" "

yeah yeah

Jerry Lee Lewis - Let's Talk About Us
Smash S-2202, 1968

The Otis Blackwell-penned classic. This isn't the original 1959 Sun Records version, but a late '60s remake Jerry did for Chicago label Smash.



This was recorded after Jerry's transformation from Rockabilly to MOR Contemporary Country, with signature production by Jerry Kennedy. I've developed a taste for this period of The Killer's career - forgotten by pop radio, but soldiering on in Country (the A-side of this 45 topped the Country charts in '68). He was a good fit for this style and still rocked it his way.



Dave Edmunds did a nice cover of this a decade later (with Nick Lowe producing) - a version that seems to borrow more from the Smash single than the original.

I figure it's worth noting, after reading through this thread, that I grew up in Carpentersville. I only ever knew Shooting Stars (still drop in, from time to time). Skipper's sounds like it was before my time. Still, wild to know that people even know about these places...let alone several of them!

Anyway, this really is a solid as thread.

Eric Burdon & The Animals - Sky Pilot (Parts 1 & 2)
MGM Records K13939, 1968



This is the radio version, which I think had a lot more work put into it. Aside from the freaky echo effect on "How high can you fly?", the drums stay in the mix during the middle sonic collage part. The transitions seem to work better, compared to the choppier, bland LP mix (an earlier mix, perhaps?). Plus, the single has some spooky bagpipes at the end.

I'm fairly certain this was the first stereo 45 I ever owned. Lots of cool panning effects during the middle part. As a kid, I loved playing this one on my GE Wildkat stereo and reveling in the total stereo experience (the distressed condition of this record reminds me of this - sorry about that. I'd love to track down a better copy someday).

For this rip, I stitched together both parts:


I have yet to find this version on any CD compilation. The recent remaster of The Twain Shall Meet claims to contain the single version, but don't waste your money - it's just the album mix, folded to mono and cut into two parts.

In my stoner years, i probably laughed more to the work of Eric Burden & The Animals than anyone else. This and 'Warm San Franciscan Nights' in particular. Both great songs, kind of, but Burden as a hippie seemed monumentally ridiculous.

I had this on a fantastic compilation of Viet Nam songs put together by the NME in the mid 80s called 'Feels like I'm fixin' to die' if you ever see it you should buy it.

bump

Herman's Hermits - Leaning On The Lamp Post
MGM Records K13500, 1966



Guilty pleasure record here. It's fruity as hell, like most Herman's Hermits tunes, but what are ya gonna do? It's irresistibly catchy Brit invasion bubblegum, something this band cranked out in bulk.

This one reached #7 in the U.S.



The single version is different - different take - than what's on any of their albums (yes, I'll admit it: I have several Herman's Hermits records.)

Yeah, that's from one of their two movies, Hold On. The other being Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter Turner Movie showed them both about a month ago. I DVR'd them and watched.

Hey, A Kind Of Hush showed up on my top 100 songs of all time list.

This might be a stretch, but I imagine Johnny Marr must have been a fan. I hear a lot of this stuff in certain Smiths tunes.

I don't think that that's much of a stretch at all. It's definitely there.

Fairly sure Moz is/was. HH were just earlier graduates from the same Manchester School of Foppery.

i need to compile all of these tunes soon... best thread of the year.

No kidding. Made me very very happy reading/listening through this thread.
I feel like there's not enough Sid Hartha worship going on around the board. Always delivers top notch stuff.

Hey, I lived down the road from

Where my pops used to get all his stuff, which then shaped the way I hear sound. That place was still up and running but only a few years ago.

TRUTH

why did i never click in this thread before

mindblowing

sid hartha, you're a legend

Echo & The Bunnymen - Angels And Devils
Korova (UK) KOW34, 1984



B-side of "Silver". This was a one-off, recorded during a break on their '84 North American tour. I remember being really psyched by this when it came out, as it seemed to suggest a return to a simpler, stripped down sound after the lush orchestrations of Ocean Rain and multilayered production of Porcupine. Too bad they didn't pursue this any further and instead went the overproduced, '80s synth route with "Bring On the Dancing Horses" and that awful self-titled LP.

One of their best 7" sides, and the end of a great run.

Sid OTM (although I liked the self-titled album more than you apparently did). "Angels and Devils" is a fantastic song. Easily among my favorite Bunnymen tracks. Reading the liner notes to their box set, it's clear that the band thought very highly of it as well.

makes me want to play my 12 string

they often gave good b-side - 'Do it clean' on the back of 'The killing moon', am I right? The 'Seven seas" 12 with the live stuff recorded on The Crystal Day, that was the single after this iirc and the last time they were really flying. I'd pick that and the 'Shine so hard 12" if I had to try to convince someone of why this band was truly special. I liked 'Dancing horses' and 'Lips like sugar' but, yeah, all massively downhill after this 84/85 spurt.

q.v.

Shine So Hard - yes. My E&tB 45s and 12" singles all survived the vinyl purge of the '80s - for this band, that's not such a bad deal.

I think I posted that Seven Seas EP in the older version of this thread. Love that one. It has a cover of "All You Need Is Love" that sounds more like Donovan than anything else...

"Simple Stuff" is probably my favorite B-side of theirs, it's so raw and brittle - but their peak moment on 7" has to be "A Promise". Mind-blowing single. Could they possibly use less chords and still sound so epic?

