Listen: Bird Bath / The M.G.M. Studio Orchestra
Bird

The Mercury/Philips/Fontana labels were, in my opinion, secretly the best when it came to 60′s soundtracks. The industry elite likely considered United Artists or MGM to be the cream, but I just don’t think so. Those labels were outlets for their sister film divisions, so for quantity, they far outdid the Mercury group, but not quality.

Like Fontana’s BLACK ORPHEUS, the Mercury soundtrack to the Elizabeth Taylor / Richard Burton clunker THE SANDPIPER is slammed full of period piece background music, almost generically perfect for any B movie all nighter. In fact, despite the film being an MGM release, my guess is the loud thud of the movie’s flop meant their record division hot potatoed the soundtrack. What a God-send for Mercury.

And seriously, this Quincy Jones produced album is all over the map. In fact, via liner notes from the hand of composer Johnny Mandel himself, he intentionally attempted to accomplish something different in soundtrack music, wherein the “wildest possible variety of sounds and tempo….the surf, the grandeur of the mountains, the beauty of the land” were rolled into one whopping must of a vinyl album, not omitting the ultimate schlock standard ‘Shadow Of Your Smile’ along the way.

But it’s the closing track, and miraculously the 7″ single choice, ‘Bird Bath’ that takes the cake and really makes no sense in the context of all the other songs. Bordering on teen beat, late 50′s style, this was beautifully out of step by it’s release in ’65.

Why on earth did anyone at Mercury think this would get airplay and be a hit? Well, whoever made that decision, I sure would like to thank them. ‘Bird Bath’ is magic.

Listen: Blues, Early Early (Part 1) /Big Maybelle Smith
Blues,

Okay, so Big Maybelle deservedly received a Grammy Hall Of Fame Award in 1999. Commendable gesture, generous even, given the deciding NARAS members in no way were to blame for the obscurity she endured during her lifetime. And to be fair, they clearly knew she earned such a recognition.

But Big Maybelle really did get shafted in her day. For instance, in ’55 she recorded ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On’, produced by Quincy Jones, a solid two years before Jerry Lee Lewis’ version. Both were full throttle rockin’, but being black of course meant the white guy got the airplay.

Her run with Savoy Records lasted between ’57 – ’61, and even in her professional lifetime, only ever released one single, ‘Blues, Early Early (Part 1)’, oddly in the middle of her string with Savoy, as Big Maybelle Smith.

Laying my eyes on ‘Blues, Early Early (Part 1)’ gave me a tingly jolt I will take to my deathbed. Was I frozen in that spot the moment I stumbled on it? Take a guess.

Mike Goldsmith rang me late one Friday night. He was jonsing to do some record digging, suggesting we hit random spots on Long Island that next day. I agreed. Somehow he’d sussed a comic book store that stocked records and so we leisurely dropped by. Holy whatever. The owner had stumbled on a radio station find. His store, including the backroom, was brimming, more liken heaving, with the most obscure promos I have truly ever seen in one place. Clearly a mainstream dealer had combed them first, leaving behind what was unfamiliar. Fine. Thank you God.

I picked up easily five hundred 7′s, hitting the cash machine several times. All in original sleeves. Note the period brown, ribbed, fold over bottom on this particular copy as proof.

And all mint. We were both experiencing tremors that cocaine crack can’t touch.

Miracles happen.

Listen: Money Is / Little Richard
Money Is / Little Richard

How do you take a period piece blaxploitation style soundtrack composition, and make a proper song out of it, one that might actually get heard and become a radio hit? In the case of turning ‘Money Runner’ (below) into ‘Money Is’ (above): bring up the electric guitar chords, the love hangover Rhodes keys and add a RnR legend. Voilà.

Oh, don’t forget one other ingredient. Quincy Jones. Check out his discography sometime. How did he do it all….and when? Did this guy ever sleep?

I bet there’s recordings so obscure, so off his radar, even he doesn’t remember. Troll through your old Mercury soundtracks some time. Or just check credits on Mercury releases from the mid 60′s. Start with Lesley Gore.

Not until filing stuff from last summer’s trip to London did it even come to my attention he’d worked with Little Richard at all. It’s constantly a mad dash against time, sorting through piles of promos every trip to Graham Stapleton’s basement shop in Fulham. I just end up grabbing, then reading the fine print a later.

Listen: Money Runner / Quincy Jones
Money Runner / Quincy Jones

Incidental music for films, many times more experimental and mesmerizing than those intended works meant to push the envelope could ever be. The rare talent of turning actions into sounds, like the ending of ‘Money Runner’, is what separates us common people from Quincy Jones.

I never saw the film, but it sure sounds like a heist to me.

