March 28, 2008 Earworm

Madonna's "Crazy For You", a one-off licensing deal with Geffen Records was at number one the week of May 11th, 1985 but the folks at that label had high hopes for another single that was debuting that week: "Ways To Be Wicked" by Lone Justice. It may have been written for, and turned down by, Stevie Nicks but Tom Petty found the perfect voice for his song in what sounded like a combination of the daughter of Brenda Lee and little sister of Rachel Sweet.

An appearance on SNL where Maria McKee screamed and spun like a Tasmanian Diva left all that saw it speechless and sure that they'd just witnessed something miraculous but the band never made the leap to the big pop success their label envisioned. A second single, "Sweet, Sweet Baby (I'm Falling)" - one of this typer's favorite records of all time - fared even worse than "Ways" and when the time came to record a second album, "Shelter", the band was basically no more.

Maria McKee is still going and other than the label driven first solo album, she's not made a bad record yet.

Happy weekend!

March 27, 2007 Earworm

1964 was a good year for operatic pop. Roy Orbison's "It's Over" reached #9 in April and "I'm Gonna Be Strong" by Gene Pitney (the older and butcher brother of The Chipmunks) followed in October, also reaching #9. "It's Over" uses cinematic strings and the sort of back up vocals usually associated with a 1940's Paramount Pictures logo and closing credits to remind you that this is a serious matter, regardless of what those snappy little flamenco flourishes would like you to believe. Not that you really need reminding because Roy loses his mind on the chorus, his cries of "it's over" so vivid that you may find yourself wiping imaginary spittle and exclamation points off your face. A bizarre piece of work to be sure, and only Roy Orbison could pull it off.

Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, "I'm Gonna Be Strong" is a much more understated affair. Originally recorded by Frankie Laine as the follow-up to his 1963 hit, "Don't Make My Baby Blue", hopes were high that it would not only surpass that tunes mid chart high, but keep him back on pop radio after a six year drought. It flopped despite a wonderfully complex Jack Nitzsche arrangement, a crisp Terry Melcher production, and brilliant double tracking on the vocal that made it impossible to believe that the singer was in his fifties at the time. Knowing a hit when he heard one, publisher Don Kirshner pitched it and "It Hurts To Be Love" to Pitney who ran with both of them.

Gene holds on to the grand gesture through much of his arrangement, letting the strings provide the drama throughout the verses, letting the tension build brilliantly on the chorus with a pumped up tympani, double tracking vocal, and big choir accompaniment that gets tucked way back in the mix. The money shot arrives as he takes the word "cry" to knew heights, literally, daring any element of the orchestra to feel his pain. Fin!

Neither Pitney nor Orbison would ever again be able to place such acts of high drama into the upper portion of the pop charts again as the times changed toward a Beatle-esque hysteria, which rendered that bands heroes obsolete. Although no one has had the brass to attempt a straight version of "It's Over", the Cyndi Lauper led Blue Angel recorded a version of "I'm Gonna Be Strong" that got enough attention to warrant Cyndi's solo attempt in 1994. No one was surprised when she nailed it.

March 26, 2008 Earworm

There has always been something about the sound of Brenda Lee's voice that I find comforting, something that my multiple viewings of the menacing "Joy Ride" still can't erase. As a youngster, I would watch my mother find that same comfort as she drifted off into her reveries whenever one of Brenda's songs would come on; singing along as though she, too, was on a stage somewhere and baring her soul in her own private drama.

"Johnny One Time" will always come to mind if I am asked to name a favorite, but I would probably argue with myself about it afterward because it sure is hard to pick just one. By 1969, Brenda was well passed her peak on the pop charts and "Johnny One Time" was an obvious attempt at recapturing some of that glory. With its Jim Webb-like strings recreating a casual wind blowing through her hair, she details the list of crap some wide eyed innocent will hear pouring out of Johnny's mouth as he angles for "that special love you're saving". The strings continue to calmly blow but you can feel a storm brewing and little acoustic ticks and tricks whiz by and still you listen, barely noticing that the storm is in our narrator's voice. Never yelling, always polite, but becoming harder with each chorus, "...did he tell you that the special love you're saving will disappear in flames of shame like mine...", wringing out the word "mine" until it resembles the exact emotion she needs to share.

