Off Beat - Tell Laura I Love Her

Earlier this week, while showcasing Leader of the Pack, we talked about the musical genre of "death discs". There's no better example than Tell Laura I Love Her. Singer Ray Peterson had an American hit with the tune in 1960, while Ricky Valence took it to #1 in the UK later the same year.

Ray Peterson's claim to fame prior to 1960 was a little song called The Wonder of You, later made popular by Elvis. Following "Laura" Peterson had something of a hit with Corrina, Corrina but his popularity never really matched that associated with his death disc.

Here' Sha-Na-Na takes "Laura" for a spin...

Laura and Tommy were lovers
He wanted to give her everything
Flowers, presents, but most of all, a wedding ring

He saw a sign for a stock car race
A thousand dollar prize it read
He couldn't get Laura on the phone
So to her mother, Tommy said

Tell Laura I love her
Tell Laura I need her
Tell Laura I may be late
I've something to do, that cannot wait

He drove his car to the racing grounds
He was the youngest driver there
The crowed roared as they started the race
Around the track they drove at a deadly pace

No one knows what happened that day
Or how his car overturned in flames
But as they pulled him from the twisted wreck
With his dying breath, they heard him say

Tell Laura I love her
Tell Laura I need her
Tell Laura not to cry
My love for her will never die

Now in the chapel where Laura prays
For her poor Tommy, who passed away
It was just for Laura he lived and died
Alone in the chapel she can hear him cry

Please Mr. Postman

Some might think it was originally performed by the Beatles in 1963 or by the Carpenters in 1975, but it was the girl group the Marvelettes who first had a hit with Please Mr. Postman in 1961. While there's some discrepancy over the writing credits for the tune, the one constant in the various versions include Brian Holland of Motown's hit-making team Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Legend has it that the instrumentation in the studio was provided by Motown session players known as the Funk Brothers, which included Marvin Gaye on drums.

The song put the Marvelettes on the charts and gave Motown it's first #1 hit, paving the way for their more popular successor, the Supremes.

Leader Of The Pack

One genre dufusdownbeat has sadly slighted is Girl Groups. Well, this week we rectify that.

The Shangri-Las formed in Queen's New York in 1963 and was made of of two sets of sisters: 14 year-old lead singer Mary Weiss and her 17 year-old sister Betty, and back up singers and identical twins Marge and Mary Ann Ganser, 16 years of age. While they recorded as a quartet, they often toured as a trio because Betty didn't like to tour.

In late 1964, the Shangri-Las were looking for a follow-up to their recent hit Remember (Walking In The Sand). They found it with something called Leader of the Pack. The song is among the pantheon of a genre referred to as the "dead disc" and includes such songs as Dead Man's Curve by Jan and Dean, Tell Laura I Lover Her by Ray Peterson, and the Cavaliers Last Kiss.

The group issued one original album, lasted a couple of years and at the height of their success toured with the Beatles, James Brown, Dusty Springfield and the Zombies.

The following clip is from Steve Allen's The Tonight Show with a cameo from Robert Goulet.

Eve Of Destruction

For a 13 year old living in Canada the Viet Nam war was not something top of mind for me. But I was into music and in 1965 a guy named Barry McGuire began to climb the charts with a tune called Eve of Destruction.

The song was everywhere. It was on the radio. My buds and I used to sing it. And McGuire performed it on every television music show beamed into my rec room.

McGuire was a member of the New Christy Minstrels, an American folk-singing outfit, and had co-written their hit Green, Green. He left the group in 1965, laid down the vocal track to the P.F. Sloan written Eve of Destruction and before the record producers had a chance to clean the track up it was leaked and started to get airplay.

McGuire was fortunate. The song was first offered to the Byrds, who turned it down.

Funnily enough, in the 70s McGuire became a born-again Christian and for the longest time refused to sing the song again. In the 60s, however, it was the anthem of a generation.

Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction
par scootaway

Hang On Sloopy

In the mid 60s, a group called the Strangeloves were riding high with a song called I Want Candy. They'd been touring with the Dave Clark Five and had been playing a tune called Hang On Sloopy. The Dave Clark Five liked it so much they were about to record it. But the Strangeloves had other ideas. They gave it to an outfit called Rick and the Raiders, led by 17 year-old Rick Zehringer - later known as Rick Derringer - and they put it out under the name of The McCoys. In October 1965, it hit #1.

Of course Derringer went on to play with the Johnny and Edgar Winter bands, had a decent solo career marked by the hit Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo and has been an in-demand session guitarist, perhaps most notably with Steely Dan.

The song has since been adopted as the football fighting song of Ohio State University. And it's played at home games of the Cincinnati Bengals, the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers and Indians, not to mention the Columbus Blue Jackets.

In 1985, the Ohio General Assembly designated Hang On Sloopy as the official rock song of Ohio.

Love Potion #9

The Searchers apparently took their name from the 1956 John Wayne film of the same name, directed by John Ford. The group formed in the late 50s and went through various line-ups before they achieved hit records in the 60s.

At one point they gave the Beatles a run for their money on the English pop charts and were the second Liverpool group after the fab four to chart a hit in the States with Needles and Pins in 1964.

Love Potion No. 9 was written by Leiber and Stoller and originally recorded by the Clovers in 1959. In 1965 The Searchers' version reached #3 in the States.

I Want Candy

The Monkees, perhaps, are the best example - or worst, depending upon your point of view - of a manufactured pop group who scored significant chart success. But The Strangeloves aren't that far behind. The Strangeloves were 3 guys from New York who said they were former sheep farmers from Australia. Their story went that they got rich over a new form of sheep crossbreeding and used their millions to start a rock group. Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer, at the time succesfull record producers, adopted the monikers Giles, Miles and Niles Strange and a musical conceit was hatched.

The fictitious brothers ran into a bit of a problem in 1965 with the success of I Want Candy. It ranked so high on the charts the demand to tour as live artists forced them to send out the session musicians who performed in the studio. But they could lip-sync, as this clip demonstrates... Hey, in 1965 what did I know. I was 13 and I thought they were kinda cool.

Massachusetts

The Gibb Brothers were born in England and moved to Australia where they grew up. Their early success, such as it was, was achieved down under before returning to England in the mid-60s. This is the period of the Bee Gees career that I like. They may have been more popular at the forefront of the disco scene, earned more money and sold more records but Barry, Maurice and Robin could sure write and perform pop hits in the decade beginning in the mid-60s.

In 1967, the Bee Gees burst upon the scene with such hits as New York Mining Disaster 1941 and To Love Somebody both from the erroneously titled 3rd album Bee Gees 1st. But one of my favourite early Bee Gees songs appeared on their next album - Horizontal - Massachusetts. Massachusetts was the Bee Gees first #1 hit and it was the second song to be played on BBC1 when it went on the air in September 1967 in response to such pirate radio stations as Radio Caroline being formally outlawed by Britain's Parliament.

While written by the Gibb Brothers, the song was originally intended for The Seekers. However, they turned it down.

Jennifer Eccles

Since their formation in the late 60s, Graham Nash has been an integral part of the various incarnations of groups bearing his name: Crosby, Stills, Nash; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; and Crosby and Nash - not to mention his solo efforts from time to time. But prior to the supergroup known as CSN and its legendary spin-offs, Nash was also an integral part and founding member of The Hollies.

Formed in the early 60s, the group charted their first tune in Britain in 1963 and their first American album the following year. The British music media often dubbed them "the third group" after the Beatles and the Stones and in the early days they recorded "made-to-order" songs written by such folks as Graham Gouldman, later of 10CC. Between 1963 and 1969 the Hollies placed a phenomenal 20 hits into Britain's Top 40, many of them co-written by Nash, along with band-mates Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks.

