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Post by cripes on Apr 3, 2008 14:42:25 GMT -5
Any excuse to post an mp3 of Stan Freberg's Banana BoatI could not find a decent picture of Peter Leeds who played the bongo player in this skit ('Too piercing, man') on the internet so I scanned an old LP. Peter Leeds was a ubiquitous TV character actor. His IMDb page here. The Freberg players:  Cartoon fans will know Daws Butler as the voice of Yogi Bear and half of the Hanna/Barbara animals. June Foray is most famous for the voice of Rocky the Squirrel. |
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Post by cripes on Apr 3, 2008 15:18:04 GMT -5
This is what nick was referring to on the Lollypop thing and it bears pasting: Sometimes the success of a record cannot be measured by how many copies it sold, but rather by the impact it had. Such is the case with My Boy Lollipop by Barbie Gaye. If you are a fan of the 60s, you know this song as a huge hit around the world in the summer of 1964. If you are fan of bluebeat and ska, you know this song as a groundbreaker that introduced the Jamaican beat to the world. If you are a Rod Stewart fan, you know this song for the wrong reason. At age 16 or 17 Barbie Gaye had already experienced success as a part of 'The Christmas Shower of Stars' at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater which was organised by the legendary DJ Alan Freed of WINS, a radio station that would figure prominently in 1964 when the Beatles arrived in New York City. Based on her stage success, this young white girl entered a recording studio to record some R'n'B tracks, one of which was My Boy Lollypop. My Boy Lollypop was written by Johnny Roberts and our old friend Morris Levy under the name R. Spencer. Upon release Alan Freed began pushing it on WINS, and while it didn't chart nationally, it did make it to the WINS chart and Freed's Top 25. As a senior in High School, songwriter Ellie Greenwich, who we all know for her talents as a Brill Building song writer with husband Jeff Barry, would hear My Boy Lollipop on WINS. She was so impressed with Barbie's style, that as a first year student in 1958 at Queens College in New York she would pen both sides of her first single, Silly Isn't It b/w Cha-Cha Charming released on RCA Victor records, and credit the writing and her performance to Ellie Gaye after Barbie. Fast forward to 1963. Millicent Smith, of Clarendon in Jamaica would be under the supervision of Chris Blackwell of Island records. She had been recording as a part of a duo called Roy and Millie for the Jamaican Studio One label, and managed to have a local hit with a song called We'll Meet. Rechristened as Millie, or Little Mille Small in the USA, she would record and release the relaese the track as My Boy Lollipop (with an I instead of a Y) and take it to number 2 in the USA and the UK, and number 1 on the CHUM chart in Canada. With a monster sound built for AM radio, the track grabbed you and pulled you in. Millie's version is particularly known for the hot harmonica solo in the middle, a solo that was not played, as rumoured, by Rod Stewart. With production by Chris Blackwell it would be the biggest hit to date for his own Island records, albeit released in the UK on Fontana. Millie managed to eek out one further minor hit in the US and Canada, a track called Sweet William, but would see bigger success in the UK. Barbie Gaye would disappear into obscurity, little realising her impact on the music scene through to the present day, as even the Spice Girls can be heard singing My Boy Lollipop in their film Spice World. As dynamite as Millie's recording is, Barbie's original is by no means a slouch. Barbie's voice brings to mind the styling and sound of her contemporary Brenda Lee. The harmonica solo on Millie's version is found here as a hot sax solo. While Barbie's version is classified as R'n'B, the roots of ska and bluebeat are present here and can be heard loud and clear. The B-side, Say You Understand, is a more typical R'n'B sound that showcases Barbie's talents and re-enforces all comaprisons to Brenda Lee. My Boy Lollypop is much easier to find on 45 than on 78, and even easier to find on CD. However, for some odd reason, most CD versions omit the first 6 notes of the recording! So, if you like the song, dig out your turntable, head to a record shop and get it on the coolest format around and really inpress your friends!
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david
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Post by david on Apr 3, 2008 15:23:46 GMT -5
I forgot about Belafonte. But for all his Jamaican shtick, he was really just a New Yorker.
Stan Freberg . . . some of that stuff was really sharp. Payola Roll Blues could have been written yesterday. "Don't let it touch my turntable man . . ."
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david
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Post by david on Apr 3, 2008 20:32:57 GMT -5
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david
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Post by david on Apr 3, 2008 20:39:11 GMT -5
B.B. King's How Blue Can You Get spent 3 weeks in the Top 100, peaking at #92. My guess is it was a big enough r&b hit to crack the bottom of the pop chart, but the 10 white people who bought the record weren't able to keep it there very long . . .
I always thought My Girl Sloopy was an original by the McCoys. I had no idea it was a cover.
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Post by cripes on Apr 4, 2008 0:13:41 GMT -5
More 'Can't Buy Me Love' trivia--the picture sleeve for this US single is the rarest Capitol issued fab sleeve there is. It was only distributed on the east coast and it was hard to find even then. Most of them came in generic Capitol sleeves. This sleeve in VG shape can get upwards of $900.00 today.  |
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david
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Post by david on Apr 4, 2008 18:23:51 GMT -5
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david
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Post by david on Apr 5, 2008 16:33:11 GMT -5
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david
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Post by david on Apr 6, 2008 8:19:06 GMT -5
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david
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Post by david on Apr 6, 2008 8:22:10 GMT -5
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david
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Post by david on Apr 6, 2008 21:56:16 GMT -5
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david
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Post by david on Apr 7, 2008 10:09:38 GMT -5
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Post by cripes on Apr 7, 2008 10:57:59 GMT -5
It has a little Dusty Springfield 'I Only Want To Be With You' in there too.
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david
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Post by david on Apr 7, 2008 11:02:34 GMT -5
But, as far as I can tell, recorded before either one of them. Hmmm . . .
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david
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Post by david on Apr 7, 2008 21:39:38 GMT -5
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manho
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Post by manho on Apr 8, 2008 4:51:56 GMT -5
rock&roll was probably banned by the church in ireland: de divvil's music. be interesting to see if the northern ireland chards are any different. or where they just the same as the british charts?
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manho
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Post by manho on Apr 8, 2008 5:23:17 GMT -5
the reason that why is love so blind sounds like georgy girl and only want to be with you is that it sounds like every song ever written.
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Post by owen on Apr 8, 2008 5:43:28 GMT -5
there's no show like a joe show
Big Tom was huge back then too. he was popular in england too
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Post by owen on Apr 8, 2008 5:52:32 GMT -5
some of them did imitations of the rock n roll standards which would be pelted out at the dances.
van the man had a showband in belfast so presumably, there was the same showband thing going on up the north
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david
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Post by david on Apr 8, 2008 7:09:56 GMT -5
Heh heh. I thought the Irish stuff might get a reaction.
In North America, those who are interested would know about the Dubliners and the Clancys and so on. But it was only when I got to Ireland that I found out that for real Irish people, the nostalgic 60s songs were almost all showband hits.
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