Posted on 04/16/2018 5:56:12 AM PDT by Twotone
Edited on 04/16/2018 9:01:45 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
I don't know about you but, whenever I see trees of green, red roses too, I think to myself:
Tell that fat bastard to go [bleep] himself.. Why do we give a [bleep]..? Screw 'em all.
More of that anon. But, before we get to those four-letter fanfares, half-a-century ago this month - April 1968 - something rather unusual happened in the UK Top 40: An American got to Number One.
>>That hadn’t happened in a while: Ever since Scott McKenzie went to San Francisco with flowers in his hair the previous summer, the Yanks had been frosted out of the top spot in Britain. Whether Londoners (Manfred Mann with “Mighty Quinn”, Love Affair with “Everlasting Love”), Scousers (the Beatles with “Hello, Goodbye” and “Lady Madonna”), Northerners (Georgie Fame, “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde”), East Midlanders (Long John Baldry, “Let the Heartaches Begin”), Wiltshire lads (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, “The Legend of Xanadu” - our co-Song of the Week #112), semi-Aussies (the Bee Gees, “Massachusetts”), Anglo-Indians (Engelbert with “The Last Waltz” and Cliff with “Congratulations”), or West Indians with a token Ceylonese (the Foundations, “Baby, Now That I’ve Found You”), the Number One pop stars were all British subjects
Ah but Mighty Quinn was written by Bob Dylan. Everlasting Love was written by Buzz Cason. Each was American with a long history of writing and performing.
Cason’s journey brought him into the Crickets (post Buddy Holly), also writing a song that would later be covered by the Beatles, U2, and Pearl Jam (Solider of Love), writing his biggest hit Everlasting Love, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Cason
>>It’s a genuine standard, a late addition to the Great American Songbook, in the sense that zillions of singers take a crack at it - Anne Murray, Joey Ramone, Céline Dion, Shane MacGowan, Ziggy Marley - which is more than can be said of “Green Tambourine” or “Tighten Up” or the other hits of ‘68.
Well Tighten Up became a standard too, recorded originally by Archie Bell and the Drells but subsequently covered by James Brown and many others...
I saw Archie Bell and the Drells at the Bamboo Hut on Galveston Beach during the summer of ‘67 or ‘68. They did the “Tighten up” about 10 times. The instrumentals on the recording and at that performance were by the Texas Southern University Tornadoes. Archie spoke the limited lyrics and the Drells did the fancy steps ala the Temptations. They wore lime green jackets with lemon yellow slacks and white shoes.
The song accompanies a YouTube video, a slow motion helicopter hog hunt in Texas. Must see.
Think I first heard it play on Monlighting. Womb with a View
Very interesting history. I always wondered why I had never heard that old song until a relative few years ago.
There are a number of artists who are nothing here and major stars in the UK and vice versa.
One day, I went to pick up my son at a church youth group thing. They were finishing off the night reading Trivial Pursuit questions. The question was something like “This artist is the third highest selling artist in the UK and virtually unheard of in the United States.”
I blurted out “Cliff Richard.” instantly impressing 20 high school kids with my intense knowledge of completely trivial things.
I feel ‘aged’ reading this thread.
Bump for later when I have the time.
Louis Armstrong did it the best.
The melody seems to have been adapted from “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
I met Archie Bell on an elevator at a Holiday Inn in downtown Raleigh North Carolina in 1973 maybe 74 spring. He was playing at the Holiday Inn. I invited him up to the room to a PJ party (that’s Purple Jesus which is basically grain alcohol in a bunch of canned fruit). Lots of women lots of guys & Archie comes in the room takes one look around opens his briefcase and starts passing out bumper stickers and 8x10 glossies, even had a sip.
And that’s my Archie Bell story.
West End Blues--Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five (1928)
Archie Bell is the older brother of Ricky Bell, one of the greatest tailbacks to play for the USC Trojans. He died of cardiomyositis, a rare heart ailment, at the age of 29.
Makes me nostalgic, but not enough to so watch Good Morning, Vietnam.
Still a great article from Steyn.
Record company execs are the Spawn of Satan.... ha ha.
Vera Lynn, one of the bestselling artists in the UK during the 20th century, is also virtually unknown in the US. She turned 101 last month.
Leo Sayer is another. He has 15 top 40 singles in the UK and 5 in the US.
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