Archive for the ‘Fontana’ Category
Monday, August 9th, 2010
Listen: Night Of The Long Grass / The Troggs
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Pawing through my Troggs 7″ collection, jonesing to hear ‘Night Of The Long Grass’, I realized what we all know, this band made a lot of great singles, for ages. I’m not sure why they didn’t have the occasional chart hit as the years progressed. They always toured, and were really good as well.
“Night Of The Long Grass’ was criticized for being bit unsettling musically. Well not by me, but most who heard it. Had a bit of a ‘From The Underworld’ creepiness, a bigger compliment is hard to get by the way. It’s without a doubt the most obscure of their US Fontana releases, especially a stock pressing, which took me years to find. Never seen one since.
Listen: Summertime / The Troggs
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Speaking of summer, what better time to talk about the most clever seasonal lyric, maybe ever. With more songs than anyone I can count encompassing schoolboy sexual eye winks, ‘Summertime’ is their true juvenile masterpiece. How this didn’t blow up, given they reunited with producer Larry Page from their Fontana/Page One hit making days, has to be down to one, and only one reason. No airplay.
Tags: Fontana, Larry Page, Page One, Penny Farthing, Pye, The Troggs
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Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Listen: Find My Way Back Home / The Nashville Teens
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Last night’s season premier of MAD MEN ended with The Nashville Teens’ ‘Tobacco Road’, their one decent sized US hit. It reminded me I should share this story.
Back in the late 80’s when I worked A&R for Elektra, a guy came to play me his demo. Nice kid, worked at Colony Records a few blocks away on Broadway. In the 60’s, it was a haven for every release available, and the whole back wall was a 45 only counter manned by several employees – and open until 2AM. Always a hubbub of activity, the clerks were constantly juggling customers and going into the back, searching for whatever single you desired, and usually returning with it in hand.
Problem was they sold everything at list price – then 99¢. Seemed a fortune at the time, so you had to have unsuccessfully scoured all other shops before taking that plunge. I used to coax my Aunt Carm into the shop every summer when she’d take me on my yearly pilgrimage to the city.
Anyways this fellow and I get to talking, and I ask if they still have all those 7′ singles in the back sorted by label (which is how they did in the 60’s – you needed to know which label and preferably it’s catalog # as well). “Yes, they’re still set up that way”. So I tell him some of my favorite ones: Deram, London, Sue, Fontana.
A few days later, he comes back to Elektra. I get a call from the front desk informing me he’s upfront. What the fuck does he want – the demo wasn’t great and I told him so already. Turns out he thought I was a nice guy, and wanted to encourage me to let him return with new songs – so he just grabbed all the old stock on those labels and brought them over as a present. A heart stopper of a moment.
‘Find My Way Back Home’ (on the short lived blue swirl label with the WHITE instead of BLACK London logo) was one of many, many jems.
True story.
Tags: Colony Records, Deram, Elektra, Fontana, London, Mad Men, Sue, The Nashville Teens
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Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Listen: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine / Country Joe & The Fish
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During the summer of ‘67 when ‘the late night DJ was your fireside chat friend’, I would lie in bed with the transistor radio under my pillow, exactly as The Ramones described it in ‘Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio’, dialing in these far beaming AM stations, usually from Boston. They’d play a nice array of all the hippie underground bands who looked so extreme and oozed the sound of San Francisico’s Haight-Ashbury seemingly dersirable lifestyle. Country Joe & The Fish were certainly tied with Big Brother & The Holding Company for best name, and after slowly climbing up the Bubbling Under The Hot 100 Billboard list for six weeks, ‘Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine’ finally peaked at #95. Not such a great result, but was I ever happy to lay my hands on this single.
Having heard it once during a quiet summer night, it sounded as alien at the time as it actually does now. Then, it was mysterious, now probably just not aging well. But my soft spot for it is still there.
You learn something everyday supposedly. I found out just tonght Corinne saw them at The Fillmore. After all these years, somehow this fact never came up. Bizarre.
