Tag Archives: Edwin Starr

Beat ’66 Show #2 – The Blurb
14
Jan

These Sleeve Notes refer to the second Beat Sixty-Six podcast which you can download by clicking

A new show will go up every Thursday throughout 2016, with the sleeve notes following by the Saturday.

You can follow Beat City on Twitter here:

Follow Beat City on Twitter

NANCY SINATRA “These Boots Are Made For Walking”

This track entered the US Top 100 early in January 1966 and would become one of the biggest records of the year, and one of the most lasting, from Nancy Sinatra

Still sounds so fresh, so sassy and so damn sexy after all this time.

Nancy Sinatra’s breakthrough and biggest hit These Boots Are Made For Walking.

If you’re on Twitter she’s well worth following, very human and very smart,follows everyone back (unless you’re a total knob) and is one of the nicest, least pretentious celebs on there.

Follow Nancy Sinatra on Twitter

THE STRANGELOVES “Night Time”

Second highest chart placing in the US for the Strangeloves

Next The Strangeloves who consisted of producers Bob Feldma,Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer but were promoted as being three Australian sheep-farming brothers named Giles, Miles and Niles Strange.

Their biggest hit was “I Want Candy” which has been much covered over the years but this one, Night Time, is just as good and has also been covered notably by George Thorogood & The Destroyers and, in quite an authentic garagey manner, Bauhaus.

MARTHA REEVES & THE VANDELLAS “My Baby Loves Me”

Everything you could possibly want to know about this record can be found by clicking Motown Junkies on Martha Reeves & The Vandellas ‘My Baby Loves Me’

EDWIN STARR – Stop Her On Sight ( S O S)

A slightly bigger hit in the UK (35) than in the US (48) – the B side “I Have Faith In You” is just as good:

THE SUNRAYS “Andrea”

Originally known as the Renegades and playing rock and roll covers, the Sunrays’ career took of in 1964 when Murry Wilson, the father of Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, started managing them, tweaked the personel a little (removing the sax player) and changed their name to The Sunrays.

As well as Andrea their hits included “I Live for the Sun” (1965) (below) and “Still”.

They supported the Beach Boys on several US tours, but never made it big as their sounds were probably a little bit too similar …

BEACH BOYS “Barbara Ann”

Dean Torrence from the group Jan & Dean sang lead on this song of teenage desire.

Capitol Records released this without telling the band. The Beach Boys were trying to gain credibility as a serious musical act, and didn’t want to put out such a simplistic song.

The release date may have been influenced by the first appearance of heartthrob actress and model Barbara Anne Feldon as Agent 99 on the TV show “Get Smart”.

A bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara-Ann (probably THE bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara Ann)

A bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara-Ann (probably THE bar-bar-bar-bar-Barbara Ann)

Here’s the Regents’ original version, with harmonies the Beach Boys replicated, complete with kazoo, which they very sensibly didn’t.

DELROY WILSON “Dancing Mood”

Delroy Wilson was the first child star of the Jamaican music scene, cutting his first records in 1962 for Sir Coxsone’s Studio One, including “Spit In The Sky”, one of many records made at Studio One attacking the rival Prince Buster (which to be fair was well reciprocated by Buster).

“Dancing Mood” is regarded as one of the very first rocksteady records (as opposed to the faster ska beat that ruled the island’s airwaves until then)

BUCK OWENS “Buckaroo”

Buck Owens, along with Merle Haggard, was the leader of the Bakersfield sound, a twangy, electricified, rock-influenced interpretation of hardcore honky tonk that emerged in the ’60s.

Owens was the first bona fide country star to emerge from Bakersfield, scoring a total of 15 consecutive number one hits in the mid-’60s. In the process, he provided an edgy alternative to the string-laden country-pop that was being produced during the ’60s.

Later in his career, his musical impact was forgotten by some as he became a television personality through the country comedy show Hee Haw.

Nevertheless, several generations of musicians — from Gram Parsons in the late ’60s to Dwight Yoakam in the ’80s — were influenced by his music, which wound up being one of the blueprints for modern country music.

