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Post by rizzuto on Oct 29, 2022 10:21:51 GMT -5
Sarah once asked me if I could play this on guitar. Sadly, I had to admit it wasn't possible with the meager talent with which I had been bestowed.
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Post by desousa on Oct 29, 2022 10:59:12 GMT -5
Badfinger had some great songs including this one, Baby Blue, No Matter What You Are and one made famous by Harry Nilsson--Without You, a Badfinger original. Talented for sure. Their first hit in the US was "Come And Get It," which was written by Paul McCartney. Badfinger was one of the first acts to sign on with The Beatles' Apple Records -- Mary Hopkin, a fellow Welsh, and Billy Preston were two more. They were a star-crossed band that was royally screwed by their manager, a piece of human garbage named Stan Polley. Polley withheld funds for the band, leaving it in dire financial straits which resulted in the suicide by hanging of lead singer Pete Ham in 1975 at age 27. Ham even mentioned Polley in his suicide note. A few years later another band member, Tom Evans, also hung himself in a royalty-related depression. Polley also defrauded other of his music clients including Lou Christie, Al Kooper and Hank Medress of The Tokens. His swindles additionally included people outside the music industry, but he was always able to beat the raps and never suffered anything worse than probation for his misdeeds. Naturally he, unlike many of his clients, led a long and comfortable life and died a natural death in his late 80s. I loved Badfinger! "Come and Get It" was on the sound track of "The Magic Christian" along with Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air". |
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Post by Renfield on Oct 29, 2022 13:15:52 GMT -5
Sarah once asked me if I could play this on guitar. Sadly, I had to admit it wasn't possible with the meager talent with which I had been bestowed. I have many holes in my guitar playing ability. Finger picking being a gaping chasm for me. This song, along with Classical Gas, is on my list to learn, if possible, when I retire. That way people will think I know what I'm doing. As long as they don't ask me to do anything else. |
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Post by pippsheadache on Oct 31, 2022 14:11:05 GMT -5
In honor of Halloween, it was 60 years ago last week that "The Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett hit number one on the Billboard charts. Like Frankenstein's monster, it refuses to die, re-surfacing in the Top 40 in both 1973 and 2021. It's certainly one of the most successful novelty songs and known by pretty much everybody on the planet. A few factoids about it -- the song was recorded and produced by a guy named Gary S. Paxton, who had earlier been successful producing and singing lead on another novelty song "Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles. Paxton peddled the song to many labels but nobody would touch it. Finally he put out his own label, GarPax, and made millions off of it. The sound effects, as is often the case, are astonishingly simple. The creaking door was Paxton pulling a rusty nail out of a board. The cauldron boiling was him blowing a straw into a glass of water. The clanking chains were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor. The piano riffs were played by a young Leon Russell, a prominent studio musician for many years before he pursued a solo career. The backing vocals were done by The Blossoms, who recorded several of the hits attributed to one of the greatest girl groups, The Crystals. A long and confusing story too long to get into. They were also the house backing vocalists on the TV show "Shindig" and their lead singer Darlene Love had several R&B hits on her own. Nobody has ever explained why they were singing "Tennis shoe wah-oo" during the bridge. This might be presumptuous, and perhaps Bearman could contradict me, but my guess is that I'm the only one here who actually saw Bobby Pickett perform this song live. We always went to the annual KRTH 101 concerts at the Greek Theater in LA in the mid to late 90s. One thing I loved about these concerts is that they were loaded with one-hit wonders who you would never pay to see on their own, but stack enough of them up together and sure, I'll go. Well Bobby Pickett was one of these, on a bill with The Murmaids (Popsicles, Icicles") and Phil Phillips ("Sea Of Love") and Rosie and The Originals ("Angel Baby") and Jewel Akens ("The Birds And The Bees") and many others that nobody but me and a handful of other fanatics would love. He was hilarious and brought the house down. He did a monster-type herky-jerky dance while he sang that I saw people trying to imitate when the concert was over. He mentioned that Elvis had called the song "the worst thing I ever heard" and noted tartly "and where is Elvis now?" He also said that every November he got a big royalty check that he said had paid his rent his whole life. The only film I could find of him was a lip-synch he did on "American Bandstand" without the dancing you get with a live performance. Happy Halloween: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uvLHnrqdU |
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Post by chiyankee on Oct 31, 2022 14:23:07 GMT -5
In honor of Halloween, it was 60 years ago last week that "The Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett hit number one on the Billboard charts. Like Frankenstein's monster, it refuses to die, re-surfacing in the Top 40 in both 1973 and 2021. It's certainly one of the most successful novelty songs and known by pretty much everybody on the planet. A few factoids about it -- the song was recorded and produced by a guy named Gary S. Paxton, who had earlier been successful producing and singing lead on another novelty song "Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles. Paxton peddled the song to many labels but nobody would touch it. Finally he put out his own label, GarPax, and made millions off of it. The sound effects, as is often the case, are astonishingly simple. The creaking door was Paxton pulling a rusty nail out of a board. The cauldron boiling was him blowing a straw into a glass of water. The clanking chains were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor. The piano riffs were played by a young Leon Russell, a prominent studio musician for many years before he pursued a solo career. The backing vocals were done by The Blossoms, who