John Twang's articles

Boyd Bennett and his Rockets (John Young and Carl Gorman) according to the King label featured the vocal of "Big Moe" and Bobby Jones alto sax on "Seventeen" (Gorman -Young - Bennett). It peaked at number five. in 1955. In ultra high fidelity The Fontane Sisters (Bea, Geri and Marge Rosse) and the unrecognizable Billy Vaughn Orchestra took "Seventeen" (Bennett - Gorman - Young) to number three with their cover during the same year. They used their great-grandmother's family name "Fontaine" bu…

The poem was composed by Juluis Brammer in 1924, the music by Leonello Casucci in 1928. "Schoner, Gigolo, armer Gigolo" (Casucci - Brammer) is performed by Irene Bondoni in 1931. Bing Crosby and the Gus Arnheim Orchestra had Bing's first solo hit with "Just a Gigolo" (Brammer - Casucci - Caesar) also from 1931. "I Ain't Got Nobody Much and Nobody Cares For Me" (Graham -Williams) by Ben Linn was released in 1917. This is the earliest version I could find of this standard. The poor qualit…

Lionel Richie wrote the tune and pitched "Lady" to The Commodores. They turned it down. Kenny Rogers did not! This is from Lionel's 1998 album "Time". Kenny Rogers was the first performer to record "Lady". He did so in 1980 for his "Greatest Hits" album. Lionel Richie produced the single that charted number one on Billboard's top one hundred, Country and Adult Contemporary listings and even made the Black Singles chart.

Dancer, pianist, entertainer, singer, actor, comedian, songwriter, bandleader, and night club performer Harry Richman (Reichman) recorded "Puttin' on the Ritz" (Irving Berlin) in 1929. Harry starred in the movie of the same name the next year. This vaudeville piano player was also an airplane altitude and distance world record holder. Harry's 1966 autobiography is titled "A Hell of a Life". According to The "Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin", this was the first song in film to be sung by an inte…

In 1961 "Right or Wrong" (Wanda Jackson) was the result of one the first Wanda Jackson recording sessions in Nashville. The song peaked in the top ten on the Country chart and top thirty on the top one hundred Billboard chart. Wanda has a career with many items to note, she dated Elvis Presley and Roy Clark was a member of her Party Timers band. Wanda is a member of both the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ronnie Dove's 1964 cover of "Right or Wrong" hit the top fi…

Composed in 1958 "Tivoli Melodie" (Heino Gaze) as a tribute to Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens the tune became known in Germany as "Take Me Dreaming" by the Richard Hayman Orchestra ". In 1960 Winifred Atwell released the record as "Nicolette". Played here the Werner Muller Orchestra recorded the tune in 1958 as "Kalkutta liegt am Ganges" using the name Ricardo Santos and his Cascading Strings. Actor/vocalist Vico Torianni recorded a vocal version as "Kalkutta liegt am Ganges (Madeleine)" (Hans B…

"I Hear You Knocking" was composed by Dave Bartholomew and Earl King (pusing the pname "Pearl King") and first recorded in New Orleans by Smiley Lewis (Overton Amos Lemons) in 1955. According to the Imperial label it was written solely by D. Bartholomew when this well done release peaked at number two on the R&B chart. Actress/singer Gale Storm (Josephine Cottle) of "My Little Margie" fame recorded the hit polished "white" version of "I Hear You Knocking" (D. Bartholomew) with Billy Vaughn's…

"Fascination" was written in 1904 by Marchetti as an instrumental titled "Valsr Tzigane" (Gypsy Waltz). Jane Dyt originally recorded "Fascination" (Fidenco Dante Marchetti - Maurice De Féraudy) in 1905. Rumours abound that the waltz was ghost-written by Maurice Ravel. The French lyric has no connection to the English composed by Dick Manning (Samuel Medoff) in 1932. Jane Morgan (Florence Catherine Currier) and the Troubadors (five studio musicians) cover of "Fascination" (Manning - Marchetti)…

Max Edward "Mark" Dinning was a brother of the forties trio The Dinning Sisters. Mark is also the uncle of Dean Dinning of Toad the Wet Sprocket. He released "What Will My Mary Say" (Eddie Snyder - Paul Vance) as a B side in 1961. He may have been a member of the U.S. Olympic team in the fifties but instead of more athletic prowess, the public got the smooth singing delivery of Johnny Mathis. From his many genuine successes "What Will My Mary Say" hit the top ten in 1966.