This track, the instrumental “Buckaroo” (named after his backing band The Buckaroos who were named in turn by Merle Haggard), was his fourth country No 1 in the USA as the year turned from 1965 to 1966. The Byrds did a cover of it but I wont lie to you, its not their best work. Seekit out if you absolutely MUST, but I’m not going to enable you by giving you the link. Sorry.

This was the B-side – “If You Want A Love”, a standard country number that benefits from Buck’s straight-ahead, unsentimental delivery. It’s not the most innovative music in the world, but you wouldn’t turn it off either.

And if That ain’t enough country for ya, here’s a live version of Buck’s huge crossover hit from the previous year “Love’s Gonna Live Here Again”.

Now skedaddle before I fill your pants full of lead.

THEM “Hello Josephine”

One of the better songs on “Them Again”, originally written and recorded by Fats Domino

LEE DORSEY “Get Out Of My Life Woman”

Written by Allen Toussaint who passed on recently – what with Lemmy on bass, Bowie on vocals and rhythm guitar, Allen Toussaint on piano and Alan Rickman introducing the band there’s pretty much a whole supergroup in the recent arrivals section of heaven just now.

The song has been sampled in excess of 150 times by such artists as Naz, Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, The Fugees, Beck and Compton’s Most Wanted (below)


JACKIE WILSON & LAVERN BAKER “Think Twice”

A minor hit, reaching no 93 in the Hot 100, there’s an intriguing “Version X” of this song that was never released for some strange reason. Warning – this is really filthy.

POETS “Baby Don’t You Do It”

On Immediate Records (the Small Faces’ lanel), Glasgow’s Poets released this astonishing freakbeat take on Marvin Gaye’s “Baby Don’t You Do It”.

It just builds and builds on what is a very simple riff and then takes off towards the end.

The B-Side “I’ll Come Home” is by contrast a jangly Beatles-style tune proving the Poets had more than one trick in their box.

SAM AND DAVE “You Don’t Know Like I Know”

This tune only just scraped into the Hot 100 but it was the start of a run of eight hits for Sam and Dave, a vocal match made in heaven with the gravelly baritone of Dave Prater the perfect counterpoint to tenor Sam Moore’s sweet tenor voice in the style of that other great sixties soul Sam (Cooke).

They were one of the most exciting live acts of the era, with a live act filled with animation, harmony and goodwill.

This was their first single for Stax from 1965, which inexplicably failed to trouble the charts, but its a great tune.

SMALL FACES “Sha-La-La-La-Lee”

After their second single “I’ve Got Mine” failed to build on the chart success of their debut “Whatcha Gonna Do About It?”, the Small Faces’ manager Don Arden brought in professional songwriters Mort Shuman and Kenny Lynch to write “Sha-La-La-La-Lee” for the band.

The Small Faces hated this song, and it did mark them down as a pop band rather than the R&B / soul band they in fact were (although there IS an absolutely cracking piano intro by Ian McLagan, almost hidden in the production).

It did get to number 3 in the British charts though, and those fans who flipped the disc were treated to a scorching instrumental (and the theme tune for Retro Beat ’66) “Grow Your Own”:

THE EYES “The Immediate Pleasure”

Evolved out of an instrumental band called The Renegades, and you can kind of hear that on this record, which would in fact stand on its own as an instrumental, with that descending guitar lead line.

The vocals almost act as an extra layer on top giving the whole thing a lot of depth

The band didn’t last beyond 1966 – recording an ill-advised tribute album to the Rolling Stones under the name The Pupils (geddit?) for some quick cash didn’t really help their credibility.

You can tell their hearts weren’t really in it, check this version of “19th Nervous Breakdown”.

BOBBY BLAND “I’m Too Far Gone To Turn Around”

It’s easy to come to the conclusion that by 1966 Bobby Bland’s classic R and B “big band” style sound was old hat but a look at the chart performance of his hits doesn’t really bear that out – sure, his days of hitting #1 in the US R&B chart were gone but his singles still regularly made the R&B Top 20 and the overall Hot 100, so he clearly had a strong and loyal fanbase.

The B-side “If You Could Read My Mind” is another clue as to why – a fairly ordinary MOR song and arrangement raised by Bobby’s sweet, sweet voice to another plane.

SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Look Away”

A brave choice for the opening track from the Spencer Davis Group’s “The Second Album” – rather than going with the hit single from the previous year “Keep On Running” they chose the tragic heartbreak tune “Look Away”, which it has to be said is a lot more typical of the album.