Of course, Nash left the Hollies in 1968, met up with David Crosby and Stephen Stills and the rest is musical history. Before he departed he co-wrote his last Hollies' tune, one of the most popular in their songbook to date.

Ripple

Monday night New York's Empire State Building was apparently lit up in tie-dye colours to honour the Grateful Dead. In my 60s mind all I could think was "Far out, man." The Dead was one of those bands that creeped into America's (and Canada's) consciousness first in the mid to late 60s and on throughout the 70s and 80s. They have a catalogue of far out music. Stories of their group home in Haight-Ashbury, their days on the road and Dead Heads abound.

Jerry Garcia shunned the spotlight as the band's leader and spokesperson but this role fell to him nevertheless. Hey, why not? After all he named the band. The story goes that Garcia, high on some chemical, plunked his finger down (his good one) into either the dictionary or Encyclopedia Britannica and it came to rest on grateful dead. The rest is rock and roll history.

One of my favourite Dead tunes is Ripple. It's a track from one of the iconic Dead albums American Beauty, which showcased the first pairing of Garcia and mandolinist David Grisman. It wouldn't be the last time they made sweet music together either as part of the Dead or in several side projects.

According to Wikipedia, Ripple is widely considered one of the best Grateful Dead songs and one of the most beautiful and poetic songs in popular music. You'll get no argument from me...

Not Fade Away

In 1964, the Rolling Stones released their first album The Rolling Stones - England's Newest Hitmakers. The first cut on their first album was the Buddy Holly, aka Charles Hardin, hit Not Fade Away.

The song wasn't even on the earlier British version of the untitled album. Indeed, it was first released as a single with Nanker Phelge/Phil Spector penned Little by Little on the B-side in Britain and Lennon/McCartney's I Wanna Be your Man in the US and Canada. Unless you're a Stones fanatic you may not know Nanker Phelge was the name affixed to tunes written by all 5 Stones.

Not Fade Away was the Stones' first Top Five hit in the UK.

Most of the tracks on the album reflect the Stones affinity for American rhythm and blues, including tunes by Willie Dixon and Chuck Berry. Tell Me was the only Jagger/Richards song on the LP. Who knew that would change and these guys would still be rockin' 45 years later.

Genesis - Part I

Genesis is one of those groups I and my CD player revisit periodically. There's a lot to revisit as they've been around for over 40 years and the group has gone through several line-up changes as they've refined their sound.

They came together in 1967 and issued two albums before guitarist Steve Hackett and drummer Phil Collins joined Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Peter Gabriel in the "classic" Genesis line up in 1970.

The "Gabriel era" from 1970 to 1975 is one of my favourites, characterized by lengthy tracks on theme and concept albums and stage shows with elaborate costumes and lighting effects. This incarnation of Genesis released 4 albums: Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England By The Pound and the epic double-LP The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

Nursery Cryme is seen as a not very polished album compared to the production values of the albums that followed. But it is seen as a significant departure from the group's previous album, likely due to the influence of Hackett and Collins

Released in 1971, Nursery Cryme produced the 10 minute The Musical Box which was to become a staple of the group's live performances. The following clip is from a Belgian television performance in the early 70s. It runs close to 10 minutes so a little patience is required here. But from a rock music historic artifact the performance is amazing. Note Gabriel's flute and base drum playing...

We'll continue our Genesis two-parter Thursday with a look at the group post-Gabriel.

Devil In Disguise

In August of 1968 the Byrds released their sixth album, the seminal Sweetheart of the Rodeo. But this album went in a different direction from previous Byrds albums and was marked by a change in band membership. Singer/guitarist David Crosby and drummer Michael Clarke had departed after album #5, The Notorius Byrd Brothers, and had been replaced by drummer Kevin Kelley and multi-instrumentalist/singer Gram Parsons.

