http://www.spectropop.com
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Stereo Workshop Series
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There are 11 messages in this issue of Spectropop.
Topics in this Digest Number 138:
1. Secrets
From: "Ian Chapman"
2. Re: Bobby Vee
From: Ron
3. a fine fine boy
From: john rausch
4. Re: Keen Records
From: Carol Kaye
5. Re: What have I stumbled across! :)
From: Freya
6. Re: Dion "Born To Be With You"
From: "Peter Lerner"
7. Gerry Goffin in Interview
From: John Frank
8. cake
From: Alan Zweig
9. RE: Colossus discography
From: Mark Landwehr
10. Estelle Bennett "Naked Boy"
From: Charlie
11. Connie Stevens
From: "Jack Madani"
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 02:31:47 +0100
From: "Ian Chapman"
Subject: Secrets
Mark Topaz was......
> Trying to determine if the 2 Secrets singles, one on DCP
> and one on Omen and by the same group as the Philips
> Secrets. Anyone know?
Jimmy Crescitelli replied:
> As far as I know-- and Doc can probably confirm this via
> his Secrets article -- they only had 4 singles (8 sides)
> recorded...each of which, incidentally, is memorable.
Mark,
The Secrets on Omen were a black girl group, and I'm
pretty sure those on DCP were too - maybe even the same
outfit. The DCP record was from '65 and the Omen single
>from '66. Doc's great Secrets article at the Spectropop
website confirms that the Philips girls broke up late
'65.
[ http://www.spectropop.com/go2/secrets.html
]
BTW, does anyone have any info on the Secrets who had a
release on Red Bird 10076?
Ian
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 20:53:05 EST
From: Ron
Subject: Re: Bobby Vee
Alan Zweig writes:
> Did Bobby Vee ever really get "respect" after his early
> rock n roll success? When he pulled a Bobby Darin and
> tried to become a bit of a hippie, did it work?
If you are talking about sales when he "became a bit of
a hippie" i don't think so, but like you I was
pleasantly surprised by his late 60's albums. As for
respect, I still think he gets the respect he deserves
for his early 60's output. He was one of the best when
it came to singing BrilI Building songs, but could write
a pretty good song on his own. His major problem was
becoming grouped with the other teen idols of the time.
He deserves respect, in my opinion.
> And anyone have any other examples of this? Did Frankie
> Avalon ever make a great hippie record?
>
> AZ
I recently obtained the Ace issue of Rick Nelson 2fer CD
"Another Side of Rick/Perspective" which would fall into
that category. Songs by Randy Newman, Tim Hardin, and
several of his own, including one (Marshmallow Skies)
written by Rick and James Burton. The liner notes are
mostly about how bad these records were and how Rick
disliked them. But, for the most part, I like them.
Rick was in great voice and I thought the production was
good (John Boylan).
Now I have a question for the group. I'm interested in
information on a songwriter named Craig Smith and his
song "Holly". It's on Andy Williams 1967 album "Love,
Andy" (the one with Andy's great version of "God Only
Knows"). What else did he write? Was that an Andy
Williams original? Was Craig a performer? Stuff like
that there. Thanks.
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 16:17:17 -0500
From: john rausch
Subject: a fine fine boy
Tony Leong wrote:
> And, is it my imagination, or was "Fine Fine Boy"
> crudely edited during the first chorus??
Finally, someone else noticed this edit. It is different
than the 45 for sure.Thought I was the only one who
noticed this. Also , one day it just hit me when
listening to Christmas,Baby Please Come Home, Hey I can
hear Cher all over that record.And then of course on
Baby I Love You.
John Rausch
Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes @
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/2469/
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Message: 4
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 11:12:16 -0800
From: Carol Kaye
Subject: Re: Keen Records
Randy wrote:
> Keen Records, and he had left Keen before Herb Alpert
> and Lou Adler came on board.
Bob Keene (his name-spelling then) had just left before
I got there too Randy....btw, nice seeing you there,
wasn't that a magical day at the Ritchie Valens Center,
over 700 people at a place with a 400-person capacity.