For all of its beauty and power, "Johnny One Time" would stop just short of the top 40, and aside from three further singles that barely bothered the top 70, Brenda Lee's pop career was finished. However, she remains an icon of the more innocent days of rock 'n' roll when it was not yet too far from its country roots and for some of us, the voice of Little Miss Dynamite makes the world a better place.

March 27, 2007 Earworm

March 25, 2008 Earworm

For the US release of "Alfie", it was not Dionne Warwick who was chosen to sing the Bacharach/David penned theme song, but Cher. While a modest hit for her, Dionne would ultimately be identified with the song, and Cher's version but was all but forgotten. The flipside of that single, Sonny Bono composition called "She's No Better Than Me", had an even bigger date with obscurity. It was not inclused on any of her albums and didn't surface until her installment of the EMI series, "The Legendary Masters". The masters having been long lost, the liner notes warned that it transferred from a "battered mono mixdown" tape.

In a light cocktail party arrangement, Cher sits alone watching her dream baby courting someone else and wonders what's so special. An air of adolescence hangs and it is probably the closest she ever came to capturing vulnerability on tape. It's all very classy and restrained and maybe a little past her bedtime which adds a pinch of weariness that we've seldom heard in her voice since.

"She's No Better Than Me" failed to be included in the recent re-issue campaign of Cher's Imperial catalog, done by BGO in the UK, and her "Legendary Masters" installment is now out of print. "She's No Better Than Me" is again left to languish, just like the songs narrator.

March 24, 2008 Earworm

Berry Gordy's decision to can Marvin Gaye's version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" may have paved the way for the career resurgence of Gladys Knight and The Pips' career, but it also gave credence to the detractors of Motown who claim that it was nothing but an assembly line.

Legend has it that Barrett Strong came up with the idea while walking down a street - "I heard people say it all the time (but) nobody wrote a song about it". Upon his return to the Motown fold, he began working with Norman Whitfield who took the idea in many different directions. The Isley Brothers claim that they were the first to get a crack at it but tapes of that recording remain undocumented and unavailable. It is confirmed that Whit a version of the song with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles but it was shelved after being deemed unworthy by the Quality Control Staff. Rethinking the setting, he took the song to Marvin Gaye who assisted in crafting the ominous arrangement that we know today. Once again, it was shot down by the Quality Control team who declared it too different when compared to the records currently residing in the top five of the charts. Berry Gordy, in particular, was not impressed with the dark turn Whitfield had in mind for the Prince of Motown and the recording was shelved while Holland - Dozier - Holland's eighteen month old production of "Your Unchanging Love" became Marvin's next single, peeking at #7 R&B and #33 pop.

Whitfield took the song to Gladys and Company who worked up a vocal arrangement and began testing it during their live performances before committing it to vinyl. Their version would reach #1 on the R&B chart, #2 pop, and become the company's biggest selling single of 1967. Now that the title had recognition value, Whitfield used Marvin's version to fill out Gaye's latest LP, "In The Groove". DJs began playing "Grapevine" off the album and the response was so strong that it became the number 1 song on Detroit radio and finally Gordy was forced to release it as a single. Two weeks later, it knocked Diana Ross and The Supremes' "Love Child" out of the top pop slot and settled in for a seven week stretch, finally unseated by "Crimson And Clover" in February of 1969. It also topped the R&B charts for the same amount of weeks and became Motown's biggest selling single ever until The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" took that honor nearly two years later.

Marvin's vocal on "Grapevine" managed to convey not only the pain of being of left for another - check out the clipped whimper on "because you mean that much to me", but the embarrassment of having been left out of the loop while the whole world seemed to know what a fool he had been - check out just about anywhere else in the song. Meanwhile, insidious rhythms lead him down dark halls filled with venomous whispers and horror movie strings in a mono mix that puts the listener in a closet with nothing to do but peer through the keyhole.

Prior to "Grapevine", his 30th single to grace the pop chart in a six year span, Marvin had only reached the top ten eight times, four of which were duets with Tammi Terrell, and it was more than a long deserved number one. It marked the point where the man with Nat "King" Cole aspirations ceased to be the dangerously handsome pop star who made white woman wonder while they "hitch-hiked" with their boyfriends, and became the icon of modern soul that he is today.

Easter