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Spectropop V#0405

  • From: The Spectropop Group
  • Date: 04/08/00

  •              http://www.spectropop.com
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       Volume #0405                           April 8, 2000   
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                  Free on request at your dealer's
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    Subject:     the Spector special
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        Tilley Five
    
    
    Does anybody have info on the Spector special that was to 
    be aired a few weeks back on TLC?
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     girl groups & more
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        sheila
    
    
    Oh, how amazing it was to read everyone's favorite girl 
    group moments- and in such detail! It seems that my 
    favorites change week by week- so today I'd say it's 
    Bernadette Castro's "A Girl In Love Forgives." It's really
    the wailing saxophone that grabs at my heart (just like the
    sax solo in Andrea Carroll's "The Doolang")! Its just 
    shocking to me that this song never made it. Of course I 
    can say the same thing about many girl group records, but 
    this one is up there will "Be My Baby," in my opinion. 
    Killer melodies, a full-on sound, and just the right 
    amount of sadness in Bernadette's voice.
    
    I'm just loving all the sad songs right now- Margaret 
    Mandolph's "I wanna make you happy" is playing in the 
    background. Ahh..........just divine.
    
    To add on to the High Fidelity discussion- I LOVED the 
    book! It was probably the most fun I've ever had reading a
    book. I couldn't put it down, and I laughed out loud so 
    many times (something I never do, unless it's written by 
    Woody Allen). I think everyone on this list would love the
    book. I couldn't recommend it enough.
    
    When JimmyB said that the songs in the film are a bit too 
    well known, keep in mind that this is a Hollywood film. 
    The majority of the population probably doesn't even know 
    these well known songs (you'd be shocked!). So if John 
    Cusack and gang were discussing obscure Ellie Greenwich 
    records, there would be no one at the box office (except 
    us of course).
    
    The other day I was watching VH1's "The List," and they 
    were debating about the best girl groups. I was all 
    excited about this one, until one smart journalist 
    mentioned The Ronettes, and all the other panelists were 
    like "Who??? What's the Ronettes?" Needless to say, I was 
    shocked. Spectropop can be deceiving- after being on this 
    list for awhile I start to think that EVERYONE obviously 
    knows who the Ronettes are, and they were HUGE! But most 
    of the music-buying public has no clue, and that's the 
    audience that Hollywood needs to catch in order to make 
    money with "High Fidelity."
    
    By the way, it was TLC who won best girl group. Sad eh? 
    Sheila B.
    
    
    
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    Subject:     My Secret Love
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        Jimmy Crescitelli
    
    
    Hi there all...
    Many thanks again : ) It's been truly a pleasure walking 
    the streets of 60's Bay Ridge with you guys.
    
    This posting title refers to a song I heard this week in 
    the Illeana Douglas movie "Grace of My Heart." At one 
    point, young songwriter Illeana (doing a loosely-based 
    life-of-Carole-King) is hired to write a song for teen 
    songstress "Kelly Porter," essayed so flippily and wittily
    by Bridget Fonda. Kelly also travels with a roommate named 
    Marian. A recording date is soon scheduled. The production
    turns out to be a typically overwrought and nasal early 60's 
    angst-ridden teen paean called "My Secret Love," 
    complete with violins, echo, multi-tracking, and matching 
    sweater sets. Listening, I thought, "this is SO Lesley 
    Gore doing 'You Don't Own Me.' " Marian (Chanel suit, low 
    heels, French modified beehive) is present at this session. 
    After the song's spoken break--- ('You and I are like 
    spies in the house of holy love," Kelly intones; "we are 
    actors in a heartless play, I smile my smile, and play 
    my part and forever hide my lonely heart, my secret 
    love" -- Illeana stops the proceedings and calls out 
    to Kelly that "it's okay to be dramatic as long as you're 
    truthful." Fine... Kelly casts her eyes down, a new, firm 
    resolve manifesting itself in her clenched fists. She 
    takes the cue and from then on looks directly-yet-shyly 
    into Marian's eyes as she lays down the next take, 
    pointedly smoothing her skirts, the two of them ultimately
    trading smoldering looks. Priceless. At the film's end I 
    read the end credits, and learn that the incandescenet 
    Lesley Gore herself has helped pen "My Secret Love." 
    Remarkable. The song for the film is actually sung by Miss
    Lily Banquette, she of a group called Combustible Edison, 
    but Bridget does it glorious lip-synching justice. Catch 
    it now. Eminently rentable!
    
    Grace of My Heart
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     On High Fidelity...
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        Keith D'Arcy
    
    
    Hi All,
    
    Something we should keep in mind in judging the musical 
    content of High Fidelity (a rare occasion where I think 
    the film rivals the book): our perspective on what 
    qualifies as obscure is vastly different to the rest of 
    the world-at-large. What I think the music supervisor from
    Disney must've been thinking is "Everybody knows Aretha 
    Franklin, but not everybody knows Rock Steady. It's a 
    brilliant song that's not as remembered as say... Respect 
    (although it did chart as high as 9 on the pop charts)" 
    Why fill the movie with songs that cannot be found outside
    collector's circles? The good thing about a film like High 
    Fidelity (and Rushmore and The Iron Giant) is that it'll 
    help some people get started on discovering stuff. The 
    world-at-large cares very little about great songs if they
    have to go and find them for themselves. My favorite 
    case-in-point is the Left Banke. A brilliant, deep band 
    that is remembered for one song (and I think not their 
    best one).
    
