DUSTY THE SELECTER

Okay, so I'm watching the beginning of some movie and it's sizing up to be not my kind of film. Just before I was getting ready to shut it off, Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" kicks in, That was an hour ago and I can't get the damn song out of my head. It's is a good song, if a little over dramatic. Maybe that's what I like about it. Those English women pop singers could be super polished at times, with big ol' orchestras going on. I've always lumped her with Lulu and Petula Clark in that regard. I'm sure in other places there were Sandie Shaw and others, but my introduction to these singers came from U.S. top 40 radio, and those were the three with hits over here.

When I was looking for photos, I came across the one above. What was Dusty Springfield listening to? The only possible clue is the LP in her hand. Curious, and up to a challenge, I opened up my antiquated Photo-Paint program and fucked with the perspective of the image. The result is below. Bob-B-Soxx and the Blue Jeans' "Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah", a Phil Spector/Wrecking Crew joint. Dig Billy Strange's solo at 1:27. Yee haw.

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Listen:

Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me mp3 at Blognoblat (?)
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans - Zip A Dee Doo Dah mp3 at Beware of the Blog

SUGAR PIE AND HER HEAVY FRIENDS

Oh holy hell. A random click at Boogaloo Time, landed me on an awesome selection of songs on a post titled Hey Soul Sister. It's just what it implies. Heavy on Northern soul, including a Spector produced Darlene Love cut, "Lord If You're a Woman", best described as "'Wall of Motown' looked good on paper". Though not as epic as Spector probably imagined, it's a great cut.

Now for something that will make your hair stand on end. Did for me. There's a transition in the Sugar Pie Desanto song, "Do the Whoopie", where she ends a verse with a scream and her voice cracks, followed two seconds later with a honking sax solo. Even the short two seconds between the two fits in a micro drum break. Bliss. But don't skip ahead, it's much better if you're already locked in the groove. It's at :51.

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Listen:
Darlene Love - Lord If You're a Woman mp3 at Boogaloo Time
Sugar Pie DeSanto - Do the Whoopie mp3 at Boogaloo Time
Hey Soul Sister - Eight more songs at Boogaloo Time

LEAVE THAT OUT OF THE BIO

Here's an oddball you may not have heard, Bonnie Jo Mason's "Ringo, I Love You", released in 1964, obviously a Beatles cash-in. Mason, who's real name was Cherilyn La Piere, was seventeen years old at the time, four years after the mug shot above was taken. I have no idea what she was popped for, but any thirteen year old with a mug shot automatically qualifies for junior delinquent cred.

The song is notable for a couple reasons. One is that it is a Phil Spector production, without his trademark Wall of Sound, but presumably with the Wrecking Crew, because that's who he was using at the time, and those guys could play anything, so if Spector ordered up beat group, beat group is what he got. The other notable thing is that Bonnie Jo Mason, a name thought up by Spector, was such a lame stage name for a Beatles cash-in that it's pretty obvious Spector was working out of his safety zone. La Piere would find a great deal more success shortly after the record was released, when she changed her name back to her real name, Cher.

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Listen:
Bonnie Jo Mason - Ringo, I Love You (streaming) at YouTube
Cher - Bang Bang mp3 at Blue-Lights

DARLENE LOVE ALERT

I can really do without a lot of the Christmas bullshit. All the running around, list checking, requisite shopping, face stuffing; it gets old, particularly when you see people just lapping it up, full bore, with money flying all over the place. Before you start muttering "bah humbug", let me fill you in. It's not cynicism, it's stepping back and taking stock at what's become of us. When you look at it objectively, we've all been programmed since we were toddlers that this is the time of year to blow our collective wads. So much so, that if you don't fall into line, you're urged to "get into the spirit". WTF? Count me out, stick your red bow where the sun don't shine.

Love on her way to rehearsal, yesterday.

That said, there is a huge counterpoint that is hard for me to aptly explain. Darlene Love. Outside of seeing my family, her annual appearance on Letterman singing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" is the highlight of my holidays. Sounds crazy, I know. You wouldn't believe it, I turn into a choked up old softy. I can't really explain it. There are a number of reasons but it still doesn't add up. Love has performed the song on Letterman's show every year since 1986 (with the exception of one year when the performance was a rerun due to a Writers Guild strike). In the earliest appearances, it was just a small band behind her, but year after year more musicians and background singers were added. Strings, brass, bells, choir, the whole thing.