Tags: Billboard, Bubbling Under The Hot 100, Country Joe & The Fish, Fontana, The Ramones, Vanguard
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Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
A few posts back, Manfred Mann on April 24th to be exact, I mentioned a terrific site lovingly maintained by Mary Payne and dedicated to 60’s pirate station Radio London. A day later, I get an email from this very iconic lady – thanking me for the kind words. I couldn’t have been more pleased – or so I thought.
Mary certainly did some trolling around, finding my post about the history of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s ‘Bend It’ in the US, and proceeded to include some of those details on her Radio London site. What an knockout – thank you Mary. If ever I’d have thought as a kid that someday, even my name alone would get a mention by Radio London, I would’ve expired.
Listen: Touch Me, Touch Me / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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Well within her post, she wonders what US Fontana did about a later single ‘Touch Me, Touch Me’, by the band for the American market – given ‘Bend It’ had been cock blocked due to suggestive lyrics. My real belief is US dj’s didn’t want to bother learning the band’s name – that simple. Add to it, they only visited Stateside once for press and local TV’s, never playing live, which also didn’t make for a successful recipe.
As for ‘Touch Me, Touch Me’, US Fontana simply didn’t release it. A few months later, (June ‘67), it was included on the band’s US GREATEST HITS album, a collection of all their singles that traded pretty exclusively off some regional US hits like ‘Bend It’ and ‘Hold Tight’ (although I did hear ‘Hideaway’ twice on WOLF). It faltered at #155 in Billboard’s Top 200. Even that was a surprise showing. The icing on the Fontana brainforce’s cake was to NOT include the band’s then current single ‘Okay’ (released July ‘67) on the LP – despite the group getting their first National US TV that very summer (August ‘67) performing…..’Okay’. It was to be their last release with Fontana.
Debuting on Imperial with ‘Zabadak’ the following November, they finally got a loads of airplay and ultimately cracked Billboard’s Top 100.
As if the mention was not enough, I find on closer examination of her posting, that the Radio Caroline site has now been updated to include their weekly charts from the 60’s as well.
Oh boy. I’ve been there for a few hours and have barely had time to do this here post. Visit it and prepare. You will need to set aside even more hours.
Thank you again Mary, you’ve made my year – and keep up the great work on your Radio London site.
Tags: Billboard, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Fontana, Imperial, Manfred Mann, Mary Payne, Radio Caroline, Radio London, UK Pirate Radio, WOLF
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Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Listen: James Brown’s Boo-Ga-Loo / James Brown
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One day, around ‘90, I decided to own every last James Brown single from the 60’s and 70’s. It was a most fun challenge, and surprisingly easy. Don’t forget, we were still in the heyday of folks dumping their vinyl for cd. Despite all the unsolvable problems that began with the onset of the cd configuration, it was absolutely a miracle for the vinyl collector. What could be better than the entire world wanting to unload their records?
James Brown’s temporary switch from the King label to Smash lasted a only year or two. Seems he signed one contract before the previous one expired, ultimately settling it all by agreeing to record only instrumentals for Smash. Some fans seem to downplay their interest in the period – not me. Besides, I’m a sucker for any releases from the Mercury Records Group: Philips, Fontana, Blue Rock, Limelight and of course Smash.
The best part of all this being the public tired of his assembly line, contract fulfilling output, so sales declined faithfully with each release. These last few before returning to King became the hardest to find. Good fun in my book.
‘James Brown’s Boo-Ga-Loo’ came and went completely unnoticed. Although the label copy suggested it’s from his NEW BREED album, it’s not. Well, sorta not. The track is actually an edited version of ‘New Breed’ retitled and easily doubles as incidental music for a B movie. No problem.
Listen: Jimmy Mack / James Brown
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Equally enamored with muzak renditions of familiar hits meant many of his singles for the label were prime wants like ‘Let’s Go Get Stoned’ plus his own covers of ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag’ and ‘Try Me’ for instance.
The last Smash 7″, and non-LP as well, is a lazy, slightly mundane (and therefore perfect for my tastes) version of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s ‘Jimmy Mack’. As with many of the jazz organists from that period, I bet they all rattled out these one after the other in a day long session, thereby making both recording costs and sales pressure low. Everyone needed a few for party music I guess. Another hard one to find, yet most likely competition is pretty minimal.
