Spectropop - Digest Number 383

• From: Spectropop Group
• Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002

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                       super fi sound - in stereo
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There are 25 messages in this issue of Spectropop.

Topics in this Digest Number 383:

      1. Re: Marshmellow Highway/Hank Shifter/Byzantine Empire/Keith 
         Colley/Dick and DeeDee/Lost Jukeboxes/Laurie 45's
           From: "Jeffrey Glenn" 
      2. Re: British Cover versions of the 50s and 60s
           From: "Lindsay Martin" 
      3. Re: Motown Covers...in reverse
           From: "John Lester" 
      4. re: THE WHAT FOUR
           From: Simon White 
      5. British cover versions
           From: "David Bell" 
      6. Re: L.A. Visit
           From: "Ken Levine" 
      7. US/UK, Shannon, Vee
           From: "Paul Payton" 
      8. RE: Al Hazan
           From: "Phil Chapman" 
      9. Re-Al Hazen
           From: Richard Havers 
     10. Five for 88 cents
           From: Dan Hughes 
     11. Kokomo
           From: David Gordon 
     12. Re: Five for 88 cents
           From: "Mike Arcidiacono" 
     13. How Kind, How Sharing, How Spectropop!
           From: "Martin Roberts" 


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Message: 1
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 07:05:08 -0800
   From: "Jeffrey Glenn" 
Subject: Re: Marshmellow Highway/Hank Shifter/Byzantine Empire/Keith 
         Colley/Dick and DeeDee/Lost Jukeboxes/Laurie 45's

Hi all,

Someone had posted that the file I had put in musica "I
Don't Wanna Live This Way" by The Marshmellow Highway was
corrupted, but I just checked it and played it with no
problems. Here's the complete info on the song:

"I Don't Wanna Live This Way" (Ogerman-English)(The
Marshmellow Highway, Kapp K-904: 1968, Produced by Claus
Ogerman & Scott English, Arranged and Conducted by Claus
Ogerman)

I'll upload the B-side - "Loving You Makes Everything
Alright" cowritten by Kenny Young - in a few days.  An
excellent two-sided single of late 60's soft pop.

Someone also requested to hear Hank Shifter's "Mary On The
Beach," so I'll also [put that in musica] in a few days.

And I don't remember if I [played] the B-side of the
second Byzantine Empire 45 - the excellent "Whenever I'm
Lonely." Bruce, do you remember?  If I haven't previously
posted it, someone let me know, and I will.

> "Enamorado" by Keith Colley is wonderful! i went digging
> through the collection - I have 3 Keith Colley records;
> the original "Enamorado" (Unical 3006); a 1964 follow-up
> on VeeJay (VJ 682), "Bllly Girl" (okay folk-pop
> adaptation of the nursery rhyme)/"Welcome Home Baby"
> (semi-Spectorian sound engineered by Larry Levine and
> co-written with "P. Sloan" - could that be P.F?); and a
> January, 1968 Columbia remake of "Enamorado" (as
> overplayed as the original is understated) backed with
> "Shame Shame" which Colley Wrote and was a hit for the
> Magic Lanterns (Atlantic). This last is produced by Gary
> Usher, but only a requirement for completists IMO.

I have this Columbia 45, and while it's definitely not
understated like the Unical original, I'd hardly call it
overplayed - in fact I really like it. And this original
version of "Shame, Shame" - released maybe nine months or
so before The Magic Lanterns - is IMHO much better than
that hit version.  I can also [play to musica] either or
both of those if anyone wants to hear them.

Oh, and Curt Boettcher (and probably the other Millenium
guys too - this was during the time that Usher was using
them in the studio on his productions so they could make
some money while recording the Millenium LP - Joey Stec
are you on this?) is singing background on this single
(he's very clearly audible on "Enamorado").

I've come across several other Keith Colley (and related)
45's that are worth a mention:

A Frightful Situation (T. Peacock-N. Mantz)/What Else Do
You Do For Kicks (Nancie Mentz-Keith Colley) - A-Side: Mrs.
Brown's Lovely Daughter Carol/B-Side: Carol Crane,
Challenge 59292: 1965, P: Frank McKelvey -- A-side is a
great answer to "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter."
B-side is good mid-60's girlpop.

