"Ask Cool Daddy 2"
Did the Beatles write the Rolling Stones' first single? Not the first, no, ironic as that would have been. While fans supposedly split into warring factions, Beatles versus Stones, the objects of their affection remained good mates from way back. Actually, as I recall it, there was hardly anybody who didn't like both. But the first record released by the Stones was June 1963, A-side Chuck Berry's "Come On," B-side Willie Dixon's "I Want to Be Loved." It spent 14 weeks on the UK charts, reaching #21. In November 1963, their 2nd 45, again only in the UK, was a Lennon-McCartney song "I Wanna Be Your Man," backed with a self-composed instrumental called "Stoned." It was a bigger hit, up to #12.
Why did the Beatles give their song away, one they would eventually record themselves? Because in those days, they "hustled" their music. There were 2 ways to make money with records: record your own and sell them, or write songs for others and receive royalty payments. That's what ASCAP and BMI are for…to pay composers, not performers. The Beatles did both, with a passion. The first U.S. release by the Stones came in March 1964, Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" backed with "I Wanna Be Your Man." It reached #48, white the same A-side, with a different B-side, went to #3 in England.
Wasn't that catchy tune Ernie Kovacs used for his Nairobi Trio skits recycled a decade later for the Colt 45 Beer commercials? They do sound similar, but they are really different pieces of music. The "Song of the Nairobi Trio" was originally titled "Solfeggio," written by jazz harpist (that's harp, not harmonica!) Robert Maxwell. Solfeggio is Italian for a form of vocalese where each note is sung with it's corresponding do-re-mi syllable. The recording Kovacs used was by Maxwell's orchestra, with vocals by the Ray Charles Singers, no not that one, the other one, Perry Como's Ray Charles. The jingle on the Colt 45 Malt Liquor commercials with Billy Van was written by Canadian legends of jingledom Jerry Toth and Dolores Claman. It was officially titled "A Completely Unique Experience." In 1968 Claman also composed the Hockey Night in Canada Theme.
I love both Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" soundtrack albums. Should I search out and watch the shows? For great 1950s-style crime drama, yes, definitely…but for the music, not so much. Hank of course revolutionized TV music, replacing orchestral violins with cool jazz. Even the syndicated western "Shotgun Slade" used anachronistically hip tunes, and that was a selling point. But as great as that swinging music was, "Brothers Go to Mothers," "Dreamsville," The Floater," and all the rest were actually fleshed-out arrangements based on brief motifs used on the show, what they call in the business "cues." Even the iconic Peter Gunn Theme ran less than 60 seconds at the beginning and end of each half-hour episode. So yes, you will hear bits and pieces you'll recognize, and a bevy of sultry nightclub singers to boot, but don't expect to hear Peter Gunn's greatest hits. It didn't work that way…same thing with other TV soundtrack records from the period.
For once and for all, was the Buoys' song "Timothy" really about cannibalism? It sure was, and the 20-year-old composer of the song never denied it, not then, not ever, and that was Rupert Holmes…yup, the "Pina Colada Song" guy. He was kicking around the music business in the late 1960s, and got a band from Wilkes-Barre, PA signed to Scepter Records, home of Dione Warwick and B.J. Thomas. The deal included one single, but they understood there'd be virtually no promotion of it. So Rupert figured, why not put out something that would be automatically banned, based on the time-honored principle that bad publicity is still publicity. The mining disaster and subsequent scarfing of poor Tim was inspired by Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons"…he thought the description of "a man" in that song sounded like a recipe, and while not a member of the Buoys, he did play piano on the track.
The rest is one-hit-wonder history. "Timothy" was one of the slowest rising hits ever, gaining popularity thru word of mouth, as radio stations fussed over whether to play it. In some markets, one station did, while its crosstown rival didn't, but it was that way with a lot of singles. Scepter Records felt blind-sided and tried to push the story that Timothy was a mule, not a person, but Rupert refused to go along. It's said there's a censored version with different lyrics, but I've yet to find it. Something to look forward to, sez me.
Yeah, but the Purple People Eater is called that because he eats purple people, right? Of course, and he even says so in the song…when asked "What's your line?" he replies "Eating purple people and it sure is fine." The counter-argument is that he's the one that's purple, not the people he eats. Well, it's both, so why are we having this discussion? Maybe that's how he gets to be purple, did you ever think of that? Sheb Wooley wrote and recorded this classic. Soon after, "The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor" was written and recorded by Joe South, and covered by the Big Bopper. Sheb came right back with "Santa and the Purple People Eater" just in time for Christmas. Man, those were the days...
It was labeled "Ameriachi," but did Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass ever recorded any real mariachi music? Not only didn't they, Herb said in interviews at the time that he purposely avoided it. Yes, he was from Los Angeles, and was influenced by the rowdy excitement of the music he heard at bullfights in Tijuana, but even his breakthrough single "The Lonely Bull" was originally titled "Twinkle Star." The first 2 Tijuana Brass albums especially did have some ethnic touches, even German oom-pah…and early publicity described it as "Tex-Mex" flavored, but Herb was aiming for something else. Real mariachi has kind of a hurry-up waltz beat, and the TJB sound was pure American pop all the way.
I heard that the group Poco was originality named Pogo…true? Absolutely! They signed with Epic records in February 1969, but by April, Pogo comic strip artist Walt Kelly had gotten wind of their name and threatened to sue. So they came up with the bright idea of changing Pogo to Poco…this worked especially well with capital letters, the G morphing into a C. Thus the their name recognition was pretty much retained, and presumably some letter-head was salvaged as well. Till next time, go to deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com and follow the groovy links...and whatever you do, rock on!
