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The ORIGINAL HITS rerecorded by the ORIGINAL ARTISTS
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New! The Chantelles at Spectropop - Ian Chapman reveals the story
http://www.spectropop.com/go2/the_chantelles.html
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There are 9 messages in this issue of Spectropop.
Topics in this Digest Number 185:
1. Counterfeit Crystals
From: "Phil Chapman"
2. Crystals recent CD
From: Geri & John Clemente
3. Crystals and Fast Eddie
From: "LePageWeb"
4. CDNOW Crystals
From: Paul Urbahns
5. Hoh, Hoh, Hoh
From: Rex Patton
6. CUSTOM SONG MIXES FOR RADIO STATIONS
From: "Warren Cosford"
7. Chiffons
From: John Clemente
8. Hoh boy
From: Peter Tomlinson
9. Peggy=Jessica=Tiffany
From: John Clemente
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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 11:22:05 +0100
From: "Phil Chapman"
Subject: Counterfeit Crystals
> ... and who are those 3 women?
These are Dee Dee's Crystals (as opposed to La La's). I
think this is second time around (or more) for this
disappointing reproduction. At least this time there's a
picture of the actual vocalists! (Dee Dee is on the
right?). The 1999 UK release featured a publicity shot
>from '64, no credits and mis-spelt titles.
The down side is that an opportunity has been missed:
Dee Dee, after all, was an original Crystal, and managed
to wrest the name from Phil - no mean feat! Contemporary
samplers & recording techniques make Spector sound
tributes a possibility, and this collection, whilst
never being able to be the real thing, could have been
much better. It is rather misleading to credit the
mastering engineer, as this gives the impression that
the material has been *re*mastered for stereo -
something that many Spectropoppers long for.
The up side is yet more proof that the material still
appeals, and hopefully Dee Dee will have learnt from her
early experiences and retained the publishing on the
co-write that has been slipped in.
In the UK there have been other worse 'Crystals'
recordings. And for a while during the 70s & 80s it was
not unusual to see an arbitrary trio of black girls
performing one night as The Crystals, next night as The
Ronettes, next as The Marvelettes and so on, even
attempting the Supremes until Mary Wilson took legal
action. I suppose this is a consequence of marketing a
sound rather than an act.
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 12:38:57 -0400
From: Geri & John Clemente
Subject: Crystals recent CD
Hello All,
The Crystals' CD offered for sale is the work of original
member Dee Dee Kenniebrew, pictured at left. Supposedly,
one of the younger ladies is Dee Dee's daughter, but I
don't know how true it is. I've seen the young woman in
the middle for a few years now, since the late 80s or
early 90s. I didn't even have to listen. I am not a fan
of some material being "updated". I'd rather hear them
attempt something new. However, in Dee Dee's defense,
she has almost singlehandedly kept the name of The
Crystals before the public for over thirty years. This
is her livelihood.
Hopefully, enough fans will be interested in her new
venture.
John Clemente
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 22:52:57 -0000
From: "LePageWeb"
Subject: Crystals and Fast Eddie
I checked out the CD NOW site and listened to the
samples. I love the internet! I know some people are big
fans of re-recordings and collect them enthusiastically.
There's nothing wrong with it I guess. However, in my
experience I find nearly always the re-recordings to be
disappointing at best. More typically they are shoddy,
cheap knock-offs sometimes packaged in a way to deceive
the consumer into thinking they are buying original
recordings.
The Crystals CD falls somewhere in the middle. The photo
certainly is not of 60s teenage girls, so it's pretty
obvious these are not vintage recordings, and a quick
perusal of the track listing gives you an idea of what's
in store (He's a Rebel "Club Mix").
One of the most offending things about these remakes is
the updated arrangement. Whew! It's bad enough when
they are shoddy re-recordings, but when someone thinks
it would be cool to do them in a contemporary style,
watch out! (Curt Boettcher's Here Comes the Night anyone???)
Chapel of Love gets that treatment on this "Crystals"
outing, but to my surprise I found it to be, well,
pretty cool! Not that I would want to ever hear it again,
mind you, but it did remind me that the song is timeless
and it took the disco update well. I'll still take the
Dixie Cups or one of Spector's versions though, thanks...
