Brian's Weekly Sleevenotes - 6 December 14

The Nashville Teens

The follow up to their debut hit, 'Tobacco Road', and like their previous release was another composition by John D Loudermilk. Although the group made the top ten with their first two singles, for some reason, Decca failed to promote them sufficiently not helped by the label later issuing their version of another Loudermilk song, 'This Little Bird' at the same time as a recording on the same label by Marianne Faithfull. Although sales of their future releases were on the decline, the group continued with their live work and were often called upon to back visiting American stars including Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins.

I Guess I'll Never Learn - Charlie Phillips

Charlie Phillips hailed from West Texas developing a keen interest in singing as a young child and was known to sing songs whilst ploughing his family’s fields. As a teenager he impressed Buddy Holly’s producer, Norman Petty enough when he played him some of his work that he arranged for him to record some of his material. Holly himself played guitar and sang backing vocals on some of Phillips’ early sessions for the Coral label including his first release in 1957, 'One Faded Rose' with its ‘B’ side, 'Sugartime' that became a big hit for The McGuire Sisters. In 1962 Phillips signed to Columbia where his first release was 'I Guess I’ll Never Learn', providing him with a top ten hit on the American Country charts and is now included on a thirty track Jasmine CD, 'You’re The Reason-30 One Hit Wonders US Country and Western' that also includes material by The Rooftop Singers, Gene Vincent, The Springfields and Walter Brennan.

Eloise - Barry Ryan

The son of pop singer Marion Ryan and Fred Sapherson, Barry and his twin brother Paul began to perform at the age of fifteen. In 1965 they signed a recording contract with Decca where they achieved a number of hit singles. When Paul was unable to cope any longer with all the stress of show business, they decided that he would write the songs and Barry would then interpret as a solo artist. Their first effort was this single for MGM, 'Eloise'. Barry himself stopped performing in the early seventies amidst rumours that he had an accident in the recording studio. Supposedly he suffered serious burn wounds in the face and could no longer appear in public. However, he made a comeback in the late nineties and was also part of the UK’s 'Solid Silver 60s Tour' in 2003, singing 'Eloise' backed by The Dakotas.

Painter Man - The Creation

Otis Redding

The group were largely made up of members of London band, The Mark Four but when they signed a management deal in 1966 with Tony Stratton-Smith, along with changes in the line up, they became known as The Creation, based on a reference vocalist Kenny Pickett found in a book of Russian poetry. Their first single, 'Making Time' just missed out making the top forty despite a fair amount of airplay but the follow up, 'Painter Man' gave them their only UK hit although the song did come back in 1979 when Boney M adapted it and took it into our top ten.

Dance To The Music - Sly & The Family Stone

The band had already released one album, 'A Whole New Thing' before the release of this single. As with many acts, none of the group liked the song but it was recorded at the insistence of record label boss Clive Davis who was looking for something more commercial than the material on their debut album. Despite the protests, the record did what it was supposed to do and gave them an international hit that became one of the most influential songs of the late sixties.

Read Bob Stanley's extended feature on Sly & The Family Stone, here.

My Mama Told Me - Barbara Lewis

Born in Michigan, USA, where both her parents had their own orchestras, Barbara Lewis began playing the piano, guitar and harmonica by the time she was nine as well as writing songs. Although she had no aspirations to become involved with music as a career, family friend Ollie McLaughlin, who was credited with discovering Del Shannon was impressed with her vocal sound and invited her to cut a record for his own Karen label which was first single in 1962, the up tempo 'My Heart Went Do Dat Da'. The record enjoyed enough local interest to prompt Atlantic to make a deal with McLaughlin for Barbara’s future material that began with her own composition, 'My Mama Told Me' that bares more than a passing resemblance to The Shirelles hit, 'Mama Said'.

FA-FA-FA-FA-FA (Sad Song) - Otis Redding

The opening track from the album, 'Complete And Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul', this became Otis’s fifth and last solo studio album before his untimely death. As with many of his songs, this was written with Steve Cropper who would normally be asked to help complete a song from Redding’s initial idea. The track features Booker T Jones on keyboards, Cropper himself on guitar, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn on bass, Al Jackson Jr on drums together with the Memphis Horns. David Porter was the voice that sang the ‘Fa, Fa Fa, Fa, Fa” part alongside Otis.

Here Comes The Judge - Pigmeat Markham

Not to be confused with the Motown release of the same title by Shorty Long, this recording by soul and comedy singer, Pigmeat Markham was released in 1968 on the Chess label and reached number nineteen on both the UK and American charts. The song came about from a regular weekly routine featured in the TV series, 'Rowan And Martin’s Laugh In' that started with the words, "Hey yea, hey yea, here come de judge" making a mockery of formal courtroom proceedings and has often been referred to as the first rap record.

Voodoo Voodoo - LaVern Baker

We turn now to a collection of red hot tracks released on a new twenty track CD by Cherry Red Records, compiled by our own “Sounds Of The Sixties” blogger in chief, Bob Stanley, 'Such A Much! R&B Girls Of The 50’s and 60’s' that include contributions from Etta James, Ruth Brown, Doris Payne, better known as Doris Troy and this 1961 release from LaVern Baker, whose biggest American hits were 'Tweelee Dee' in 1955 and 'Jim Dandy' a year later.