Jack Nitzsche, Darlene Love, Phil Spector

If you're familiar with the original song, you know that it was produced by Phil Spector, a classic example of his Wall of Sound, arranged by Jack Nitzshe, and utilizing demigods of the studio, the Wrecking Crew. That's part of what makes these performances so special. Putting together a band of this size, with all of the assorted components on the original, is no easy feat. Doing it while trying to replicate the actual sound and arrangement of the original is even harder. But because the song is rehearsed and performed every year with many of the same players, they have it down. To top it off, Love's voice has aged well, sounding much the same as it did on her original version recorded over fifty years ago.

This years performance on Letterman is tonight, and it's bittersweet. Letterman is retiring and this will be her last appearance on the show. It'll be all over the internet tomorrow, but in the meantime, check the video mash up of past appearances above, and watch it until the end. The montage of Letterman greeting Love over the years is heartwarming (did I just say that?). For a chuckle, check the video linked below, a claymation video of her singing "Christmastime For Jews", an old short from Saturday Night Live.

Update, 12/20: Here's the clip from last night (click on the photo above).

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Listen:

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu

Darlene Love - White Christmas mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu

Darlene Love - Winter Wonderland mp3 at Celebration of

Watch:

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (2013 performance) at YouTube

Darlene Love - Christmastime For Jews at Vimeo

Visit:

Darlene Love's Last Letterman Christmas at New York Times

Darlene Love - Official site

Darlene Love at Wikipedia

WALL OF OUTTAKES

Aw shit, I'd bookmarked a link to a song and made the mistake of revisiting it. The result: tonight's rabbit hole, a single song, but one of the most storied songs in pop music history; "River Deep Mountain High", by Ike and Tina Turner, the last thing Phil Spector produced before his long drawn out descent into wigs. 

The song was written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, and Spector, specifically for Tina Turner to sing. It's a combination of three unfinished songs, one from each co-writer, The record itself, produced by Spector and arranged by Jack Nitzsche, was one of Spector's big ass Wall of Sound recordings, utilizing twenty members of the Wrecking Crew, among them Carol Kaye, Leon Russell, Barney Kessell, Glen Campbell, and Earl Palmer and/or Hal Blaine (both have been credited for the drums). It cost $22,000 to record, and $20,000 went to Ike Turner to stay away from the sessions. Really. Even a crazy pop genius knew to avoid that conflict. Hence, Ike Turner's co-credit as performer, even though he had no participation in it whatsoever.

The cover of the LP that contained the song featured photography by Dennis Hopper. I'd never looked closely, but according to Bob Krasnow, then president of Blue Thumb Records, the background is actually a billboard for a movie, the shot taken at a sign company. 

There's some outtakes from the sessions below, and if you let them roll, you'll hear between take booth talk ("Jack, you don't have a more substantial tambourine out there, do you?"), instruments as they're being added, the surprisingly simple bass lines of Carol Kaye, and cowbell. There's also a later Wall of Sound-less version by Ike and Tina Turner, and a few covers. (Dig the brass band version by the Peace Artistes.) If you still want more there's the promo film from back in the day.

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Listen: 
Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High mp3 at Ahangbaz.org (?) cleanest rip
Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High mp3 at Corky (just in case)
Outtakes:

Outtake 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 at Tina Turner blog

Covers:

Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High (later version) mp3 at Connect 4 Education

Deep Purple - River Deep Mountain High (streaming) at YouTube Over ten minutes, vocals show up after the four minute mark.

The Supremes and the Four Tops - River Deep Mountain High mp3 at SD Network Status (?)

