D-Sides, Orphans, and Oddities
Episodes
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Chicago and Some Extracurricular Activities
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
Tuesday Mar 15, 2022
The Knack - Africa (1981) From their 3rd album, Round Trip.
Peter Cetera - Holy Moly (1981)
Gerard McMahon - Hello Operator (1976)
Robert Lamm - Crazy Way to Spend a Year (1974)
Angelo - It Don't Matter (1976) With the Chicago horns, as well as Danny Seraphine on drums, Laudir de Oliveira on percussion, and the ubiquitous Peter Cetera.
Odyssey - Home Of The Brave (1972) With Donnie "Hot Licks" Dacus.
Robert Lamm - Where You Think You're Goin? (1972)
Don Felder - Never Surrender (1983) Written with Kenny Loggins ("Footloose", "Danny's Song") and featuring Pankow and Loughnane.
Gene McDaniels - Feel Like Makin' Love (1975)
Joe Vitale - Sailor Man (1981)
Leon Russell - Let's Get Started (1978)
The Knack - Lil' Cals Big Mistake (1981)
Maynard Ferguson - Rocky II Disco (1979) Featuring the real Sylvester Stallone on grunting, and Danny Seraphine on drums.
Flo & Eddie - Hot (1975) Featuring D. H.L. Dacus on slide guitar.
Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman signed with Columbia [Records] as Flo & Eddie. In his autobiography Shell Shocked, Kaylan revealed that upon receiving the cover art for their first album, they were appalled to learn that the printer had mistakenly printed the duo's stage names in the wrong order above their photograph. Volman was identified as Flo, which had been Kaylan's stage name in [Frank] Zappa's band, and Kaylan was identified as Eddie, Volman's stage name. The label refused to reprint the cover, saying that it would cost too much money. Thus, Kaylan and Volman decided to professionally swap stage names.
They sang backing vocals on so many famous songs and albums that you've likely heard them today. Among them:
"Bang a Gong" by T Rex.
Illegal Stills - Stephen Stills
From The Inside - Alice Cooper
"Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen
Blondie, Psychedelic Furs, Todd Rundgren (when you hear "Bang on the Drum All Day" at a sporting event, that's them singing,) Duran Duran, etc. Volman and Kaylan also sang on the first recording by Steely Dan, a demo of "Everyone's Gone To The Movies." I read an article where Kaylan says he was asked to be their lead singer, but he nixed the idea of singing without his partner.
James William Guercio - Tell Me (1973)
Peter Cetera - Livin' in the Limelight (1980)
Wikipedia: When Columbia Records dropped Chicago in 1981, Cetera was in the middle of recording his first solo album for the same label. He had to personally buy the rights to the album before it could be released. According to Cetera, Chicago's new record company, Warner Bros., released the Peter Cetera album while it was waiting for Chicago 16 to be released. Cetera has asserted that one reason for the album's poor commercial success, however, was lack of support from the record company: the record company didn't want it to be successful and didn't promote it for fear that he would leave the group. In his 2011 autobiography, former Chicago bandmate, Danny Seraphine, backs up Cetera on this point, writing, "... [the album] sank like a stone due to lack of record company support. Warner Brothers didn't want it to interfere with their plans for Chicago." A full-page advertisement announcing the album appeared on page 100 of the November 21, 1981 issue of Billboard magazine.
Marcos Valle - A Paraíba Não é Chicago (1981)
Wednesday Aug 26, 2020
Congrats on The Go-Gos and their new movie. But there were SO many before them.
Wednesday Aug 26, 2020
Wednesday Aug 26, 2020
Sigh.
Nice to see a Go-Gos movie. Wasn't one VH1 special enough? Again, The Go-Gos were not a band after their second album. FIGHT ME. They were a brand. They were not great instrumentalists, but they did not have to be. Their songs were catchy, but there weren't that many of them. They were fun in a B-52's way, even if Belinda Carlisle's Cher-esque vibrato on helium always bothered me. Still, it was nice to see clean-cut, good-looking gals make good in the MTV era. And someday I will play some! But you should know that there were quite a few all-female bands before them. Bands like Birtha and Fanny would have wiped the floor with them.
Brian Hyland - Mail Order Gun (1970)
Brian Hyland had three Top 10 hits in the decade. His first, "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini", went right to #1! 1960. There was also "Gypsy Woman" in 1970 (written by Curtis Mayfield) and that wonderful September song, "Sealed With A Kiss". You know I love the artists who started in the pre-Beatle era and try to reinvent themselves later on. There were so many.
In September 2006 Paul Vance, the song's co-writer, read on TV his own mistaken obituary, as a consequence of the death of another man, Paul Van Valkenburgh, who claimed to have written "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" under the name Paul Vance. The impostor had explained his lack of royalty payments for the song by claiming that he had sold the rights as a teenager. Vance, the song's true co-author, has earned several million dollars from the song since 1960, describing it as "a money machine".
