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The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten Facts


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Thank you to everyone that submitted facts for last week you guys are all awesome :bow: :bow: :bow:

A very special thank you to Edna and Lucky. They both have pretty much handled this thread for a few weeks now, Above and beyond just gathering the facts. You both rock :rock: :bow: :rock:

The Songfactors' Choice Top Ten #237

This week there is one song needing facts.

Words Of Love - The Mamas & The Papas (1966)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

As always the Songfish thanks you. :bow: :bow: :bow:

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From the wiki:

"Words of Love" is a song appearing on the album The Mamas and the Papas. The song was written by John Phillips, and featured Cass Elliot as the primary vocalist. It was released as a single in November 1966 (backed with a cover of Martha and the Vandellas's "Dancing in the Street") and reached #5 in the United States and #47 in the United Kingdom.

In 2008, Nicole Atkins did a cover for an exclusive Barnes & Noble three track promotional sampler CD "Introducing Nicole Atkins" in conjunction with her appearance for their "Upstairs at the Square" series held in Manhattan.

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From the wiki:

Mamma Cass sang and recorded the song while she was perched on a big piano. I's an easy, fun ballad, charming song and was written for Cass Elliott long before they recorded the album. John Phillips used to keep those kind of songs he wrote for her to add to each LP they would release. The song is a sort of Broadway musical piece, strongly influenced by this style.

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Thanks for the fact finding peeps :D :bow: :bow: :bow:

The Songfactors' Choice Top Ten #238

This week there are four songs needing facts.

"In" Crowd, The - Ramsey Lewis Trio (1965)

King Harvest (Has Surely Come) - The Band (1970)

What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) - Jr. Walker & The All Stars (1969)

My Baby Loves Lovin' - White Plains (1970)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

As always the Songfish thanks you :guitar: :drummer: :rock:

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Oh,Boy! needs to be changed in Song Facts. It's incorrectly credited as 'Buddy Holly' instead of 'The Crickets'.

I don't know the Contractual details, but at one time they were recording simultaneously as 'The Crickets' on Brunswick Label and 'Buddy Holly' on Coral.

I know lots of useless stuff like this. ;)

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I'll do the two songs I nominated.

"What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)"

Jr. Walker & The All Stars

What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) is a 1969 crossover single by Jr. Walker & The All Stars. The single was one of Jr. Walker's most successful releases becoming a hit on the both the R&B and pop singles chart. "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)" made it into the top five, on the Hot 100 [1]. and became Jr. Walker's, second number one on the R&B charts.
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"My Baby Loves Lovin'"

White Plains

"My Baby Loves Lovin'" was the top selling single for the group White Plains. The song was written by Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, recorded on 26 October 1969, and was released on 9 January 1970 on the Decca Records imprint, Deram Records. It went to #13 on the US Charts, #4 in Canada and #9 in the UK.

As an interesting note, lead singer Tony Burrows also sang lead on Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse and Beach Baby by The First Class, as he was a highly sought-after session singer. So he's the singer of several very popular one-hit wonders from the very early 70s.

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OOPS ! Our posts crossed Pink. :)

Yes, White Plains was initially formed as a studio project, featuring Tony Burrows as the lead singer.

A very interesting man, Burrows also sang lead for Brotherhood Of Man (United We Stand), Flowerpot Men (Let's Go To San Francisco), The Ivy League (Tossing & Turning), and was half of the duo, The Pipkins, with Roger Greenaway (Gimme Dat Ding), as well as a session singer for numerous other artists, as Pink said..

Unfortunately, he became over exposed in the U.K.

This from Wiki:

In February 1970, he became the first (and still the only) person to appear on BBC Television's Top Of The Pops, fronting three different acts in one show: Edison Lighthouse (who were number one that week), White Plains, and Brotherhood of Man.

Afterwards, he was (reportedly) told that he would be unofficially blacklisted from the programme as listeners might think it was a "fix", with his appearing so often. Nonetheless, he returned to the show a few weeks later as one member of The Pipkins, a duo - the other member being fellow ex-Kestrel Roger Greenaway.

