John Twang's articles

Jim Croce's friend Don McLean composed "And I Love You So" which is contained on the excellent 1969 album "Tapestry". Following the incredible success of "American Pie" the album was re-released in 1972. Chet Atkins produced the Perry Como version of "And I Love You So" in 1973. At the time Perry was in his sixties and a hit single was a welcomed surprise. The song topped the easy listening chart and reached into the top forty. It is definitely one of the most beautiful songs ever sung.

Once a supporting act for Tallulah Bankhead, Georgie Shaw (Shoester) first recorded "Honeycomb" (Merrill) in 1954. Jimmie Rodgers, not to be confused with the blues singer or the singing brakeman, had his biggest hit with "Honeycomb" as it hit the number one mark in 1957. It was on his self titled first album. I am still waiting for the movie on this man's incredible life!

The Easy Riders (Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr and Frank Miller) released the album "Blue Mountain" in 1957 and in it is the first recording of "Green Fields" as composed by the trio. Bob Flick, Mike Kirkland, John Paine and Dick Foley were The Brothers Four. They hit the top ten in 1960. "Green Fields" was only their second single release from their self-titled debut album. The song hit number two on the charts!

In the 1970 movie "Lovers And Other Strangers" Larry Meredith sang "For All We Know" with lyrics composed by Bread members Robb Royer and Jimmy Griffin using the pseudonyms Arthur James and Robb Wilson, the melody was written by the prolific Emmy winner Fred Karlin. The tune won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The Carpenters cover got to the number three position in 1971.

Chan (Robert Lee) Romero's "Hippy, Hippy Shake" was a hit in Australia in 1959 but that was it. For a brief time he joined Buddy Holly's Crickets substituting for Glenn Harden on an American tour. Originally the Blue Genes, The Swinging Blue Jeans (Ray Ennis, Ralph Ennis and varied members) hit the top forty with "Hippy, Hippy Shake" in 1964.

Oskar Wagner was one of the first to record the traditional German folk song "Muss I Denn" and he did so around 1900 on the brown wax cylinder heard here. Elvis Presley recorded "Wooden Heart" (Weisman - Wise - Twomey - Kaempfert) for the movie 1960 movie G.I. Blues. The tune reached the top ten in several markets but not in the U.S. where it wasn't issued until years later as a B side. Joe Dowell with Ray Stevens on the organ mimicking an accordion, released the very first Smash Records s…

Vince Martin (Marcellino) and the Terriers (Alan Arkin, Erik Darling and Bob Carey) first recorded "Cindy, Oh Cindy" (Nemeroff and D'Lugoff under the pseudonyms Barron and Long) using the Jamaican melody to "Pay Me My Money Down" in 1956. The same year this was Eddie Fisher's last top ten single. Eddie is father of actresses Carrie with Debbie Reynolds and Joely Fisher with Connie Stevens.

Musical prodigy Max Steiner, godson to Richard Strauss, was one of the first composers to write scores for the movies. He was nominated for close to two dozen Academy Awards and won three. In 1959 he wrote the score for "A Summer Place" and a section titled "Long Distance Call". Canada's Percy Faith won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1961 for his cover of "Theme From A Summer Place". In 1960 it topped the charts.

In April of1959 the smooth voiced Billy Brown cut "Run'em Off" and on the B side was "He'll Have To Go" (Joe & Audrey Allison). Billy was a former rodeo performer and rockabilly singer and a country gospel evangelist. Jim Reeves recorded the top ten tune in November of the same year and again "He'll Have To Go" was issued as the B side to another good country tune, "In a Mansion Stands My Love".

Charlie Blackwell's "The Girl Of My Best Friend" (Bobrick - Ross) was released as a B side in 1959. A year later it was covered by Elvis Presley on the album "Elvis Is Back". A year before he had hit the top ten with "You Don't Know What You Got (Until You Lose It)". The Ral Donner version hit the top twenty also in 1960.

Saxophonist Mike Sharpe (Shapiro) recorded "Spooky" (Middlebrooks) as an instrumental in 1966 for the album "The Spooky Sound of Mike Sharpe". The Classics IV (Dennis Yost, J.R. Cobb, Wally Eaton and Joe Wilson) added lyrics and it resulted in a top five single in 1968. J.R. Cobb would later join the Atlanta Rhythm Section and record the tune again in 1979.

Lulu Belle (Myrtle Cooper) and Scotty's "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (Scotty Weisman) was written in 1945 and Scotty the composer released it with his wife in 1956. Ricky Nelson took it into the top thirty in 1957 as the B side of "Be-Bop Baby" which hit the top ten. It was on his debut album "Ricky".

Grammy winner Norro Wilson recorded "Mama McCloskey/Hey Mister" (Wilson - Welty) in 1968. It was the B side of the Platter's "Only You" cover. Norro Wilson produced the cover by Joe Stampley as a B side and titled "The Most Beautiful Girl" (Bourke - Wilson - Sherrill) in 1973. Later in 1973 Charlie Rich brought "The Most Beautiful Girl" to the top of the charts.

Grammy Award winners Peter (Yarrow), Paul (Stookey) and Mary (Travers) recorded "And When I Die" in 1966 for the "Peter, Paul and Mary" album. Composer extraordinaire Laura Nyro (Nigro) gave us "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoney End", "Sweet Blindness", "Eli's Comin'", "Save the Country" and "And When I Die", recorded it a year later for her debut album "More Than a New Discovery". Two years later the album was re-released as "Laura Nyro" and in 1973 as "The First Songs".…

Jorge Fernandes recorded the traditional Brazilian folk song "Meu Limao, Meu Limoeiro" (My Lemon, My Lemon Tree) as a B side in 1937. Peter, Paul and Mary's 1962 top forty version was "Lemon Tree" (Will Holt) a track from their self-titled debut album. Trini Lopez had the most successful cover that got into the top twenty in 1965. It comes from the album "Trini Lopez at P.J.s".

Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" appears on the 1966 album "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme". The bridge is also known as the Queensboro Bridge in NYC. Here is the Concert in Central Park version. The Harpers Bizarre (Ted Templeman, Dick Scoppettone, Eddie James, Dick Yount and John Peterson with help from Van Dyke Parks and Randy Newman) cover hit the top fifteen the next year and is on the "Feelin' Groovy" album.

Brooklyn musician Mort Shuman was part of the Pomus - Schuman hit making team. Mort found great success in France where he enjoyed his own recording career after composing hits like "His Latest Flame" for others. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Del Shannon (Charles Westover) was the first to record "His latest Flame" for the "Runaway" album in 1961. Just months after the Del Shannon release Elvis Presley took "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" along with the…

Based on the "Boys Town" logo Bob Russell (NOT the writer of "Honey", "Little Green Apples", "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia", "Sure Gonna Miss Her", etc) composed "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (Scott - Russell) along with Bob Scott who also composed "A Taste of Honey". It was recorded first in 1969 by Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon who wrote the top ten Frank Sinatra hit "That's Life". Reg Dwight (Elton John) plays piano on The Hollies (Hicks, Clarke, Elliott, Sylveste…