John Twang's most read articles

Motown's Marvelettes (Gladys Horton, Wanda Young, Katherine Anderson and Georgeanna Tillman) had the label's first number one hot with "Please Mr. Postman" featuring Marvin Gaye on drums in 1961. The tune has been credited to a bevy of various composers: Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, Holland-Dozier-Holland. The Beatles featuring John Lennon's take on the song shows up on "With the Beatles" (UK) or "Beatlemania/With the Beatles" (Canada)…

The debut LP for Salt-n-Pepa "Hot, Cool And Vicious" did not contain "Push It" (Herby Azor) when first issued in 1986. Originally the tune was on the B side of "Tramp" in 1987. Salt was Cheryl James and Sandra Denton was Pepa and they were aided by Deidra Roper aka DJ Spinderella. San Francisco producer Cameron Paul remixed "Push It" and this became a single in late 1987. The next year it peaked at number nineteen on the Top One Hundred and in the U.K. it peaked at number two. That's when it…

One of the first recordings of the standard "That's My Weakness Now" (Bud Green - Sam Sept) came from Billy Jones and Ernest Hare in 1928. This was the first hit for the writing team that also gave us "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone". Billy Jones and Ernest Hare earned over one thousand dollars a week on radio making them the highest paid singers in that medium. The most successful version of "That's My Weakness Now" was recorded in the same year by Helen Kane (Schroeder). Wikipedi…

Jack Norworth wrote the lyrics to "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" while Albert Von Tilzer wrote the music in 1908. Neither of these gentlemen witnessed a game until decades later. Columbia records session singer Harvey Hindermeyer (Hindermyer) recorded the first version the year it was written. The Haydn Quartet (lead Harry MacDonough, John Bieling, S.H. Dudley and William Hooley) recorded their version of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" and topped the charts for sixteen weeks in late 1908. Sh…

Former member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, soul artist P.P. Arnold (Patricia Cole) released "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Stevens) in the spring of 1967. She reached the U.K. top twenty. The composer, Cat Stevens (Steven Georgiou and now Yusuf Islam) version came out late that year on his vinyl album "New Masters" side two, track one. Once a member of the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, Rod Stewart had a monster top twenty hit with the song from the 1976 album "A Night On the Town".…

Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich composed "Be My Baby" in 1963. The first version here is by composer Ellie Greenwich. Next is the Ronettes as produced by Phil Spector. That was the big hit! While Canadian Andy Kim charted the song in 1970 with the Jeff Barry production. The Beach Boy's Brian Wilson has declared 'Be My Baby' the greatest pop record ever made!

The "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" medley (Rado-Ragni-MacDermott) comes from the 1967 "tribal rock" musical and movie "Hair". Other hits from the production include: "Hair" by the Cowsills, Three Dog Night's "Easy to be Hard" and Oliver's "Good Morning Starshine". We start with the original Broadway cast recording followed by the hit. Check the internet for truly fascinating facts about this enduring show. The Fifth Dimension (Billy Davis Jr, Marilyn McCoo, Florence LaRue, LaMonte McLemore…

Grammy winner Josh Kear sings "Need You Now" (Josh Kear - Hillary Scott - Charles Kelley - Dave Haywood) in an impressive performance at the 2011 ASCAP Pop Music Awards held in Los Angeles. Josh has written for a diverse line up of recording artists from Boyzone, Susan Boyle, Carrie Underwood, The Backstreet Boys to Jimmy Buffett and Lady Antebellum. Lady Antebellum (lead vocalist Hillary Scott, Dave Haywood and Charles Kelley) issued "Need You Now" as the lead single from their number one,…

The 1962 Motion picture "Walk On The Wild Side" featured the title tune sung by Brook Benton (Benjamin Peay). "Walk On The Wild Side" (Mack David - Elmer Bernstein) earned an Academy Award nomination. The single peaked at number forty-three and is on the album "Golden Hits Volume Two". Jazz organist Jimmy Smith released "Walk On The Wild Side" parts one and two with Oliver Nelson's Big Band including Doc Severinsen and drummer Ed Shaughnessy but he didn't appear playing the Hammond B3 organ…

"Those Were the Days" (Gene Raskin), is a Russian song called "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" (Boris Fomin, Konstantin Podrevskii). One of the first recordings from the twenties featured Alexander Vertinsky. Gene Raskin played the folk circuit in 1960s New York and there the Limeliters heard the tune. Raskin and his wife played London's "Blue Angel" every year, always closing their show with the song. Paul McCartney frequented the club and, after the formation of The Beatles' Apple Records label, rec…