Tags: Blue Rock, Fontana, Holland-Dozier-Holland, James Brown, King, Limelight, Mercury, Philips, Smash
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Saturday, February 6th, 2010
God knows where I got this – probably wrote away for it being the record collector I was at 8 years old. Still have a few Fontana 7″ mailers from that time period as well. I would write to this person, Claranelle Morris, at Fontana’s main office in Chicago back then, pestering her about The Herd and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. She’d send photos, bios, sometimes even a single. I guess she figured you couldn’t hear or buy them in the sticks of the Syracuse suburbs, so give the kid the record already. We’re going to toss them anyways. Thank you Claranelle. To go back and police the Fontana dumpsters – if only.
It was years later, when I finally got a break to get into the business (Howard Thompson gave me my 1st A&R job at Elektra – without him, I’d still be struggling), that I discovered as soon as a record isn’t current, being worked at radio or believed in (at Columbia, my last label job, this often happened within a few weeks: Charlie Walk in particular convinced many he was quite good at A&R, he’s now unemployed) – off to the dumpster went the product, and many times off to the scrapheap went the act’s career.
But let’s not lose focus……so I found this catalog in one of the many trunks of ’stuff’ I’ve saved over the years. It’s just like new, man, I wouldn’t mind a box lot of many of the titles here. Of course, I loved the English groups back then, but also had a jones for Gloria Lynne. It wasn’t only because she was on Fontana (which was always a favorite label – Suzanne King made me a great Fontana T Shirt for my birthday one year. She lives in Chicago now – visit the Fontana building Suzanne. It was at 35 E. Wacker Drive.). Gloria Lynne had a bunch of records on Everest prior. I had a copy of ‘Indian Love Call’ from that period, given to me in one of the Saturday morning piles of singles my uncle, a jukebox operator, would drop off instead of trashing when I was very young, about 5-6. It’s probably the reason the record collecting gene was dangerously awakened in my DNA.
I paid attention to Gloria Lynne singles. I often heard them on the radio playing in the local barber shop where I’d get my haircut as a little boy. Must have been an AC station of it’s day, way before it’s then output turned into bachelor pad, lounge, hipster stuff decades later.
And check out some of the soundtracks too.
Tags: Claranelle Morris, Columbia, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Elektra, Fontana, Gloria Lynne, Howard Thompson, Smash, The Herd, The Pretty Things, The Troggs
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Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Listen: From The Underworld / The Herd
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I just think this is one of the greatest singles ever made. I have loved it since the very first listen. Now considered a psychedelic classic, it wasn’t at the time, or for years. The Herd were accused of being too mainstream then. The media and public sometimes look down on you if you’re successful, usually associating it with being lower quality, simply because it’s mass appeal, I guess. I do that too I suppose. Still, I never could understand why this record wasn’t appreciated then as it is now – but at least it got it’s day. Even the lyrics entranced me – a seldom occurrence. Stuff like ‘a black nights coldness’ and ‘into another world you will pass’ gave me the creeps. I liked getting the creeps then, had a bit of a cemetery attraction. That may have been a pot smoking side effect – going there late at night, alone, stoned, to scare myself. And I really did, several times that summer. Quit doing that and smoking pot shortly thereafter.
Peter Frampton downplayed his time with The Herd for years. You couldn’t mention it to him. Now I think he realizes it was very credible, as he was super nice about doing the jukebox tab for me:
Don’t be too flattered though, I just never see Andy Bown. This US promo-only foldout picture sleeve is sweet. The only one I’ve ever seen actually. Oh and thank you Howard for the test pressing. It was a really awesome birthday present that year.
Tags: Andy Bown, Fontana, Howard Thompson, Peter Frampton, The Herd
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Saturday, January 9th, 2010
It’s been one year ago today since we lost Dave Dee, therefore I’ve decided on this re-post from January 2009.