Parson's influence is all over this classic album, an album that took the Byrds in a whole different direction - alt-country (before there was a name for it!). There are conflicting stories on why Parson's vocals were stripped from several songs and replaced by Roger McGuinn's. Some say it's because he had contractual problems with his previous label. Others say McGuinn was unhappy with the degree of Parson's input. Nevertheless, the songs in question were only issued with Parsons vocals 22 years later on the Byrds Set in 1990.

Nevertheless, within a year Parsons and Chris Hillman had formed their own group, the iconic Flying Burrito Brothers with basssist Chris Etheridge, steel guitarist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow and former Byrds drummer Michael Clarke.

The five released their own album, a natural follow-up to the countrified "Sweetheart", The Gilded Palace of Sin.

Not unlike "Sweetheart" the Burritos LP didn't sell well. Today, however, the 2 LPs are at the top of the alt-country heap and are responsible for influencing such acts as Wilco, Sun Volt, the Jayhawks, Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris who sang with Parsons in the 70s before he died.

Devil in Disguise, from Gilded Palace of Sin was originally called Christine's Tune but was changed because the woman it was written about didn't like her name being used.

That Was Only Yesterday

Formed in 1967 Spooky Tooth was one of the few English blues/prog groups of the time with double keyboards - piano and organ - which played a key role in their distinctive sound. The group disbanded in 1974 after several personnel changes with members going on to play with Mott The Hoople, Humble Pie and Stealers Wheel.

It's most famous offspring was organist/vocalist Gary Wright who went on to a hugely successful solo career and is best remembered for the synth-laden hit "Dream Weaver".

In 1969, Spooky Tooth issued their second album aptly titled Spooky Two, reagrded as the best LP they ever issued. I recently purchased Spooky Tooth - Lost In My Dream - An Anthology 1968-1974 an excellent overview of their discography. I highly recommend it. Anyway, it made me go looking for video performances by the group. Here, from their second album, is a 1969 TV performance of That Was Only Yesterday...

Walk Don't Run

They served as an influence to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Stephen Stills and John Fogerty, among others. When asked to name the most influential rock guitar solo, Joe Walsh said he would have to include the entire song "Walk Don't Run" because it changed so many guitar players' lives.

Formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1958, the instrumental group the Ventures' first hit came in 1960. They'd originally heard Walk Don't Run on a Chet Atkins album and rearranged it. Some say it opened the door to surf music. It certainly opened the door for the Ventures who had a string of hits throughout the 60s including the theme from Hawaii Five-O.

The Ventures have made hundreds of albums and have sold over 100 million records throughout their career. They're associated with the surf music genre but are quick to say they aren't a surf band. While their popularity in the States faded in the 70s they remain wildly popular and continue to tour in Japan. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

Here's a 1964 performance of Walk Don't Run from Japan...

Dirty Water

In the summer of 1966, I was a 14 year-old Yohawk-wannabe wandering the streets of Ottawa with my skateboard in search of the perfect sloped roadway. The other youth "gang" in those days was the Squirrels. We were kinda like Ottawa's answer to Britain's Mods and Rockers - without the violence. One of the coolest songs from our summer of tight faded jeans and suede desert boots was Dirty Water, a shuffling bluesy tune about Boston.

But guess what. The group that sang with such authority about the river Charles was an outfit from Los Angeles. The Standells formed in 1962 and finally in 1966 hit the charts with Dirty Water. It would be the biggest hit of the Standells' career.

A little trivia: Singer Dick Dodd was the group's drummer. In his younger days he was a Mouseketeer. Prior to the group's break-up in 1968, future Little Feat founder Lowell George played guitar with the group.

The song lives on. It's been played after every Red Sox Victory at Fenway Park since 1997.

Here's a relic of a lip-synced performance of Dirty Water from back in the day...

Green River

John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook met in high school and formed a bar band called the Blue Velvets. Fogerty's brother Tom joined the band and they signed with Fantasy records as the Golliwogs. Lead singer Tom stepped aside for brother John and the group and it's swamp-rock style began to gain popularity. In 1968, the newly renamed band released it's first album, the self-titled Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The group disbanded in 1972 after an output of 7 albums but in the late 60s none could foresee this nor the decades of legal and financial wranglings amongst band members which for years prevented Forgerty from performing his own songs.