The Saints - River Deep Mountain High (streaming) at YouTube

The Peace Artistes - River Deep Mountain High mp3 at Relevant Music

Video:

Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High (promo) at YouTube 1966

THE BEHIND THE SCENES QUEEN

So, there I was in the maternity ward, visiting my ex-steady (and still very special friend), her parents, and her newborn daughter, Elizabeth. Talk came to the chosen shortened version, Ellie, and what notable Ellies there have been. That's a tough one, right? Not for me. I came up with exactly one, Ellie Greenwich. Greenwich was a singer, songwriter and a producer, best known for the songs she wrote with Jeff Barry, as part of that Brill Building mob, many recorded by artists on Phil Spector's roster. With Barry and Phil Spector, she wrote "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You" (recorded by the Ronettes), "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Doo Ron Ron" (the Crystals), "Not Too Young To Get Married" (Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans), and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (Darlene Love). Greenwich and Barry then went on to write "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", "Hanky Panky" (which they recorded as the Raindrops, three years prior to Tommy James and the Shondells' hit version), and with Shadow Morton wrote "Leader of the Pack" (the Shangrilas). They ended their on again-off again partnership with Spector, penning "I Can Hear Music" (the Ronettes, the Beach Boys) and "River Deep and Mountain High" (Ike and Tina Turner). Mind you, this is just a fraction of the songs written by the Greenwich/Barry partnership. Check Greenwich's page at the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and hold on to your skull.

Somewhere in there she found the time to discover a kid named Neil Diamond, and produce and sing background vocals on his "Cherry Cherry", "Solitary Man", and "Kentucky Woman". She did all of this and still somehow managed to find the time to look really cool.

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Listen:
Ellie Greenwich (as Ellie Gee) - Red Corvette mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People 
The Raindrops (Greenwich and Barry) - Hanky Panky mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Crystals - Da Doo Run Run at Jordan Hatch
The Shangrilas - Leader of the Pack mp3 at Jordan Hatch
The Ronettes - I Can Hear Music mp3 at Mercury Paradise
The Beach Boys - I Can Hear Music mp3 at Cold Splinters
Ike and Tina Turner - River Deep Mountain High mp3 at Jordan Hatch
Visit:
Ellie Greenwich at Wikipedia
Ellie Greenwich biography at Songwriters Hall of Fame
Ellie Greenwich song list at Songwriters Hall of Fame
Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry at Songwriters Hall of Fame

DARLENE LOVE ALERT

Here's another dependable holiday standby, Darlene Love, doing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)".  She performs it every year on Late Night With David Letterman, on the Friday before Christmas, this year falling on Friday, December 20, as in tomorrow (or today, depending on when you're reading this). This will be her twenty seventh year doing it. You should check it out. It's as close to seeing an ersatz Wall of Sound, playing live, as you'll get, particularly one with an original Spector affiliated singer, using the original arrangement. It's great. Cynicism takes three minutes off.

December 2012

It came out fifty years ago, on a compilation called A Christmas Gift For You From Phillies Records, an LP that consisted of all new recordings, all produced by Phil Spector, and all backed by the Wrecking Crew. Love's song was the only non-standard, written specifically for the album by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and Phil Spector. It was released the day Kennedy was shot, and the nation wasn't all that interested. But over time, that LP has become a whopper.

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Listen:

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) mp3 at Stereogum Mono

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) mp3 at AM Then FM Simulated stereo

Visit:
A Christmas Gift For You From Phillies Records at Wikipedia

EVEN HIS NAME IS COOL

Billy Strange, besides having one of the greatest names ever to appear on album credits, was one helluva guitarist, capable of playing just about any type of music. He put out quite a few solo albums, but his bread and butter was as a session guitarist, notably as a member of the Wrecking Crew. As a member of said crew, you can probably guess that he played on Spector records. He's also played on sessions for Wanda Jackson, Billy Lee Riley, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Ventures (?!), Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Elvis...you get the idea (partial discography linked below).

I'd been meaning to throw some Billy Strange stuff up here, but finding stuff online is hit and miss. I checked in again today, and hit topical pay dirt, in the theme from The Munsters, one of my personal favorites. (And, because it was a Munsters song, I had me a Halloween tie-in.) Dig how the drunk sounding horn section comes in, at :34 in the song. I also ran into a 1952 solo record, "Hell Train," with him singing! (If you're at all into Billy Strange, you know that the vast majority of his stuff is instrumental). I included the Spector produced Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans' "Zip A Dee Doo Dah," because the short fuzzed out solo of his at 1:26 is what first put him on the map for me. (That was a long time ago, pre-internet, so all I had to go on was album credits.) There's also a couple of other train songs down there, both featuring him on acoustic. Country pickin' seemed to be his preference, but he could play just about anything. His records are pretty common in cheapo LP bins. I recommend the non-country, because...well, they're a little weirder.

