The Definitive Rock Chorale – Variations On a Theme of Hanky Panky

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Ellie Greenwich

Listen/Download – The Definitive Rock Chorale – Variations On a Theme of Hanky Panky

Greetings all.

A while back, I included today’s selection on an episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show devoted to Pineywood Productions.

A songwriting/production cooperative formed by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow in the late 60s, Pineywood made records by a variety of performers, but the main showcase for their work was the trio of 45s by the Definitive Rock Chorale.

An assemblage of NY-based studio musicians and singers, the DRC released their records between 1967 and 1969 for the Philips and Bell labels.

Today’s selection is not only their best work, but in my opinion one of the best and most interesting, highly imaginative 45s of the era.

Released in 1967, ‘Variations…’ uses the Barry/Greenwich composition ‘Hanky Panky’ (most famously done by Tommy James and the Shondells) as its base, then taking off in a wild variety of stylistic direction.

It opens with an orchestral fanfare, moving into a straight pop reading of the song. It then moves on into a baroque interpretation, then – surprisingly – into a fairly faithful boogaloo take on the song (en Espanol, of course). Next up is a Free Design-style choral round, then into a soul shouting take, then into folk-psych, then again (have whiplash yet?) into a brassy, show-bizzy vibe, before disappearing in an echo chamber.

It’s crazy stuff, but not so crazy that it shouldn’t have made a splash on AM radio, which it did not, with the exception of weirdly scattered regional play on the East coast and the Midwest in the Spring of 1968.

The group’s biggest success was with their debut 45, ‘Mirrors of Your Mind’ in the Fall of 1967 (the tune was also recorded by Anthony and the Imperials on their groovy 1967 ‘Reflections’ album).

For a deeper look at Pineywood Productions, dig into Iron Leg Radio Show #84.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

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The Jetset – Jetset Theme

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The Jetset

Listen/Download – The Jetset – Jetset Theme

Greetings all.

Today’s selection goes back to the heyday of the 1980s mod/garage thing, in which my friends and I were marinating.

Thanks go out to Mr Luther for putting some of the Jetset’s songs on a mixtape way back when.

Formed in the early 80s, the Jetset were remarkable not only for writing great, catchy, 60s-sounding pop songs, but for operating under the conceit that they were a Monkees-esque, pop art, fully expanded, fully branded, uniformly-costumed, chased by packs of girls, unit.

When you pick up their first album, ‘There Goes the Neighborhood’, you are looking at what appears to be the soundtrack to a (non-existent) film, with cartoon versions of the band, a Jetset-mobile and a band factsheet complete with teenybop-friendly band favorites.

It’s the kind of postmodern schtick that you’d expect from a band today, but seemed really fresh and unusual back in the mid-80s.

That the Jetset were able to back up the put-on with well crafted songs was a bonus.

Today’s selection is the opening track from ‘There Goes the Neighborhood’, the self-explanatory ‘Jetset Theme’.

One of the things I find interesting about the Jetset is that although they came up right in the middle of the 60s-revival scene, and their songs are definitely working that side of the street, the production is pretty straight-ahead 80s.

‘Jetset Theme’ is filled with groovy hooks, an anthemic chorus and feels a little like a Jam tune, but not so much that it irritates me (since I’m pretty much alone in my peer group in not digging the Jam all that much).

The Jetset went on to release four more albums between 1986 and 1988, with leader Paul Bevoir going on to the group Smalltown Parade and solo albums into the 2000s.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #96

Why hello there!

Playlist

Glad – Johnny Silver’s Ride (ABC)
Glad – Bedtime Story (ABC)
Glad – Love Needs the World (ABC)
Sandals – Tell Us Dylan (World Pacific)
Sandals – Why Should I Cry (World Pacific)

Johnny Darrell – Willing (UA)
Johnny Darrell – These Days (UA)
Johnny Darrell – Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood (UA)
Lemonade Charade – The Straight Life (Bell)
Lemonade Charade – Your Sun Needs To Shine (Bell)

Joey Heatherton – God Only Knows (MGM)
Joey Heatherton – It’s Not Easy (MGM)
Joey Heatherton – Say Hello (MGM)
Ray Stevens – Mr Businessman (Monument)
Ray Stevens – The Earl of Stilton Square (Monument)
Ray Stevens – The Great Escape (Monument)

Impact of Brass – Second Street Exit (Rare Earth)
Impact of Brass – Flyin’ High (Rare Earth)
Impact of Brass – Care Free (Rare Earth)
Herbie Mann – Flying (Embryo)
Phoenix Authority – Come Together (Mainstream)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #96 – 180MB/256kbps

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It’s Iron Leg Radio time again!

