Search among John Twang's articles

Fiddle and banjo expert John Hartford (Harford) composed "Gentle On My Mind" (John Hartford) in 1967 and it's on his album "Earthwords and Music". You can hear John pickin' on The Byrds "Sweethearts of the Rodeo" and he would often appear on both "Glen

Throat singer Paul Pena's "Jet Airliner" (Paul Pena) comes from his 1973 album "New Train" but the release didn't happen until 2000. On the album were Jerry Garcia and the Persuasions. The sessions had been produced by Ben Sidran who played keyboard for

Children's story teller Roald Dahl left many treasures, one was "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". The 1971 movie "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" had music composed by Anthony Newley including "The Candy Man" (Leslie Bricusse - Anthony

Born in Lord Melody (Fitzroy Alexander) recorded the original "Mama Look at Boo-Boo" as "Boo-Boo Man" (Lord Melody) in 1956 for the album "Calypso Festival - Limbo in Trinidad". In the sixties he toured with Harry Belafonte. Born in Harlem, New York

Composer, performer and member of the Louisiana Hayride Carl Belew appears with his take on "Lonely Street" (Carl Belew - Kenny Sowder - B.W. Stevenson). This track is from his 1967 album "Lonely Street". Andy Williams' hit peaked at number five and

The Clovers (Harold Lucas, Matthew McQuarter, Harold Winley, Bill Mitchell and Billy Mitchell) biggest hit was "Love Potion Number Nine" (Jerry Leiber - Mike Stoller). The single was released in 1959 and peaked at number twenty-three on both the pop and

Carole King recorded "It's Going To Take Some Time" (Carole King - Toni Stern) for her album "Music" in 1971. The Carpenters (Karen and Richard) hit cover came one year later from the album "A Song For You" along with the hits: "Top Of The World",

Kit Carson (Liza Morrow) was first to record "Band of Gold" (Jack Taylor - Bob Musel) in 1955 and it peaked at the eleventh position. He never drank and never smoked, he was known as a top-ranked golfer and former big band vocalist. Close friend to

Talented composer Ned Miller wrote "Dark Moon". This is the man who hit with "From a Jack to a King" and "Do What You Do, Do Well". His tune "Invisible Tears" became a hit for the Ray Conniff Singers. Bonnie Guitar (Buckingham) peaked at number six on

The Laurels (Ray Robinson, Melvin Schwartz and others) was the original group to record "Baby Talk" (Melvin Schwartz) in the spring of 1958. Jan (Berry)and Dean's (Torrence) had their first top ten hit with this cover success partially recorded in

The original Neil Sedaka recording of "Love Will Keep Us Together" (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) appears on the 1973 album "The Tra-La Days Are Over" in the U.K. Brother and sister Mac and Katie Kissoon (Farthing) released the first single of the

Joni James (Giovanna Babbo) recorded "Have You Heard" (Lew Douglas - Charlie LaVere - Roy Rodde) in 1952, the year it was published. It peaked at number four on Billboard in January of 1953 and was one of seven top ten hits in her career. Joni was the

Actor, singer Paul Jones' (Pond) album "My Way" contains the music hall tune "Lady Godiva" (Mike Leander - Charlie Mills - Gordon Mills). Paul is the former lead singer for Manfred Mann. Paul received his Doctor of Music credentials from the University

Cayet Mangiaracina attended a New Orlean's Jesuit High School and played piano for a group called "The Sparks". (Ronnie Massa, Don Bailey, Joe Lovecchio, Don Cornell and Cayet Mangiaracina) when he wrote "Merry, Merry Lou" (Cayet Mangiaracina) for that

Issa El Saieh and his Orchestra perform "Choucoune" (Michael Mauleart Monton - Oswald Durand). Choukoun is an 1883 poem by Haitian poet and politician Oswald Durand composed for a woman who was given the nickname. It was rewritten later as "Yellow Bird"

Sam Phillips' brother was Judd Phillips of Judd Records, the company that in 1960 released "Shelia" (sp) by Tommy Roe and school mates The Satins (Mike Clark, Bobby West). Tommy wrote the song when he was fourteen as "Sweet Little Frieda". He was

From the album "On My Way" containing the hit "The Eyes of a New York Woman", this is Grammy recipient B.J. (Billy Joe) Thomas, the electric sitar and the number five hit "Hooked On a Feeling" (Mark James) from 1969. The man who discovered Genesis and

