January 15, 2009 Earworm

Pop music history - as well as the earworm - is littered with stacks of "original versions" that undeservedly sank without a trace and left in the shadows of more successful interpretations and Lou Johnson's "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me" is a fine addition to the pile. Sandie Shaw's version is considered the definitive in the UK while in the US, Dionne's gets the nod. Throw in a fine synthpop version by Naked Eyes nearly twenty years later and it's no surprise that Lou has been left in the dust.

But for me, Lou owns it. There is something in his hesitant delivery of the verses that makes him seem continuously surprised to still be reminded of what he long thought was finished. Add in that twangin' guitar that mirrors the feeling my stomach gets whenever I recognize the definition of "bittersweet" and I forget all others.

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.