Spectropop - Digest Number 329

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 20:29:41

                  
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                 featuring radio and recording favorites
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There are 5 messages in this issue of Spectropop.

Topics in this Digest Number 329:

      1. YES SIR, THAT'S MY BABY
           From: Mick Patrick 
      2. Happy birthday to Phil
           From: "Kurt Schroeder"
      3. Happy Birthday Phil
           From: James Goldman 
      4. Re: The Tandyn Slave-Master
           From: "Jeffrey Glenn" 
      5. Re: Dunwich, Byzantine Empire, Chicago rock band, 1968
           From: Bruce Kerr 


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Message: 1
   Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 10:41:27 +0000 (GMT)
   From: Mick Patrick 
Subject: YES SIR, THAT'S MY BABY

Jeffrey Glenn wrote:

> ...(HALE & THE HUSHABYES' "YES SIR, THAT'S ME BABY") was
> first released in June 1964 on Apogee A 104. The B-side
> was "900 Quetzals"....Then it was picked up and reissued
> on August 3 of the same year as Reprise 0299; this time
> the B-side is listed as "Jack's Theme"....This (45) was
> also credited to Hale and The Hushabyes.  The Date With
> Soul version was the third and final (US) 45 issue (York
> 408, September 1967).  The B-side is listed as "Bee Side
> Soul" (and) is simply the (backing) track of the A-side. 
> I would guess that's probably the case with the other
> issues also.

Greetings,

At risk of being boring, allow me to share some minutiae
on this much fabled record:

The Apogee version lists the writer of "Yes Sir, That's
My Baby" as Irving Berlin but the song was actually
penned by Walter Donaldson & Gus Kahn.  The Reprise, York
and UK Stateside labels get the writer credits correct.

All US versions of this record do indeed have
instrumental B-sides.  However, all three are totally
different tracks.  Karaoke fans should note that only the
York B-side plays the instrumental backing track to "Yes
Sir...".

The York version is a different, and to my ears superior,
mix with the lead vocal more prominent.  This version is
also some seconds shorter than the other two.

I am in no doubt that the lead vocalist is, as producer
Jack Nitzsche revealed to Ken Barnes back in Who Put The
Bomp magazine, Sandy Wynns but, although the quondam Edna
Wright has a great memory, when I asked her about "Yes
Sir, That's My Baby" she had no recollection of it at all.

MICK PATRICK (Recovering anal compulsive. Lapsed. Very,
very lapsed.)  


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Message: 2
   Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 16:14:46 -0500
   From: "Kurt Schroeder" 
Subject: Happy birthday to Phil



NPR mentioned this morning that today is Phil Spector's
61st birthday.  I hope he has a happy one!  (I
celebrated by listening to "A Christmas Gift for You.")

--Kurt


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Message: 3
   Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 07:06:13 -0800
   From: James Goldman
Subject: Happy Birthday Phil

It's obviously a very special day.


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------


Message: 4
   Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 08:06:15 -0800
   From: "Jeffrey Glenn" 
Subject: Re: The Tandyn Slave-Master

> Never heard this one! Anyone got it? I adore this by
> Roger Nichols and Small Circle of Friends, and
> Carole's own version on The City album too is
> wonderful. I hope someone has the Byz. Emp. version
> and can play it for us (btw, anyone have a clue as to
> what this lyric is about?).

Hey Jamie,

"Snowqueen" (it's listed on the label as one word) by The
Byzantine Empire is now in the musica files - enjoy!

I've got two Byzantine Empire 45's:

Snowqueen (Goffin-King)/Girl In The Courtyard (B. Kerr) -
Amy A-11,018: 1968, Produced by Bill Traut for Dunwich
Productions, Inc., Horns Arr. By Eddie Higgins

The A-side is great - excellent harmonies and great
arrangement!  It's a tough call for me on which is the
best version of this song, this one or The City's.  I
love Carole King's piano playing on The City version. 
And of course the Roger Nichols Trio/Small Circle of
Friends version (the earliest version I know of the song
- from 1966) is also wonderful.  And The Association also
recorded a good version of the song for their 1972
WATERBEDS IN TRINIDAD LP.

