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Instrumentalists The Church Street Five originated "A Night With Daddy G - Part 1" (Barge - Guida - Royster). Frank Guida was the producer and "Daddy G" was sax player Gene Barge who has played with acts like Bo Diddley, Ray Charles, The Rolling

I LOVE THIS SONG! "Everlasting Love" is one of the few songs to be a top forty hit in the sixties (Robert Knight), seventies (Carl Carlton), eighties (the Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet duet hit number thirty-two) and nineties (Gloria Estefan reached

Former lead for the Del-Vikings and still in great form after entertaining for a half century the charismatic Chuck Jackson was first to release "Any Day Now (My Beautiful Bird)" (Bert Bacharach - Bob Hilliard) in 1962 and it peaked at number

Salvadore "Tutti" Camarata played trumpet with Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. In the mid fifties Walt Disney hired him to form a record label and act as music director and producer. He was the leader of Tutti's Trumpets released "Toot Sweet"

Tony Romeo composed hits like "Indian lake" by the Cowsills, "I Think I love You" by The Partridge Family and Lou Christie's "I'm Gonna Make You Mine". We start with the composer's version. Lou Christie released "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" (Tony Romeo)

Lyricist Doc Pomus (Jerome Felder) gives his demo version of "Young and In Love" (Doc Pomus - Mort Shuman) that led to "A Teenager In Love". Two of the four members lived on Belmont Avenue in the Bronx ergo the moniker Dion (DiMucci) and the Belmonts

Black vocal artists The Avantis (Billy Young and unknown others) recorded "Keep On Dancing" (Allen Jones - Andrew Love - Richard Shann) in 1963. Chips Moman produced this version and the cover! Memphis natives The Gentrys (Larry Raspberry, Bruce

Link Wray of "Rumble" fame plays guitar on older brother Ray Vernon's original version of "Remember You're Mine" (Kal Mann - Bernie Lowe) released in 1957. In 1957 Pat Boone reached number six with his cover single.

In 1962 James Brown backup singer Yvonne Fair (Flora Coleman) recorded I Found You (James Brown). Yvonne was married to Sammy Strain who was a member of both Little Anthony and the Imperials and the O'Jays making him a double inductee into the Rock and

Composer/arranger/producer Lee Hazlewood wrote "These Boors Are Made For Walkin'" for a man to sing but who would turn down a request from Nancy? Some of his comments in this version are directed to members of "The Wrecking Crew". This is the same Lee

After growing up in Gibraltar, the immensely talented Albert Hammond recorded "The Air That I Breathe" (Albert Hammond - Mike Hazlewood) in 1972 as a track on his superb album "It Never Rains in Southern California". The release featured members of The

Etta James (Jamesette Hawkins) recorded "Wallflower (Roll With Me Henry)" (Johnny Otis - Hank Ballard - Etta James) in 1955 with responses by Richard "Louie, Louie" Berry. The release topped the R&B charts. Etta received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award

Bert Weedon original recording of "Apache" (Jerry Lordan) was unreleased until issued after the Shadows success then it did make the U.K. top thirty. Bert was well known for his instructional guitar manuals. This original is quite a bit different than

David Pomeranz composed "Trying To Get the Feeling Again" (David Pomeranz) for The Carpenters who did record it first but didn't release it for many years thinking it one too many ballads in their repertoire. From the album "Trying To Get the Feeling"

Texan Ray Price recorded the original "Make the World Go Away" (Hank Cochran) on the album "Burning Memories" in 1963. It reached number two on the Country chart and scrapped into the top one hundred. When he died in 2013 at age 87 he and Fred Foster,

The Pineapple Heard (Ed Wool and the Nomads) from upstate New York were the first group to issue "Valleri" (Tommy Boyce - Bobby Hart) as a single when it was released somewhere between the original televised version of the Monkees television show in

Nat Stuckey's "Pop a Top" (Nat Stuckey) must be regarded somewhere as the perfect country tune: beer and women and a super country voice. Jim Ed Brown peaked at number three on the country chart in 1967 with this track from the album "Just Jim". Pete

Daniel Boone (Peter Green) released "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast" (Geoff Stephens - Peter Callander) as his first single using that name in 1971. This made him a one-hit wonder in the U.K. when it hit the top twenty. The song comes from the album of

Emmy winner, singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, producer Randy Edelman composed "Weekend In New England" (Randy Edelman). Randy is married to the gifted Jackie DeShannon. Barry Manilow released this adult contemporary chart topper in 1976 from the

Guitarist Phil Upchurch has worked with legends like Michael Jackson, George Benson, Quincy Jones, Woody Herman, B.B. King, Bo Diddley, Oscar Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lee Hooker, Curtis Mayfield and Stan Getz. In 1961 The Phil Upchurch Combo

Jamaican reggae musicians The Melodians (Brent Dowe, Tony Brevett and Trevor McNaughton) recorded and issued the biblically based "The Rivers of Babylon" (Brent Dowe - Trevor McNaughton) in 1970. According to Wikipedia: Brent Dowe, the lead singer of

Matt Monro (Terence Parsons) recorded "Born Free" (John Barry - Don Black) for the film soundtrack where it appeared over the closing credits. Co-composer Don Black was Matt Moro's manager and the song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in

Brill Building writers Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart (Harshman) hit with "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" and composed "The Monkees Theme" in 1966. This was just one of close to twenty-five songs they composed for the group. The Monkees (details

The Isley Brothers' (Rudolph, O'Kelly, Ernie and Ronald Isley) "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door" (Aaron Schroeder - Sid Wayne) was released without much chart success in 1959 as part of the album "Rock Around the Clock". Surprisingly to me at least, Hugo

Once nicknamed "Cloclo" Claude Francois co-wrote "Comme d'habitude" (As Usual) in 1967 (Claude Francois - Jacques Revaux). Virtually an unknown in English speaking North America, Claude sold seventy million discs throughout his career. From one of many

The late Cilla Black was the first to record "Alfie" (Burt Bacharach - Hal David). The movie is set in England and the producers wanted a British entertainer to sing the tune. After Sandie Shaw rejected it, Cilla Black had a major U.K. hit. Composer

Jamaica's ska, reggae, rock steady group The Paragons (John Holt, Garth Evans, Bob Andy and Howard Barrett) issued "The Tide Is High" (John Holt) as part of the album "On The Beach" in 1967. The truly eclectic Blondie (Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, Gary