In that time, Claranelle Morris’ daughter found my remembrances of her Mom. She googled her name. Claranelle was the sweetest lady from Fontana, who would send me all things released by the label, and especially those by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, who I had originally written to her about in the 60’s (see post). One of the best communication results via SO MANY RECORDS, SO LITTLE TIME I’ve ever been lucky enough to have.
Tags: Claranelle Morris, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Fontana
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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Listen: Don’t Ha Ha / Casey Jones & The Governors
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Casey (real name Duncan) Jones left Liverpool for London stumbling around with rotating-door lineups that included Eric Clapton and Tom McGuinness in his band The Engineers. Like a few before them, off to Germany they went. Why I’m not sure – I always thought England was the happening place in the 60’s. It was in Hamburg that Casey Jones & The Governors formed and had some success as a live band, basically reinventing RnR standards of the day with a Beat Goup twist.
I picked this up in one of those 39 cent bins of flop 45’s at a Two Guys Department Store near the Thruway in Syracuse back in ‘74. It was a treasure trove, predominantly loads of Philips/Smash/Mercury/Fontana titles, for some reason. Listen once and you’ll hear that it’s Huey Piano Smith’s ‘Don’t You Just Know It’. Smith is credited as writer and the title switch fooled me into thinking it was an original for years.
Tags: Casey Jones & The Governors
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Listen: Black Is Black / Los Bravos
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Without a doubt, this was a signature song to my Summer ‘66 soundtrack. This guy’s voice was almost scary. Between that and the lyrics, it especially sounded powerful late at night. I spent a week in Brooklyn that August, glued to the various New York City stations and heard this often. Along with The Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Summer In The City’, this song faithfully brings me back to that un-airconditioned summer vacation of listening to the radio by night and dragging my Aunt Nancy round the record shops by day: The House Of Oldies, King Karol and Colony basically. I spent hours in them. Thank God for her patience. Colony was really well stocked, but very expensive – list price: 98 cents! This was huge money for a kid in his single digits. Much more interesting were the shops in the East Village. Most of them sold promos for a quarter. Lots of white label Fontana’s, pink label Decca’s and the London Group’s orange swirls. You could spot those a mile away. I vividly recall getting Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours ‘Don’t Stop Loving Me, Baby’ in one such place.
Los Bravos, from Spain, big in England, well ‘Black Is Black’ was. Now big here. What a concept. Play good music on the radio, people buy it.
You still catch this one occasionally on the Oldies stations in smaller US markets and it does pop right out .
Listen: I Don’t Care / Los Bravos
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The UK followup actually did okay, #16. It was easily a song that band and producer Ivor Raymonde worked hard on. I still would bet my last dime they all knew it wasn’t quite good enough despite the almost good enough parts, yet my guess is they needed something out quick and just went with it, hoping no one would notice.
Their US label, London Records’ offshoot Press, did notice. It never got released Stateside.
Listen: Going Nowhere / Los Bravos
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Instead, ‘Going Nowhere’ was the US followup to ‘Black Is Black’. Not a big showing chartwise, it peaked at #91. In a very signature Ivor Ramonde production, it sounds identical to his approach with The Fortunes. He had his sound down. I heard this a bit around Christmas of that year (see chart below). Turns out lead singer Mike Kogel was German, adding a great accent to his Gene Pitney vocal style. Spanish band (the first ever to chart in Billboard), German singer, pretty exotic for the day.
Listen: Bring A Little Lovin’ / Los Bravos
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What a surprise. Almost two years later, an eternity then, when no one expected it, Los Bravos finally really followed up ‘Black Is Black’ with a song equal in greatness. ‘Bring A Little Lovin’ sounded fantastic on the radio. I lit up every time I heard that intro. It was everywhere in Spring of ‘68. Oddly, it didn’t chart in the UK, making the British pressing a very pricey item. Even US copies are hard to unearth now. Had they come with this straight after ‘Black Is Black’, the sky would’ve been the limit.