But the real gem on this 45 is the B-side, written by our
own Bruce Kerr. This is a late-60's soft pop classic with
again GREAT harmonies and orchestration.  Bruce said they
wrote some good ones and some mediocre ones; this is one
of the good ones!

Happiness Is (Don & Dick Addrisi)/Whenever I'm Lonely
(Bruce Kerr) - Amy A-11,034: 1968, Produced by Eddie
Higgins & Bob Schiff for Dunwich Productions, Inc.,
Arranged by Higgins & Schiff

The A-side here is the same song The Association had
already recorded and released on their INSIGHT OUT LP
from the previous year.  It's really good, but I have to
give the edge here to The Association, whose version
conveys the wide-eyed wonder that the song requires a
little better.:-)

Again it's the B-side that is the real keeper here, and
again it's written by Bruce.  This is possibly even
better than "Girl In The Courtyard" with beautiful
wordless harmonies on the bridge and following verse
(where a solo would usually go).  And the sung chord on
which the song ends is the final icing on a very tasty
cake!

The only trouble with this 45 is that the mastering is
plagued with phase distortion (and I don't think this was
intentional - it certainly doesn't sound like it).

I can [play to musica files] "Girl In The Courtyard,"
"Happiness Is," and "Whenever I'm Lonely" if anyone is
interested.

And if anyone has a copy of "Shadows And Reflections" I'd
be very interested.  I've been looking for it since it
was mentioned in the original post months ago (the one
that Bruce cited).

And Bruce - good to have you here, and thanks for the
great music!

Jeff


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Message: 5
   Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2001 02:43:23 EST
   From: Bruce Kerr 
Subject: Re: Dunwich, Byzantine Empire, Chicago rock band, 1968

Jason wrote:

> Actually, the song your thinking of is "Along Comes
> Mary", and he really only co-wrote it with Curt
> Boettcher, although Almer wound up with sole credit
> on the album. "Cherish" was written by Terry Kirkman
> of the Association.

You're right Jason, I mixed the writers up on those 2
songs. Did Almer, as a writer, ever have other giant hits?
I imagine the Association must have at least tried some
more of his, but were they hit singles?

----

Javed wrote:

> It is always fascinating to read about the regional
> recording activity which was so alive and ripe with
> creativity during the mid to late 60's. 

Hi Javed,

Yes, I too find the band action in the 2nd and 3rd
levels down, the bands competing to make it, dreaming of
feeling even just a part of what the Beatles felt, to
get airplay on WLS and WCFL radio in Chicago in the 60's.
To actually play some big arenas where the teenage girls
were screaming at the experience as much as any band.
But if you played your heart out, and "took it," they
sometimes screamed. Every guy's hair getting a little
longer every time you saw somebody. 

----

Jamie,

Yes, re do I know anything about Snow Queen's lyrics.
The story we were given at the time, by sources
knowledgeable about Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and
[xxxxx]'s cocaine ("snow") problem. "High, on the wings
of a river." 

I also would love to get a copy (mp3) of Byzantine
Empire doing "Snow Queen," if anyone has it...I can
import it into mp3 if I can borrow the record. I
loved our 3 male voices doing those rich Carole King
major7th chords, the "wee-oohs" over the top at the
end we copied straight off Carole's raw demo, but I
put a little more Brian Wilson take on it, someone's
got a copy of it somewhere.

Anyway, read the lyrics with cocaine in mind and see if
it rings true; a lot of songs allegedly had the 2nd drug
reference in their title/words, deserved or not ("Lucy
in the Sky"), some even go so far as to say that the
song "Cocaine"...is about cocaine. I don't know, it's a
stretch.   ;D

----

Jeff,

Yes, you're right about the label having a mistake in the
song title. Very depressing, that one especially, our 1st
45, think: "That Thing That You Do" movie...then the
misprint realization; deep depression in 3 seconds. Seems
to me it happened again on another. We thought, who are
these idiots supposedly running with this thing after the
session?! We didn't have "proof rights," or we may have
been too young and not astute enough to ask for/expect
that. Supposedly the label/promoters were to do all that
stuff.

Nothing else up just now, but will send notice to group
when that happens.

G'night.

Regards,

Loose Bruce Kerr


--------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
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