Up Off My Knees (Keith Colley-Linda Colley)/Tonight I'm
Telling You (Keith Colley) - Keith Colley, Challenge
59934: 1966 -- both sides good mid-60's pop/rock

(We Wear) Lavendar Blue (K. Colley-N. Mantz) - Finders
Keepers, Challenge 59338: 1966, P: Jerry Fuller, E: Bruce
Botnick -- more good mid-60's pop/rock; in fact, the
uptempo A-side is excellent.

Sugaree (Sugar Every Day And Night Girl)(K. Colley-D.
Monda) - Keith Colley, Challenge 504: 1968, P:
Colley-Stec-Buff, Horns by Mike Henderson, E: Paul Buff --
my copy is a double A-sided promo, so I don't know what
the B-side is, but it's a good late 60's uptempo
pop/rocker

The Times To Come (Keith Colley-Knox Henderson)/Takin' It
Easy (J. Spitale-J Painter-H. Corro-B. Luther) - London
Phogg, A&M 1010: 1968, P: Keith Colley - Teen Scene
Productions, Inc. - A Product of Lumumba Productions, A:
Al Capps -- the A-side of this is brilliant - harmonized
late 60's girlpop with cool fuzztone guitar, good
orchestration, and a galloping beat.

> Incidentally, I dug out the Dick St. John Dot 45 (#17080,
> 1968) I mentioned a coupla notes back is "Lady of the
> Burning Green Jade" (wr. Hoyt Axton, an attempt at
> psych)/"Childhood" (wr. David Cohen; later David Blue on
> Asylum? a petulant putting-down-the-girl track). Again,
> probably for completists only.

Dick recovered nicely with a great Dick & DeeDee 45 a
couple of months later - "The Escape Suite"/"I'm Not Gonna
Get Hung Up About It" on Dot 45-17145.  This is another
great 1968 soft pop 45, produced by former Sunray Rick
Henn.  Henn also wrote the A-side, which is the same song
as "(Let's Take A) Holiday" by The Honeys recorded the
same year (produced and arranged by Murry Wilson and first
released on last year's Collector's Choice Honeys comp).
Don Ralke arranged both sides of the Dick and DeeDee
single, and his arrangement of "The Escape Suite" is
better than Murry's (which given his tendency towards
schmaltz, isn't bad, but then I like THE MANY MOODS OF
MURRY WILSON too!:-)).

I've received several inquiries about the Lost Jukebox
CDR's I've been making over the last three years, so I've
posted the track listings for the current 100 volumes to
Spectropop Files.  It's almost all stuff from 1964 to 1972
(with some forays into 1963 or 1973) with an emphasis on
soft pop (but there's lots of other stuff there as well
including quite a few things we've discussed here).

And I haven't forgotten about compiling a list of cool
Laurie 45's from the late 60's (it'll actually be some 30
45's from 1965-71).  I'll post it in a day or two.

Jeff


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Message: 2
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 09:07:53 -0000
   From: "Lindsay Martin" 
Subject: Re: British Cover versions of the 50s and 60s

I always liked The Rockin' Berries' "He's In Town" and
"Poor Man's Son"... until I finally caught up with the
originals by The Tokens & The Reflections respectively,
and in these cases the originals certainly sound superior
to my ears.  

In "Poor Man's Son" the Berries vocalist seems to start
off uncomfortably below his range so that he can get to
where he's going later, but the Reflections guy
accommodates the range without any trouble.  The
production of The Reflections version is slicker, but I
realise that some people might not prefer that.

Still, didn't the Berries have good taste when it came to
selecting songs to cover?  

I hesitate to raise it again, but for me Bessie Banks
makes The Moody Blues sound like a bunch of schoolboys
with her original of "Go Now", much as The Moodys' version
will always have a special, nostalgic place in my heart.

I wouldn't like to generalise from these cases, though:
plenty of excellent Brit cover versions of US originals to
balance it out.  

Lindsay Martin


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Message: 3
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 12:15:50 -0000
   From: "John Lester" 
Subject: Re: Motown Covers...in reverse

All this talk about covers of Motown hits by
others....but what about the other way round..

You Can't Do That - Supremes
Wait Til My Bobby Gets Home - Martha & the Vandellas
Good Luck Charm - Marvelettes
Volare - The Velvelettes (it's live so it don't count!)
Eleanor Rigby - Four Tops
We Can Work It Out - Stevie Wonder
Yesterday - Marvin Gaye
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me- Miracles

How do you feel about these......................and
others......better or worse....hmmm.