Tags: Billboard, Decca, Fontana, Ivor Ramonde, London Records, Los Bravos, Pinkerton's Assorted Colours, Press, The Fortunes, The Lovin' Spoonful
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
Listen: October 26 / The Pretty Things
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I’ve been unable to even write an entry these past few days due to my loss on eBay. I desperately wanted to win the US Fontana stock copy of The Pretty Things ‘Midnight To Six Man’, which finally appeared for sale last week. In fact, I’ve wanted one my whole life. I have the US wlp, the UK copy etc – but not a US store pressing. Somehow eBay is claiming my user name/password didn’t match – mind you I’ve not changed them in probably ten years since joining. Therefore my $200.00 bid went unplaced, and a lucky fellow in Europe grabbed it for $31.00. I’ve tried emailing him, offering to buy it – but no reply. Not even a sympathy condolence. So I’ve been literally shattered. Anyone know of a copy I could buy? Name your price.
I always sent off to England for their singles starting around ‘68. Lucky for me, I have nice copies of every release. I was a bit disappointed in ‘October 26′ upon arrival. It was tired sounding, and by far their weakest track of the period, logically not finding a place on their PARACHUTE materpiece. I figured just to be clever, I’d post it today, due to it’s namesake.
Listen: Cold Stone / The Pretty Things
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However, the B side ‘Cold Stone’ was a whole other story. It made up for the A side’s wimp. Phil May’s addictive vocal in full frontal attack, it couldn’t hide their RnB baby steps. Who the fuck was picking the A sides at Harvest then is what I’d like to know. Peter Jenner….can you answer that question?
Tags: Fontana, Harvest, Peter Jenner, Phil May, The Pretty Things
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Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Listen: A Groovy Kind Of Love / The Mindbenders
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Listen: Ashes To Ashes / The Mindbenders
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Listen: I Want Her, She Wants Me / The Mindbenders
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Listen: It’s Getting Harder All The Time / The Mindbenders
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Listen: Off And Running / The Mindbenders
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Listening to BBC2 a few weeks back, I was loving that ‘Days’ by The Kinks just normally got a spin. Then it was followed by The Mindbenders ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’, and I realized once again, England is the natural habitat for me – primarily because I could simply turn on the radio in the car, no complicated subscribing to satellite (as terrific a musical spectrum service here in the US that it is), scanning the low frequency non commercial or college stations in hopes of SOMETHING to endure, or simply plugging in the ipod. It’s so nice to be in Britain and just hear such terrific music programed as part of culture. Despite ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’ reaching #2 in both the US and England, it sounds freaking great every time. Talk about an intro. I was on the phone with Duane when the above Kinks/Mindbenders segue went down and had to take a breather for a brief moment as it happened.
Their chart success took an almost perfect, gentle commercial erosion, each single being played less and achieving lower and lower chart numbers each time, then no chart placings at. It all worked out fine in the end for the fellows. Basically, they turned into 10cc.
Before all that, they did get a great, full technicolor spot in the classic TO SIR WITH LOVE FILM, performing ‘It’s Getting Harder All The Time’ and ‘Off And Running’. But despite the film’s success, and the character lead, Lulu, achieving her US #1 as a result, it did The Mindbenders literally no good in ressurecting their US presence – almost unbelievably. The US 7″, in fact, is a very hard commercial single to find. Despite my constant search for it – I only found one a few years back (one side pictured above).
Even more obscure is their version The Zombies cover from ODDYSSEY AND ORACLE on a US pressing. Not as favorable to my palate as The Zombies own, still it’s A+ for song choice and is really good.
Tags: 10CC, Fontana, Graham Gouldman, Lulu, The Mindbenders, To Sir With Love, Wayne Fontana
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
Listen: Sweet William / Andy Bown
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Listen: New York Satyricon Zany / Andy Bown
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It’s real simple. Andy Bown was in The Herd. He has a lifetime, out of jail free card. End of story.
Add to that, a haircut rivaling only Brian Jones.
But seriously, he’s made a lot of great singles. These are two. ‘Sweet William’ was originally released as the B side of The Herd’s seminal classic ‘From The Underworld’. The above version was a re-record for Andy Bown’s second solo album, ironically titled SWEET WILLIAM. I always loved the song.
