|
Post by jk on Apr 10, 2024 20:00:09 GMT
”Pony Time,” by Chubby Checker Feb. 27 - March 13, 1961 (3 weeks) "Boogadee boogadee boogadee boogadee shoo!" That's all I can remember of this song, which I recall hearing at the time on the BBC TV show Juke Box Jury, where outrageous stuff like this from the States was routinely ridiculed by the quartet of panelists. (Lots to say about that show in general, but that's for another time.) I had no idea this was such a big hit! I loved, and still love, "The Twist" and "The Fly". And of course Chubby married the Dutch model and former Miss World Catharina Lodders -- and even wrote a song about her. I don't know. Apart from the preposterous backing vocals, "Pony Time" doesn't have an awful lot to recommend it in the originality stakes. Chubby has done better... Another great post, Cap'n. Man, you have a natural talent for this stuff.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Apr 11, 2024 12:09:55 GMT
You're very kind, jk. As for "Pony Time," I don't much care for it at all. It's OK, I can understand why kids at the time liked it. As the old American Bandstand cliche goes, "it's got a good beat and you can dance to it." But it's really not for me. I did chuckle when I realized you could just sing "The Twist" to it--not that that's Chubby Checker's fault: he wasn't repeating himself, as he didn't write either song. They're both just set in a very basic, common form.
|
|
|
Post by kds on Apr 11, 2024 14:42:34 GMT
I'm not sure if I've ever heard Pony Time before. I feel about the same as I do about The Twist. It's....fine.
|
|
|
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 11, 2024 20:11:23 GMT
Ernest Evens aka Chubby Checker - I love that name, a play on Fats Domino, named by Mrs. Dick Clark btw - was great. As Kapitan mentioned, Chubby had over 20 Top 40 hits. That's quite impressive; you don't hear much about Chubby's resume'. As an old mobile DJ, I appreciated The Chubby One. I always played "The Twist", "Let's Twist Again", and after breaking out the limbo pole, "Limbo Rock". Dick Clark has observed that "The Twist" was the first pop/rock specialty dance where the guys and girls danced, not in rhythm with the song and each other, but apart from the beat and each other.
As Kapitan also pointed out, Chubby knew he had a good thing going with his dance hits. He was on a roll and he took it (the specialty songs/dances) as far as he could. It's also worth mentioning, like many of his contemporaries, Chubby did experiment in other music genre like folk, psychedelia, disco, and hip-hop with little success (he did have a hit on the U.S. Dance Chart in 2008). But, Chubby knew where his music was appreciated most, and he has spent decades performing on the oldies circuit, state fairs, nightclubs, and other smaller venues. In 2024, the 82 year-old Chubby is still out there performing and twisting away - and he should be in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame!
"Pony Time" is a good one. It moves and it rocks. Great sax solo. And, Chubby is in top form. Boogety, boogety, boogety, boogety, shoo!
Get up! It's Pony Time!
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Apr 15, 2024 18:55:12 GMT
”Surrender,” by Elvis Presley March 20-27 (2 weeks)
Tradition holds that in 1902, the mayor of Sorrento, Italy, asked his friend Ernesto De Curtis to write a song honoring Prime Minister Giuseppe Zanardelli, who was vacationing in the area. The resulting tune was “Torna a Surriento,” set to words written by De Curtis’s poet-painter brother Giambattista.
The song became a classic of the genre, performed by serious and popular singers alike—the line between the two less distinct in the early part of the century, before rock and roll—including Mario Lanza, Enrico Caruso, Placido Domingo, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby.
Alas, we may have something of a “Candle in the Wind” situation. “Torna a Surriento” was filed with the Italian Society of Authors and Editors in 1894—eight years before the brothers later claimed to have written it in honor of the Prime Minister. It seems it was simply slightly reworked for the 1902 occasion. (It was then copyrighted officially in 1905.)
While the song had been translated into English, that’s not the subject of our attention today. Rather, we’re focused on an adaption of the song done by Mort Shuman and Doc Pomus, which they retitled “Surrender.”
Elvis Presley recorded the song in late October 1960, again working in RCA Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, with Bill Porter engineering and Steve Sholes producing. The cast of musicians was familiar: Scotty Moore and Hank Garland on guitars; Bob Moore on bass; Floyd Cramer on piano; Buddy Harman and DJ Fontana on drums; Boots Randolph on sax; and the Jordanaires on background harmony vocals.
Most of the material Presley & Co. recorded during these sessions consisted of gospel tunes that would find their home on His Hand In Mine, released in late November 1960. But “Surrender” was one of two non-gospel songs (along with “Crying in the Chapel”) recorded in the same sessions that were held back for later use as singles.
“Surrender” would be the second Italian standard reworked into an English-language pop song and released as a single out of Elvis’s past three singles: “It’s Now Or Never” began its life as “O Sole Mio.” Released February 7, 1961, “Surrender” took just three weeks or so to become Elvis’s fifth consecutive single to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100, which was a record that lasted until the Beatles topped it in 1965-66. (It remained the record for a solo artist until Whitney Houston topped it in 1988.)
In addition to topping the American charts, it hit No. 1 in the UK and Belgium, and performed well around the world. Ironically, it peaked at No. 2 in Italy.
|
|
|
Post by jk on Apr 15, 2024 19:52:44 GMT
”Surrender,” by Elvis Presley March 20-27 (2 weeks) Of Elvis's two "Italian" songs I prefer this one, maybe because the melody is stronger and requires more active listening. It also does what Del Shannon's "Runaway" would do in the then very near future, shifting from minor in the verse to major in the chorus without changing key.
|
|
|
Post by lonelysummer on Apr 16, 2024 3:41:55 GMT
A masterful by "the king"...er..."that guy". Clearly, he had been working at expanding his musical and vocal range while he was away for two years.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Apr 16, 2024 12:48:17 GMT
I'm not a big fan of this. Elvis's vibrato bugs me here, but more than that, it just feels like a novelty tune, or maybe something from a musical. (That's ironic, considering he was getting into the really movie-heavy era where many of his songs were from film soundtracks, but this wasn't one of them.) It's just cheesy to these ears.