Vance also co-wrote "Playground In My Mind," the hit for Clint Holmes, and "Run, Joey, Run", a hit for David Geddes.
Traffic Safety Tip - Loaded
Brian Hyland - The Bum Is Mine (1977) Written by Allen Toussaint.
Jacqueline Taïeb - 7 A.M. (1968)
Jerry Lee Lewis - The Cannikin Clink (Let A Soldier Drink) (1969) From rehearsals for the musical Catch My Soul, of which I will go into more detail in a future episode. Let's just say I bought the vinyl soundtrack, and it's a pretty good Hair-era retelling of Othello. This is from Peter Guralnick, who authored the ne plus ultra bio (to me) of Elvis Presley:
Picture Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago in the rock ‘n’ roll version of “Othello.” You’re just going to have to imagine it. Me, too. Because as far as I know, no visual record exists except for a few scattered publicity photographs.
He played the role in Los Angeles in 1968. The show was scheduled to come to New York next (we had already made plans to attend) – but it never did. According to Jerry Lee, it was because he had grown tired of the actor’s life, six weeks of following the same script night after night was enough, even if, like any Method performer, he never did play it the same way twice. (“I never worked so hard in my life. I mean two hours and forty-five minutes running up and down stairs – it was a mess.”) Very likely the fact that his recording career revived at exactly this time, with three Top 10 country hits in a row, had something to do with it, too.
No matter. As this rehearsal recording clearly proves, Jerry Lee inhabited the role, just as he has inhabited virtually every song he has ever sung. Listen to the leer in his voice, listen to the clarity of the message, listen to his delight in the lines. Oh man, I wish I had seen the show.
When I first met him two years later, in the spring of 1970, the role was still clearly in his blood. “You know,” he said to me toward the end of my visit, “a lot of people think if you can make a lot of money, that’s what this life is all about. Well, that can’t be what life is all about, you know? If I can just play my piano and sing – you know, the proudest I ever was in my life was when I got my first record out, hear[ing] it on the radio for the first time.“ He meditated on that for a little while. “Well, life is just a vapor,” he said, winking at me, as if I, too, must surely recognize this Shakespearean allusion. “You breathe it in, and what the heck, it’s gone.“
Kenny Vance - Shuffling Up Your Downs (1969) Written by Becker and Fagen. From Wikipedia: In 1967, the songwriting duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen came to the Brill Building to sell their songs, and ended up knocking on Vance's door. Vance liked what he heard, and offered to manage them. The duo arranged horn and string sections for Jay and the Americans and toured with them as bassist and keyboardist, eventually recording demos and masters with Vance in 1969. He continued to work with Becker & Fagen until 1971, when he brought one of their songs ("I Mean to Shine") to Richard Perry, who then brought it to Barbra Streisand and recorded it on Barbra Joan Streisand.
Take A Dip With Dinah - Kenny Vance (1969) Ibid.
The Gass - In The City (1966)
The Gass - The New Breed (1966)
The She's - The Fool (1966)
The What Four - Ain't No Use In Crying Susan (1966)
Formed in Manhattan and comprised of Elizabeth Burke (drums), Cathy Cochran (guitar), China Girard (rhythm guitar) and Diane Hartford (bass). They signed with Columbia in 1966, where they released "Baby I Dig Love" b/w "It's Hard to Live On Promises" and "I'm Gonna Destroy That Boy" and "Ain't No Use in Crying, Susan."
"I'm Gonna Destroy That Boy" is a great title.
The What Four - Do You Believe (1966) Different band, same name. This one from Dayton, Ohio.
The What Four - It's Hard To Live On Promises (1966)
Traffic Safety Tip - Corpse
The What Four - Whenever (1966) The males.
The What Four - Baby, I Dig Love (1966) The females.
The What Four - I'm Gonna Destroy That Boy (1966)
Topper Headon - Drumming Man (1985) Ex-drummer for The Clash. 'Drumming Man' is a cover of Gene Krupa's signature tune 'Drummin' Man', as originally recorded by Gene Krupa & His Orchestra in 1936.
XTC - This World Over (1984)
L Ron Hubbard/Yvonne Gillham Jentzsch - The Golden Dawn (1972) Scientology is an applied religious philosophy, jerk.
John Phillips - Zulu Warrior (1973-1979)
Sensation Alex Harvey Band - Give My Compliments To The Chef (1974) The cover is a send-up of the big Roger Dean covers done for Yes, Uriah Heap, etc. I love this record very much. Alice Cooper was a pretty tame imitation/contemporary. This is the real stuff.
Traffic Safety Tip - Lady Luck
Frank Zappa - Little House I Used To Live In (1970)
The Shadows Of Knight - Shake Revisited '69 (1969)
?-?