By the way, interesting thread on Fast Eddie (Carol -
Tiny Bubbles???) Looks like he wasn't a studio musician,
really, but a road cat whose recorded work appears to be
mainly post Monterey Pop (i.e., post-Spectropop-era).
That's probably why Perry and Carol hadn't heard of him.
I would say he was a rock drummer as opposed to a studio
cat. From what I could tell through a quick check, he
might do album tracks after Hal Blaine or Earl Palmer
did the single. I found out he was a prominent part of
the Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield crowd and was the road
drummer for the Mamas and Papas.
Aloha, baby!
Jamie
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 09:30:57 EDT
From: Paul Urbahns
Subject: CDNOW Crystals
Ton wrote:
> .. and who are those 3 women?
>
> I think they should have know better. Is it all for the
> money or did they (the producers) think they could do it
> better then Phil Spector?
Ton, it is a fact of life that the Crystals are not
receiving any royalty payments from Phil Spector and
haven't for years. It is not unusaul for an artist to
rerecord their hits so that they will will have something
to sell at concerts. I don't know exactly who the three
ladies are but the one on the far left may be an original
member (I believe, please someone correct me) I have seen
her appear with two other girls before as The Crystals.
If Phil was either licensing material like most companies
or if ABKCO made cassette and Cd releases in a variety of
price ranges then this type of thing would not be
necessary.
Artists like to have a cassette or Cd of their hits to
sell at concerts. Since the concerts are attended by
casual fans the prices can't be too high, so cassettes
need to have about 10 songs to fit a price range for
concert sales. Lou Christie even sells a video at his
concerts.
So basically its a matter of the market.
These are not the first remakes by The Crystals of some
type.
I have the original K-Tel remakes from the 70s, and a CD
featuring The Crystals and Shangri-Las. The Shangri-Las
cuts were original, the Crystals were remakes.
Paul Urbahns
Message: 5
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 23:15:37 -0400
From: Rex Patton
Subject: Hoh, Hoh, Hoh
With regard to Carol Kaye's conjectures about Eddie Hoh,
Hoh is definitely his name as he is listed prominently
on all of the albums I mentioned. And the mistake in the
Monterey booklet is definitely a mistake, as Al Kooper
refers to Eddie Hoh in his own biography as 'Eddie Hoh,
the Mamas and the Papas drummer, known as Fast Eddie.' I
imagine that the person who interviewed him for the
Monterey box set booklet misunderstood him and thought
he said Hall instead of Hoh. I doubt he was known by the
regular LA session players as he surely got the Monkees
gig through their producer Chip Douglas who, according
to Andrew Sandoval (who ought to know) played with Eddie
in the Modern Folk Quartet. I can imagine he got the
Mamas and Papas gig from his stellar playing on the
Pisces, Capricorn, Aquarius and Jones Lp. Why he didn't
get more work from it is hard to fathom. Mike Bloomfield
chose him for the Supersession gig and I'd be curious to
see where that connection came from. I hope we find out
more.
Message: 6
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 02:15:11 -0400
From: "Warren Cosford"
Subject: CUSTOM SONG MIXES FOR RADIO STATIONS
Hi Folks:
Here's some Radiopro List Member Memories of Custom Song
Mixes for Radio Stations:
Yea, I remember 95 KJR in Seattle back in 1978/79 with a
customized rendition of "Fire" by the Pointers. The
original went.."Im driving in my car/ I turn on the
radio... They customized it to "Im driving in my car/I
turn on to 95 KJR"... now that sounded HOT!!
Russ McCloud
Warren,
I recall in 1987 Billy Idol's cover hit of Springsteen's
"Hot In The City" included the cry... "New York" in the
last third of the song. I did hear a version where Billy
substituted "Vancouver". These special versions of hits
are what helped separate radio from someone at home or
in their car merely listening to (CD's) their own music.
It gave radio a positive difference, which is what great
air personalities do.
John Oliver
Hi:
Though I can't recall anything new to add, one thing
does come to mind, though not radio station, but market
specific. Huey Lewis and the News 1984 single, The
Heart of Rock n Roll fades out with a roll call of
great rock n roll towns -Detroit, Cleveland, New York,
etc. I remember Chrysalis released a special remix with
Huey adding Toronto. I forget if that was before or
after I kicked the control room door into his head
during one of his many visits to Q-107. How was I
suppose to know he was standing there?