But also, doesn't it seem we've had quite a few songs that were remakes from older, international songs? Not just Elvis's two Neopolitan ones, but it seems to me we've had several others. (I admit my mind is blanking right now...was one of Connie Francis's, maybe?) Obviously many have been remakes of older American R&B or country songs, but I mean specifically international ones. That's a funny thing to me. It's almost like the 60s pop-music version of modern TV and movies' infatuation with so-called reboots.
|
|
|
Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 16, 2024 18:56:24 GMT
I don't like this one. Never did actually. It's annoying. The song is all over the place (as is Elvis). It almost sounds like they tried to make another "It's Now Or Never" but it falls short; disappointing for a Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman effort.
Again, I'm not fond of an Elvis single. They were selling records and making money, but I prefer the basic Elvis Presley rock and roll songs.
|
|
|
Post by Kapitan on Apr 29, 2024 15:53:07 GMT
”Blue Moon,” by the Marcels April 3-17 (3 weeks)
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, both born into Jewish immigrant families in New York around the turn of the previous century, met one another through a mutual friend in 1919. Rodgers was a songwriter; Hart, a lyricist whose early experience was often focused on translating German songs—his family was of German ancestry—into English.
The pair began working together immediately, first doing amateur shows but landed a song in a Broadway musical that first year; the following year, 1920, their first professional show was produced. But it was slow going, with their second professional show not appearing until 1924.
They kept writing musicals for both Broadway and London theaters, but when the Great Depression hit, they decamped to Hollywood in the hopes of more work. It was there, in 1933, that Hart set lyrics to a Rodgers tune for use in the film Hollywood Party, with Jean Harlow singing “Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star).” The tune was never recorded and Harlow was cut from the picture, which was released without her in 1934.
Not wanting to waste a good tune, Hart then wrote “Manhattan Melodrama” for a film of the same name (with the song also known as “It’s Just That Kind of Play”). But that song, too, was cut from its intended film … but the studio asked for a new song for a nightclub scene in the same film. You can probably guess the tune Rodgers and Hart identified. Third time’s a charm? Sort-of. Version three did see release, with Shirley Ross singing that latest iteration, “The Bad in Every Man.”
The head of MGM’s publishing company thought the song had commercial potential, but (you guessed it) he thought the lyrics should be rewritten to be more romantic and the song should have a catchier title. So Lorenz Hart set to work on yet another set of lyrics, this time landing on the familiar “Blue Moon.”
It’s Ted Fio Rito and His Orchestra, with lead vocals by Muzzy Marcellino, who released the first recording of “Blue Moon,” in October 1934.
“Blue Moon” was recorded frequently in the following years, with both Billy Eckstine and Mel Torme landing on the Billboard charts with their versions. Elvis Presley recorded a version in 1954, which saw release in 1956.
…..
Richard Knauss, a baritone, heard bass Fred Johnson sing in the Pittsburgh area in 1959 and decided they should form a “Pittsburgh supergroup.” They added Gene Bricker and Ron Mundy, but struggled to find a lead—until they heard Cornelius Harp.
They rehearsed while still attending high school. Knauss told the manager of another group he was in at the time, the Dynamics, that his new group was even better. That manager, Jules Kruspir, heard the boys sing and agreed. They didn’t write songs, and so they perfected a repertoire of the great doo-wop music of the day, cutting a demo tape to showcase their abilities. One of those songs was “Zoom,” by the Cadillacs, which had a vocal introduction that captured their attention.
Their demo caught the attention of Stu Phillips of Colpix Records, a division of Columbia Pictures. He brought them to New York and began sneaking them into the studio to record during RCA Studios’ down-time. On February 15, 1961, Phillips asked them to record the standard “Heart and Soul,” but the guys didn’t know it. They decided instead to record another old favorite, “Blue Moon.”
Phillips had their intro to “Zoom” stuck in his head, and so he asked Johnson to apply it to the beginning of “Blue Moon.” The group did two takes—which was about all they could have done, having had just eight minutes left in the studio when they began. That was all they needed.
A promo man delivered the newly cut record to famous DJ Murray the K of WINS in New York, and suffice to say he enjoyed the tune: he reportedly played it 26 times during his 4-hour show. With the radio-listening public excited, the single was rushed into production and was on the shelves yet during the month of February. The song hit #1 in the US on the Hot 100 and the Billboard R&B charts, #1 in the UK, New Zealand, and Canada, while performing well globally elsewhere.
The ugly part of the story is the reality that set in while the group toured behind their newfound success. The group was a rare example of racial integration, with Knauss and Bricker being white and Johnson, Harp, and Mundy being black. Knauss and Bricker left the group in August 1961 and were replaced by other black singers. (There are also hints of shady business dealings or unknown issues between Knauss and manager Kruspir that may have contributed to the change.)
The Marcels had a few more minor hits in 1961 and 1962, but never approached the massive success of their debut single. Members came and went, and so various iterations of the Marcels continued performing and recording for decades. Harp, Johnson, and Mundy have since all passed away.
|
|
|
Post by jk on Apr 29, 2024 20:44:38 GMT
”Blue Moon,” by the Marcels April 3-17 (3 weeks) I didn't like "Blue Moon" when I first heard it back in 1961, admittedly on a BBC TV "music" show where taking the p!ss was more important than the music. I love it now. Here is the lineup that sang it: Another fascinating write-up, Cap'n.
|
|