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Dickey Lee: Original Greatest Hits

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DickeyLee_OriginalGreatestHitsDickey Lee’s original RCA hit singles

Dickey Lee has the distinction of landing not one, not two, but three tragedy songs in the Billboard Top 20. He first rose to fame with 1962’s “Patches” (which, also somewhat incredibly, was the title of a completely different 1970 hit by Clarence Carter) and again three years later with “Laurie (Strange Things Happen).” Following these successes on the Smash and TCF Hall labels, he signed with RCA and developed a successful country music career that stretched through the 1970s. Although you can find some of Lee’s RCA recordings on the grey-market Greatest Hits Collection, and very good re-recordings of his RCA hits on a recent Varese release, his original RCA masters have gone without official reissue until now. Real Gone has finally cracked the Sony vault and rescued these twenty original RCA releases.

Gathered here are all but two of Lee’s charting singles for RCA (missing are 1974’s “Give Me One Good Reason” and 1978’s “My Heart Won’t Cry Anymore”), along with Lee’s album track of his original “She Thinks I Still Care.” The latter had been a 1962 country chart topper for George Jones, but Lee didn’t get around to releasing his own version until a decade later. Lee sang with a boyishness that occasionally suggested the tremolo of Bobby Goldsboro, adding an earnest note to the recitation “The Mahogany Pulpit” and lending a yearning quality to covers of Delaney & Bonnie’s “Never Ending Song of Love” and Johnny & Jack’s “Ashes of Love.” He completed his tragedy trifecta with 1975’s “Rocky,” his lone chart-topper and a same-year pop hit for Austin Roberts. Roberts’ release cut off any pop-crossover opportunity, but Lee’s single is distinguished by the guitar playing of Memphis legend Reggie Young.

Born in Memphis, Lee recorded a pair of late-50s doo-wop singles for his hometown Sun label before finding his way onto the pop charts. His 1970s turn to country wasn’t so much a career calculation as it was a canny choice to take advantage of the opportunity presented by RCA. Working under the auspices of Chet Atkins in Nashville, Lee’s southern background mixed easily with a country sound that was rediscovering simpler melodies and more overt twang. The productions are mostly shorn of countrypolitan’s heavy vocal choruses and string arrangements, and the spotlight is returned to fiddles and pedal steel. As the decade wore on, the productions added more crossover elements, and Lee’s last charting single for RCA, Barry Mann’s “It’s Not Easy,” is quite pop.

Despite his proven songwriting talent, Lee’s hits were mostly from the pens of others, including Don Williams, Bob McDill and a host of Nashville pros. He picked up a few country chestnuts, such as the late ’30s “Sparklin’ Brown Eyes,” and a few tunes from the pop world, including Bread’s country-tinged soft-rock “I Use the Soap.” Lee also found opportunities to reach back to his rock and soul roots with Razzy Bailey’s “9,999,999 Tears” and Rudy Clark’s “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody.” The former even crossed over to the pop chart for Lee’s first Top 100 appearance in more than a decade. Real Gone’s 21-track CD was remastered from the original tapes by Mark Wilder at Sony’s Battery Studios, and the liners are by Bill Dahl. This is a long overdue treat for Lee’s fans; here’s hoping someone follows up with the original RCA albums! [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Dickey Lee’s Home Page

Eddy Arnold: Complete Original #1 Hits

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Loretta LynnAll twenty-eight of Eddy Arnold’s chart-topping singles

For most artists, a twenty-eight track collection of their biggest chart hits would be a fair representation of their commercial success. In Eddy Arnold’s case, twenty-eight #1 singles only very lightly skims the surface of nearly thirty-nine consecutive years of chart success that stretched from 1945 through 1983 (he struck out, though not without a few good swings, in 1958). A singer of such renown inspires numerous reissues and collections, including hefty Bear Family boxes (1 2), but this is the first set to include his entire run of chart-toppers, from 1946’s “What is Life Without Love” through 1968’s “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye.” Within that 25-year span, Arnold evolved from a twangy country star in the ’40s to a Nashville Sound innovator and resurgent chart-topper in the mid-60s.