This is the best thread of 2009 by far, great stuff Sid.

'Bedbugs & Ballyhoo' was a pretty smart b-side too, now I think about it. Good band, good times. Wish they had split in 85 and left it.

Donovan - Sunny South Kensington
B-side of "Mellow Yellow", Epic 5-10098, 1966



I never cared much for the A-side, but this song really has something. Donovan's amusing enough with his portrait of swinging London, but the real star here is John Paul Jones' brilliant arrangement. So many things going on, from the dual electric/upright basses on the intro to the continually changing keyboards (John Cameron, I think): harpsichord to organ to harmonium to piano, and back again.

Do not click on this if you hate having a song stuck in your head for days.



edit/ that's two Mickie Most-produced sides in less than a week. I need to keep watch on this.

Yes, I have this on a two disc CD set from the mid 90's.
I, though, am a fan of those A sides as well.

for some reason i can't get the "download" tab to work on the divshare players lately... anybody else having trouble?

works fine using Opera or Safari, hit-or-miss with Firefox...

Wow, great Donovan song. Never heard it, and I consider myself more than a mild dabbler in his catalog.

Always one of my favorite threads to check on, Sid.

I have been listening to the songs in this thread on a thrice a day basis. Every song is fantastic, but I must say, some unbelievable shit happens in my brain everytime I hear Simon and Garfunkel, The Chi-Lites and The Bubble Puppy in sequence. Appeals to three parts of my brain that are almost entirely different from one another.

A guy on the radio here played the B-side to Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" the other day and it was amazing and revelatory--a kind of circus-type, Tom Waits-y thing. I've been scouring the thrift shops looking for it since. Worth keeping an eye out for.

All good selections here.

Picked up that Bubble Puppy 45 on Ebay after hearing it in this thread. What a fucking killer riff.

The Bee Gees - I've Gotta Get A Mesage To You
Atco 6603, 1968



A huge song, a huge hit - and essentially the end of their run of great '60s pop singles (besides "I Started A Joke", which was not released as a single in the UK for some reason).

This is different from the LP/CD version: slightly longer, different vocal (in parts), and the orchestra is buried in the mix until the final chorus.

Nice.

Totally.

I didn't even see this get posted. Great tune.
Had to search for the thread just to bump it. Somb needs more of this.

Sid, are you tweaking these rips with any audio software?

No EQ, but I've used some Waves scratch removal on some of the nasty parts. The intro on the Donovan, for example - had a few tics blasted off. It's like Photoshop, but for sound.

Also, like the Beatles remasters, I use a bit of level maximization (the software bundle, ironically, is called "Abbey Road") - just a bit, to make them more shuffle-friendly.

The Beatles - I Am The Walrus
Capitol 2056, 1967



This has to do with my first real complaint with the new Beatles remasters.

For some mysterious reason, every released version of this song has two measures chopped out (about 1:30 in, just before "Yellow Matter Custard...") - except for the original US Capitol single. The edit is easy to spot, as it is rather crude and slightly off the beat.

Probably not a big deal to anyone else, it's just that I must have listened to this single hundreds of times before the Magical Mystery Tour album came out (at first, I thought the LP had a skip in that part).

The US 45 version (without the edit):


the edit (from the 2009 mono remaster):


An annoying little mistake gets repeated once again.

^ Never noticed this before. I'll probably never be able to hear this song again without listening for it.

that's what I'm here for

hey Sid, how many 45's do you own?

Never counted them. About six boxes full, I guess.

Michael & The Messengers - Up Til News
USA 866, 1967 (B-side of "Midnight Hour")



That recent Sundazed compilation inspired me to dig out some of my USA singles. So far, this is the only one to turn up (I swear I had more, somewhere). I'll skip the A-side. Just go ahead and buy the comp for that one, it's worth it.



This is what they call a throwaway B-side. It sounds like the band had a few minutes of studio time left, and nothing to put on the flip - so they just made something up on the spot.

Awesome as usual.

Love their take on Romeo and Juliet. Thinking hard about getting this USA set.

James Brown and The Famous Flames - Let Yourself Go
King 6100, 1967



One of my favorite JB tracks, from a period full of favorite tracks. Most people probably know this one from the Star Time box set, which features cleaned up digital remixes of his hits. The CD version is fine, but I still prefer the gritty, reverb-drenched sound of the original single.

did you switch cartridges or turntables?

Same table, different cartridge. I have a .7 mil conical stylus on the Stanton that works well with old mono discs. It's not quite as 'hi fi' as the elliptical stylus, but does a great job of hiding scratches and groove wear.

The Walker Brothers - Love Her
Smash S-1976, 1965



Their second single follows the Phil Spector Wall Of Sound Playbook almost to the letter: song by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, orchestration by Jack Nitzsche... the only thing missing is the gun-toting lunatic himself. Instead, the producer is Nick Venet (Beach Boys, Frank Zappa). Pretty slick.

What really stands out here is Scott Walker's lead vocal. The guy was amazing from the very start, making real fire with an otherwise pedestrian pop tune (I doubt Mann & Weil were in the habit of giving away A-list material to unknowns).

Great song.

Might be The Show Must Go On as it has circus type music. But it was a single. Maybe it was a two sided single?

Possibly a "back-to-back hits" type 45 reissue.

Damn, you know your Leo Sayer.