Wednesday, August 27, 2008

August 27, 2008 Earworm


If you're going to be erroneously considered a one hit wonder, one could do much worse than to be remembered for "Hey, Girl", Freddie Scott's lush uptown ballad from 1963. Although he never managed another hit of that magnitude, it was not for a lack of trying as the cover of "I Got A Woman" and another Goffin-King composition, "Where Does Love Go", can attest. It took a couple of label switches - Colpix to Columbia to Shout - and the guiding hand of Bert Berns to bring Freddie back into the top 40 with "Are You Lonely For Me" at the very end of '66.

Bert keeps Freddie uptown on this record but it would be a safe bet that few people recognized the "Hey, Girl" guy amongst this gritty, but never dirty, arrangement that sounds like the city cousin of one or twenty Stax singles coming out around that time. Initial pressings of the single with Freddie's name mispelled, "Freddy", probably didn't help.

"Are You Lonely For Me" was an R&B #1 that topped out at #39 on the pop chart yet it still seems to be best known as part of a medley with The Rascals' "I've Been Lonely Too Long" on debut album by The Brooklyn Bridge, another act erroneously considered to be a one hit wonder and even that hit - "Worst That Could Happen" is now associated with another act - The 5th Dimension.

Go figure.

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