    I found High Fidelity to ring true in a lot of ways, both 
    in what it says about relationships and what it says about
    the omnipresent notion that "it's not what you're like, 
    it's what you like" that defines us and becomes a 
    (misplaced) virtue. In the end I think that the main 
    character realises something it's taken me just about as 
    long to realise (I'm 30)... if you don't do anything with 
    what you know and love, it's pointless. So talk about 
    music, write about music, make music and whenever possible, 
    sing. And go see the movie.
    
    Over, KD
    
    PS: Another case of a brilliant song hidden deep within a 
    major artist's catalog, "Together We Stand" by Marvin Gaye
    (on the four CD set from last year). Unreleased at the time
    it was recorded, yet one of the best soul songs I've ever 
    heard. 
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Overproductions
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        Jimmy Crescitelli
    
    
    Hmmm... La La Brooks trying to make vocal sense as the 
    instrumental onslaught of "I Wonder" advances upon her 
    like an orchestral Panzer division? Yeah... I realize her 
    track was probably laid in after the musical tracks, but 
    still... she had to listen in on mike, right? Think of 
    what she might have felt when she was expected to begin...
    and so soon after doing "Little Boy." I remember first 
    hearing "Little Boy" after finding it in a record store on
    Flatbush Avenue that my grandmother brought me to in Summer
    1970. (I was 14.) Saw the 45 in a bin... "The Crystals..." 
    "DJ Record, Not for Sale." Brought it home, played it on 
    my mother's spindle-disk 45 RPM player... was totally 
    blown away. I remember looking at the record itself and 
    wondering, how did he get all that music in there??? 
    Played it a LOT that summer, trying to explain to anyone 
    and everyone just what magic it was. To no avail. 
    Considering it was only 6 years past 1964, everything had 
    already changed so much... what did people know from the 
    Crystals? Jeez, people wearing freaking love beads by then! 
    Ahhhh well... love beads were just another form of 
    overproduction too... 
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Re: David Feldman/Overproductions
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        jake tassell
    
    
    Dear David
    
    You said:-
    
    Of course, even a brilliant artist can "overproduce," too.
    To my taste, for example, "River Deep" falls into that
    category,
    
    I can't agree there I'm afraid. However; A personal
    aesthetic is a personal aesthetic, so there's no argument
    to be had here.
    
    My feeling about the matter is that a certain
    'over-vividness' is the hallmark of all great pop music
    (if this was written on every record company office wall
    I'm damn sure I'd spend a lot more money on new music). I
    believe that pops' essential function is to be a pure
    font of life-giving and spirit-affirming forces in a
    mechanised, pressurised (and now computerised) world, and
    that it is in pop's  nature to be larger than life. I
    also believe that Messrs Spector and Wilson were two
    people that understood this more than most and the burden
    of this knowledge is reflected in their careers and some
    of the things we know about their lives.
    
    'River Deep Mountain High' is the moment in pop history
    when the artist understands his function and his mission
    fully, and without fear of personal risk exercises his
    capability to turn that font into a mighty torrent.
    There's no case to answer over wantonness or musical
    vandalism here (Albert Goldman - eat my sock) and I've
    waxed on about this before on this list :- One of the
    many remarkable things about 'River Deep - Mountain High'
    is the discipline involved in every aspect of the
    arrangement, production and performance, and the sublime
    and delicate balancing of incredibly huge (and positive)
    forces.
    
    The same could not necessarily be said about The Susan
    Rafey Record, but with a thrill factor as high as that; -
    who cares if it's got a couple of ragged edges?
    
    Great to see Joannie Sommers getting a mention on
    Spectropop - 'Don't Pity Me' being another one of my fav
    2 minute blue touch-paper epics ('Johnny Get Angry' is
    fun too, but doesn't have you swinging from the lampshade
    quite like the former).
    
    Jake Tassell
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Re: Johnny Mathis
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        Horatio Hornblower
    
    
    David Feldman wrote:
    
    >It includes one beautiful anti-abortion polemic 
    >("A Child Is Born")
    
    Don't forget Mathis' follow-up song, "A Doctor Is Shot" :-)
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     RE: Spectropop V#0404
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        John Love
    
    
    	Posted by Jim Gardner 
    	The song, "Don't It Make You Feel Good," is
    	a snappy pop thing with traditional 60's combo 
    	instrumentation: guitar, combo organ, rhythm section. The 
    	title line is the hook and there's some nice, two-part 
    	harmony on it.
    
    Jim, from your description this sound like the British 
    group the Overlanders (three boys from memory), who made 
    it to number 1 in the UK with their version of the Beatles' 
    Michelle in January 1966, but never made the charts 
    again. I don't remember now whether Don't It Make You Feel
    Good was before or after Michelle. I've got a very fond 
    memory of it although I've not heard it since then. I've 
    never seen it appear in any compilation. It was released 
    on Pye in the UK. 
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Don't It Make You Feel Good?
    Received:    04/08/00 12:55 am
    From:        Lindsay Martin
    
    
    Jim Gardner asked about "Don't It Make You Feel Good" by 
    the "Over..."
    
    This would be the British, Tony Hatch-produced track by 
    The Overlanders, from 1964. It was written by Hank B. 
    Marvin & Bruce Welch, well known in Britain & some of the 
    "colonies" as members of instrumental group the Shadows. 
    The Overlanders' main claim to fame was a successful cover
    of the Beatles' "Michelle" in 1966.
    
    Because it was a Top 10 hit in Australia (and probably 
    nowhere else), "Don't It Make You Feel Good" is included 
    on "Hard To Get Hits Vol. 1", an excellent Australian 
    Columbia CD compiled by rock journalist Glenn A. Baker. 
    
    Lindsay
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    End
    

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