Listen: The End Of The World / Skeeter Davis SkeeterEnd.mp3

Listen: He Says The Same Things To Me / Skeeter Davis SkeeterSaysSame.mp3

Can you believe these records were originally considered country instead of pop? Even though they made the Billboard Top 100 (‘End Of The World’ #2 in ’63, ‘He Says The Same Things To Me’ #47 in ’64), being produced by Chet Atkins probably meant Skeeter Davis and her releases were always found in the country section at the stores. Now sounding way more like early Blondie than Kitty Wells, I’m pretty sure the double tracked vocals were exclusive to country productions at the time. Check any Loretta Lynn, Dottie West or Patsy Cline single if you feel the need to verify that bit. Despite her record store geographical placement, she was certainly a successful crossover act, as I clearly remember both of these singles being played on my local Top 40′s.

Listen: The End Of The World / Personal Effects PersonalEffectsEnd.mp3

Years later, indie bands were unearthing great singles from, in the 70′s, only ten or so years prior. A lost art these days, but then hearing a favorite band pulling out an old gem and recording it was not unlike a DJ doing a slamming set, littered with snippets of classics, in a club come the late ’90′s.

A 7″ single that should have been, Personal Effects’ version of ‘The End Of The World’ was one Roger McCall and I played a lot on WCMF around ’84, back when we did what would be referred to nowadays as a ‘specialty show’. Not one to toss anything related to records, I found the above flyer inside the album THIS IS IT, from which the track comes. And given that it’s promo only, I definitely saved it.

Listen: Goodbye Little Boy / The Triffids 04 Goodbye Little Boy.mp3

Credit goes to Blondie for introducing the 60′s girl group sound to the next generation. There are so many moments when a band just can’t resist letting it all hang out, and going retro for the fun of it. Everyone from Billy Joel (‘Uptown Girls’) to Personal Effects (‘End Of The World’) have done it flawlessly. So did The Triffids with ‘Goodbye Little Boy’. They were signed to Island when I worked for the label, and made a couple of great albums, both embarrassingly ignored in the US, but getting much traction in the UK and of course in their native Australia. They played NY one time, and were super great. Really fun people too. I just loved them. This one-off sounding throwback sat perfectly on their BLACK SWAN album, although sounding nothing like the other tracks. Please search it out – very worth owning.

Listen: Screamin’ You Head / Hi-Techs HiTechsScreaminYouHead.mp3

It’s always good fun to be releasing local records out of the scene you create. This is what we all did during the late 70′s, not only in Rochester, but every town was on fire with this stuff then. Dick Storms who owned one of the local record stores, The Record Archive, started a label to release stuff for us all. And one of best were The Hi-Techs. Paul had played drums in the early New Math, and on the ‘Die Trying’ single. Things seemed to take and last forever then, but looking back, it all moved pretty quickly. Paul left and started The Hi-Techs with his wife Peggi, they eventually morphed into Personal Effects and later still (as well as presently) into The Margaret Explosion. This was their second single as The Hi-Techs, a double sided little masterpiece. Roger & I played this a lot on our show. It still sounds fantastic.