This is a first. Never before have I posted a fake-hits LP that I can barely stand. Boy, do I hate these selections. I know I'm a rogue Boomer, given that I'm supposed to be in love with CCR and stuff like The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down, but I frankly don't think most of these numbers even qualify as songs. Rock was moving into its cellular phase about this time (probably 1971), with mind-numbing repetition of the needle-stuck-in-the-grooves type. For instance, Never Ending Song of Love does the genius, Beethoven-level bit of going from C, down to G, then back up to C, then down to G, then back up to C, then down to G, etc. Inane lyrics atop a single chord change are about as exciting as Bubbles in the Wine played backwards, if that much. But the song that earns bottom-of-the-list honors would have to be the stupid Do You Know What I Mean.
Naturally, this LP had all kinds of little nicks that required file-splicing--even VinylStudio's incredible declicker feature didn't catch them all (it leaves clicks and pops alone if removing them would affect the music). And so I was having to replay short sections of songs which are already milestones of monotony, and only my devotion to bringing you the history of fake hits--only my dedication to this proud mission could have compelled me to clean up this entire LP. That, plus I was already about halfway done, so I figured why not suffer through the rest. There are about four songs I like here, but Nashville Sound (Spar) sure managed to find most of my least favorite Top 40 stuff from this period. It's almost as if... as if they planned it. As if they looked ahead 50 years into the future and said, "Lee's going to HATE this! Buwa-ha-haaaa!"
Memory tells me that 1971 was about the time I tuned out the Top 40 and focused on my piano lessons--rock was going places I didn't want to follow it to. Yet, there are songs from this period that I like. That Now Generation LP I put up (Spar, again) has a number of things I dislike, but that playlist was balanced out by stuff I didn't mind (and probably even liked, in a few instances). So, posting that was a more positive experience. But... these are all merely my opinions, and feel free to totally disagree. There's no right or wrong when it comes to taste. It's just that I've been on boards where people break out in sunspots if they discover you don't like, say, Pink Floyd or Cream (and I don't). "But, that... that's not allowed!" None of us signed a contract promising we would like what everyone else likes. I never did, anyway.
My favorite thing is, "How can you not like (name of group/singer)?" These are people who don't realize that they are not the prototype for every other human in our species.
Even Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves and Take Me Home Country Roads were like sweet relief from the fake CCR and fake Rod Stewart--they both function as songs, at least. They're professionally written. I realize that most rock tends toward simplicity, and that much early rock and roll (my favorite) is just three or four chords. But the early stuff moves. It has energy, with one chord going to another--like chords should. CCR-style songs, during the early rock and roll era, would have had teens wondering what on earth they were listening to. Part of the problem is the awful country-rock period which arrived in the late 1960s. I never, ever understood the country-rock fetish that happened with rock journalists--I mean, if you love country, then listen to country. That's always an option! I know of no corresponding weirdness from that period--say, Downbeat critics demanding polka sets from Chick Corea or Herbie Hancock. It would be like me saying, "This Irish group is fine, and jigs are okay, but I like the big-city blues sound of 1952. Can these folks totally switch gears for me? Thanks." The birth of jig-blues.
Anyway, disagree with me at will, if you wish, and give these mostly competently done fakes a chance--you may be amused, surprised, or both. Brown Sugar (a song I like) gets a pretty good counterfeit treatment here--and, really, since I don't like most of the originals, I can't complain about any of the fakes which fall short. I'm certain that Nashville Sound knew that I'd find this LP and that I'd feel a duty to rip it for my blog. Somehow, all those years ago, it knew... I don't know how, but it did.
UPDATE: I had meant to add a few points, but they got lost in the post revisions. Never My Love is from 1967, and Spar was clearly using it as filler, probably having run out of 1971 material. It's one of the four or so tracks that I like here, though it's not my favorite Association song. And this LP's version of the excellent Goffin-King hit Go Away Little Girl (Spar didn't bother with a comma) is Spar's 1962 version by Fred York, originally released as a 45 on Hit Records No. 43, which (going by the YouTube posting) was pitched slightly lower. York does a decent job, but he's no Steve Lawrence.
Lee
20 comments:
Hi Lee, Thanks for another fake hits post. I will listen to it soon. As always, love your comments. Is there any reason why there are two scans of side A and not a scan of side B? Again thanks... Bryan
HI, Bryan--
Oops! I'll have to fix that. Thanks for alerting me. The new Blogger is harder to use than the previous edition, so of course this increases the chances of screwing up! Thanks for the nice words--hope you enjoy!
I'll fix that mistake right away...
I'm not at all fond of this period of music, so I am with you in heartily disliking many of these tunes - and these are better than much of what came next. I became a big jazz fan about this time.
Our tastes may diverge a bit because I love the Association, and "Never My Love" is a favorite. Also, I enjoy Carole King. I think the earliest song here is her "Go Away, Little Girl," which was a hit for Steve Lawrence in his double-tracked phase. I suspect, though, that this is a cover of the Happenings' version or even Donny Osmond (!).
Your dedication to the fake-hits genre continues to amaze one (me) and all.
Buster,
Thanks. And I'd meant to mention Carole King's wonderful "Go Away, Little Girl," which I love (I also like the Association). I didn't know the Happenings did it, but I heard Osmond's 1971 revival of the song, and I didn't care for it--not until I heard Lawrence's version did I realize what a good song it is. Osmond's style was just a bit too hard to take. And I think this is the 1962 Hit Records version--rather than record a new version, I think they simply reached into their vaults (or searched the nearest table) for the original tape. No way these folks were going to do a second version when they could simply remarket the original.
Buster,
I revised my text a number of times, and some points got lost...