Fred Smith was associated with the group sort of headed
by Bumps Blackwell, and Herb Alpert along with Lou
Adler...this was in 1958, but soon after I did dates for
them all there, I worked also for Bob Keene...I just
didn't know the story in back of all that (and didn't
want to ask either, knowing the music business pretty
well by then). Fred Smith wrote "My Baby Loves The
Western Movies" and I played guitar on his demo which
sounds just like the hit recording (also Peanut Peanut
Butter).
Later on I saw Fred Smith again (he was a great guy btw,
loads of talent but sounds like he didn't do well
business-wise with his tunes)...and he was running the
tape machines at TTG on our "The Way We Were" Barbra
Streisand date Dec. 1973 with Marvin Hamlisch and the
live orchestra cutting that hit (33 straight takes),
Paul Humphrey on drums.....which the Union contracts
bear out for the recording - Ami Hadani engineering
(back from his many forays to Israel where he was one of
their top ace pilots). This was not the picture call
thing. And it was great to see him again -- we didn't
have time to talk long but I asked him about those
recordings and got the feeling that something didn't go
down right....that's all I'll say here.
Anyway, it was an interesting time with Herb Alpert and
Lou and Bumps Blackwell. Really liked them all, and the
music was so fresh back then.....Lou and Herb split up
soon afterwards.
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 18:14:03 -0000
From: Freya
Subject: Re: What have I stumbled across! :)
I just accidently came across this mailing list, I'm not
quite sure how! I found some archived messages in a
search engine by accident while looking for sagittarius
type stuff.
I love the lp present tense but I havn't heard anything
else, just this old battered copy.
I'm so excited to find all these things! I thought I
wouldn't be able to find a lot of stuff since Rev-ola
vanished (I'm still hoping that sony will dump it all in
the bargain bins somewhere! Wouldn't that be wonderful!)
but now I hear about this great sounding box set, and
pop tones are re-issuing the second sagitarius album!
I can't afford any of it just now, but in a few months
time I am sure I will be listening to some truly
wonderful music!
btw, what is the "michele" album listed on the
spectopop website with a picture and tracklisting but
no information? I'm really curious to know!
and this seems like such a wonderful mailing list! I'm
looking forward to hearing about all kinds of great
things.
love
Freya
--- In spectropop, Jon Cook wrote:
> Thank you to whomever brought this news to the newsgroup.
> I don't recall that person saying that the tracklisting
> is now on the Sundazed site, but it is.
>
> Sounds like a fantastic compilation- and reasonably
> priced to boot.
>
> Jon Cook
>
[ http://www.spectropop.com/go2/curtboettcher_new.html
]
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Message: 6
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:45:21 +0100
From: "Peter Lerner"
Subject: Re: Dion "Born To Be With You"
>From: "Ted T." asked:
> ...does anybody know what has become of
> British rock writer and Spector biographer, Richard
> Williams? I corresponded with Richard briefly in the
> 1970s during his A&R stint at Island Records. From there
> he went back to Melody Maker, and then, in the 1980s, to
> the London newspaper The Times. But I've lost track since
> then.
Richard Williams works for the Guardian newspaper. I
think he's the Sports Editor. Yes, he is the same one.
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 7
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 21:32:04 -0800
From: John Frank
Subject: Gerry Goffin in Interview
Doug said:
> As a devoted fan of '60's pop music I've often wondered
> why we never hear anything in the way of interviews or
> quotes from Gerry Goffin.
Doug, I have a tape of an interview done with Gerry on
the BBC. It constitutes an entire program, including
song clips with Gerry's comments about each one. Very
enjoyable. E-mail me for a copy.
John
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 8
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 10:07:37 -0500
From: Alan Zweig
Subject: cake
.> From: Will George
>Subject: Re: Green & Stone/The Cake
>
.>
>The only Cake song I know is Baby That's Me, which Jack
>Nitzsche produced. Real magic in those grooves. I'd love
>to hear the entire album sometime.
.
Maybe you would. But you'd be disappointed. There's
NOTHING on the rest of the record to touch Baby That's
Me. It's almost shocking how the record drops off after
that tune.