Another atypical track from the album is the country-style “This Hammer”

MARVIN GAYE “When I Had Your Love”

The B-side of “One More Heartache” which you can hear in either next week’s Retro Beat City or the week after, but I think this is actually a better track.

Incidentally, Marvin’s most recent album at that time (released in November 1965) was a tribute album to his hero Nat ‘King’ Cole who died the previous February. From it this is “Its Only A Paper Moon”

THE EASYBEATS “Sad And Lonely And Blue”

Among the recent losses in the world of music around the end of2015 / beginning of 2016 was Stevie Wright, singer with Australia’s finest group of the 60s, the Easybeats.

Click here for Stevie Wright’s obituary and ten of his greatest songs

There is a story about Good Times, that the first time he heard it, Paul McCartney pulled over and rang the radio station, asking them to play it again. Six months later, the Beatles released Get Back, which revolves around the same GDA progression.

FESTIVE FIFTY OF 1965 – Further Listening – Nos 20-11
5
Jan

Some further information and links on the tracks making up numbers 20 down to 11 in the Festive Fifty of 1965.

You can download the two=part podcast absolutely FREE here:

20. FREDDY CANNON “Action”

Freddy Cannon’s heyday was well behind him by 1965 but he still managed to put out the odd great record – so what if this is essentially a retread of his classic million seller “Way Down Yonder In New Orleans”?

19. THE GESTURES “Run Run Run”

Great things looked like they were on the cards for Minnesota’s The Gestures in their home state of Minnesota – “Run Run Run”, their only hit, was an effortless blend of British invasion beats into the northern US garage band palette.

But they only got to release one more single (“I’m Not Mad”) as their record company, a local outfit called Soma Records, found it impossible to compete with the big boys.

They recorded an album which is available to download and although it is chock full of cover versions that was pretty much standard in those days for everyone from the Beatles down.

Also there’s an eclectic choice of tracks (“Things We Said Today” in both vocal and instrumental versions, “Can I Get A Witness”, “Long Tall Texan”) that points to a band happy to wear their influences on their sleeve while maybe looking to blend them further on future recordings. Listening to it only emphasises what a damn shame it is that they didn’t get to make more music.

18. THE SAPPHIRES “Got To Have Your Love”

The Sapphires were a trio consisting of Carol Jackson, George Gainer, and Joe Livingston, although Kenny Gamble was also closely associated with the group very early in its history, arranging the vocals on their first album. The trio came out of Philadelphia in the early ’60s, where they were signed by producer Jerry Ross and initially released their songs on the Swan label.

The group’s first record was the romantic ballad “Where Is Johnny Now,” backed with “Your True Love.” The backing group for these and other early Philadelphia recordings by The Sapphires included Leon Huff and Thom Bell on keyboards, Bobby Eli on guitar, Joe Macho on bass, and Bobby Martin playing vibes. When this record failed to chart, Ross turned to Gamble for their next single, “Who Do You Love,” which reached number 25 on the pop charts. Their next single, “I Found Out Too Late,” failed to repeat that success, but its release was accompanied by the issue of the group’s first LP.

The Sapphires left Swan shortly after the release of a third single, “Gotta Be More Than Friends,” moving to ABC-Paramount in 1964, which also led to their recording in New York City. Perhaps not coincidentally, their first ABC single, “Let’s Break Up for a While,” had a sound reminiscent of the Drifters from this same era.

The group entered its most productive and musically ambitious period during late 1964. The Sapphires’ next single, “Thank You for Loving Me,” was written by the Brill Building talents of future Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

Their next single, “Gotta Have Your Love,” finally gave the group the second hit they’d been waiting for, with a smooth Motown-type sound and an infectious beat that helped carry it to number 33 on the R&B charts, with an appearance on the pop charts at number 77 in the spring of 1965.

The song also featured a trio of background vocalists who would go on to bigger things in the years to come: Valerie Simpson, Nick Ashford, and Melba Moore.

The group was never able to build on this record’s success, though not for lack of trying. Their next three singles, “Evil One,” (above), “Gonna Be a Big Thing,” and “Slow Fizz,” all had pleasing hooks and, in the latter case, a wonderfully danceable beat, but failed to sell. “Slow Fizz,” released in 1966, marked the end of their contract with ABC-Paramount, and the trio broke up soon after.