Lee
Hi Warren,
I also remember CKLW inserting "CKLW" in Fire by the
Pointer Sisters just after the bit where they sing "I
turn on the radio". I may even have that on an aircheck
that I made when I lived in Windsor at the time.
Two independent witnesses have confirmed that CHUM
monkeyed around with the great Jane Morgan song from 1959
called "With Open Arms". There's a nonsensical choral
refrain throughout the song that sounds something like
"a-chick-a-chuck" or so. CHUM apparently spliced in their
own little non-nonsensical message of " I listen to CHUM"
or so during the refrain parts. I'm checking to see if I
may even have that on one of my old CHUM airchecks.
The winner for alternate versions of songs has to be
Johnny Horton's Battle of New Orleans. He recorded two
versions of the song, the alternate version from the
British point of view in deference to the Queen who was
visiting North America in 1959 to open up the new St.
Lawrence Seaway. This ultra-rare recording can be
identified by the label with the letter "C" in front of
the label number. Kal
Message: 7
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 12:08:32 -0400
From: John Clemente
Subject: Chiffons
Hi Everyone,
Cool information, Tony! I didn't know that much went on
during the recording of "One Fine Day". I made a
mistake in not clarifying that the Cookies vocals were
on the intro only, which would explain the slight
dropoff in backing vocals as the first verse begins. Of
course, in the world of 3 and 4 track recording back
then, anything is possible. From what info Tony has
given us, I'm sure this means that there are probably
more unreleased Chiffons tracks somewhere!
Regards,
John Clemente
Message: 8
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 22:07:20 -0400
From: Peter Tomlinson
Subject: Hoh boy
For a "road" drummer (as opposed to the famed LA studio
trapsters, i.e. Palmer, Blaine, Gordon et al.) Eddie Hoh
sure racked up the album credits. In addition to the ones
listed in previous posts, he contributed notably to Barry
Goldberg's underrated psych-blues-pop (!) BG Reunion lp
ca. '68. He seems to have been a major component of the
Goldberg/Bloomfield/Harvey Mandel axis that released a
bunch of "jam"-oriented albums under various aliases
around this time.
And then he seems to have dropped completely from sight,
save for this unfortunate postscript: I distinctly
remember reading a letter from Mr. Hoh in Rolling Stone
around 1970/71, warning readers against abusing drugs,
specifically heroin, which he had gotten himself involved
in during his period of greatest visibility. To escape
it, he quit the music business and had moved out of LA --
way out, like to Iowa. From there, the trail runs cold.
Great drummer with a nice, light touch though, esp. on
Pisces, Capricorn etc.
Message: 9
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 23:40:52 -0400
From: John Clemente
Subject: Peggy=Jessica=Tiffany
Hello All,
Recently, Martin Roberts wrote this in reference to the
article on The Angels in "Girl Groups":
Second time of reading Peggy's comment on "Dixie" I
remembered a girl group version I had, digging around
my 45's found it but it's not a version it is Peggy.
Released as Tiffany Michel "Dixie" adapted & produced
by Bob Gaudio For Four Seasons Prod.Co.,Inc, arr Artie
Schrock. (Fabulous vocal performance & great production)
MGM K13624 rel '66. B. side "Come Closer" Not noticed
before but this is the same as Jessica James / Outlaws
version. (Thanks to Mick Patrick's also excellent "Dyno
Voice Story" I could play CD & 45 together) Only
difference the Tiffany version lasts for a marvelous 47
seconds extra! Same label credits on both 45's.
I sent this to Peggy of The Angels and this is what she
wrote back:
> I used to sing under the name Tiffany Michel when I
> worked at the Bitter End in the late sixties. Fred
> Weintraub was my manager and Bob recorded me. Recently a
> friend told me about the Dynovoice CD and I have 3
> recordings on it as Jessica James and the Outlaws, but I
> was disappointed that Dixie wasn't on it. When it came
> out, it was banned it Boston and that made the company
> reluctant to promote it. It is one of my favorites not
> because of the content but the production and the way I
> sounded.'
Another cool tidbit to add to my notes for the updated
version of "Girl Groups -- Fabulous Females That Rocked
The World".
John Clemente
[ Admin note: Visit the Spectropop/Cha Cha Charming
tribute page to John Clemente's "Girl Groups --
Fabulous Females That Rocked The World":
http://www.spectropop.com/gg/girl.html
]
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