July 25, 2008 Earworm

You can never be sure of what The Sleepy Jackson's songs are about; when your leader is equally enamored with surrealism and christianity and possesses a sense of humor that allows him to see just how often the two collide things can get a bit obtuse. The listener can spend hours trying to figure out what he's on about or can take the wiser route of assigning their own meaning and, with that in mind, "Rain Falls For Wind" is about love against all odds and an urgent need for something or anything. And it's a damn good pop song to get you moving.

Three years after the release of the last The Sleepy Jackson album it's been announced that front man Luke Steele is about start a solo tour and release an album. Obviously lacking a sense of urgency but moving nonetheless...

July 24, 2008 Earworm

Another PF Sloan composition that made its way to Vee Jay in 1964 is "Can I Get To Know You", in a dreamy arrangement that tips its hat to Barbara Lewis, that was relegated to b-side of Betty Everett's take on Goffin-King's "I Can't Hear You". Neither side of this spectacular 45 did much to disturb the charts; the a-side topped out at #66 that summer while "Can I Get To Know You" had to wait two years to chart when it got the word "Better" added to its title and a typically Turtles re-vamp and topped out at #86.

Betty Everett would score her biggest hit on her next release, "Let It Be Me", a duet with Jerry Butler. The Turtles would follow up their version of "Can I Get To Know You (Better)" with their own biggest hit, "Happy Together", so perhaps there is more charm to this song than what you can hear.

Betty's version of "Can I Get To Know You" can also be found on Castle Pulse's "Chapel of Love: Girl Group Gems"

July 23, 2008 Earworm

Shelley Fabares, teen tv star and reluctant recording artist, was given the choice of recording "Johnny Angel" or finding her role as Mary Stone filled by another actress when it returned from hiatus. She wisely chose the former though fully aware that she was not a singer and, after a tedious cut and paste editing job, found herself with a number one single. Several more followed but none had the dreamy charm of her first (which is actually her second; she duets with Ray Petersen on the flip side of his "She Can't Find Her Keys")or matched its success and after "The Donna Reed Show" wound down, so did her time with Colpix.

I have no idea how she ended up at Vee Jay and, considering her lack of success there, Vee Jay had no idea of what to do with her fantastic record with The Fantastic Baggys, "I Know You'll Be There". While she obviously had not invested in singing lessons since her first hit, she navigates P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri's composition wonderfully, matching its naive sincerity (almost) note for note. Given her June marriage to Lou Adler, it's likely that he's got a hand in this production - I've never seen a copy of this 45 to verify credits - but it's Sloan and Barri as the Baggys who truly pull the pet sound together making a surfer girl record that betters most of the stuff Brian Wilson did with The Honeys.

Coupled with the almost as charming "Lost Summer Love", Vee Jay released this obvious summer single in December and watched it go nowhere. Shelley would release two more singles on Dunhill, her husband's label, over the next two years. Her last, a cover of Sandy Posey's "See Ya Round On The Rebound", is something I'd really love to hear.

"I Know You'll Be There" can be found on the Castle Pulse collection, "Chapel of Love: Girl Group Gems"

UPDATE:
Sandy Posey's version of "See Ya 'Round On The Rebound" was on her "A Single Girl" LP released in '67, Shelley's version was released in '66 making Sandy's the "cover".
If you, too, would like to hear Shelley's version of "See Ya 'Round On The Rebound", Kmatt found the following link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=o0IygpcxKOQ

July 22, 2008 Earworm

Part three of the blue boy trail of tears is Jerry Ganey's "Just A Fool", one side of the Bill Medley written and produced 45 of mass destruction from 1966, where a chance encounter provides the chance to set the record straight. A totally righteous affair with a stomping chorus that dares you to not fall into step, Jerry sounds mortally wounded by his recollection of just how well he'd been played.

Although I believe that he believes that enough is enough, words like "I walk away though I leave my heart, but my pride just won't let it start" suggest that he's foolish enough to turn back for another round of abuse. Fortunately for him, he would never be able to get through a backing choir that sounds determined to march him up a mountain and into the Paramount Pictures logo.

Great stuff...

"Just A Fool" and it's flip, the destined to be an earworm "Who Am I" can be found on Ace's "Phil's Spectre: A Third Wall of Soundalikes"

July 21, 2008 Earworm

After a maddening couple of hours fighting with Roxio and digging deeper into exe files than someone as clueless as I should ever dig, my digital world is back on track and I the finer things in life can be the focus before drifting off to sleep. Thankfully, the new P.J. Proby compilation has arrived and I can confirm that the good folks at EMI UK have done a fine job. The long awaited digital version of "Just Like Him" sounds gorgeous and forty-some year old 45s can now get a long deserved rest.

P.J.'s buddy, Jackie DeShannon, wrote "Just Like Him" just for him - maybe as consolation for losing the girl he stole from Elvis to Bob Colbert. For me, "Just Like Him" is a chance to play a variation of Barbie; dressing P.J. in various outfits and placing him in different settings where he can stroll forlornly with an occasional scanning of the heavens in search of answers never forthcoming. My favorite locale is on a beach in the fading hours of the boardwalk, giving him an opportunity to come upon a nearly deserted bandstand where he stops to watch couples dancing from sheer boredom. Clinging to each other out of desperation, their feet try to do right by that breath-taking string section that shines like the stars in the sky during the middle eight.

Jackie DeShannon was never short on lyrical romance and P.J. never passed up on drama and putting them together created cinematic fodder for my childish fantasies of happy endings. That I've had a crush on her for as long as I can remember and a bizarre fascination with him for nearly a decade allows me to widen the screen to Cinemascope proportions and saturate the color until their as vivid as the hope in P.J.'s final "...just like him" at the fade out.

Sticking around for the credits reminds me that major respect should be given to the somewhat unsung producer, Ron Richards, best known as the man who discovered The Hollies and as the probable producer of the LP version of "Love Me Do"; the pale faced English guy clearly stakes a claim in the beginnings of soul, both black and blue-eyed, with this record. Jack Nitzsche has been suspected of being the uncredited arranger and even though it doesn't quite fit anyone's travel schedule, the strings certainly fit Jack.