Brenda Lee
Listen/Download – Brenda Lee – Is It True
Greetings all.
I hope everyone had a chance to dig this month’s edition of the Iron Leg Radio Show. If you haven’t it – like the previous nine episodes – will be available in the Radio Show Archive (click on the tab in the header).
The tune I bring you today is especially groovy, for not one, but two very interesting reasons.
A few years back I professed my love for Brenda Lee’s epic reading of ‘The Crying Game’ from 1965.
I love the song in the versions by Dave Berry and Ian and the Zodiacs*, but once I heard Lee’s rendition there was simply no going back.
She is really remembered today mostly for her early rock tunes (edging up on rockabilly) and her later career as a country singer, but there was a period in the early to mid 60s where Brenda Lee was applying her powerful, emotion-laden voice to some very interesting material.
When I wrote about ‘The Crying Game’ I speculated on how she might have happened upon the tune, guessing (thanks to some help from my man Mack at This Is Tomorrow) that a regional charting of the Ian and the Zodiacs recording may have been the link.
Flash forward three years and another mid-60s Brenda Lee 45 pops up on my radar (on a friend’s sale list). I checked out the sound clip, dug the tune and managed to get it very cheaply.
Then I start to do some research on the tune and discover that Brenda Lee had in fact recorded the tune in the UK, in 1964 with (first interesting thing) Jimmy Page on guitar and Mickie Most producing!
‘Is It True’ is a great bit of beat group action with some muscular guitar by the aforementioned Mr Page that was a Top 20 hit in the UK and managed to break into the Top 40 in many US markets.
The (second) interesting thing is that lee recorded is it true on September 17, 1964, when a little tune called ‘The Crying Game’ (Dave Berry’s version) happened to be a Top 5 hit in the UK.
Whether Brenda Lee heard and dug the song, or had a demo passed to her by Geoff Stephens, it seems likely that she first encountered the song in the UK.
I may be among the minority that revels in this kind of minutae, but I find it fascinating.
If you get the chance, pick up the UK issue of the 45, which comes with a smoking version of ‘What’d I Say’ on the flip.
I hope you do to, and that you dig the song.
See you next week
Peace
Larry
*I just realized that ‘The Crying Game’ may be the most posted song in the history of Iron Leg
PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.
I was a big fan of the British Invasion bands, having formed my taste in junior high. So I was aware that both Brenda Lee and the Everly Brothers made their way to England to record. (You probably know the Everly Brothers’ album “Two Yanks in England.”)
I imagine this was another case of American recording artists feeling the heat of the British competition.
I’m happy to see this cut here. It’s a good one!
Larry
I just finished reading Brenda’s book “Little Miss Dynamite” and she discusses her British recording jaunt but not with record hounds in mind i.e. no deep info but for dropping Page’s name.
Page had a distinctive volume pedal he used on his sesh work (you can hear it on “Is it True” and his burning solo on “Leave My Kitten Alone” on the Pebbles Mod comp as well as that great Lulu stuff on Parrot).
One of my first record collecting pals was a guy in town who was Brenda’s fan club president. He exposed me to her early rockabilly sides and tipped me to lots of her great records when I had no idea who she even was.
Brilliant 45!! Both sides!! Someplace floating around is some footage of her doing “What’d I Say” on “Ready Steady Go”!