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Message: 4
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 09:02:34 +0000
   From: Simon White 
Subject: re: THE WHAT FOUR

Mick Patrick wrote on 11/2/02:

> 
> According to the article, the group that recorded for
> Capitol are a different What Four to the Columbia act.
> However, I'm not totally convinced. Their "I'm Gonna
> Destroy That Boy" is a big favourite of mine.

I'm very curious about this.

 Grapevine, a U.K. Northern Soul reissue label of the
 late 70/80's [and recently revived] released Grapevine
 110 "These Boots Are Made For Walking/Destroy That Boy"
 as by The Happy Cats. "Boots" is largely instrumental
 with the girls chanting 'Walk all over you' at the
 appropriate moments and is, therefore essential.
 "Destroy That Boy" is a full song and absolutely top
 hole and terrific. Is this the same song/track as The
 What Four? The writer credit is 'Hampton' An article
 from Record Collector about Grapevine states that
 Destroy That Boy" was previously unissued but it is also
 particularly dismissive of the the release as a whole.
 Co-incidently the only other Girl Group release on the
 label is The Thrills "What Can Go Wrong/Show The World
 Where Its At" originally on Capitol.

There are other Grapevine releases by girls, all worth
hearing, including Laura Greene's "Can't Help Loving That
Man" which is actually Diane Renay but 'covered -up' as
is the Northern Soul tradition!


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Message: 5
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 15:31:55 -0000
   From: "David Bell" 
Subject: British cover versions

The "king" of bad British cover versions is supposedly
the Decca released "Where Did Our Love Go" by Peter Jay
and the Jaywalkers. Well, Berry Gordy heard it and
threatened to put it into the Motown cupboard filed under
"Laughable".

Pity then that I've never heard it and can't find a copy
anywhere. Mick, how about putting it onto a compilation
cd as a secret, hidden track?! One cover I do like is
Julie Grant's "Giving Up" on the Pye label. Another great
track by her is her cover of the Marvelettes' "As Long As
I Know He's Mine". Unusual for me to admit to this as 99%
of my collection is American releases.

David.


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Message: 6
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 07:59:13 -0800
   From: "Ken Levine" 
Subject: Re: L.A. Visit

Jake,

Email me.  I'll try to fill you in on some fun LA places,
like where Brian Wilson jogs in the morning.


----- Original Message from: Jake Tassell 

> ...in L.A. next week...
>
> Can any kind soul here give me a couple of pointers for
> 'places of interest for Spector/Beach Boys/W.O.S. fans'?


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Message: 7
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 12:38:03 -0500
   From: "Paul Payton" 
Subject: US/UK, Shannon, Vee

Don Baylis wrote:

>  Re: recent comments about the inferiority of
> British cover versions of American records in the
> late 50s/early 60s...US covers of Brit songs also
> could leave alot to be desired.

Agreed going both ways - in general, with exceptions, of
course. (Del Shannon's "From Me To You" is to these ears
remarkably credible, for example, and swamped the Beatles
on the Murray the K Record Review Board in the summer of
1963.

Now, on original material that sounded like the covers, I
propose Bobby Vee's excellent "Look at Me Girl" as being
an American equivalent to the UK feeling of the time. In
fact, I tend to view Mr. Velline's output overall as
seriously underrated. Hear his transition to progressive
country-rock on the very fine Robert Thomas Velline LP
(UA, 1972).

Country Paul


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Message: 8
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:44:14 -0000
   From: "Phil Chapman" 
Subject: RE: Al Hazan

Richard Havers:
> "Hollywood photographer Ali Pousan on piano and harpsichord
> [Nutrocker]......"
> This is what I extracted from my own notes.....true or false?


