Listen: Hello, Hello / Claudine Longet ClaudineHello.mp3

A horribly under appreciated icon, such is Claudine Longet, former wife of Andy Williams (himself not given enough props). Why she is not respected or even revered as one of the great French vocal impressionists is extremely unfair.

It wasn’t always that way, as her first few A&M albums indeed sold well, charted Top 30 and spawned a few much played singles on the adult contemporary stations.

Her cover of this Sopwith Camel hit, ‘Hello, Hello’ in ’67 was one such classic, a perfect mix of The Flying Lizards, Jo Ann Castle and Jane Birkin. As with most AC hits of the day, it struggled to a lowly pop #91 on the Billboard Top 100.

In good company though, as most of the great singles never got much traction on the US pop stations. Unfortunately, that hasn’t changed.

Listen: (I Love You Babe But) Give Me My Freedom / The Glories GloriesFreedom.mp3

Like a lot of people, I have a soft spot for anything on Date, and Direction for that matter. They were sister US/UK companies and had great A&R. I wish I knew more about The Glories, but really don’t. Most of their stuff is in the Northern groove, so I’m in.

Listen: Try A Little Tenderness / The Glories GloriesTenderness.mp3

Obviously not a Northern ‘stomper’ as they like to say, but I love any version of ‘Try A Little Tenderness’. Luckily, everyone I know that recorded it had pipes, although Nico or The Flying Lizards would have made interesting listens.

Listen: Sing Me A Love Song / The Glories GloriesSing.mp3

There’s a beautiful trade ad from a ’67 issue of Billboard for this one. Full page. Awesome shot of the girls. Wish my scanner could have handled it’s size. Spun ‘Sing Me A Love Song’ at the Otis Clay show recently – sounded killer through the big speakers

Listen: Respect / Deborah & The Puerto Ricans DeborahRespect.mp3

Deborah made her debut as The Flying Lizards’ vocalist. Needless to say, she had a certain style and stuck to it. Kinda like Nico but without the heroin. She could cover just about any song and it would have you in stitches. I’m not sure if she took herself seriously. For the record, I still can’t get enough of the singles. This one featured The Puerto Ricans, who I believe were actually one guy: Dennis Bovell. He’d produced a lot of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s records, maybe all of them. Sounds like he wanted to sidestep the politics and have some fun. Unfortunately, there was no followup. And this may have been her final hour.