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Post by Kapitan on Oct 14, 2020 22:08:25 GMT
I wouldn't call it the perfect song or anything, but that note doesn't bother me.
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Post by jk on Oct 15, 2020 10:52:29 GMT
I'm curious what you guys think of this song. Mainly, the vocal performance and melody. I heard it on the radio today and something just didn't sit right with me. It's either that the minor 7th sung in "she cri ed" is too dissonant/exposed or it's the enunciation/diction that's throwing me off. What do you guys think? Am I making any sense or is this actually the perfect song? (By the way, I bet Tom Petty dug the percussion on this - sounds like he was going for it on "Built To Last".) It doesn't bother me, probably because I heard the handkerchief-heavy version by the Shangri Las first, so that's the one for me:
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Post by jk on Jan 29, 2021 15:42:20 GMT
Not exactly pre-Beach Boys but as close as makes a difference...
Here are two 45s by girls in love who were younger than 16 at the time. (A third was the much more successful Helen Shapiro.) I remember hearing "Only Fifteen" by Adrienne Poster back in '63 and I must have heard "Too Young To Go Steady" the following year -- I heard everything in those days. I came across the name Andee Silver (born Andrea Hilary Silverstein and aged 13 at the time of this recording) the other day and it rang a bell.
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Post by jk on Jan 29, 2021 18:54:14 GMT
And here's that third Brit, Helen Shapiro, who was just 14 when she sang herself to #1 in the UK in mid 1961 with "You Don't Know" (a second #1, "Walking Back To Happiness", would follow a few months later): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Shapiro
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 29, 2021 18:59:06 GMT
It's interesting to me that none of those three examples sound like they're by children, yet were all sung by girls of 14-15.
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Post by jk on Jan 29, 2021 20:54:24 GMT
It's interesting to me that none of those three examples sound like they're by children, yet were all sung by girls of 14-15. Helen Shapiro had an incredibly mature and full-bodied voice for a 14-year-old. The Beatles were one of her support acts at one time! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Shapiro
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Post by jk on Feb 3, 2021 12:45:44 GMT
Now that I find myself trudging down Memory Lane... Probably the first down-and-dirty 45 I ever heard was when part one of the Philip Upchurch Combo's "You Can't Sit Down" made a rare appearance on the UK airwaves in that same year of 1961. "Way down in the bass!", for sure... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Sit_Down
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Post by B.E. on Jun 19, 2021 21:26:51 GMT
Although recorded and released in 1964, I think this live album qualifies as pre-Beach Boys music nonetheless. I've listened to it twice in as many days and I think it's worth checking out. Fantastic energy and atmosphere. One rock 'n' roll classic after another. Anyone else familiar?
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Post by jk on Jun 20, 2021 10:12:41 GMT
Although recorded and released in 1964, I think this live album qualifies as pre-Beach Boys music nonetheless. I've listened to it twice in as many days and I think it's worth checking out. Fantastic energy and atmosphere. One rock 'n' roll classic after another. Anyone else familiar? Definitely pre-Beach Boys music! My first encounter with Jerry Lee was in a UK magazine called, I believe, Hit Parade. The song in question was his 1961 post-scandal take on Ray Charles's "What'd I Say". I remember going to the local record store after school with a chum and asking to hear " What I'd Say", which made the charming shop assistant giggle. It was one of the first songs I learnt to play after returning to the piano following a two-year hiatus -- uninspiring lessons had taken all the joy out of it. My favourite Jerry Lee track? The original single version of "Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On"...
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Post by jk on Jun 27, 2021 9:13:12 GMT
Buddy Holly recorded several versions of Little Richard's "Slippin' And Slidin'", including more than one at snail's pace. I was informed at Hoffman that this was to play it back at twice the speed for a "Chipmunk" vocal. H'mm. The overdubs by The Fireballs on this, my favourite of all the versions [since removed], must date from the early '60s ( here). It was the B-side of "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man". And here it is again. Everything about this version is spooky...
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Post by jk on Nov 6, 2022 18:57:42 GMT
I bumped into this song the other day while looking for stuff from 1966. The not-so-engaging version from that year led me back to the original from four years earlier. Benny Spellman had sung the bass voice on Ernie K-Doe's 1961 US #1 "Mother-In-Law". Why was "Fortune Teller" so familiar? I must have heard one of the many cover versions (Stones, Who, Hollies, etc) in the mid '60s. Anyway... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Spellman
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Post by jk on Nov 9, 2022 20:18:59 GMT
Here’s one that passed me by at the time. As a left-handed guitarist with normal stringing, Barbara Lynn is in good company (Macca, Jimi, Kurt). "You’ll Lose A Good Thing" reached #8 on the US charts in 1962. This cool live version from The !!!! Beat dates from four years later: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Lynn
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 10, 2022 20:02:53 GMT
Here’s one that passed me by at the time. As a left-handed guitarist with normal stringing, Barbara Lynn is in good company (Macca, Jimi, Kurt). "You’ll Lose A Good Thing" reached #8 on the US charts in 1962. This cool live version from The !!!! Beat dates from four years later: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_LynnGood one, jk! I love this song. It's a classic...and I had forgotten about it.
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Post by jk on Nov 22, 2022 10:27:27 GMT
How I managed to forget about this one is quite beyond me! From 1959, it's The Flamingos' other-worldly take on Warren and Dubin's "I Only Have Eyes For You":
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Post by jk on Nov 23, 2022 14:33:45 GMT
Looking at Something New in the "best/worst" Beatles track topic, I noticed cover versions of "Slow Down" and "Matchbox". By sheer coincidence, I first heard the originals of both tracks, by Larry Williams and Carl Perkins respectively, on the same day in 1963 or '64 at the house of a school friend of my brother. (This bloke used to build his own guitars, which was admirable in itself; regrettably the necks were like tree trunks which made them impossible to play!) Nothing, surely, can top these versions:
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