Arnold was always more of a crooner than a honky-tonker, and even when singing upbeat tunes like “A Full Time Job,” you can hear pop stylings edging into his held notes. 1953’s “I Really Don’t Want to Know” drops the fiddle and steel, and is sung in a folk style to acoustic guitar, bass and male backing vocals. 1955’s “Cattle Call” finds Arnold yodeling a remake of Tex Owens’ 1934 tune, a song he’d recorded previously in 1944. The new version featured orchestrations by Hugo Winterhalter and signaled crossover intentions that would come to full fruition a full decade later. Arnold’s chart success dimmed in the face of rock ‘n’ roll’s rise, but by 1960 he’d regained a foothold, and by mid-decade he’d transitioned fully to countrypolitan arrangements.

In 1965 Arnold once again topped the charts with “What’s He Doing in My World” and his signature “Make the World Go Away.” Backed by strings, burbling bass lines, the Anita Kerr Singers and Floyd Kramer’s light piano, Arnold rode out the decade with a string of Top 10s and his last five chart toppers. He pushed towards an easier sound, but his vocals always retained a hint of his Tennessee Plowboy roots, differentiating him from more somnambulistic singers like Perry Como. Real Gone’s collection includes an eight-page booklet with liner notes from Don Cusic and remastering by Maria Triana. Tracks 1-21 are in their original mono, tracks 22-28 in their original true stereo. Though there’s a great deal more to be told, a spin through Arnold’s chart toppers provides a truly satisfying introduction to his catalog. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

Eddy Arnold Fan Site

David Allan Coe: Texas Moon

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DavidAllanCoe_TexasMoonOutlaw country three years before RCA named it

There may never have been as iconoclastic a country artist as David Allan Coe. Though his rejection of Nashville norms drew parallels with the outlaw movement, he always seemed a notch wilder and less predictable than Waylon, Willie and the boys. Reared largely in reform schools and prisons through his late-20s, his bluesy 1969 debut, Penitentiary Blues, didn’t predict his turn to country, but certainly showed off the outspoken songwriting that would sustain his career. At turns, Coe was a rebel, a rhinestone suited cowboy, a biker and a successful Nashville songwriter. After a pair of albums for Shelby Singleton’s indie SSS label, Coe hooked up with a rock band for a couple of years, wrote a chart-topping hit for Tanya Tucker, and signed with Columbia in 1974.

This 1977 release on Shelby’s Plantation label appears to have been recorded in 1973, on the eve of the songwriting revolution fueled in large part by Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver and Guy Clark. All three are represented (Kristofferson with “Why Me,” Shaver with “Ride Me Down Easy” and Clark with “That Old Time Feeling”), along with Mickey Newbury (“Why You Been Gone So Long”) and Jackson Browne (“These Days”). Coe finds a deep resonance with these then-contemporary songs, but the way he pulls older selections into his universe is even more impressive. He converts John Greer’s early-50s “Got You on My Mind” from R&B to country-soul and turns Johnny Cash’s Sun-era tragedy “Give My Love to Rose” into a mournful ’70s ballad.

Coe wrote only two of the songs here, the sympathetic “Mary Magdeline” and the prescient “Fuzzy Was an Outlaw.” Both exhibit the sort of blunt honesty that would become his trademark. By the time this album was released in ’77, Coe had charted “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” “Longhaired Redneck,” and “Willie, Wayon and Me,” but Texas Moon drew little public notice and has been left unreissued on CD until now. Real Gone’s reissue includes a 12-panel insert with new liner notes by Chris Morris, and original front and back cover art. The latter includes vintage mug shots and a list of Coe’s incarcerations. This isn’t the place to start a David Allan Coe collection, but it’s a missing chapter that the singer-songwriter’s many fans will enjoy having available again. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

David Allan Coe’s Home Page

The Hello People: Fusion

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HelloPeople_FusionTuneful “mime rock” from 1968

