John Twang's most read articles

Allen Toussaint's version of "Working in a Coalmine" morphs into the hit later. In a recent Canadian television interview Allen tells us about Lee Dorsey's love of auto body work and that singing was almost secondary despite his hits with "Ya-Ya" (the notorious name Morris Levy appears as co-writer) , "Ride Your Pony" (composer Naomi Neville was Allen Toussaint using his mother's maiden name) and "Working in a Coalmine". The 1966 hit was written and produced by the essential New Orleans music…

Pino Donaggio opened for Paul Anka during the star's 1960 Italian tour and the classically trained artist then started to focus on popular music. Pino recorded "Io Che Non Vivo (senza te)" (Donaggio - Pallavicini - Miller) translated as "I Who Can't Live (Without You)" and sang the song at the 1965 San Remo Music Festival. It was the same Pino Donaggio was scored the films "Carrie", "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out". The composer "Miller" is Capitol recording artist Jody Miller. Dusty Springfi…

Joe South (Joseph Alfred Souter) hit with Grammy winning "Games People Play" but was more of a composer with such successes as "Down in the Boondocks" and "I Knew You When" for Billy Joe Royal, "One Bad Apple" by The Osmonds, "Hush" for Deep Purple and "Rose Garden" for Lynn Anderson. Joe was a successful session player in Nashville and Muscle Shoals. The daughter of country star Liz Anderson, Lynn Anderson, a regular performer on the Lawrence Welk Show hit both the country and pop charts…

Danny (Horace Eldred Dill) Dill once ran for mayor in Nashville and it was he who co-composed "I Wanna Go Home" recorded by Billy Grammer in 1963 and re-titled as "Detroit City" with Mel Tillis. In the forties and fifties he and his first wife Annie Lou toured with the Grand Ole Opry. In 2012 President Obama awarded Pam's father, Mel Tillis with the National Medal of Arts. The reasons are obvious: The Webb Pierce hit "I Ain't Never", "The Snakes Crawl at Night" for Charlie Pride, and Kenn…

Formed by group member Dave White as The Juvenairs, Danny and the Juniors (Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova) hit it big with the chart topping "At the Hop" in 1957. Originally it was titled "Do the Bop" and released again later that year as "At the Hop" (White - Madara - Singer) at the suggestion of Dick Clark. Mr. Clark knew the dance, the bop, was a fad on the way out. When an act couldn't show for American Bandstand Dick called record label owner Artie Singer for help a…

Jon Voight's brother, Angelina Jolie's Uncle, successful gambler, accomplished golfer and composer Chip Taylor (James Wesley Voight) wrote "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing". You don't get more polarized that that. In 1965 The Wild Ones (Jordan Christopher (Zankoff) and the Peppermint Lounge house band:Tom Graves, Tommy Trick and Eddie Wright ) recorded Chip Taylor's (James Wesley Voight) "Wild Thing" for the album "The Arthur Sound". It was produced by the multi-talented Gerry Granahan.…

In 1966 Yugoslavian Berta Ambroz entered the Eurovision Song Festival with “Brez Besed” (Without Words) composed by Mojmir Sepe and Elza Budau. In 1973 Mocedades came second in the Spanish Eurovision Song with “Eres Tu” composed by Juan Carlos Calderon. Plagiarism was suspected. The song hit the Billboard top ten. Mocedades recorded an English version of the tune as “Touch the Wind” (Calderon, Hawker).

Baritone/music teacher and actor Todd Duncan played the original Porgy in "Porgy and Bess" in 1935 and was the first to sing the untitled song in the motion picture "Unchained" in which he had a small part and that's how it got the title "Unchained Melody" (North-Zaret) in 1955. The song, called one of the greatest of all time, was nominated for an Oscar. Before going solo and blind from birth Al Hibbler sang with the Duke Ellington and the Count Basie Orchestras. His 1955 version of "Unch…

"If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" composed by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays was written as a political statement in 1949. It was recorded first by The Weavers (Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays, Fred Hellerman, and Pete Seeger) but achieved little success. Then Peter, Paul and Mary (Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers) had a top ten hit in 1962. The Trini Lopez (Trinidad López III) version hit the top five of Billboard's chart one year later.

