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.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

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

WHAT HATH PRO TOOLS WROUGHT?

"Bomba atomica! Emergencia grande!" That's what an old co-worker of mine would say, anytime something was urgent. It's what went through my head tonight when, out of curiosity, I clicked on a remix of the Ronettes' "Be My Baby." It was one of the most ill advised pieces of knob tweaking that my ears have ever been subjected to. Now, I don't want to bag on the remixer, or the hosting blog. In fact, the blog that posted it is a good one that I've linked to in the past, and I'm sure I will again. But not tonight. Because this was one of those "forgive them for they know not what the fuck they do" moments (to paraphrase a line I learned in church). I consider myself as open minded as the next guy, but I'm thinking this remixing stuff is going a little too far when people start fucking with the Wall of Sound. And that's not the purist part of me. That's the "don't fuck with it if you can't do more then put a bangin' bass beat to it" side of me. I went looking for a chaser. I'll gush about the Ronettes at length at a later date, but let me just say that "Be My Baby" is a masterpiece. It does what is nearly impossible. It makes it seem as if all in the world is as close to right as it's going to get, at least from just listening to a song. At the very least, it makes your day better. Today, it did much more than that for me. It made me forget that godawful remix. (I'm not posting a link to the remix, because it wouldn't serve any purpose. And I like the blog that it's on, so I don't want to be a jerk, which I kinda am already.)

Here's a couple songs, and videos (and don't fuck with these, unless you're the Beach Boys). Check the '83 footage from Letterman (link below), Ronnie Spector singing "Be My Baby." This later version makes it apparent how much of the feel of the song was her lead vocal. One part that really, really, gets me, is at 1:46, but don't start there. Get into the song and wait for it. Donna Summer can't do on an album side, what that five seconds does. Then, in the video from 2007, at 2:13, there she goes again! She's killin' me!

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Ronettes - Be My Baby mp3 at Aziz is Bored
The Ronettes - Baby, I Love You .mp3 at The Merry Swankster
The Ronettes - I Can Hear Music .mp3 at M.Brown
The Beach Boys - I Can Hear Music .mp3 at Cold Splinters
The Ronettes - Here I Sit (1976) mp3 at Probe Is Turning -On the People
The Ronettes - Silhouettes mp3 at The Doo Wop Jukebox
Video:
Ronnie Spector,- Be My Baby (Letterman, 1983) at YouTube
Ronnie Spector - Be My Baby (Live, 2007) at YouTube
Visit:
Be My Baby at Wikipedia

MY KIND OF COUGAR

If that photo above doesn't stir something up in you, you're either not into style, good music, or insanely cool women. Regardless, you had better know that it's Ronnie Spector. You may have already heard that she recently released a cover of Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," as a tribute (digital format only, damn it). For you cynics, it's not the opportunistic move that you might think. It was already in her regular set for the past few years. So, she's a long time listener, but not a first time caller. In the newest Mojo magazine, she wrote a sidebar tribute to Winehouse, and in it she says that the first time she heard "Rehab," she had to pull her car over to listen to it. Anyway, the proceeds go to Daytop Village, a NYC substance abuse center. It was produced by Richard Gottehrer, who produced the first Blondie LP (among others), and is a former member of the Strangeloves, the group that did the original version of "I Want Candy." (Did you really need to know that? No, but I'm flexing nerd muscle here.) So, here's some Ronettes, a duet with Joey Ramone, a link to the cover of "Back to Black" streaming, and a crappy quality video of her performing it live.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Ronettes - Be My Baby mp3 at The Pop Cop
The Ronettes - Baby, I Love You mp3 at Merry Swankster
The Ronettes - How Does It Feel mp3 at DJ No DJ
The Ronettes - I Can Hear Music mp3 at MBrown
The Ronettes - Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Ronnie Spector & Joey Ramone - Bye Bye Baby mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Ronnie Spector - Back to Black (streaming) at Rolling Stone
Video:
Ronnie Spector - Back to Black at YouTube
Visit:
Ronnie Spector - Official site

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