We have a very cool show for you this month with groovy stuff from Glad, the Sandals, country from Johnny Darrell, pop from the Lemonade Charade, Joey Heatherton, Ray Stevens and cool instros from Impact of Brass, Herbie Mann and the Phoenix Authority!

Click here to subscribe to any of the Funky16Corners Radio Network shows!

So dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Canned Heat – Poor Moon

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Canned Heat

Listen/Download – Canned Heat – Poor Moon

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is one of those tracks that I first encountered on a CD back in the day and had to track down on vinyl, eventually finding an Italian issue of the 45.

The song in question is one of the finest examples of Canned Heat’s far-out-itude, ‘Poor Moon’.

Recorded around the time of the album ‘Hallelujah’, yet only ever being issued as a 45 track, (flipped with the ‘Hallelujah’ track ‘Sic Em Pigs’), ‘Poor Moon’ is Al Wilson’s look at what might happen to the (actual) moon were it to be misused by earthlings as a nuclear test site/and or garbage dump.

What is especially groovy about ‘Poor Moon’ is the fact that it initially gives off a psychedelic vibe (it is wonderfully stoney, no matter what) but when you dig in you realize that what your listening to is an old-school blues drone with a little bit of amphetamine fortification, which, of course, Canned Heat was especially good at.

I love it because like ‘Time Was’ on ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Poor Moon’ carries a kind of gentle melancholy in its bones, like, ‘The hippy thing is better than living at home with my parents, but the lentils every morning and the mud between my toes is starting to get on my nerves.’

So, there’s that.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Steve Allen and the Gentle Players – Fox/Flower Revolution

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Steve Allen, coming down by the pool after a night of tripping his balls off.

Listen/Download – Steve Allen and the Gentle Players – Fox

Listen/Download – Steve Allen and the Gentle Players – Flower Revolution

Greetings all.

Today’s selections serve as both a reminder to dig deep into those discographies, as well as a short-form memorial (more to come soon) to the mighty Hal Blaine.

A while back I was searching in the back alleys of the windmills of the Dunhill discography and discovered that no less a light than Steve Allen had recorded for the label.

I checked out the album, credited to ‘Steve Allen and the Gentle Players’, took one look at the song titles/credits, and saw that the only other musicians credited were Gabor Szabo (high on my list of ‘buy anything you find by…’ ) and the mighty Hal Blaine.

I pulled the trigger, and when the album finally made it under my phonograph needle, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The record – and I’m going out on a charitable limb by assuming that Steve was playing piano here – is a very cool take on soft pop au go go with minor jazz filigree, featuring not only a bunch of contemporary covers, but also several Szabo originals.

The feel is fairly close to the Impulse sessions that Szabo was doing with Bob Theile (who produced this session), minus the vocal contributions of the California Dreamers.

The two tracks I bring you today, ‘Fox’ and ‘Flower Revolution’ are very groovy indeed.

‘Fox’ is the same song as ‘Are You There’ on Szabo’s ‘Wind Sky and Diamonds’ (that version, recorded the same year features vocals by the California Dreamers). The instrumental version is a tiny bit trippier, sounding like hip background music from a period film.

‘Flower Revolution’ has a slightly more upbeat take on that particular vibe, sounding like it was created as background music for a discotheque scene.

The rest of the album veers from stuff like these tracks to more the more ‘easy’ feel of ‘Here Comes Sgt Pepper’, and Blaine is dependably in-the-pocket.

Though the album doesn’t turn up too often, it’s inexpensive when it does, and comes highly recommended.

I hope you dig the tracks, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Testify! Salutes Burt Bacharach

Testify Episode #100. Originally broadcast 02/27/2019

Testify! 100th Episode!