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Listen:
Billy Strange - The Munsters Theme mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Billy Strange - Hell Train (1952) mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans - Zip A Dee Doo Dah mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Billy Strange - This Train mp3 at TommyMarkham.com
Billy Strange - The Wreck of the Old 97 mp3 at TommyMarkham.com
Video:
Billy Strange conducting a Sinatra session, with Lee Hazelwood in the booth
Visit:
Billy Strange Official site
Billy Strange message forums
Billy Strange discography (partial, but immense nonetheless)
Billy Strange at Wikipedia
Other Wrecking Crew related posts:
How Was Work Today?
You're My Liner Note Hero

PARTY PLANNERS ALERT

The holiday cash-in shit is pretty thick, though it's pretty much always been that way in music. I wonder what it would be like if every artist who has ever cut a holiday song or album, instead chose a different unifying theme. Let's just say, I don't know, trees, or birds, or even a different day, maybe the first day of summer. Really, it's kind of a moot point, because there have been a gazillion songs written about everything so chances are that there are a whole bunch already about trees, birds, the first day of summer and everything else. They're just not packaged, and marketed as such, and pushed during a particular time of year. That may explain why there's so much holiday shake on music blogs this time of year. (Plus, people eat that shit up, so...)

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If you are into holiday music (disclosure: I'm ambivalent/suspect), some holiday albums are pretty much essential. Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift For You" is one that should be in every cane-head's quiver. You should already know it: Darlene Love, the Ronettes, the Crystals and Bob B Soxx and the Blue Jeans doing straight-up Wall of Sound versions of classics. Here's the Ronette's "Frosty the Snowman" and Darlene's goosebump inducing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)."

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The Black Crowes have a pretty decent version of "Backdoor Santa". (The original by Clarence Carter was sampled on Run DMC's "Christmas in Hollis"). No idea of the details as the mp3 is buried of a fan site, the content of which I'm hesitant to wade through. (They're just a little too close to the whole Grateful Dead type fanaticism for me to go through all sorts of live shit.) But the bitchen horns reminded me of the Daptone horns, so it lead to a search for Daptone related holiday music. I quickly found Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings "Ain't Chimney's in the Projects." And serendipity struck, on the same post was a Julian (ex-Strokes) Casablancas version of the endearingly silly Saturday Night Live classic "I Wish It Was Christmas Today."

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Though this may be sacrilegious to some, there's a remix of Billie Holiday's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" by some hooligan named Yesking, who has dropped a rocksteady rhythm over the original. Verve has allowed their catalog of classics to be pillaged for a handful of remix compilations and the results are always sketchy, but at least this one answers the question "Could Billie Holiday have cut it in mid-sixties Jamaica?"

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Another unlikely DJ JA mix comes courtesy of Go Home Productions' mash up of the Carpenters "Sleighride" with reggae backing legends Roots Radics. GHP is DJ Mark Vidler, whose Archies/Velvet Underground mash-up still gets laughs in these parts. Speaking of reggae, here's a bizarre treatment of the fatman by Lee "Scratch" Perry. Posted here for reggae curiosity seekers only (sorry to say, this madcap's best days are behind him as this pales next to his legendary work from the 70's).

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More later if I get all of my running around done...

The Ronettes - Frosty the Snowman mp3 at Bag of Songs

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) mp3 at Stereogum

The Black Crowes - Backdoor Santa mp3 at Crowesbase

Clarence Carter - Backdoor Santa mp3 at The Accordion Guy's

Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis mp3 at the Source

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - There Ain't No Chimneys in the Projects mp3 at Stereogum

Julian Casablancas - I Wish It Was Christmas Today mp3 at Stereogum

Billie Holiday - I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (Yesking Remix) mp3 with other remixes of Count Basie and Shirley Horn at Life Signs Project

Go Home Productions - Carpenters Christmas (Carpenters meet Roots Radics) mp3 at Bag of Songs

Lee Perry - Santa Claus mp3 at Stereogum