The Sapphires left behind an extraordinarily high-quality body of work, a match for anything Motown was releasing at the same time. Their lack of staying power on the charts can be attributed largely to many factors, including the vast array of competition from various soul acts at the time — had they maintained a somewhat more consistent sound, or broken nationally a little earlier with a slightly higher profile, they might have achieved the success they deserved. As it was, they left behind a very fine, occasionally stunning body of songs, and provided some valuable early experience for Gamble, Bell, and Huff.

17. GANTS “Road Runner”

There’s a terrific piece on Mississippi’s The Gants here

Expect to hear a few more Gants tunes here during the course of 2016 – (new show every Thursday from Jan 6th)

16. OTIS REDDING “R-E-S-P-E-C-T”

From the 1965 liner notes to “Otis Blue:Otis Redding Sings Soul” from which this, his signature track, is taken:

“Soul is a word that has many meanings. In the pop-R&B world of today it usually means an intensely dramatic performance by a singer, projected with such feeling that it reaches out and visibly moves the listener. It means that the singer is saying something, sometimes even more than the lyrics themselves might normally convey. Soul is not something that can be feigned – you either have it or you don’t. Otis Redding has it, to a degree almost unrivaled by any other young singer in sight”.

True dat. This is “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” from the same album.

15. JAMES PHELPS “Love Is A Five Letter Word”

Before his solo career, of which “Love Is A Five Letter Word” was the peak, took off, James Phelps was in the Soul Stirrers gospel group with Sam Cooke, and before THAT he was the lead voice with The Clefs Of Calvary. I’m not a religious man these days (thank God) but it’s hard to listen to this and not feel that there’s a higher power at work. The two songs featured here are “Wait A Little Longer” and “Father Forgive Them” (from 1961)

14. THE McCOYS “Hang On Sloopy”

Ah the “Louie Louie” riff (1-4-5 if you’re a muso) – so many songs on this chord structure, especially in the garageland of the sixties. The McCoys hit huge with this song which reached #1 all over the world, and for the follow-up basically played the same chords under a cover of Peggy Lee’s “Fever” which surprisingly reached #7 and even more surprisingly was pretty good.

13. DOBIE GRAY “The ‘In’ Crowd”

Strange records this, if you think about it. Sure, its one of the best-known mod / Northern Soul anthems but it’s just a bit too slow for a backflip surely? And I’ve always been fascinated by the use of quotes around the word ‘In’ in the title. Surely they can’t be ironic? It would put a completely different spin on this song if it was being sung ironically.

This is Dobie Gray’s earlier hit, an actual dance record instead of one that comments on the “scene”.

12. THE BYRDS “Mr Tambourine Man”

Bob Dylan’s lyrics are wonderfully esoteric and opaque but it seems this song is actually about Greenwich Village folk guitarist Bruce Langhorne who “had this gigantic tambourine, It was,like,really big. As big as a wagon wheel. The vision of him just stuck in my mind. Disappearing through the smoke rings in my mind, that’s not drugs. Drugs were never that big a thing with me”.

The Byrds recorded this after an early Beatles soundalike single “Don’t Be Long” (below) / “Please Let Me Love You” had flopped. With “Mr Tambourine Man” they fused the folk style of Bob Dylan with the British Invasion sound.

The final recorded version features no contributions from any Byrd apart from Roger McGuinn’s iconic 12-string Rickenbacker solo, but that is enough to cement the Byrds’ sound for five years or more, and also to create a stepping-stone on the path to indie rock many years later.

However, most musical innovations of the 60s go back to one place, and McGuinn has generously admitted the debt he owes to George Harrison (who playes a similar guitar all the way through the movie “A Hard Day’s Night”)

11. EDWIN STARR “Agent Double O Soul”

First single and the first hit for Edwin Starr (making #21 on the Billboard chart).

He settled in the UK from the early seventies and if you look at the man’s grave (in West Bridgford cemetery in Nottingham) you can see how important this song was to him:

The follow-up “Back Street” deserved more than peaking at #95:

Follow Beat City on Twitter

Beat City on Facebook