Velvet Underground - Waiting For The Man (1967)
The Webspinners (Ron Dante) - Theme From Spider Man (1972)
Thee Prophets - Rag Doll Boy (1969)
?-?
Tito Puente - Oye Como Va (1962) Original version
Traffic Safety Tip - Bottle
Tony Martin - Aquarius (1982)
Pink Floyd - Vegetable Man (1967)
Lorne Greene - Waco (1966)
Traffic Safety Tip - Corpse II
Winchester 76 - Buffalo (1967)
Winston Cigarettes - It's How You Make It Long (1967)
Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies - You Can Never Come Down (1968)
Hot Chocolate - You Could've Been A Lady (1971)
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Some solo Beatle covers. Oh, Babs, what have you done?
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Barbra Streisand - Love (1971)
Stu Phillips and the Hollyridge Strings - Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey (1971)
Billy Joe Royal - Every Night (1970)
Gilbert Neal and Ken Ray Wilemon - My Love (2017)
Exuma - Monkberry Moon Delight (1973) Good article on Exuma.
John Christie - 4th Of July (1974) In 1974, the producer Dave Clark asked Paul [McCartney] if he could provide him with a song for a singer named John Christie. Paul sent him a demo of the song, and the song was recorded and released as a single. I think it's very nice.
Asha Puthli - I Dig Love (1973)
Gilbert Neal and Ken Ray Wilemon - (Just Like) Starting Over (2017)
Nicky Thomas - Isn't It A Pity (1971)
Top Of The Poppers - Bangla Desh (1971)
George Harrison - It Don't Come Easy (1970) Demo for Ringo Starr. Did Ringo veto the "Hare Krishna" stuff during the lead?
Gilbert Neal and Ken Ray Wilemon - Whatever Gets You Through The Night (2017)
Flintlock - Rikki Don't Lose That Number (1976)
Norman Connors - Black Cow (1980)
Gilbert Neal and Ken Ray Wilemon - Black Friday (2017)
Gilbert Neal and Ken Ray Wilemon - Sing In The Sunshine (2017)
Matt Monroe - Isn't It A Pity (1971)
Poco - Dallas (1975)
Pointer Sisters - Dirty Work (1978)
Chips - Reelin' In The Years (1975) Band from Belfast, that enjoyed great popularity in the 1970s. Toured with Bay City Rollers.
The Woody Herman Band - FM (1978)
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Steely Dan outtakes are better than your favorite band's greatest hits. Fight me.
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Steely Dan - Kind Spirit (1980) Outtake from the Gaucho sessions.
Steely Dan - Were You Blind That Day? (1980) Ibid. Became "Third World Man".
Steely Dan - The Bear (1980) Ibid.
Cocaine: The Champaign Drug Ad For Eyewitness News Somewhere.
Dope! The Dope King's Last Stand, Side 1. - This 1977 Album was nominated for Best Children's Recording at the Grammys.
David Frye - Nixon Gets High (1969) American comedian, impressionist and satirist, specializing in comic imitations of famous political figures. He was one of the nation's top political humorists during the 1960s and 1970s.
Dino, Desi & Billy - Spray-Colored Glasses (1969) From the movie "Follow Me".
Dino, Desi & Billy - Hawley (1969)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys - Doin' The Flake (1965) Have you ever seen the Gary Lewis/Jerry Lewis Hullabaloo?
Gary Lewis and the Playboys - I Saw Elvis Presley Last Night (1969)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys - New In Town (1967)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys - Then Again Maybe (1972)
Dino, Desi & Billy - Lady Love (1970) The group was never a favorite of the critics. Writing for Allmusic.com, music critic Richie Unterberger characterized them as a group that "never had an ounce of credibility", with music that was "innocuously bland in the extreme." These sentiments may be contrasted with the fact that the band was well thought of by the Beach Boys, to the extent that Brian Wilson and [Billy]Hinsche co-wrote one of the band's original songs, and their final single, "Lady Love". That single was released by Reprise Records in 1970, after the group had broken up. Hinsche's sister, Annie, married Carl Wilson and Hinsche himself worked with the Beach Boys as a backing musician for many years.
Dino, Desi & Billy - A Certain Sound (1970)
Lena Zavaroni - Jump Down Jimmy (1980)
Orson Welles - The Begatting Of The President Pt. 1 (1969)
Rich Little - President's Rap (1982)
Ultimate Spinach - Suite: Genesis Of Beauty (In Four Parts) (1968)
The Burns - I Saw Her Standing There (1969)
The Burns - Sky Pilot (1969)
David Frye - The Dick Nixon Show (1971) A good article about a very Vaughn Meader-like character in American showbiz.
A fake interview with Dwight Eisenhower. Very funny. (Maybe 1965?)
Eric Burdon & War - A Day In The Life (1968)