The Hello People were a late-60s sextet that performed in white face and mimed skits amid their live musical performances. Their visual imagery and theatrical skills landed the band slots on several television variety shows, but even with national exposure, their records failed to dent the charts. The group’s best known track, “Anthem,” was a pungent reaction to songwriter Sonny Tongue’s incarceration for draft-dodging, but even its socially-charged message couldn’t lift the group beyond regional success. The group’s sound incorporated several then-current trends, including baroque-pop, sunshine harmonies, country-rock, electric folk and and old-timey jazz. You can hear influences of the Left Banke, Grass Roots, Blues Project, Lovin’ Spoonful and others, and though the band was quite accomplished (especially in flautist Michael Sagarese and bassist Greg Geddes), their lack of a singular style and the novelty of their stage act seem to have relegated them to a footnote. The group continued into the mid-70s in various formations, releasing their own records and backing Todd Rundgren on Back to the Bars, but this 1968 album is the most complete expression of their original concept. Real Gone’s first-ever CD reissue includes the album’s original ten tracks and a twelve-page booklet with new liner notes by Gene Scalutti. Separated from their stage visuals, the group’s music still holds up. [©2013 Hyperbolium]

David Cassidy: Romance

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David Cassidy returns with a mid-80s sound

After shucking off his teen-idol career, Cassidy recorded a trio of albums for RCA that garnered little stateside success. When his third RCA album, Gettin’ it in the Street, was shelved, Cassidy retreated from the recording world for nearly a decade, and concentrated on his stage acting career and headlining inLas Vegas. He reengaged his music career with this 1985 album for Arista, spinning off hits in Europe (most notably “The Last Kiss,” featuring Wham’s George Michael on answer vocals), but going unreleased in theU.S. due to label turmoil. Much like his updated look on the album cover, the music was updated by producer-songwriter Alan Tarney with mid-80s synthesizers. Cassidy’s vocals took the chill off the backing tracks, and matched Tarney’s grander constructions note-for-note. Real Gone’s reissue, the first U.S. release of this title, includes the album’s ten original tracks, full panel reproductions of the front and back covers, song lyrics, and liner notes by Michael Ragogna. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

David Cassidy: Gettin’ it in the Street

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David Cassidy’s third and final post-teen idol album for RCA

In the two years after David Cassidy walked away from Bell Records and his career as a teen idol, he recorded three albums for RCA. The first, The Higher They Climb, found success in Europe and spun out a pre-Barry Manilow hit recording of Bruce Johnston’s “I Write the Songs.” Cassidy’s second album for RCA, Home is Where the Heart Is failed to chart, as did the pre-release singles from this third album. RCA planned and then shelved the album’sU.S. release, though apparently copies were pressed and warehoused, as they began showing up in cutout bins three years later.

The album’s track list is an eclectic lot, including the autobiographical title tune (featuring the guitar playing of Mick Ronson), the boozy original “Rosa’s Cantina,” a cover of Harry Nilsson’s “The Story of Rock and Roll,” and a tune co-written by Cassidy, producer (and America founding member) Gerry Beckley and head Beach Boy, Brian Wilson. The latter, “Cruise toHarlem,” has the hallmarks of a mid-70s Brian Wilson tune, with a chugging rhythm and sophisticated vocal arrangement. The album closes with Cassidy’s original “Junked Heart Blues,” sung in a clenched voice that brings to mind Boz Scaggs.

Cassidy sings with terrific emotion throughout, including a duet withBeckleyon “Living a Lie,” but his more sophisticated and soulful pop-rock couldn’t find a place in the market. One has to wonder whether the “David Cassidy” name was still overshadowed by his earlier fame, making it difficult for listeners to accept him as a bona fide recording artist. The music he made fit well with the commercial mainstream of ‘76-77, but despite his artistry, chart success was not to be. Real Gone’s reissue includes the album’s original nine tracks, clocking in at thirty-four minutes, and features liner notes from Michael Ragogna. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

David Cassidy: Live!