Maxine, LaVerne and lead Patty were The Andrews Sisters who introduced "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (Don Raye - Hughie Prince) in the1941 Abbott and Costello movie "Buck Privates". The song hit number six in the top ten. As an aside, according to

There are many versions of this tune, particularly in the country field. Little Jimmy "Tater" Dickens had the original hit with "We Could" (Felice Bryant) in 1957. It was Mr. Dickens who was the first to ever record a Felice and Boudleaux Bryant song in

Bobby Darin (Cassotto) invented The Ding Dongs "Early in the Morning" (Bobby Darin - Woody Harris) because he was under contract to Atlantic Records with one week left in his agreement and wanted to issue it after approaching Brunswick Records who were

Jean DuShon (Harris) recorded "For Once In My Life" (Murden) as a demo at the request of co-composer Ron Miller and later issued as a Cadet label single in 1966. This writer assumes Ron Miller's name is not listed as co-composer because of a conflict

Allen Toussaint's "Southern Nights" is the title tune to his 1975 album and just one of his magical melodies. This man embodies New Orleans. Mr. Toussaint is responsible for the tunes: "Java", "Working In a Coal Mine" and "Mother-in-Law" while his

The Valiants (Rip Spencer, Brice Cofield, Chester Pipkin and Billy Storm) were first to record "Good Golly Miss Molly" (Bumps Blackwell) then recorded it again after Little Richard had the hit. Bumps Blackwell produced the original, the frantic

Rod McKuen wrote "Jean" for the Oscar winning movie "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" starring Maggie Smith. In 1969 Frank Sinatra commissioned an entire album of McKuen material. "A Man Alone: The Words and Music of Rod McKuen" featured the hit "Love's

Reminiscent of the B.J. Thomas hit "Rock and Roll Lullaby" is track one from Grammy winner Austin Roberts' (Robertson) 1972 self-titled album, "Keep On Signing" (D. Janssen - B. Hart). The single was released the next year and charted at number fifty.

Badfinger's (Peter Ham, Tom Evans, Mike Gibbins and Joey Molland) 1970 album "No Dice" contains "Without You" (Pete Ham - Tom Evans). Google the group for a tragic story. (Harry) Nilsson's 1971 cover hit number one! Nilsson didn't tour on a regular

In 1946 Kentuckian Merle Travis recorded the album "Folk Songs of the Hills" and here you will find the first recorded version of "Sixteen Tons" (Travis). Who actually wrote the song is in dispute. The Merle Travis finger picking style on guitar is

In 1995 "Brill Building Legends" hit the stores and it included this Carole King demo. Dion (DiMucci) and the Del Satins' (Stan Zizka, Leslie Cauchi, Keith Koestner, Fred Ferrara and Tom Ferrara) original "Take Good Care Of My Baby" (Carole King -

Lys Assia's "O Mein Papa" (Paul Burkard) was written for the 1939 Swiss musical "Der Schwarze Hecht" (The Black Pike). In 1954 the musical became the film "Feuerwerk" (Fireworks) starring Lilli Palmer. "The Man With the Golden Trumpet" Eddie Calvert

In 1969 Roger Miller released a self-titled album and was the first to record "Me and Bobby McGee" (Kris Kristofferson - Fred Foster). The tune got to number twelve on the country chart. Sheb (Shelby) Wooley was first to teach Roger guitar chords.

In 1965 Carl Belew was first to record "Crystal Chandelier" (Ted Harris) and took the song to number twelve on the country chart. It's on the album "Am I That Easy To Forget". Composer Ted Harris received a Grammy nomination for the song that year.

Freddy Fender (Baldemar Huerta) recorded "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" (B. Huerta - W. Duncan) on the Duncan label in 1959. He was known as a member of The Texas Tornados (Doug Sahm, Flaco Jiménez, and Augie Meyers) and Los Super Seven (Los Lobos'

Chuck Berry's "Thirty Days (to get you back home)" got to number two on the R&B chart in 1955. Say what you will about this man, he came up with some great early rock and roll. He came from Arkansas and settled in Ontario, Canada where he built a

In the forties Eve Young was a big band singer with the likes of Benny Goodman. In 1952 Karen Chandler aka Eve Young (Eve Nadauld) peaked at number five with "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" (Harry Noble). She was married to noted arranger Jack Pleis.