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Katie Love and The Four Shades Of Black were first to record "It Hurts So Good" (P. Mitchell) at Muscle Shoals in 1971. The tune was written especially for Katie Love by Phillip Mitchell and did not chart. The 1973 movie "Cleopatra Jones" included

The "Thriller" album was supposed to include "State Of Shock" (Michael Jackson - Randy Hansen) by Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara). Scheduling conflicts prevented this project from reaching completion. . The Jacksons (lead vocalist

Paolo Citarella aka Citorello aka Citerello aka Citroella first recorded "A Luna Mesz'o Mare" (Moon Amid The Sea) in 1927. The music and lyrics were close to that created by Gioachino Rossini and Carlo Pepoli the century prior. In 1938 Rudy Vallee and

Neil Sedaka's first major label solo LP was "Rock With Neil Sedaka". The tune "Another Sleepless Night (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) was one of the twelve tracks. Through his incredible career Neil had recorded in Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese,

In 1978 Neil Sedaka issued the LP "All You Need Is The Music". Track three on the vinyl release was "Should've Never Let Her Go" (Neil Sedaka - Phil Cody). Phil Cody also wrote the lyrics for Neil's hits "Bad Blood", "Solitaire" and "Laughter In The

Tommy James (Jackson) and the Shondells (Eddie Gray, Peter Lucia, Ron Rosman and Mike Vale) issued "Sugar On Sunday" (Tommy James - Mike Vale) in 1969 on the top ten "Crimson And Clover" album which contained the title hit along with "Crystal Blue

Hi-Tension (lead vocalist Jeffrey Guishard, Paul and Patrick McLean, David and Ken Joseph, Paul Phillips, David Reid and Leroy Williams) were first to record "You Make Me Happy" (D. Townsend - B. Jackson - D. Conley) in 1984. Surface (lead vocalist

Sam Cooke (Cook) released "Cupid" (Sam Cooke) in 1961 and the single peaked at number seventeen on the Billboard Top One Hundred, number twenty on the R&B chart and top ten in the U.K. Sam was a charter member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, for

Tom T. Hall sings his own version of "Harper Valley P.T.A." This sparked an enviable career in country music. Skeeter Davis turned the song down so Margie Singleton was first to record "Harper Valley P.T.A." (Tom T. Hall) in 1968. This was released on

From the original 1960 Broadway Cast recording of the musical comedy "Tenderloin" Tony Award nominee, stage and screen actor, singer Ron Hussman sings "Artificial Flowers" (Jerry Bock - Sheldon Harnick). Ron also starred in the Broadway productions of

Jazz saxophonist Sil Austin's "Slow Walk" (Sil Austin) reached number seventeen on Billboard in 1956. The single was clearly inspired by the then recent hit "Honky Tonk". During the forties Bill Doggett was the pianist and arranger for the Ink Spots.

Freddy Weller co-wrote "Dizzy" (Tommy Roe - Freddy Weller) and recorded his country version for his 1978 LP "Love Got In The Way". Freddy played lead guitar for Paul Revere and The Raiders. Tommy Roe took "Dizzy" to the top spot on Billboard, in Canada

Carl Perkins wrote "Daddy Sang Bass" and recorded it in 1969 for his album "Greatest Hits". Paul McCartney was once quoted as saying "If there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles". Former Sun Records label mate and American treasure Johnny

Wayne Kemp wrote "One Piece At A Time". The tune eventually ended up on the LP "One Song At A Time". It was Wayne who co-composed "Love Bug" for George Jones. Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three took "One Piece At A Time" to the Billboard top thirty and

The 1932 movie "The Crooner" included Ted Lewis (Friedman) and His Band playing "In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town" (Jack Little - Ira Shuster - Joe Young) . The single topped the chart. Former members of the Lewis band included Jimmy Dorsey and Benny

The Johnny Otis (Iannis Veliotes) Show issued "Willie And The Hand Jive" (Johnny Otis) in 1958. The single peaked at number nine on the Top One Hundred and number one on the R&B chart. Wikipedia: "The origin of the song came when one of Otis'

"Hey, Harmonica Man" (L. Josie) by Jo Jo Wails and The Somethings was issued in 1963. Writer Lou Josie's best known composition was The Grass Roots "Midnight Confessions". The 1964 album "Stevie At The Beach" contains the single "Hey Harmonica Man"

(Eric) Lowen and (Dan) Navarro sing their version of the song "We Belong" (Lowen - Navarro) on the 1990 LP "Walking On A Wire". Eric Lowen died at sixty with complications of ALS. Dan Navarro is the cousin of Dave Navarro of Red Hot Chili Peppers and