Nevertheless this success worked against him, in that he subsequently made several singles under his own name which were excluded from radio playlists, among them "Melanie Makes Me Smile", "The Humming Song", and "Hand Me Down Man".

He never charted under his own name in the U.K. :P

Edited by Guest
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Oh,Boy! needs to be changed in Song Facts. It's incorrectly credited as 'Buddy Holly' instead of 'The Crickets'.

I don't know the Contractual details, but at one time they were recording simultaneously as 'The Crickets' on Brunswick Label and 'Buddy Holly' on Coral.

I know lots of useless stuff like this. ;)

Good catch, double nickels. :thumbsup:

I see that the songs, "Maybe Baby" and "Think It Over" are also on the site as Buddy Holly, but they were released as The Crickets.

Also, the song, "That'll Be The Day", shown as Buddy Holly was actually released by both, but the version by The Crickets was the big hit.

Here's the breakdown:

Holly signed to Decca Records in Jan. 1956 and recorded in Nashville as Buddy Holly & The Three Tunes.

In the summer of 1956, they recorded "That'll Be The Day" for Decca in Nashville.

The producer trashed the recording as "the worst song he ever heard in his life".

After assembling his backing group, The Crickets (which included the same drummer but a different guitarist and bassist) in Feb. 1957, they re-recorded the song as a demo in Clovis, New Mexico.

Bob Thiele, an A&R boss at Brunswick/Coral Records (subsidiaries of Decca Records) signed them up and decided to release the "That'll Be The Day" demo as a single, credited to The Crickets to avoid breaching the terms of Holly's Decca contract.

This is why all releases on Brunswick records were as The Crickets and all releases on Coral records were as Buddy Holly.

When the Brunswick version of "That'll Be The Day" started to take off, Decca unearthed their version of the song and released it, but it was The Crickets who rocketed to Number 1 in the U.S. and U.K., where it became the first song John Lennon ever learned to play.

The Crickets next release, "Oh Boy", featured a killer B-side, "Not Fade Away", which gave the Rolling Stones their first Top 10 hit in the UK in 1964.

Holly split from The Crickets in the fall of 1958.

Sorry if it seems like I babbled on forever with this post.

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My good Mate Brad !!! Nice to see you. :)

I didn't notice those others. You're right as usual, but I don't know of any U.S. Hit records The Crickets had without Buddy. (They did have a handful after Buddy's death in the U.K. and one minor one here in Australia). And the main reason Buddy split with The Crickets was that he wanted to leave Norman Petty and they didn't. Petty was a great Producer who obviously took Buddy a long way - but...

Wiki says:

Norman Petty served as Buddy Holly's recording engineer and also as his first manager and producer until late 1958. Their split came over differences in Petty's wanting co-writer credit in Holly's songs, in exchange for his extra efforts in Holly's recordings. Many of Holly's best and most polished efforts were produced by Petty at the Clovis studio. Eventually, Holly grew tired of Petty's management and felt he was being exploited. He moved to New York, and it was the ongoing litigation between Holly and Petty that led to Holly agreeing to go on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party Tour; all of his finances were tied up with Petty and the tour was to provide him with some much-needed income.

You've probably heard that story before.

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"King Harvest (Has Surely Come)"

The Band

Written by Robbie Robertson.

It was the last track of "The Band", their second album, released in September 1969 and also known as "the Brown Album".

It wasn't released as a single though it's a very high rated song among musicians and critics.

To me, it is the most important song on the album, and while a handful of the Band's songs might equal it, none have surpassed it.

(Greil Marcus, music critic)

The songs was recorded in a house that belonged to Sammy Davis, Jr. , in Hollywood... as opposite to what the lyrics talk about: Depression time, farmers and poverty, union dues, lack of rain...

Robbie Robertson said that he wrote the song in the days he was reading John Steinbeck novels and he seems to have been influenced by that.

