM
From: Richard Globman, rglobXXX@XXXXXXm.net
Polyunsaturated Jack complained:
> Well, it finally happened. I found a disc of non-
> psychedelic sixties stuff that I don't love. "Sweet and
> Lovely: The Best of Nino Tempo & April Stevens,"...
***************************************
Generally, I always found Nino & April cheesy and
contrived. But Nino can blow a mean, mean sax and April
can blow....(remarks censored due to my impeccable taste).
Don't know if this was on the CD or not, but they did a
pretty good medley of "Sea of Love/Dock of the Bay"
which is still widely played here on the east coast.
DICKYG...and April is far better looking than May (West)
any day!
---[ archived by Spectropop - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:53 AM ]---
Subject: Re: Motown 40th
Sent: 2/17/98 5:34 AM
Received: 2/17/98 7:52 AM
From: David Feldman, feldXXX@XXXXXXerables.com
> From: David Marsteller
>
> Did anyone see part one of the Motown 40th anniversary
> special? Incredible. A clip of a Supremes recording
> session (brief glimpses of the 'Funk Brothers' Motown
> band in action!). All kinds of fun antique footage.
> This was the Motown equivalent to The Beatles Anthology
> documentary. They even discussed the rivalries between
> Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey, Norman Whitfield, Ashford
> & Simpson etc. What a treat that show was...
> Dave
>
But I found the documentary frustrating as well.
Good news: many clips of less than famous groups and
behind-the-scenes players.
Bad news: The infuriatingly short clips. Was there any music
segment longer than 10 or 15 seconds?
Dave Feldman
RIP: Carl Wilson
CD of the Month: Net Sounds
Best Time Killer of the 90's: Filling out the gender survey at
"http://www.imponderables.com"
---[ archived by Spectropop - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:54 AM ]---
Subject: Yardbirds
Sent: 2/17/98 11:47 AM
Received: 2/18/98 1:47 AM
From: Billy G. Spradlin, bilXXX@XXXXXXe.net
Marie:
The best Yardbirds compilation I have seen so far is a
Australian compilation from Raven records called "Over
Under Sideways Down" which has 28 tracks and covers the
bands entire singles output with a few LP tracks tossed
in. The only bummer is that the sound quality varies from
cut to cut and some songs are in fake stereo. If you cant
find that I recomend Rhino's "Greatest Hits Volume One"
and that CD has excellent sound quality but doesnt
include any tracks recorded with Jimmy Page! Warners has
re-issued the bands "Roger The Engineer" LP which does
have classics "Over Under Sideways Down" and "Happenings
10 Years Time Ago" here in the USA and the sound quality
is better than the Edsel CD that was released in the UK
in the 80's. I also heard that Warners has released a BBC
sessions CD but I haven't seen it in my area. Hope this
doesnt confuse you!
Billy
---[ archived by Spectropop - 02 /18/98 - 01 :52:54 AM ]---
End
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