The first track from the 1978 LP Jesse Barish is "Count On Me" (Barish). This is Jesse's debut album. Jefferson Starship and "Count On Me" (lead vocals Marty Balin, John Barbata, Craig Chaquico, David Freiberg, Paul Kanter, Pete Sears and Grace Slick)

Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan sing "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (Irving Berlin) from 1911, the year it was originally published. This version hit the top of the chart for ten weeks! Wikipedia: "It is believed by some (especially jazz-ragtime circles in

Lis Sorensen sings "Braent" in her native Danish from 1993. The title means "Burned" in English. It was written by Scott Cutler and Anne Preven of the L.A. group Ednaswap with producer Phil Thornalley and translated by Elisabeth Nielsen. Ednaswap (lead

Brian Hyland was first to record "Save Your Heart For Me" (Geld - Udell) as a B side in 1963. Like the hit, this was produced by Snuff Garrett. In the early sixties Brian appeared at the Greenwich Village venue Cafe Wha? with a young Richard Pryor. Gary

Another unusual post. This is songwriter Paul Vance singing along with the hit "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini" (Paul Vance - Lee Pockriss) and explaining the story behind the song. Wikipedia: "In September 2006, the song's co-writer Paul

Guitarist Dave Keuning wrote the music for "Mr. Brightside" before meeting co-writer and lyricist Brandon Flowers. The Killers 2001 demo of "Mr. Brightside" (Brandon Flowers - Dave Keuning) was simply given free to those attending their 2002 appearances.

Evelyn Knight (Davis) and the Stardusters (Glen Galyon, May McKim, Curt Purnell and Dick Wylder) issued the chart topping "Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Smile, Smile, Smile)" (Carmen Lombardo - Stanley Rochinski) in 1948. Evelyn's son Andrew was a

The Who (Roger Daltry, John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Pete Townshend) with "The Overture from Tommy" (Pete Townshend) the B side of "See Me, Feel Me". This is from the 1969 double album rock opera featuring the "deaf, dumb and blind kid". This became a

Juice (Judy) Newton and Eddie Rabbitt were responsible for the first commercial recording issued of "Both To Each Other" (Friends And Lovers). This was number one on the Billboard Country chart. Just weeks after this single was released the pop version

(Arthur) Collins and (Byron) Harlan recorded "Alabama Jubilee" (George L. Cobb - Jack Yellen) in 1915 and charted at number two. The duo was often referred to as The Half-Ton Duo because they were both overweight. One of the most popular recordings of

"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (Coots - Gillespie) appeared for the first time on Eddie Cantor's 1934 radio show. J. Fred Coots was a writer on the Eddie Cantor Show and with the help of Eddie's wife got Mr. Cantor to perform it on air. This song has

Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul And Mary co-wrote "Torn Between Two Lovers" with the Muscle Shoals stalwart Phillip Jarrell. Peter sings the hit here from the woman's view while in concert. Phillip Jarrell's version is from the male perspective and is on

Chuck Berry proves he can drop as many place names as possible with "Promised Land" appropriately using the tune of "Wabash Cannonball". This was the first single from the 1964 LP "St. Louis To Liverpool". The album included "No Particular Place To Go"

"Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" (Bert Berns - Solomon Burke - Jerry Wexler) was produced by Bert Berns and released by Solomon Burke in 1964. This track is extended here to from the usual minute to double that simply to include the "sermon". The single

Stax Records producer, singer and songwriter Eddie Floyd wrote "634-5789" (Steve Cropper - Eddie Floyd) and was a founder of The Falcons in the fifties. This is the composer's version from the album "Knock On Wood". Eddie fronted the Blues Brothers Band

Curt Boettcher sings the demo for "Along Comes Mary" (Tandyn Almer). Curt sped up the original concept to give the song more commercial appeal. Curt produced "Hooray For Hazel" and "Sweet Pea" for Tommy Roe and sang back-up for Helen Reddy, Elton John,

"Anema e core" (Salve d'Esposito - Tito Manlio) was recorded by Italian tenor Tito (Raffaele) Schipa in 1950. It's been reported that Tito was a "pet" of Benito Mussolini. The melody was used for the Dean Martin song "Until" (Sylvia Dee - Sidney Lippman)

Australia's Rick Springfield (Springthorpe) recorded the demo for "Jessie's Girl". He wrote and recorded this in a rented house in Glendale, California. Rick plays all the instruments. The platinum album "Working Class Dog" introduced "Jessie's Girl".