"It's just a character study in a time period. At the beginning, when unions came in, they were a saving grace, a way of fighting the big money people." (R.Robertson)

The song evokes powerful images of sharecroppers and migrant workers struggling to survive of the Dust Bowl era of the '30s.

The song is sung in first person from the point of view of an unnamed, poverty-stricken farmer who, with increasing desperation, details the misfortune which has befallen him: there was no rain and his crops died, his barn burned down, he has ended up on skid row. A labor union organizer appears, promising to improve things, and the narrator tells his new associates "I'm a union man, now, all the way", but, perhaps ashamed of his station, begs them "just don't judge me by my shoes." Noted rock critic Greil Marcus called it "The Band's song of blasted country hopes" and suggested that "King Harvest" might be Robertson's finest song, and the best example of the group's approach to songwriting and performing.

The song's structure is unusual: the verses, sung by Band vocalist Richard Manuel are energetic, while the choruses (sung by Manuel and Levon Helm) are more subdued, in contrast to typical song structure, possibly reflecting the desperate if unsure hope the protagonist holds in the union.

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""In" Crowd, The"

Ramsey Lewis Trio

Written by Billy Page in 1965.

Dobie Gray was the first performer to release it as a track of his album "Dobie Gray Sings for 'In' Crowders That 'Go Go" in 1965.

The Ramsey Lewis Trio's version was released by the end of 1965 as an instrumental "at the suggestion of a coffee shop waitress", according wikipedia.

It was recorded live in a jazz club in Washington D.C and the record reached #5 in the American charts. It was the background music for Jimmy Savile's "Savile's Travels" and "Old Record Club" on BBC Radio.

It was awarded with a Grammy in 1965 as the Best Jazz Performance (Small Group or Soloist with Small Group)and it was also a Gold record.

But the most famous version was the one Bryan Ferry recorded in 1974, as a track of his album "Another Time, Another Place", reaching #13 on the UK charts.

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My good Mate Brad !!! Nice to see you. :)

I don't know of any U.S. Hit records The Crickets had without Buddy.

Good to see you back on the board, too, 55. :)

You're correct.

The Crickets didn't have any U.S. hits after Holly left the group.

I'm sure many people don't know the full story of Buddy Holly/The Crickets, but we've just educated those that didn't.

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Thanks Old fif' and Brad for the education! All the Buddy Holly/Crickets info (which I went and looked up as well after Darryl pointed out the problem to me) is out there on the net, and definately an inaccuracy that needs to be fixed in SF database .... lots of facts there! Thanks again guys for providing them. :thumbsup:

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Thanks Brad and Lucky. :)

I always hope people don't think I'm "showing off". I'm more interested in the 50s than any other era so I've read lots of material/ seen lots of documentaries about the artists.

"The Buddy Holly Story" is a DVD well worth seeking out. Gary Busey was an unlikely choice to play Buddy, but he did so brilliantly - even capably singing the songs himself.

:guitar:

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The Songfactors' Choice Top Ten #239

This week there are three songs needing facts.

Idlewild Blue (Don'tchu Worry 'Bout Me) - Outkast (2006)

Sour Times - Portishead (1994)

Reach Out of the Darkness - Friend & Lover (1968)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

As always the Songfish thanks you :hippie:

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"Reach Out of the Darkness"

Friend & Lover

Written by James "Jim" Post in 1968.

Recorded as a single by Friend & Lover (Jim Post and his wife Catherine Conn, former wife by now...) in Nashville and released in the same year.

Also a track of the 1969 album, "Reach Out of the Darkness", recorded at the Alabama studios and produced by Billy Buie.

The single reached #10 in the Billboard 100 chart.

It was their only hit, which makes it a one hit wonder.

It is said that the original lyrics were about an acid trip, as Jim Post wrote the song while on LSD. Catherine is supposed to sing "Reach Out" and Jim sings "Freak Out".

But he eventually changed the lyrics so the song could be played on radios and would became comecial.