Hi Lee, thanks for the correction with the picture of the LPs side B. So I deleted the original download and re-downloaded it again. However, the download still only contains 2 pictures of the LPs side A without the picture of the LPs side B. So I just added the picture to my download myself. Just glad to have it. Bryan
Darn, I should have fixed that. What happened is that I originally scanned the first side twice (I forgot to flip the record over!). A comedy of errors... Thanks again for the alert.
Always love those fake covers albums you provide, being in Europe i can really not afford the import taxes so i rarely can come across them. This one is a goldmine! Thanks very much
Just read your post,
Personally i never say no to a "never my love" cover even though or maybe especially because i dislike the original.
I also found the instrumental in that Carol Kind cover quite hypnotising even more so thanks to the weird vocals, i don't really have the musical vocabulary especially in english, but i think there's quite an opposition between the vocals that are kinda all over the place, too high pitched/Forced? trying to bring some kinda groove/movement and the instrumental that just remains completely flat like it doesn't really care until it becomes bewitching with that solo in the middle
And just listened the end, indeed bit disappointed by the brown sugar, proud mary and put your hand in the hand, i expected (too) much from.
Anyway thanks!
Monkey D. Sound,
Glad you enjoyed. I thought "Brown Sugar" wasn't all that bad--but I'm grading it on a curve! My problem with the original "Never My Love" is that the harmonies aren't as precise as they needed to be--the Association's vocal blend always left something to be desired, in my opinion, though I like most of their material. Thanks very much for the feedback, and I should note that "Never My Love" is basically a filler track on this LP, since it dates back to 1967. I guess Nashville Sound had run out of current material, and so they stuck that in. I'll have to get my Hit Records single of "Go Away Little Girl," but I'm almost positive the version on this LP dates to 1962, which would make it an imitation of Steve Lawrence. I think that this particular vocalist just wasn't up to Steve's level. In particular, he's imitating Lawrence's vocal "swoops," and they just don't sound right.
It's official--"Go Away Little Girl" is Spar's 1962 version, originally released as a Hit Records single and credited to Fred York. And so "Never My Love" is, in all probability, the original 1967 Hit Records release. I wouldn't say Spar gave new meaning to the word "cheap," but that's only because no one could possibly have competed with SPC or Pickwick in that department. It was logically impossible.
Lee -
I *think* I look forward to listening to this... If nothing else, thank you for your brilliant commentary, which I'm sure will prove to be better than this album deserves. Thanks also for all of your shares, actually, since I don't know if I've ever commented here before. And I agree, this was a dire time for music. For me, it evokes the surprisingly cramped back seat of our family's Buick LeSabre, and the days of parental smoking with the windows rolled up. Lousy music, lousy car, lousy air quality...no wonder my nostalgia is for times before I was born.
- Jeff M
Jeff,
Thanks for the very kind words. I know I would have enjoyed this trip to the past a lot more if I hadn't had to re-replay so many sections while editing (I don't know how on earth the previous owner managed to get in so many needle nicks), or if the playlist had been balanced out with more material that I actually liked. "Maggie Mae" is easier to take if it follows something... tuneful. Rolled-up car windows and smoke are something I remember well, and my mom had a VW Beetle, so there was almost no circulation! But those memories are from an earlier period--I remember a lot of "MOR"--Streisand, showtunes--and my Classical-loving mom probably settled on MOR as the least of all AM radio evils. Every time I hear "Put on a Happy Face," it seems like the million time. So that would be 1964, 1965. We kids had little say over what played on the radio, and I honestly don't remember what (if anything) played in the family cars circa 1971. I know for sure that CCR, Rod Steward, et al. weren't allowed on the dial. Which was fine with me--I was getting a heavy dose of Top 40 at home, courtesy of my brother. If not for his LPs and his love for AM radio, I'd have gone through high school not knowing half of what was popular. Thanks again for the nice words, and hope this proves to be tolerable!
Er, "the millionth time."
I'm always amazed at fake hits into the 1970s and beyond. The genre seems so 50s-60s-centric to me. The "rock"-ier the music got, the harder it was for the fakers to, well, fake. So they didn't even seem to try. Which makes it less fascinating to me. Also, I guess, there wasn't much of a market for doing rock halfway once it diverged further from pop, and people picked one side rather than straddling the divide.
Diane,
Well, there was a group called The Sound Effects (original, no?) which did a series of 1970s LPs for the QMO label, and those were fairly competently done. But I agree that the post-60s stuff, all of which had its own particular sound, production-wise, often proved too difficult for the fakers to fake. I'm thinking Pickwick and Spar (I think SPC was out of the fake-hits market by then), though I can't speak for RCA Camden. Or for Columbia Special Products. And I don't know how far Alshire continued its fakes into the 1970s--they did some good 1970 fakes, including a very passable "Vehicle" (orig. Ides of March, of course). I really need to brush up on my '70s fake hits, so I can generalize with authority. That should be everyone's goal--to generalize with authority.
As far artists capable of rocking, the budgets had access to such folks--everyone seemed willing to do non-union work under aliases back then--but I think it came down to whether or not the label wanted to copy the current 1970s sounds. It all depends on their attitude toward the hard rock that was emerging.
It is stereo. It is a nice collection of hits from the early 70's era. It's NOT very good performances. LOVE IT! Thanx~
Never My Love was a 1971 hit (notice the small h) for the Fifth Dimension and Go Away Little Girl was the Donny Osmond hit. So they just pulled the old tapes from the Hit label and included them here. They are the same songs, just not 1971 arrangements.
HORN,
For some reason, I neglected to mention Osmond's 1971 version, which I remember with painful vividness. I did mention, though, that Spar used the 1962 Hit Records version. I recognized it right off.
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