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A multitalented teen-idol tears it up live in 1974

In 1974, David Cassidy was on top of the world commercially, but near the end of his run of mainstream fame. He was a talented musician trapped in the body – and career – of a teen idol. His aspirations were starting to exceed what his fans and critics would freely allow him to grasp, and unlike the Beatles, who successfully retreated from the stage to studio, Cassidy’s attempts to grow beyond the confines of his Partridge Family-launched solo career led to artistic accomplishment, but not broader commercial success. 1974 marked the tail end of his pop-idol ride, and the frenzy surrounding his live appearances, as evidenced by the crowd’s non-stop hysteria, was as highly-charged as ever. Cassidy didn’t know it at the time, but it would come crashing down at tour’s end, when hundreds of fans were injured and one, Bernadette Whelan, was killed by the crush of a concert crowd. Cassidy retired from touring at the end of that year, and after a three-album stint on RCA, he put his public music career on a decade-long hiatus.

What’s truly impressive about his live album is that with the craziness still running full tilt, Cassidy was able to deliver a live performance that was both exciting to his youngest fans and artistically satisfying to those able to listen past the pre-teen pandemonium. He was (and remains to this day), a fetching singer and dynamic showman. He had a terrific ear for material that fit his voice, that played well on stage and with which he could do something interesting. His raucous cover of Leon Russell’s “Delta Lady” is worth hearing, and he leads the band in stretching Stephen Stills’ “For What It’s Worth” into a soul groove. Even better is a Beatlemania-worth cover of “Please Please Me” and the rock ‘n’ roll medleys that close the set. Cassidy whips the crowd into a lather with covers of Mitch Ryder’s mash-up of “C.C. Rider” and “Jenny Jenny,” and rips through five early rock classics capped with his own his hit single, “Rock Me Baby.”

Cassidy comes across as truly enthused to be performing, and though the rising tide of fame may have drown some of his artistic dreams, he maintained enough control to craft a live set in which he could invest himself as a performer. The band is hot, and though the fans scream throughout the entire show, the music isn’t compromised. There’s real chemistry between Cassidy and the musicians, each feeding off the other’s energy, and both feeding off the crowd. The recording quality is good, though by no means state-of-the-art for 1974; no doubt the original producers thought of this as something to market, rather than something to preserve. Still, Cassidy’s magnetism, artistry and showmanship, and the high quality of the band’s playing come through louder and clearer than anyone might have expected in 1974.  [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Shoes: 35 Years – The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012

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Thirty-five years of exquisitely crafted pop

For those who lucked into following Shoes from their earliest self-produced living room recordings though their major label stint on Elektra and back to self-production (including this year’s superb hiatus-breaking Ignition), this collection provides a pleasant, albeit non-chronological, whirlwind through numerous catalog highlights. For those who latched onto Shoes during their major label days, the band’s DIY origin will remain murky, as the set includes only one track from the seminal Black Vinyl Shoes, neither side of their single for Bomp, and none of their earlier self-distributed work.

That band’s early aesthetic is heard most fully in the Black Vinyl Shoes version of “Okay,” while the other early song, “Tomorrow Night” is taken from 1979’s Present Tense, rather than the more primitive 1978 Bomp A-side. Still, those two songs are a roadmap to everything that’s great about the band: winsome lyrics, hummable melodies, tight harmonies and deftly constructed layers of guitars, bass and drums. Half the collection focuses on the group’s three albums for Elektra, including the power-pop gems “Too Late,” “In My Arms Again,” “Curiosity” and “The Summer Rain.” Selections from their later albums for Instant, New Rose and their own Black Vinyl label show that the spark of their living room recordings was amplified by ever-improving home studio technology.

Given the length of the group’s career, it’s a reasonable compromise to omit most of their formative material, along with the odds and sods that have dribbled out over the years. As a record of the band, this is a good overview for less ardent fans. But one might still wish they’d saved the adjective “Definitive” for an all-encompassing box set that gathers their compilation appearances, non-LP singles, live appearances, demos, outtakes and sundry special projects. Perhaps they’re saving “Complete” for that one. In the meantime, you can pick up many of the obscurities in the band’s store, and start your pitiable, unknowing friends with this anthology of the group’s core commercial releases. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Shoes’ Home Page

Dion: The Complete Laurie Singles

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Dion’s teen-idol and comeback solo sides for Laurie