Go back and read my story of meeting he and Peter Frampton during a Frampton’s Camel show back in the 70’s. It was an exciting moment. A few years later, ‘New York Satyricon Zany’ (whatever that means) came out as a UK single, with an obvious Peter Frampton solo during the last passage. Either way, it became an instant favorite, and it’s one of the many examples of Andy Bown’s songwriting and vocal superiorities.
Tags: Andy Bown, Brian Jones, Fontana, Frampton's Camel, GM Records, Peter Frampton, The Herd
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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
I got a fantastic email today from a reader in France, Bands Michel, who alerted me to a site whereby you can read just about every BILLBOARD from the 50’s, 60’s and onwards. These are mesmerizing. Scrolling through the weekly singles reviews whereby they predict records that will achieve Top 20, Top 60 or simply a ‘Chart’ placing alone is worth the visit. Most of the greats are in that later section, although many a ’should have been a hit’ record features in the other two as well. Not to mention stunning full page tip sheet adds for singles by The Herd, The Who, Mary Wells, Scott Walker, Ike & Tina Turner, The Small Faces, multi artist adverts for Mercury, Okeh, Motown, Fontana, Deram, Ric Tic, Bang, Sue Records plus hundreds and hundreds more. Do yourself a favor:
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE ARCHIVE
Tags: Bang, Billboard, Deram, Fontana, Ike & Tina Turner, Mary Wells, Mercury, Motown, Okeh, Ric Tic, Scott Walker, Sue Records, The Herd, The Small Faces, The Who
Posted in Bang, Billboard, Deram, Fontana, Ike & Tina Turner, Mary Wells, Mercury, Motown, Okeh, Ric Tic, Scott Walker, Sue Records, The Herd, The Small Faces, The Who | No Comments »
Friday, July 3rd, 2009
Listen: Getting Might Crowded / Betty Everett
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A nice one to have on Vee Jay, but even nicer on UK Fontana. A Northern Soul classic, a Mod favorite, lot’s of descriptions have been pinned on this baby. Part of a healthy chart run in ‘65 – she had five BILLBOARD Top 100’s. Pretty much all of her Vee Jay output is worth having. Good songs, most of them have been covered too. This one’s a perfect snapshot of the time period’s all nighter club ambience. Best left alone, kinda like ‘Be My Baby’.
Tags: Betty Everett, Billboard, Fontana, Northern Soul, Vee Jay
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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
Listen: Cry To Me / The Pretty Things
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I don’t need much prompting to give The Pretty Things a shout out. Phil May is one of music’s greatest vocalists. When I was running The Medicine Label at Warner Brothers in the 90’s, I asked then chairman Mo Ostin, during casual hallway conversation, if he’d let me reissue their 1973 FREEWAY MADNESS album, which was ripe for CD format. No problem.
Mo was the ultimate executive, they literally don’t make them that way any more. Prior to getting the green light to set up Medicine, I had a memorable meeting/job interview with him. I wanted details of when he signed both The Kinks and Family, which he ever so graciously recounted. And that was only the beginning of the many fascinating stories.
FREEWAY MADNESS, one of those Mo signings, holds some serious sentimental placemarks. Plus it afforded the band their first US tour. How insane is that? Despite their legendary status almost instantly, it wasn’t until spring ‘73 that The Pretty Things played their initial US show, at LA’s Whisky A Go Go. I up and flew to California in April, like the senseless Anglophile that I was. Turned into a fantastic trip. Rich Fazekas, then part of United Artists hip college radio department, put me up for the week and introduced me to old Hollywood. UA had Family, Hawkwind, Ian Whitcomb, Man, The Move, Wizzard, endless Blue Note acts. It was the place to be. We raided, with Greg Shaw, UA’s publishing office, then anxious to dispose of their 7″ library. Talk about timing. We saw Tim Buckley at The Troubadour and of course The Pretty Things at The Whisky several nights straight. One month later, I booked them back at my college. May 19, 1973 to be exact.