The Rare Breed (Larry Tyre, Herb Ratzloff, Dan Hortter, John Knox and Danny Gorman) released "Come On Down and Take a Ride in My Boat" (Wes Farrell - Jerry Goldstein) in 1966. It was produced by composer Wes Farrell. Every Mother's Son's (Dennis Larden, Larry Larden, Bruce Milner, Christopher Augustine and Schuyler Larsen) lead track from the album "Every Mother's Son" comes "Come and Take a Ride In My Boat" in 1967 and hit the top ten with the single "Come On Down to My Boat, Baby". Like The…

B.W. (Louis Charles) Stevenson had "Shambala" (Moore) and "My Maria" (Stevenson - Moore) both released on the album "My Maria" and the "My Maria" single hit the top ten pop chart in 1973 while topping the Easy Listening chart. It's been said the "BW" stood for "Buckwheat". He died at the age of 38 while undergoing heart valve surgery. (Leon aka Kix) Brooks and (Ronnie) Dunn recorded "My Maria" in 1995 for the album "Borderline" and the single topped the Country Chart in 1996.

Lee Hazlewood wrote "The Fool" (Naomi Ford) using his wife's name because at the time you apparently couldn't legally have the same person listed as composer, producer and manager. Lee Hazlewood was "instrumental" in Duane Eddy's career and that of Nancy Sinatra. Lee Hazlewood produced Sanford Clark's first recording of "The Fool" (Naomi Ford) in 1956 featuring Al Casey on guitar. The first pressing was released on the local Phoenix label MCI then nationally on Dot Records. It became at top t…

While the roots of "Jimmy Crack Corn" or "Blue Tail Fly" go back to the 1840's, no one seems to have recorded it before one of my favourite media personalities, Burl Ives. He performed it on his 1940 radio show The Wayfarin' Stranger but didn't formally cut it until 1944. When the song first came to light the lyric was "gimcrack" which meant cheap and "corn" referring to whiskey. As referenced by Mr. Ives it has been said that Abraham Lincoln asked for it to be played before the Gettysburg addre…

Eddie Durham, trombonist, guitarist, and arranger with Count Basie's Orchestra, wrote "Topsy" in 1937. Later that year Count Basie recorded the tune and in March of 1938, "Don't You Miss Your Baby" became the A-side and "Topsy" was relegated to the B-side. Neither side was a hit. "Topsy" (Edgar Battle - Eddie Durham) was recorded and released by Benny Goodman, as an "A" side, and the tune hit the top ten. Drummer Cozy (William) Cozy's complete "Topsy" runs almost seven minutes, which is wh…

Kenny O'Dell (Gist) worked with Duane Eddy, ran Bobby Goldsboro's publishing company "House of Gold", had a top forty hit with "Beautiful People" wrote "Behind Closed Doors" and "Next Plane to London". Co-producer Pat Pipolone was Kenny O'Dell's cousin and introduced the song to the one hit wonder, The Rose Garden (Diana DeRose, James Groshong, Bill Fleming, John Noreen and Bruce Boudin) who released their self-titled album in 1968 with "Next Plane to London" (Gist, Jr.) as the opening track…

Originally recorded in 1975 as the B side of a single by The Arrows (Alan Merrill, Jake Hooker and Paul Varley) "I Love Rock and Roll" (Alan Merrill - Jake Hooker) was produced by Mickie Most (Michael Hayes). Like listing Mickie Most's charted hits I would mention all the other groups named "The Arrows" but that is not possible. Former founding member of the Runaways, Joan Jett (Larkin) was initially introduced to her manager Kenny Laguna by a tv producer named Alan Sacks. Arrows singer Alan…

Here is the demo of "Manic Monday" (Christopher) by Apollonia 6 and Prince. Prince Nelson composed this using the pseudonym "Christopher" in 1984 as a duet specifically for Apollonia 6 and himself but he held back release of the tune. "Different Light" was the second Bangles (Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson, Debbi Peterson and Michael Steele) album and featured the band's cover of "Manic Monday". In 1986 it peaked at number two while Prince and the Revolution held the top spot with "Kiss".

What a story! According to many sources including Wikipedia, when Carl Perkins played a dance on December 4, 1955, he noticed a couple dancing near the stage. Between songs, Carl heard a stern, forceful voice say, "Uh-uh, don't step on my suedes!" Carl looked down and noted that the boy was wearing blue suede shoes and one had a scuff mark. Good gracious, a pretty little thing like that and all he can think about is his blue suede shoes, thought Carl who wrote the song that night.. This next ye…