Dion DiMucci is one of the few first-generation rock ‘n’ rollers to fruitfully navigate the cultural twists and turns of succeeding decades. He had doo-wop hits fronting the Belmonts in the late ‘50s, teen idol solo hits in the early ‘60s, a resurgence in the ‘70s, and a string of albums running through 2008’s Giants of Early Guitar Rock and this year’s Tank Full of Blues that still find him making vital music. Real Gone’s 2-CD set reaches back to Dion’s breakout as a solo artist on the Laurie label, and catalogs all thirty-six of the sides he released as singles. He hit as a solo in 1960 with “Lonely Teenager,” and scored a 1-2 punch the following year with “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer.” He reached the Top 10 with  “Lovers Who Wander,” “Little Diane” and “Love Came to Me,” but in late 1962 departed for Columbia. Laurie had enough material in the vault to issue singles into 1964, charting with the originals “Sandy” and “Lonely World,” and covers of “Come Go with Me” and “Shout.”

He returned to Laurie in 1968, and at the label’s suggestion recorded “Abraham, Martin & John,” a song that resounded strongly amid the year’s social upheaval and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The record’s forlorn mood was just right for the times, and the single charted to #4 in the U.S. Dion’s stay at Laurie proved short-lived, as he moved to Warner Brothers the following year, but before going he released several more singles, including covers of Fred Neil’s “The Dolphins,” Joni Mitchell’s “From Both Sides Now,” a nearly unrecognizable folk-rock arrangement of “Purple Haze,” and a soulful take on the Four Tops’ “Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever.” He also recorded a few originals, including the heavy “Daddy Rollin’ (In Your Arms)” and socially charged “He Looks A Lot Like Me.” Dion’s songwriting had clicked as early as “Runaround Sue,” and it continued to sustain him through the rest of his career.

The thirty-six sides collected here represent nineteen singles released by Dion as a solo act for Laurie (two of the singles shared B-sides with other singles, hence the disparity between the number of sides and number of singles). All thirty-six sides are remastered from the original single mixes. Missing are Dion’s earlier releases with the Belmonts, as well as his sides on Columbia (which included the hits “Ruby Baby,” “Donna the Prima Donna” and “Drip Drop”). Lining up all the A’s and B’s, listeners will hear the tug-of-war between the label’s belief in pop songs, Dion’s love of gutsier blues and rock, the fast pace at which the music scene changed in the 1960s, and an artist’s ability to expand and reinvent himself. The 20-page booklet includes photos, picture sleeve reproductions, and extensive liner notes by Ed Osborne that feature generous quotes from Dion. [©2012 Hyperbolium]

Dion’s Home Page

Sanford & Townsend: Smoke from a Distant Fire / Nail Me to the Wall

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First and third albums from soulful mid-70s one-hit wonders

Ed Sanford and John Townsend first worked together in their native South, but it wasn’t until they moved toLos Angelesthat their music garnered any commercial impact. The duo initially signed on as staff writers, but their aspirations to perform was achieved via songwriting demos and a contract with Warner Brothers. Their self-titled 1976 debut was produced by Jerry Wexler at Muscle Shoals, but even with all that going for it, it didn’t make a commercial impression at first. It wasn’t until the single “Smoke from a Distant Fire” climbed the chart and the album was reissued under the single’s title that the duo gained traction, including opening slots for major ‘70s hit makers. But as hot as the single became, climbing to #9, the duo was never able to chart again, and was dropped by their label after their third album.

Like many one-hit wonders, Sanford & Townsend made good music both before and after their brush with fame, and their albums have something to offer beyond the single. Johnny Townshend sings in an arresting tenor reminiscent of Daryl Hall, and the Muscle Shoals sound, supervised by keyboardist Barry Beckett, is solid and soulful. The duo’s songwriting is full of hooks that should have grabbed more radio time alongside Boz Scaggs, Steely Dan, Orleansand Hall & Oates. Recorded in their home state of Alabama, the duo’s lyrical milieu was often cautionary tales of Southern Caifornia, to which they added carefully crafted moments of country, blues and Doobie Brothers-styled funk. The group’s third album, 1979’s Nail Me to the Wall, doesn’t fully measure up to the debut with which it’s paired, but both provide worthwhile listening beyond the well-known single. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Johnny Townsend’s Home Page