Gene Autry was the first to record "Blueberry Hill" for his movie "The Singing Hill" in 1940. It became a hit for Sammy Kaye, Louis Armstrong and many others. None of these had the impact demonstrated by Antoine Fats Domino's version in 1956. Fats celebrated his 84th birthday February 26, 2012 and recently made an appearance on the television series Treme. Fats is suffering from Alzheimer disease.

Based on the "Boys Town" logo Bob Russell (NOT the writer of "Honey", "Little Green Apples", "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia", "Sure Gonna Miss Her", etc) composed "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (Scott - Russell) along with Bob Scott who also composed "A Taste of Honey". It was recorded first in 1969 by Capitol Records executive Kelly Gordon who wrote the top ten Frank Sinatra hit "That's Life". Reg Dwight (Elton John) plays piano on The Hollies (Hicks, Clarke, Elliott, Sylveste…

Comments are appreciated. I have no idea who will, or won't, visit this site but welcome is the key word. One of my past-times is to find original versions to songs and post them (not in their entirety) along with the hit version. Click on "articles". Every Saturday at 10:00 a.m. I host an "oldies" program at www.cjlx.fm that may be of interest.

Geri Hall and Huey Smith recorded the original "Sea Cruise" (Smith). Now comes the story: without anyone's permission the Ace Records owner erased the vocals leaving the great instrumental track and overdubbed the sound effects with Frankie Ford's vocal. Frankie Ford (Guzzo) became a one hit wonder in 1959 when he hit number one with his cover.

Composers of The Weavers (Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman) "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (Joel Newman - Paul Campbell) include Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Howard Richmond (Newman - Campbell were his pseudonyms), Sam Kennedy, Fred Hellerman, Ronnie Gilbert and Lead Belly saw the song released in 1951 and reach the top twenty. Let's face it, this is an old folk song. Jimmie Rodgers' 1957 cover got to the number three position. The single comes from his debut self-titled album.

Composers Carl Montgomery (Melba's brother) and Earl Green wrote "Six Days on the Road" and it was recorded by Paul Davis in 1961.Not the Paul Davis of "I Go Crazy" fame. Dave Dudley first released it in 1963, since then it's been referred to as the definitive truck driver song and maybe it is.

Very well-known in Britain, Kenny Lynch has been a television personality there for more than 50 years. During the Beatles first tour his name was on the bill. Kenny recorded "Misery", the first Beatles cover tune to be released and he appears on the album cover of Wings album "Band on the Run". In 1963 it was Kenny who recorded "You Can Never Stop Me Loving You" (Samwell-Slater). "You Can Never Stop me Loving You" became a top twenty hit and an album title for Floridian Johnny Tillotson that…

Kenny Nolan and The Eleventh Hour were the first to record "Lady Marmalade" (Bob Crewe, Kenny Nolan) in 1974. Patti LaBelle (Patricia Holt-Edwards) and the Bluebells changed their name to LaBelle in the early seventies. New Orleans star producer/composer Allen Toussaint chose the tune for the LaBelle (Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash) December 1974 album "Nightbirds" and "Lady Marmalade" top the charts in 1975.

Rumour has it that this is John Lennon struggling to demo "Nobody I Know" apparently written principally by Paul. It's the second of three Lennon-McCartney compositions given to Peter and Gordon who hit with the song in 1964. Peter's sister Jane dated Paul McCartney during this time.

Composer Jenny Carson was a fan of Hank Williams and wrote "Let Me Go Devil" after Hank died and his fight with alcoholism. Country fiddler and vocalist Wade Ray recorded the song in 1953. The lyrics were rewritten the following year when "Let Me Go Lover" was featured on the television show Studio One. In this case it was sung by a pregnant Joan Weber. Charted covers were issued by Teresa Brewer and Patti Page. Hank Snow hit the top of the country charts with his version: "Let Me Go Wom…

The Sparks of Rhythm were the first to record the classic "Handy Man" (Merentstein - Jones) in 1959. The lead is bass Andrew Barksdale. Co-composer Jimmy Jones was a member of the group but not when they recorded it. One of rock's early successful writers, Otis Blackwell was the next composer involved and, although it was recorded much later, we present a taste of his version next. Otis Blackwell produced and whistled on the first hit version by the other writer and former tap dancer, Jimm…