Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 23 August 14

Strong Love - The Spencer Davis Group

This became The Spencer Davis Group’s third single to just miss out on becoming a top forty hit with 'I Can’t Stand It' peaking at number forty-seven, 'Every Little Bit Hurts' falling short at number forty-one and this cover of an American recording by The Malibus, stalling at forty-four. There was no need to panic though as they made number one with their next release, 'Keep On Running'.

I Saw Linda Yesterday - Dickey Lee

Memphis born Dickey Lee formed a band called The Collegiates whilst at High School but his main interest was to become a successful athlete participating in football and boxing events but finally music won out as a profession. After graduating, he wrote a song called 'She Thinks I Still Care' that George Jones recorded and took to the top of the American Country charts in 1962, the same year he had his own top ten hit with 'Patches'. The follow up was 'I Saw Linda Yesterday' that also made the top twenty and became a minor UK hit for Doug Sheldon.

Let's Copp A Groove - Bobby Wells

After the success with their first release, 'Ain’t Nothin’ But A Houseparty' by The Showstoppers, newly formed Beacon Records thought they were on a roll and their next big project was another Philadelphia recording licensed from the small Romur label, 'Let’s Copp A Groove' by Bobby Wells. It was later revealed that Bobby’s real name was Robert Murphy, brother of Romur’s owner, Roscoe and although the record didn’t become a hit, it was a disco favourite that sold solidly enough to be re-pressed leaving enough copies around for fans to purchase a copy today for under £10.00

Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel

This is the version from their album, 'Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme' Simon was living in Brentwood at the time he wrote the song and was reported to have come up with the idea while he was waiting for a train. He has also been reported as saying that he didn’t really like the song or indeed many of his early hits with Art Garfunkel despite the naivety of them.

Leaves That Are Green - Simon & Garfunkel

Originally featured on his first solo album, 'The Paul Simon Songbook', recorded in London and released in 1965, when it was also the ‘B’ side of the single, his solo recording of 'I Am A Rock'. A year later after joining forces with Art Garfunkel, both songs were re-recorded and once again 'Leaves That Are Green', from their album, 'Sounds Of Silence' sat on the ‘B’ side on this occasion of 'Homeward Bound'.

Rumours - Johnny Crawford

As a one time member of The Mouseketeers, Johnny Crawford had no plans on becoming a singer then in 1958 he was cast as Mark McCain in the TV Western series, 'The Rifleman' after which he was introduced to Bob Keane, head of Del-Fi Records who had worked on the theory that young girls were more interested in a singer’s appearance than vocal ability as proven with the likes of both Fabian and Frankie Avalon. Keane took a gamble on Crawford’s good looks and celebrity status and signed him after he received a few singing lessons. His first major US hit was 'Cindy’s Birthday' that reached number eight followed by two further top twenty hits, 'Your Nose Is Gonna Grow' and this 1962 release, 'Rumours'. Today he leads the Johnny Crawford Dance Orchestra reviving music from the Roaring Twenties.

Bring It On Home To Me - The Animals

Written in the Spring of 1962 'Bring It On Home To Me', was based on Charles Brown’s 'I Want To Go Home', in fact the melody was almost the same, only the lyrics had been changed by Sam Cooke. Many historians of soul music consider this to be a definitive soul song, as it provides the formula that is still popular today. Apart from The Animals, there have been dozens of covers of the song by artists including Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Sonny & Cher, Van Morrison, Wilson Pickett and not forgetting Sam Cooke’s own recording.

Guantanamera - The Sandpipers

The song started life as a poem written by Jose Marti then adapted for a song by folk singer, Pete Seeger and is the best known song to emerge from Cuba. The Sandpipers first performed together in the Mitchell Boy’s Choir before deciding to break away to form The Four Seasons, however after a couple of gigs, it was pointed out to them that a group already existed with that name and they became The Grads. After a couple of failed releases, they were introduced to Herb Alpert who signed them to his A&M label and called them The Sandpipers unaware that a girl group in Florida was already using that name. Once making a deal on their name, it was suggested by their record producer Tommy LiPuma that they record 'Guantanamera' giving them their first hit.

Baby You've Gotta Stay - Angel Pavement

The group were formed out of a pool of musicians that worked at the end of the sixties as Angel Pavement and have always been something of a mystery growing out of a soul based band, Wesley Hardin’s Shotgun Package. Building a firm following around their hometown of York led to them being signed to the Fontana label. They recorded several demos before coming up with their first single, 'Baby You’ve Gotta Stay', with the band only contributing vocals to the track played by session musicians. Despite heavy airplay mainly from Kenny Everett, the single flopped and they followed it at the beginning of 1970 with 'Tell Me What I’ve Gotta Do', after which they were dropped from the label.

Mr Businessman - Ray Stevens

Ray Stevens’ broad musical expertise put him in the fortunate position of being able to find equal success with serious material as he did with his novelty releases such as 'The Streak' and 'Harry The Hairy Ape'. After releasing singles on two different labels, he signed to Monument in 1966 where he worked both sides of the studio producing early records by Dolly Parton and recording hits of his own. In 1968 he made the American charts with his skewering of materialistic executives in his song, 'Mr Businessman'. Check out Bob Stanley's blog on this track here.

Rhapsody In The Rain - Lou Christie

Written by Christie with his fortune telling song writing collaborator, Twyla Herbert, this was the follow up to his international hit, 'Lightning Strikes'. The song became his fourth million seller despite a number of American Radio stations banning it because they felt some of the lyrics too suggestive, the line that caused the objections was "we were making out in the rain", So Lou changed them to "we fell in love in the rain" and all was well. Here though is the X rated version that we feel our avids can handle and by the way, the melody was based on part of Tchaikovsky's 'Romeo And Juliet'.