AZ
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Message: 9
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 16:34:26 -0500
From: Mark Landwehr
Subject: RE: Colossus discography
To: Whomever is interested
Re: Al Quaglieri's discography of Colossus (#137), you
may want to add these to his list to make it complete:
107 Tee Set - Ma Belle Amie/Angels Coming in the Holy Night
108 Shocking Blue - Venus/Hot Sand
110 I.A.P. Co. - Check Yourself/The Sky's the Limit
111 Shocking Blue - Mighty Joe/I'm a Woman (!)
112 George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag/Pretty Little Dreamer
114 Tee Set - Charmaine/If You Believe in Love
116 Shocking Blue - Long & Lonesome Road/Ackaragh
117 George Baker Selection - Dear Ann/Fly
118 Kannibal Komix - Little Little/
119 Jerry Ross Symposium - Let Me Love You One More Time/
123 Shocking Blue - Never Love a Railroad Man/Never Marry
124 George Baker Selection - I Wanna Love You/Impressions
128 Crystal Mansion - Carolina in My Mind/If I Live
130 The Mob - I Dig Everything About You/Love Had a Hold on Me
132 Jerry Ross Symposium - Oh, To Have Been/Montego Love Theme
134 The Mob - Give It to Me/I'd Like to See More of You
141 Shocking Blue - Boll Weevil/Long & Lonesome Road
142 Devonnes - I'm Gonna Pick Up My Toys/
144 Crawdaddy - I Gotta Get to Know You/
145 The Mob - Money/
146 Festivals - Gee Baby/Give Her Up
Mark
Phil Spector Label Gallery @
http://home.tbbs.net/~msland/Spector/
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Message: 10
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 10:54:08 +0900
From: Charlie
Subject: Estelle Bennett "Naked Boy"
Hi!
I'm trying to find a copy of "The Naked Boy"/"Year 2000"
by former Ronette Estelle Bennett. Anyone know where I
can find the 45 or a copy on tape or cd? Will buy or
trade.
THANKS!!!
Charlie
--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
Message: 11
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 00:14:56 -0500
From: "Jack Madani"
Subject: Connie Stevens
For a long time the only recording by Connie Stevens that
I knew of was "Lost In Wonderland," which if I remember
right was produced by David Gates. It's a swell little
slice of girlgroup spectropop. I confess that I have
always had a soft spot for Connie the movie actress (I've
never seen that "Hawaiian Eye" tv detective show),
particularly in great trashy Delmer Daves-directed 1961
flick "Parrish" costarring Troy Donahue--even though
(lord help me for saying this) you can tell that she has
a really big caboose in those Levi's. Even so, what a
cutie.
I'd listened to online snippets from some of these recent
cd reissues of Connie's over at collector's choice music
dot com, and while they were pleasant, they weren't
particularly impressive either. Not very spectropoppy,
but rather more like old fashioned orchestrally-backed
recordings of standards. However, I just got a hold of a
different version of her Hank Williams Songbook album, on
the Globe label; this version has a mess of bonus cuts
that seem to have all been single releases. Many of them
are sort of late-50s proto-spectropop, but about halfway
through the batch they all of a sudden turn into gold.
Cuts like Why'd You Wanna Make Me Cry, Little Miss
Understood, Now That You've Gone, and even a groovy
version of the classic They're Jealous Of Me, all scream
spectropop pedigree (those drum fills sure do sound like
Hal Blaine, and the echo on the tracks have a very
familiar ring). Are there more of these? They're
terrific. One track, In My Room, is particularly
interesting--it's not the Beach Boys classic, but rather
a deliciously hair-pulling, overwrought recording in the
teenage-death genre. Backed by a kind of evil-twin
version of the Tijuana Brass cranked up to 11, Connie
sits in her lonely room and looks at a vase of dead
flowers and bewails her dead young husband. Oo-wee.
Most interesting of all, however, is Little Miss
Understood. It sounds like something that had been meant
for Lesley Gore, and Connie manages to sing it exactly in
the Lesley style, complete with doubletracked vocals and
darkly wobbly timbre on the low notes. The only
inauthentic element is that there's a steadily clacking
castanet in the background, in place of the trademark
triangle that was a part of so many of Lesley's greatest
hits.
When I heard this song I thought, man, here's a track
that got shopped to Lesley who must have turned it down,
so the producers went to the B-list and got Connie
Stevens.
I'd love to hear more about this recording if anyone
knows. Indeed, I'd love to know more about other
sixties-era recordings by Connie Stevens that may be
floating around out there somewhere.
jack
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