It was produced by Joe South and Bill Lowery.

Ray Stevens made the string arrangements and also played keyboards.

I'm quoting an article by Ritchie Unterberger

With its captivating bass line, anthemic chorus, male-female vocal interplay, and lyrics entirely in tune with the swell of cooperative spirit engulfing American youth in the late 1960s, Friend & Lover's "Reach Out of the Darkness" became a Top Ten hit in the summer of 1968. The duo's album of the same name didn't fare as well, the sessions divided between several producers, the record label failing to capitalize on the momentum of the smash single. Reach Out of the Darkness would be Friend & Lover's sole album, though the male half of the duo, Jim Post, went on to a long and ongoing career in folk, children's music, and the theater.

And Jim Post says:

"it was a most unusual recording for its time, particularly as it uses a bass as the lead, and has no verses. In musical terms, it's all choruses and refrains. The bass player didn't have any idea what to play, and I didn't. You gotta realize, I knew nothing about rock'n'roll. I was really in church music and backwoods music; that's where I grew up. The bass player said, 'What do I play there?' And I just went, 'Play'" -- here Jim breaks off to hum the song's familiar bass riff -- "which basically followed almost the melody of the song. Ray Stevens" -- also a busy session musician, in addition to recording hit records under his own name -- "played all the keyboards, and arranged the strings."

"The single took a long time to take off, the only place that played 'Reach Out of the Darkness' was [the small Northern California town] Chico. It sold about twice as many as the #1 song normally sells in a little town." "Nationwide, however... the record just sat there, I don't know, six, seven months, and didn't do anything. We figured the record was gone and dead. But they had a Selective Service sit-in in California, because there was a hearing on Selective Service or something like that, and they arrested 3,000 people. They took them out to Kezar field [then used as the San Francisco 49ers' football stadium, in Golden Gate Park]. As Post points out, it was a most unusual recording for its time, particularly as it uses "a bass as the lead, and has no verses. In musical terms, it's all choruses and refrains. The bass player didn't have any idea what to play, and I didn't. You gotta realize, I knew nothing about rock'n'roll. I was really in church music and backwoods music; that's where I grew up. The bass player said, 'What do I play there?' And I just went, 'Play'" -- here Jim breaks off to hum the song's familiar bass riff -- "which basically followed almost the melody of the song. Ray Stevens" -- also a busy session musician, in addition to recording hit records under his own name -- "played all the keyboards, and arranged the strings."

"After the ball was rolling, it hit up and down the west coast, and hit in the Midwest. The first time I heard it, we were driving down the Outer Drive in Chicago and turned the radio on, and there's 'Reach Out of the Darkness.' It totally blew our minds. But New York wouldn't go on it, so it started down the charts. Then someone shot Martin Luther King, and it went back up the charts. It sold enough to be a #1 record, but hit at different parts of the country at different times. So it never got to be #1, except on certain radio stations."

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"Sour Times" – Portishead

from their first album "Dummy"(1994)

Written by Geoff Barrow, Beth Gibbons & Adrian Utley

Produced by Portishead & Adrian Utley

"Sour Times" is a single by Portishead, originally released on 1 August 1994 and re-released on 10 April 1995.

The original 1994 release initially reached only #57 in the UK, but after the success of "Glory Box" in 1995, it was re-released and peaked at #13 on the UK singles chart in April, as "Glory Box" had done in January of the same year. The promotional video is made of footage from their short film To Kill a Dead Man.

The song uses a sample from Lalo Schifrin's "Danube Incident", and was itself sampled in the 2004 single Teardrops by The 411.

"Sour Times" was covered by Bryn Christopher on his album My World. The Blank Theory also covered "Sour Times" on their Beyond the Calm of the Corridor release, which was featured in the trailer for Wicker Park.

The instrumental for "Sour Times" was sampled by Irish rapper, Collie, on the song "T.L.C." from his 2005 debut album, "Is Ainm Dom".

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