I thought "Well, there he is, let's ask him" - here's Dr
Al's reply:

	"Although I have heard the name Ali Pouson, I
have no idea where it came from. I was the lead piano
player on the B.Bumble recording of Nutrocker in the
early 60s. I also put out a few other piano records using
the names Ali Hassan, Crazy Luke and Kim & The Skippers.
Other names I have used as a vocalist were Dudley Duncan
and Al Anthony. The reason for this is that I wanted to
be known mainly as a record producer and songwriter and
not as an artist, although I did record for Capitol under
the name of 'The Royal Galaxies featuring Al Hazan' and
one record on which I just used the name Al Hazan. And
yes, it is true, I was also a photographer and
photographed some music names such as The Beach Boys and
Chuck Berry. Soon afterwards I went into photography full
time as a fashion photographer after I decided to stop
making records. I hope this clears things up a little for
you.

Al Hazan"


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Message: 9
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:56:50 +0000
   From: Richard Havers 
Subject: Re-Al Hazen

I was fascinated reading the web site from the URL in
Phil Chapman's email,
http://www.bellsisters.com/more-about-hazan.html


Al talking of his time in London was particularly
interesting. I went back to some old 1962 NME's and there
was a picture of B.Bumble & The Stingers visiting Britian
in October 1962. B.Bumble is  definitely not Mr Hazen!

He talks of meeting the Beatles in a very unconvincing
way too!


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Message: 10
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 12:16:16 -0600
   From: Dan Hughes 
Subject: Five for 88 cents

When I was in high school, some of the local department
stores (Grant's, Kresge) had bargain tables in their
record departments, where you could buy a
plastic-wrapped set of five 45 rpm records for 88 cents.
The series was labelled "Hits You Missed."

The two outside records (the ones you could see through
the clear plastic) were generally minor hits, and the
three others hidden inside were total unknowns.  

One of those unknowns I got was Check Yourself by the
Temptations, on the Miracle label.  (It actually had the
slogan, "If it's a hit, it's a Miracle!")  At the time,
I thought it was the worst song I'd ever heard. The
rhythm was so disjointed it made me laugh. 

Another was Ray Stevens'
top-40-hit-with-longest-song-title-ever Jeremiah
Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving Fast-Acting
Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills (with picture
sleeve!).

And Peter Paul and Mary's Blowin' In the Wind (first
time I'd ever seen the name "B. Dylan," underneath the
song title, and thought he must be foreign).

One I'd love to hear again if anyone here has it:  Gary
Paxton's You Been Torturin' Me.

What were some of your great finds in those Hits You
Missed packages??


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Message: 11
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:09:22 +0000 (GMT)
   From: David Gordon 
Subject: Kokomo

Hi gang,

"Kokomo," who did "Asia Minor" on Felsted, is 
supposedly a pseudonym for Jimmy Wisner.


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Message: 12
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:15:03 -0500
   From: "Mike Arcidiacono" 
Subject: Re: Five for 88 cents

> From: Dan Hughes 
>
> That brings back memories.  There was a Woolworths
> across the street from me when I grew up. They had,
> around 1974 or so, 03 45s for .99 in a plastic bag.

I remember getting Sonny & Cher's "All I Need Is You"
this way.  I sure wish I had bought 'em all and never
opened them. Fat chance!!

Your Friend,

Mikey


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Message: 13
   Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 21:05:35 -0000
   From: "Martin Roberts" 
Subject: How Kind, How Sharing, How Spectropop!

The latest in the ongoing sharey, sharey world of
Spectropop. How nice of Jeff to add to the files his 100
Jukebox CD's list. Not many things better than a rummage
through someone else's 45's!

Only had time for a quick look, afraid your taste is as
marvellous as mine Jeff (!) A valiant attempt for a
Jukebox!

The Keith Colley 'talk' had me rummaging and  agree about
the Spector overtones to 'Welcome Home Baby'. Could
imagine The Righteous Brothers doing a marvellous job on
it, Keith's is great also. Published Screen Gems so would
guess P=PF. 

Another 45 Unical 3013 has the cutesiest, wimpiest B side
Aladdin Wr. Keith. (For this I'd say he deserved a good
beating-BE A MAN.) Quite charming though! I'd let him of
the beating because of the A side "Cuando la Luna".
'Recorded Live', in which case I wouldn't think there
was a dry seat in the place-the female audience make more
noise than there counterparts did at Shea Stadium for The
Beatles! A 'Be My Baby' riff opening leads into a
wonderful, joyous record, hand claps, synchronised
screaming, heavy percussion and a great vocal. (Of course
he could be singing my dog is dead for my knowledge of
Spanish but it sure sounds FUN)

Martin 


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