Fast forward to last night. At a friend’s for dinner, I became engrossed in THE ROLLING STONES ALBUM FILE & COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY, by Alan Clayson, that was meant to be casual coffee table glancing. I intended taking a quick look, then couldn’t put it down. Learn something every day – and with this book you’ll learn many somethings. For instance, March 7, 1965. Manchester. Following a stopped Rolling Stones show at The Palace Theater, Keith and Mick taxied across town to leap onstage with The Pretty Things (Brian Jones was a room mate of The Pretty Things at the time) at The Manchester Cavern that evening. Among the songs that Mick duetted with Phil May: ‘Cry To Me’.
Tags: Alan Clayson, Family, Fontana, Greg Shaw, Hawkwind, Ian Whitcomb, Mo Ostin, Phil May, Rich Fazekas, The Medicine Label, The Move, The Pretty Things, The Rolling Stones Album File & Complete Discography, Tim Buckley, Troubadour, Whisky A Go Go, Wizzard
Posted in Adam Clayson, Fontana, Greg Shaw, Hawkwind, Phil May, Rich Fazekas, The Move, The Pretty Things, The Rolling Stones Album File & Complete Discography, Tim Buckley, Troubadour, United Artists, Whisky A Go Go, Wizzard | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Listen: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away / The Silkie
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Listen: Born To Be With You / The Silkie
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A 1-2-3 blueprint for success in the burgeoning UK folk rock scene of 1965: be managed by Brian Epstein, cover Beatles song in folk style, have obligatory female harmonizer in lineup. Boom, you’re off to the charts. And that’s exactly what happened. But, after said single, ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ made the UK Top 30 and US Top 10, no one, including Brian, was interested. Despite being afforded an album on Fontana, with good songs and production, and a beautiful sleeve – the world moved on.
But the world made a mistake, as the fourth and final single released in 1966 was a gentle but terrific remake of ‘Born To Be With You’, a hit for The Chordettes some ten years prior. It went unnoticed by just about everyone, except me that is. I couldn’t believe no one cared. Admittedly the folk scene was a bit passe two years down the line, but the song alone deserved more attention. Proof came in ‘73 when Dave Edmunds’ literally recreated a wall of sound production and applied it to what became a hit remake.
Posted in Brian Epstein, Dave Edmunds, Fontana, The Beatles, The Chordettes, The Silkie | No Comments »
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Listen: Peek A Boo / The New Vaudeville Band
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Finchley Central / The New Vaudeville Band
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‘Finchley Central’ Picture Sleeves: Above (UK) / Below (US)
The New Vaudeville Band never get their due respect. Even though they never made a bad single, and their albums are full of flawless…..vaudeville. A genre cornered successfully, and deservedly so, by The Bonzo Dog Band and later dabbled into by The Kinks, I’m guessing maybe these guys were just a touch ahead of the credibility curve. Add to that, their first single ‘Winchester Catherdral’ became a worldwide number one and, even back then, they landed into the mainstream before the press could give them praise – so they didn’t. Never mind, these singles speak for themselves. The two followups in order were: ‘Peek A Boo’ and ‘Finchley Central’. Although hits in the UK, only ‘Peek A Boo’ made the Top 100 here (#74 in February ‘67), due in part to a great performance on the then, newly ‘In Color’ version of popular Saturday night variety show HOLLYWOOD PALACE. Singer Tristam The VII, Earl Of Cricklewood wore a blue sparkley jacket identical to the one Mick Jagger pranced in just a month earlier on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW (January ‘67) when they caved, changing the lyrics for the boss, Ed himself, and thereby performing ‘Let’s Spend Some TIME Together’ as a worldwide one-off.
‘Finchley Central’ followed in late spring. Although not housed in a now very hard to find color UK picture sleeve, indeed US Fontana sprang nonetheless for a cover – except in black and white. Both are pictured above. Despite climbing to #16 in England, for places like Texas and Florida, a single in the style of your parents music (with a vocal that doesn’t even begin until 1:04 into the song, and then lyrically about the London subway system) during the summer of psychedelic ‘67 meant…little. Well actually it did Bubble Under The Top 100 at #102 for a stubborn three weeks. Maybe people equated it to something off SGT PEPPER or YELLOW SUBMARINE and thought it so far out that it was actually ‘in’, as it got some play and sold a handful. See, The New Vaudeville Band were so good even The Beatles wanted to sound like them, and occasionally did.