But as 1969, drew to a close CCR had undertaken several significant tours, amassed a considerable fan base, performed at Woodstock and released their third album Green River. Here's a performance of the title track.

Need Your Love So Bad

When someone says Fleetwood Mac, one's thoughts immediately go to the killer supergroup of the mid-70s with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. But Mac was a very successful blues band a decade earlier in Britain formed by guitarist Peter Green and his former John Mayall Blues Band mates drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, after whom the band was named.

Mac's self-titled first album was released 1968. They'd release 9 more albums as a blues outfit before the release of their second eponymous release in 1975 after Buckingham and Nicks joined Fleetwood, McVie and McVie's wife Christine who had been the band's organist since 1970.

After dallying with LSD and following bouts of schizophrenia, in 1970 Peter Green left the group he had founded.

In an obviously lip-synced performance, here's Green and a very young looking Fleetwood and Mac performing a Ray Charles-inspired arrangement of Need Your Love So Bad...

Summer In The City

Yesterday over on my humour blog I was telling folks about the heatwave we've been experiencing here in the Ottawa region and that we really couldn't complain as it comes on the heels of the rainiest July on record. In classic rock terms, I guess you could say that lately it's been quite the Summer In The City. How's that for a segue?

Summer In The City by the Lovin' Spoonful hit #1 forty-three years ago last week, August 13, 1966. Little known fact: the song was co-written by Mark Sebastien, brother of the Spoonful's John Sebastien. The other members of the group were bassist Steve Boone, vocalist-drummer Joe Butler and Canadian guitarist Zan Yanovsky. Yanovsky and Sebastien were immortalized in Creeque Alley by the Mama's and Papa's owing to the early 60s circles in which they travelled and the groups in which they performed in New York City:

Zally said, "Denny, you know there aren't many

Who can sing a song the way that you do; let's go south.

"Denny said, "Zally, golly, don't you think that I wish

I could play guitar like you.

"Zal, Denny, and Sebastian sat (at the Night Owl)

And after every number they'd pass the hat.

The group had it's foundations in jug band music and came together in 1965. But the Lovin' Spoonful's original line-up had a short life. Yanovsky left in 67 after a drug bust and Sebastien struck out on a solo career in 68. The hit making ceased by 1969. But in 1966 all they were thinking about was Summer In The City...

Undun

In 1969, Canada's Guess Who issued the album Canned Wheat which was a big hit in Canada and contained the ballad These Eyes which made them the first Canadian group to hit the Top 10 in the United States.

Formed in Winnipeg in 1960 under the original moniker The Silvertones, which was later changed to Chad Allen and the Expressions, the group had it's first big hit in 1965 with Shakin All Over. To create the impression they were another British invasion group the record company credited the track as performed by Guess Who? The name stuck, Chad Allen didn't and Burton Cummings replaced him. The rest as they say is history.

From 1967 to 1968, the Guess Who had an opportunity no other Canadian group could hope to match. The CBC ran a teen music show Monday thru Friday called "Let's Go". The Guess Who appeared every Thursday from 5:30-6 p.m. Canadian youngsters were exposed every week to this fabulous group from, of all places, Winnipeg. The CBC publicity shot above shows the group prior to Chad Allen's departure. Rounding out the group are co-lead singer Burton Cummings behind the organ, Randy Bachman on guitar, bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson.

They were a fantastic cover band but Cummings and Randy Bachman quickly became the Lennon/McCartney of Canadian rock writing and performing hit after hit. Here's a latter day performance of another Canned Wheat track - Undun - apparently Randy Bachman's favourite Guess Who song and originally released as the "B" side to Laughing.

Oh, yeah, today is bassist Jim Kale's birthday! Happy birthday, Jim.