Listen: Rock A Doodle Doo / Linda Lewis
Rock A Doodle Doo / Linda Lewis

Linda Lewis had a mid-chart UK hit with ‘Rock A Doodle Doo’ during the summer of ’73 (#15). If you were there you’d know, it was played relentlessly for weeks and weeks, almost like Radio 1 wanted to make it sell. Or maybe just because it sounded so good over the air, like in my case, coming out of a 4″ x 6″ green transistor radio (that era’s version of a hand held device), permanently borrowed off my cousin.

She looked super hot on TOP OF THE POPS, like an English Kim Weston or Tammi Terrell, but with a voice much closer to Minnie Riperton. I was well pleased to get a US promo later that fall, but had no hopes I’d ever hear it on American radio, despite Reprise releasing it twice. Unfortunately, I was right.

Listen: It’s In His Kiss / Linda Lewis
It's In His Kiss / Linda Lewis

By 1975, she’d left Raft and Reprise for Arista. For once, Clive Davis seemed to be in step with what I’d have done if I were running the label, make Linda Lewis a star in The US. Her first album for him was great, and the lead single ‘It’s In His Kiss’, even greater and a real chance for her to flex the higher range potential of that voice. It should have been a smash here (it peaked at #6 in The UK) and sounded spectacular on the air. I know. I ran my college station and forced even the most die-hard southern rock DJ’s to spin it. They already hated my tastes, so why not flex. It’s fun being the boss sometimes.

Listen: Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me A Little While) / Kim Weston KimWestonTakeMe.mp3

Tell you what, I wish I owned the actual tambourine used on ‘Take Me In Your Arms’. It must have been metal, as opposed to a wooden version. I wonder where that item is this very moment. Seriously, where would something like that ultimately end up?

Basically, we will never ever know. Shame. Because other than the rolling riff /piano playoff in the chorus, it’s the most important instrument here, the lead component. One of the most famous tambourines in the world. As famous as the maracas on The Rolling Stones ‘Not Fade Away’ or the tonette in The Troggs ‘Wild Thing’ instrumental break.

Yes. ‘Take Me In Your Arms’ is Motown’s most unique, prominent and influential tambourine song, like, ever.

UK A label and EP, both courtesy the Vicki Wickham collection. Two beauties full stop.

Listen: It Should Have Been Me / Kim Weston KimWestonShouldHaveBeenMe.mp3

‘It Should Have Been Me’, not surprisingly, has been covered a bunch, including by Gladys Knight & The Pips and most successfully, Yvonne Fair (see that post elsewhere on this blog). Just to quickly recap, the latter is a proper church style reading, all the more convincing via her gruff delivery. A true classic.

Little did I realize, Kim Weston’s first Tamla single was indeed the original version. Really nice find in Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom record annex, you can imagine my eyes lighting up at the sight of it. There was a part of me that couldn’t get home fast enough to give this beauty a spin. Unfortunately, home at that moment was 460 miles east but luckily the shop’s customer turntable/headphone setup did just fine. What a surprise to hear Kim Weston sounding so unrefined, raspy, beautifully under produced, even shouty.

Word is she has a Detroit radio show. Good thing I didn’t know that when I was there. I’m a Kim Weston stalker.

Listen: Helpless / Kim Weston KimWestonHelpless.mp3

She made two of the greatest records ever. This and ‘It Takes Two’. Like Mary Wells, Tammi Terrell and Florence Ballard, she was, from time to time, my Motown Goddess. I can replay her performance of this on SHINDIG like it was yesterday. Even though the program was black and white, I remember it in color, I guess because I wanted to.

Listen: It Takes Two / Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston MarvinTammi.mp3

I don’t believe the general public hears this one enough. Seems to have slipped through the fingers of time. If I ever hear Marvin Gaye’s duets with Tammi Terrell (‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, ‘Ain’t Nothing Lie The Real Thing’) again on stale, tired US Oldies radio, I think I’ll puke. I’m betting Sirius gives this one a spin occasionally though. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Tammi Terrell, but I really love Kim Weston. She had swagger and I had the hots for her as a teenager, saw her on one of those Dick Clark ‘Caravan Of Stars’ tour packages.

‘It Takes Two’ is also an oddly hard single to find, considering it reached #14 Pop in ’67. Hard to find in good condition that is. I didn’t pick it up on release, and only found a fairly clean copy a year or so back. Now one of my jukebox staples, I spent the day just hanging around the house, filing stacks of singles I picked up during the past two weeks busing around the States with Matt & Kim, playing it incessantly, pressing B9 every time I passed my trusty Seeburg.

Listen: Where The Action Is / Freddy Cannon FreddyCannonAction.mp3

Let’s face it. The theme song to ABC’s syndicated daily pop show, WHERE THE ACTION IS, titled ‘Action’ by Freddy Cannon, was so good, even The Ramones could have covered it.

I lived for WHERE THE ACTION IS and saw many a great act each day after school. Our local Syracuse affiliate, WSYR-TV, was wishy-washy, and many times pre-empted it with other things. Looking over the complete, chronological list of episodes and guests, I’ve only just discovered missing Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours, The Action and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich for just that reason. Indeed, I’m a bit crushed having now discovered these atrocities. Scumbags.

But seeing an LA centric act almost daily, given they were basically down the street from the studios, must have been daily bliss. To name a few: The Guillteens, The Ikettes with and without Ike & Tina Turner, The Vejtables, The Leaves, The Seeds, Gary & The Hornets, Love, Dino Desi & Billy, The Buffalo Springfield, Jan & Dean.

Not to mention the RnB stuff: Martha & The Vandellas, Doris Troy, The Royalettes, Mary Wells, Brenda Holloway, The Toys, Maxine Brown, Kim Weston, Carla Thomas, Billy Stewart, Bobby Hebb, Alvin Cash & The Crawlers or Felice Taylor. I still replay The Vibrations doing ‘My Girl Sloopy’ vividly in my memory.

Then there were the black and white segments from England, a real high for we Anglophiles: The Small Faces, Gary Farr & The T-Bones, Them, The Mindbenders, The Zombies, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, Unit 4 + 2, The Who, Wayne Fontana, Marianne Faithfull, The Yardbirds and The Cryin’ Shames.