We had the chance to watch Tim Hardin on stage with Kris Kristofferson at the National Art Centre in Ottawa. Kris enjoyed the booze, Tim was addicted to heroin. Tim composed "If I Were a Carpenter" which hit large for Bobby Darin in 1966 then, in 1969, Tim recorded Bobby's "Simple Song of Freedom" which was Tim's lone effort to chart in the top fifty. Tim Hardin's most enduring song has to be "Reason to Believe" which he recorded in 1965. Rod Stewart's version hit number one in 1971. The liv…

Hoyt's mother, Mae co-wrote "Heartbreak Hotel". Hoyt Axton's first album "The Balladeer" in 1962 was performed live at the Troubadour in Hollywood and featured "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio). In 1971 he issued "Joy to the World" with hits like the title tune, "Never Been to Spain" (Three Dog Night) and "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf). While opening for Three Dog Night and Hoyt promoting "My Griffin is Gone" the group had their exposure to "Joy to the World" and took the song to the top of t…

Britain's David Whitfield hit with "Cara Mia" (Lee Lange - Tulio Trapani) backed by the (Annunzio) Mantovani Orchestra in 1954 and reached the top ten on Billboard. Composer Lee Lange was in reality David Whitfield's producer Bunny Lewis and Tulio Trapani was really Mantovani. From the album "Blockbusters" the Jay & the Americans cover peaked at number four in 1965. The "Jay" this time was David Blatt aka Jay Black. In "Songfacts" original group member Kenny Vance explains: "When Jay Traynor…

P. F. Sloan (Philip Gary Schlein) co-wrote Round Robin’s "Kick That Little Foot, Sally Ann", “A Must to Avoid” for Herman’s Hermits, Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" the Turtles' "You Baby” and in 1965 Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction”. Barry McGuire was a member of The New Christy Minstrels. Barry’s first song written for the group also became their biggest hit. “Green, Green”. Although he didn’t get credit for it, he and Hoyt Axton along with Ken Ramsey composed the Kingston Trio hit “…

Marvin Percy Rainwater had been a classically trained pianist, but after an accident had removed part of a thumb, he learned to strum a guitar enough to accompany his singing and compose songs on it. His career was established by "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird". In 1959 he recorded "The Pale Faced Indian". Egland's Don Farnon (Maughn) had a top twenty hit with it as "Indian Reservation Lament Of the Cherokee Indian)" in 1968. This is a track on the album "Lament Of the Cherokee). The composer J…

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was a John Ford western from 1962 starring John Wayne and James Stewart. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote a song based upon the movie and called "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', a Top 10 Gene Pitney hit that was not used in the film. Apparently, Mr. Pitney didn't record it until April 1962, after the film came out. He had been requested to record it for the movie following the success of his "A Town Without Pity". Obviously it was not produced on tim…

Gordon Jenkins' 1953 Seven Dreams concept album and the song "Crescent City Blues" with vocalist Beverly Maher provided more than the basis for this hit. After "Folsom Prison Blues" became popular Johnny Cash reached a settlement with Gordon. The man in black performed the song at Folsom Prison itself in 1968, and this version was eventually released on the At Folsom Prison album . According to Wikipedia the cheering from the audience following the line "I shot a man in Reno / just to watch…

Written by the Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis (Never on Sunday) as part of the soundtrack to the 1959 film The Island of the Brave. Greek singer Nana Mouskouri recorded the French Version in 1962. This was the same year Brenda Lee had the world-wide English hit.

"I Heard It Through the Grapevine" was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong in 1966, the single was first recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, but it was not released. In 1967 Gladys Knight & the Pips altered the lyric a bit and hit the top of the R&B chart. Marvin Gaye recorded his version of the song prior to the Pips' but released it after theirs on the "In The Groove" album, October 1968. Versions of this classic can be found as an eleven minute version on CCRs "Cosmo's…

Thanks to Dan Hughes for this tip! Formed in 1963 The Evergreen Blues Band (Rick Barrio, Tom Bray, Manny Esparza, Steve Lawrence, Sam Lombardo, Steve McSweyn and Ken Walther) recorded "Midnight Confessions" (Josie) in 1968. It was written by their manager Lou Josie and can be found as the first track on the second side of "7 Do 11". That's Carol Kaye's bass line on the opening of The Grass Roots (Rob Grill, Warren Etner, Creed Bratton and Rick Coonce: group members varied greatly through th…