Search among John Twang's articles

Musician, actor (Moby Dick, Fire Down Below, King of Kings and The Vikings. The first black actor in the Royal Shakespeare Company) Edric Connor recorded the album "Songs From Jamaica" in 1952. On that l.p. was "Day Dah Light". Irving Burgie aka Lord

Bernie Knee recorded the demo but the first professional recording came in 1960 when The Four Voices (Frank Posta, Allan Chase, Bill McBride and Sal Mayo) were the first to record "Sealed With a Kiss" (Peter Udell - Gary Geld). The group were winners

Graham Gouldman of 10CC once played bass for the Mindbenders, among his songwriting partners was Tim Rice. Graham wrote "For Your Love" and "Heart Full of Soul" for the Yardbirds, "Bus Stop" and "Look Through Any Window" for the Hollies and for Herman's

James Darren (James Ercolani) hit it big with a few novelty tunes like "Goodbye Cruel World", "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" and "Her Royal Majesty" but he proved more than that when he recorded great ballads including "Didn't We" (Jimmy Webb). The song got to

Grammy award winning singer/songwriter/studio musician Joe South (Souter) composed "I Knew You When". The soulful Wade Flemons 1964 release came before his days with Earth, Wind & Fire. Billy Joe Royal version of "I Knew You When" comes from the

Nick Lucas (Dominic Lucanese) first recorded "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" (Dubin - Burke) in 1929 and it was featured in the movie musical "Gold Diggers of Broadway". Millions of viewers watched Nick Lucas sing his song as Tiny Tim married "Miss Vicki"

Peggy Lee and the Dave Barbour Orchestra first recorded "Everybody Loves Somebody" (Taylor - Lane) in 1947 as the B side of "Don't Smoke In Bed". Dean Martin recorded the song twice in 1964, the first time on his "Dream With Dean" album with a small

Ted Black Orchestra's "Love Letters in the Sand" (C and N Kenny - Coots) featured vocalist Tom Brown in 1931 and was a top ten hit. Apparently the song was inspired by the 1881 composition "The Spanish Cavalier". Pat Boone topped the charts for five

Champion Jack (William Thomas) Dupree learned "Junker's Blues" as a child and recorded the tune in 1940. He was playing piano in Detroit when Joe Louis encouraged him to enter the boxing ring. That explains the nickname after he won The Golden Gloves

Composer Geoff Stephens conceived New Vaudeville Band in 1966 and watched as his group of studio musicians took "Winchester Cathedral" to the top chart position. On the first album is "Kind of Hush". One year later Herman's Hermits took "There's a

"Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado" ("When I Return To Your Side") (Grever) is the original Spanish title of "What a Difference a Day Made". The song was published in 1934. The English version with lyrics by Stanley Adams "What a Difference a Day Made" was a hit

Britain's David Martin recorded "Can't Smile Without You" (David Martin, Christian Arnold and Geoff Morrow) in 1975. In the early eighties David was the vocalist with the James Last Orchestra. In 1977 "Can't Smile Without You" was the "B Side" of the

Clara Ward was lead of the gospel Ward Singers (Gertrude and Clara Ward, Henrietta Waddy, Marion Williams, Willa Ward Moultrie and others) recorded the traditional "This Little Light of Mine" in 1952. Ray Charles was no stranger to taking gospel tunes

Lead singer Charles Bridges formed The New Birmingham Jubilee Singers (Charles Bridges, Leo Key, Ed Sherrill and Dave Ausbrooks) in Birmingham, Alabama in 1926. They were proficient in not only gospel but secular numbers. The gospel selection "Ain't

Charlie Rich was once singed to Hi Records where he recorded "When Something Is Wrong With my Baby" (Hayes - Porter) in October of 1966 although it was not released as an album track until 1988 on "I'll Shed No Tears". In December of 1966 Sam (Moore)

The Dells (Marvin Junior, Verne Allison, Johnny Carter, Chuck Barksdale, Mickey and Lucius McGill) recorded "(My Love Keeps On Growing) Higher and Higher" (Jackson - Smith or Davis - Miner after a lawsuit). This is arguably the original recording from

The Bob Thompson Orchestra originally released "Who's Sorry Now" (Snyder - Kalmar - Ruby) in 1923. It was Connie Francis' (Franconero) father who pushed her to record "Who's Sorry Now" even though she disliked the tune. In January of 1958 the song

The Boyer Brothers (James and Horace) cd "Songs of Worship, Volume two) contains the final track "Oh Lord Stand By Me" (Smallwood). The original vinyl was recorded in 1952. Soul Stirrers sang "Stand By Me Father" (Cooke - Alexander) with Sam Cooke's

Actor, pianist and composer Bobby Troup wrote "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" in 1946 and must have lead a wonderful life as he was married for years to Julie London. Note his different pronunciations on the word "route". Everyone from The Rolling

Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter composed The Originals Caste's "One Tin Soldier", "Don't Pull Your Love" for Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds, Glen Campbells' "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.) "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I Got) for the Four

R&B, gospel and rock and roll singer/guitarist Johnny Fuller released Haunted House (Bob Geddins) in 1959. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs were next to record the tune but when Hi Records expressed a desire to record the song with a slightly

Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan were the first to record Irving Berlins "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911 when the song was first published. Then came "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (Fields - Donovan) in 1914. Debbie Reynolds and Carlton Carpenter starred in

Willie Bobo (William Correa) studied with Mongo Santamaria and at 19 joined Tito Puente's band. Later he worked with Perez Prado, Cal Tjader and George Shearing and as a sideman for the likes of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Cannonball

Johnny Mathis (details elsewhere in this blog) recorded "Show and Tell" (Jerry Fuller) for the album "Killing Me Softly With Her Song" in 1973. That same year saw Al Wilson's cover of "Show and Tell" from the album "Weighing In" hit the top of the

In 1958 Domenico Modugno exploded into the music world with "Volare". This Italian singer, composer, actor and parliamentarian released "Io" (Modugno) (English: "It's Me") from the album "Domenico Modugno" in the same year. The top ten hit came from

After appearing on Broadway in the original production of "The Sound of Music" former child star Patty Michaels was the first to record "Born a Woman" in 1966. Patty was a regular for one season on television's Sing Along With Mitch. Months later

Grammy winner, producer, musician, rock and roll, country and rhythm and blues writer Wayne Carson Thompson composed "The Letter" and probably smiled when it, like his other material, was nominated for a Grammy. The Box Tops (Alex Chilton, Bill

In 1963 The New World Singers (Gil Turner, Happy Traum and Bob Cohen) were the first to record "Blowin' in the Wind". According to Wikipedia, Gil Turner was the first to perform the song on the very night Dylan completed writing it in 1962. Their 1963

Otis Redding wrote and recorded "Respect" in 1965 and got well into the top forty. It's on the album "Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul" produced by Steve Cropper of Booker T & the MGs. Aretha Franklin's cover with sisters Erma and Carolyn in the

Here is George Harrison's demo of "It Don't Come Easy" originally titled "You Gotta Pay Your Dues". Who composed it remains a mystery although there is credible speculation that George did by his lonesome or that he and Ringo co-composed the tune. Yet

The Elegants (Vito Picone, Art Senosa, Carmen Romano, Frank Tardogno and James Mochella) were one-hit wonders in a big way with this doo-wop classic. "Little Star" (Picone - Venosa) went to the top of the American charts. The 1957 demo is here along

He's white and he's Dan Penn (Pennington) and he's composed and/or produced more "soul" hits that your average writer. "The Puppet" (Penn - Oldham) is just one of many. Cousins James and Bobby Purify (Robert Dickey) hit the top ten with "I'm Your

Known for his "trucker songs" Red Sovine also sang other material as proven by the 1966 album "Country Music Time" and the track "Missing You" (Noe - Sovine) which was originally recorded as a single released in 1955 as the flip side to "Why, Baby,

Cajun fiddler Leo Soileau and his Three Aces (Floyd Shreeve, Dewey Landry and Tony Gonzales) recorded his "Hackberry Hop" also known as "Hip Et Taiau" in 1935. Guitarist Clarence Garlow released "Route 90" (Garlow - Renee) as the B side to "Crawfishin'"

In 1960 Ray Sanders cut "A Little Bitty Tear" with the Anita Kerr Singers as the B side of "A World So Full of Love" for Liberty Records. He was signed after an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. It's been said that composer Hank Cochrane wrote the third

Published in 1933 "Temptation" (Freed - Brown) was first recorded by Bing Crosby for the MGM film "Going Hollywood", the working title was "Paid to Laugh". "Temptation" charted on Billboard for 12 weeks peaking in the top five. The Everly Brothers

One of the first interracial do-wop groups, the Del Vikings (Dell Vikings or Del-Vikings) were Norman Wright, David Lerchey, Don Jackson, Clarence Quick and Kripp Johnson. In 1957 they released "Come Go With Me" (Quick) which succeeded getting into

Austrian Elfi Graf (Elfrieda Rupp) had her first hit in 1974 with "Herzen haben keine Fenster" translated as "Hearts Have No Windows" (Buschor - Mayer) which became "My Melody of Love". Bobby Vinton's version of "My Melody of Love" (Mayer - Vinton) hit

Radio personality Glenn Reeves sang the demo of Mae (Hoyt's mother) Axton's "Heartbreak Hotel". He imitated Elvis at the session. "Heartbreak Hotel" became the first number one tune for Elvis Presley in 1956. That's Scotty Moore and Chet Atkins on