Posted in Ed Sullivan, Fontana, Hollywood Palace, The Beatles, The Bonzo Dog Band, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones | No Comments »
Thursday, March 5th, 2009
Listen: Strange Things Are Happening / Rings & Things
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Guess what…just like the vast 99%++++ majority of this earth’s living mankind, I do not know anything about Rings & Things. I have checked high and low. Despite a virtual cross between The Brotherhood Of Man and The 5th Dimension, it has not detoured their only ever release, ‘Strange Things Are Happening’ from graduating into the psychedelic singles collectable A list. Quite deservedly so. This is a British band, that much we know – and yet they coined the US west coast Jim Webb/John Phillips sound meticulously. I picked it up on a UK trip ages and ages ago – for under a dollar. Great investment – not that it’s value really matters, I’d never sell it. Get to my place within 24 hours of me croaking though – Corinne promises she’s curbing all these ‘fucking’ records as soon as I’m cold.
Tags: Rings & Things
Posted in Fontana, Jim Webb, John Phillips, Rings & Things, The 5th Dimension, The Brotherhood Of Man | No Comments »
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Listen: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine / Country Joe & The Fish
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Listen: Who Am I / Country Joe & The Fish
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Listen: I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag / Country Joe & The Fish
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Along with Big Brother & The Holding Company, Tim Rose, Moby Grape and The Jimi Hendrix Experience, I finally heard Country Joe & The Fish on Boston’s WBZ very late one night, summer ‘67. I would lie awake for hours, a truly twisted little kid, listening to music from cities and towns only reachable after 9pm, when the FCC’s regulations at the time (maybe still) allowed their daytime ‘directional’ antennas to relax, and beam wider and farther. It was a smorgasbord of great late night radio – the kind you only hear about existing so long ago. All this music was actually there for me to hear by searching my pocket sized handheld device. Every kid had one even then: an AM transistor radio.
By summer ‘67 I was an old pro at this – the previous spring/summer ‘66 brought me the same privilege, but that year the bands were almost exclusively English. Boston and the whole Northeast was pretty UK centric when it came to radio programming. At night you’d hear The Moody Blues, The Small Faces, The Pretty Things, non-hits by hitmakers (Hollies/Troggs/Searchers/Swinging Blue Jeans/Zombies/Them) – loads of stuff. WBZ heavily played Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s ‘Hold Tight’ that year, but so did the local Syracuse stations. If it weren’t for Billboard, I’d of had no idea it wasn’t a national smash.
Well by summer ‘67 we were at the very front end of what, by ‘68, would become FM radio – all the fireside closeness that your pal, the pot head DJ, would exude. But just before it all got commercial, the late night Top 40’s were a Godsend.
I really wanted some records by this band though – and you couldn’t buy their singles for love or money then. Like The Seeds and Moby Grape, they seldom found their way east so it was all about patience in getting any exposure to them – unless you sprung for the album. I finally got ‘Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine’ via my scam with the adult station in town (they’d give me all their unplayable rock singles believing I was indeed from the local children’s hospital). Not until years later did I notice the annoying Farfisa that seemed to be so prevalent. How did I miss it then? I guess they just sat nicely as part of the San Francisco sound due to production and guitar style. Very Quicksilver like tones from Barry Melton (I think it was him).
‘Who Am I’ was the real clincher – hearing this one late at night – it really sounded fantastic. I’d clamp that radio to my ear as soon as it came on. Couldn’t play it too loud for fear of waking up my Mom & Dad – the music battling crickets and the sonic backdrop of the Thruway in the distance. Beautiful ambience.
Woodstock took ‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die’ mainstream – FM underground mainstream that is. By then (‘69), the band was fried – it didn’t matter. But these singles: classic period pieces.
Tags: Big Brother & The Holding Company, Country Joe & The Fish, Country Joe And The Fish, Janis Joplin
Posted in Big Brother & The Holding Company, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Fontana, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Vanguard, WBZ | No Comments »