Listen: Je Na Sais Plus (You Don’t Own Me) / Lesley Gore LesleyFrench.mp3

Truth be told, I try to visit most of the blogs linked on the right pretty much everyday. For one reason or the other, there’s usually something that sparks me to pull out a record or two for a listen in most of ‘em. One of my religious reads is Pop Wars. Well, my friends for um, 30 years or so write it, and they saved SO MANY RECORDS SO LITTLE TIME when I was using Blogspot and overloading their system or something with mp3′s, crashing my browser and a bunch of reader’s browsers as well. Panic. Bless them, they set up this .com, and I’ve never needed to look back.

A few posts ago, Pop Wars linked a youtube clip of Lesley Gore. I’d often thought about posting some of her singles, but was always baffled, there are so many great ones – how do I pick. I pull one, then say no, this would be better. It all goes on for a few minutes and I end up too daunted and move on down the rack. Well with that clip of ‘You Don’t Own Me’ reminding me again of Lesley Gore, I suddenly had the perfect excuse to post: share the French version with everyone. For some reason, they didn’t include it on the superb IT’S MY PARTY – THE MERCURY ANTHOLOGY. The 2 cds are so full of hits that scraping the barrel was nowhere near necessary. Get a copy before cds disappear completely.

How the hell I ended up taking a chance on this as it sat side by side next to the well known English language hit version on the rack at Smith’s Records is actually coming back to me. I was still in my single digits and had but a mere dollar per week allowance – which meant one single every seven days. The week before, I’d gotten the picture sleeved version of ‘You Don’t Own Me’, that I vividly remember. Therefore I couldn’t NOT complete the set. That’s called something nowadays, obsessive compulsive or ADD or whatever – and there are pills for it. Maybe I should get some, as I seriously do plan on becoming a pill freak once I retire. Sit around medicated all day, playing singles til they carry me out on a stretcher. As for that French version, well I sure am glad now that I sprung the buck for it back in ’64.

Listen: Immortality / Lesley Gore LesleyGoreImmortality.mp3

Hard to believe, but Quincy Jones produced many, possibly all of her Mercury hits. Yeah, the same guy who did, well hundreds of amazing records like THRILLER even. I prefer his Lesley Gore stuff still.

Long after her early/mid 60′s teen stardom faded, she was, without warning in ’75, back on A&M with a new single and album. What!

This was all quite exciting for me – I realized the childhood crush on her still had a heartbeat. Proceeding to play ‘Immortality’ a lot on my college radio shows – it clearly sounded plenty weird mixed in with all the other rock stuff of the day. Made my obsession for the obscure English groups suddenly more tolerable I’m sure.

I wanted it to be a hit bad – she even reunited with Quincy Jones for the project. I guess I was about the only guy playing it, but unfortunately to a handful of pot smokers who’d actually listen to our little hobby of a radio station, hence sales were not triggered.

Listen: It’s My Party / Lesley Gore LesleyParty.mp3

We had a Christmas lunch today, but friends actually started showing up around 10AM. I find the simplest background music solution for these gatherings to be Music Choice, part of the Time Warner cable selections. Our setup spans the kitchen, den, living room, basically the ground floor, so everyone’s covered. For the more hardcore, it’s off to a whole ‘nother part of the house with the turntables, jukebox, record library, memoribilia, the works, but I digress.

Back at the main floor party, the 60′s channel got everyone’s vote. It was a nice if predictable mix, nothing obscure that might put off a WalMart shopper of course. On comes ‘It’s My Party’. The mood turned up a notch. An all time favorite combined with champagne at 11AM did the trick. Seriously, she sounded great, and I’d been forever meaning to spin some of her 7′s lately. Having spent the last few days trying to file a couple thousand singles that have just enveloped my existence, I happened on a nice original UK A label from Tony’s collection of ‘It’s My Party’ – a repeat play was in order.

Listen: She’s A Fool / Lesley Gore LesleyFool.mp3

I keep forgetting that the first 1/3 or so of her Mercury hits were produced by Quincy Jones just after he took over the NY Mercury offices in ’64 (Shelby Singleton and Bob Crewe divided up the last 2/3′s pretty evenly).

Yes, that Quincy Jones. If you want your mouth to drop and eyes to bug, check out his discography. A cat does not have this many lives. There’s hardly a bad one in the bunch.

‘She’s A Fool’ rivaled ‘It’s My Party’ as my favorite for ages. I’d forgotten the autographed sleeve Howard got me one time. Apparently she visited a friend at CBS often back when he was there.

Listen: Money Runner / Quincy Jones QuincyMoneyRunner.mp3

His many accomplishments included writing and producing some 33 film scores and soundtracks. I’d bet that number is even higher, but even if it’s not, wow, can you imagine? Another of Tony’s singles that almost got filed, but instead has been played about 20 times, is ‘Money Runner’ from the ’71 film/soundtrack THE HEIST. Quincy Jones even dipped his toe into Blaxploitation, with a bit of ‘Shaft’ mixed in. It was this year’s Christmas Day favorite.

Will Lord Warddd play it at Brooklyn Bowl on January 1?