Love – My Little Red Book (Elektra)
The Love Affair – Please Stay (Muza)
Alohe Burke and the Five Stairsteps – The Look of Love (Cobblestone)
Alan Lorber Orchestra – The Look of Love (Verve)
Dionne Warwick – Promises Promises (Scepter)
Cher – Alfie (Imperial)

Marva Whitney – This Girl’s In Love With You (King)
Lou Johnson – Kentucky Bluebird (A Message to Martha) (Big Hill)
Lou Johnson – Walk On By (Big Top)
Dionne Warwick – This Empty Place (Scepter)
Dobby Dobson – Don’t Make Me Over (Pama Supreme)
Ian and the Zodiacs – This Empty Place (Philips)
Gloria Loring – I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (Evolution)
The Tangeers – This Empty Place (Scepter)
The Free Design – Windows of the World (Project 3)
Tina Mason – Are You There With Another Girl (Capitol)
Tony Orlando – To Wait For Love (Epic)
Ben E King – They Don’t Give Medals To Yesterday’s Heroes (Atco)
Jackie DeShannon – Come and Get Me (Imperial)

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – Casino Royale Theme (Colgems)
Cal Tjader – Moneypenny (Skye)
Burt Bacharach – The Little French Boy (Colgems)
Enoch Light and the Light Brigade – Bond Street (Project 3)
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – The Big Cowboy and Indian Fight (Colgems)
Tony Mottola and the Groovies – Do You know the Way To San Jose (Project 3)
Burt Bacharach Orchestra and Chorus – Nikki (A&M)
Burt Bacharach – Pacific Coast Highway (A&M)

Shirelles – Baby It’s You (Scepter)
Manfred Mann – My Little Red Book (Ascot)
Brook Benton – A House Is Not a Home (Mercury)
Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles – There’s Always Something There To Remind Me (Atlantic)
Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (A&M)
The Four King Cousins – This Girl’s In Love With You (Capitol)
Dionne Warwick – Here I Am (Scepter)
The Drifters – Mexican Divorce (Atlantic)
Oscar Toney Jr – Any Day Now (Bell)

Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor) (Like)
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Greetings all
What you see before you is a recent edition of my WFMU – Give the Drummer Radio show Testify! which I thought would be of special interest to Iron Leg-gers.

Since WFMU is in the midst of it’s 2019 fundraising marathon, and Testify! is part of that effort, I thought that this week, I would use Iron Leg and Funky16Corners to push some traffic in that direction.

This particular episode of Testify! was a major labor of love, something that I’d wanted to do for a long time, and the assembly of which underwent many revisions over the course of several weeks (in an attempt to get it just right).

There are some faves here, but also a very large helping of deep cuts, from the worlds of rock, pop and soul, all in service of paying tribute to one of the all time great songwriters and record makers.

So, give it a listen, and if you dig it, and/or WFMU, click on this link (or on the WFMU logo above), DONATE and send some money their way to keep the greatest station in the nation up and running for another year.

That said, I will see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

The Assembled Multitude – Mr Peppercorn

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Tom Sellers (right) with Gulliver (right next to Daryl Hall in the Batman shirt)

Listen/Download – The Assembled Multitude – Mr Peppercorn

Greetings all.

The record I bring you today is a testament to always grabbing the album attached to a big hit (whenever possible) so that you might luxuriate in the neglected LP-only tracks.

In the case of the Assembled Multitude, which had a big hit in 1970 with their version of ‘The Overture From Tommy’, the rest of the self-titled album is pretty interesting.

The album, composed mostly of covers (two Beatles, two CSNY, and some others) is – as instrumental/easy records go, if not ambitious, not unpleasant either.

The group was the work of Philly composer/musician Tom Sellers, who had worked with John Madara, and was a member of Daryl Hall’s early group Gulliver (who did a cool pop LP for Elektra in 1970).

The track I bring you today is a Sellers original, ‘Mr Peppercorn’.

The track is, if not entirely Beatle-y, at the very least Beatle-adjacent, sounding like a pile of Beatle scraps stitched together by someone with a taste for light classical and progressive rock.

The song floats along on a whimsical, yet vaguely sinister theme, with basic rock instrumentation laid over a bed of strings.

I dig it a lot, and if you have a taste for the more interesting side of instrumental pop, this is definitely worth a listen.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.