recorded several of the hits attributed to one of the greatest girl groups, The Crystals. A long and confusing story too long to get into. They were also the house backing vocalists on the TV show "Shindig" and their lead singer Darlene Love had several R&B hits on her own. Nobody has ever explained why they were singing "Tennis shoe wah-oo" during the bridge. This might be presumptuous, and perhaps Bearman could contradict me, but my guess is that I'm the only one here who actually saw Bobby Pickett perform this song live. We always went to the annual KRTH 101 concerts at the Greek Theater in LA in the mid to late 90s. One thing I loved about these concerts is that they were loaded with one-hit wonders who you would never pay to see on their own, but stack enough of them up together and sure, I'll go. Well Bobby Pickett was one of these, on a bill with The Murmaids (Popsicles, Icicles") and Phil Phillips ("Sea Of Love") and Rosie and The Originals ("Angel Baby") and Jewel Akens ("The Birds And The Bees") and many others that nobody but me and a handful of other fanatics would love. He was hilarious and brought the house down. He did a monster-type herky-jerky dance while he sang that I saw people trying to imitate when the concert was over. He mentioned that Elvis had called the song "the worst thing I ever heard" and noted tartly "and where is Elvis now?" He also said that every November he got a big royalty check that he said had paid his rent his whole life. The only film I could find of him was a lip-synch he did on "American Bandstand" without the dancing you get with a live performance. Happy Halloween: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uvLHnrqdUGreat writeup, Pipps. I just heard Monster Mash on our local classic radio station less than 30 minutes ago. They play it every Halloween because it was first 45 single the afternoon DJ ever bought. Happy Halloween everyone! Don't eat too much candy. It won't be long to we'll Darlene Love on radios that play Christmas music nonstop, belting out "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). |
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Post by pippsheadache on Oct 31, 2022 15:02:59 GMT -5
In honor of Halloween, it was 60 years ago last week that "The Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett hit number one on the Billboard charts. Like Frankenstein's monster, it refuses to die, re-surfacing in the Top 40 in both 1973 and 2021. It's certainly one of the most successful novelty songs and known by pretty much everybody on the planet. A few factoids about it -- the song was recorded and produced by a guy named Gary S. Paxton, who had earlier been successful producing and singing lead on another novelty song "Alley Oop" by The Hollywood Argyles. Paxton peddled the song to many labels but nobody would touch it. Finally he put out his own label, GarPax, and made millions off of it. The sound effects, as is often the case, are astonishingly simple. The creaking door was Paxton pulling a rusty nail out of a board. The cauldron boiling was him blowing a straw into a glass of water. The clanking chains were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor. The piano riffs were played by a young Leon Russell, a prominent studio musician for many years before he pursued a solo career. The backing vocals were done by The Blossoms, who recorded several of the hits attributed to one of the greatest girl groups, The Crystals. A long and confusing story too long to get into. They were also the house backing vocalists on the TV show "Shindig" and their lead singer Darlene Love had several R&B hits on her own. Nobody has ever explained why they were singing "Tennis shoe wah-oo" during the bridge. This might be presumptuous, and perhaps Bearman could contradict me, but my guess is that I'm the only one here who actually saw Bobby Pickett perform this song live. We always went to the annual KRTH 101 concerts at the Greek Theater in LA in the mid to late 90s. One thing I loved about these concerts is that they were loaded with one-hit wonders who you would never pay to see on their own, but stack enough of them up together and sure, I'll go. Well Bobby Pickett was one of these, on a bill with The Murmaids (Popsicles, Icicles") and Phil Phillips ("Sea Of Love") and Rosie and The Originals ("Angel Baby") and Jewel Akens ("The Birds And The Bees") and many others that nobody but me and a handful of other fanatics would love. He was hilarious and brought the house down. He did a monster-type herky-jerky dance while he sang that I saw people trying to imitate when the concert was over. He mentioned that Elvis had called the song "the worst thing I ever heard" and noted tartly "and where is Elvis now?" He also said that every November he got a big royalty check that he said had paid his rent his whole life. The only film I could find of him was a lip-synch he did on "American Bandstand" without the dancing you get with a live performance. Happy Halloween: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uvLHnrqdUGreat writeup, Pipps. I just heard Monster Mash on our local classic radio station less than 30 minutes ago. They play it every Halloween because it was first 45 single the afternoon DJ ever bought. Happy Halloween everyone! Don't eat too much candy. It won't be long to we'll Darlene Love on radios that play Christmas music nonstop, belting out "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). It was a graveyard smash! And glad you know of Darlene Love Chi. I think Letterman used to have her as a guest periodically just to sing that song. She sang lead on two Crystals hits, "He's A Rebel," which was written by Gene Pitney, and "He's Sure The Boy I Love." |
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Post by chiyankee on Oct 31, 2022 16:00:55 GMT -5
Great writeup, Pipps. I just heard Monster Mash on our local classic radio station less than 30 minutes ago. They play it every Halloween because it was first 45 single the afternoon DJ ever bought. Happy Halloween everyone! Don't eat too much candy. It won't be long to we'll Darlene Love on radios that play Christmas music nonstop, belting out "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). It was a graveyard smash! And glad you know of Darlene Love Chi. I think Letterman used to have her as a guest periodically just to sing that song. She sang lead on two Crystals hits, "He's A Rebel," which was written by Gene Pitney, and "He's Sure The Boy I Love." Oh yeah, lot's of Christmas music gets played at our house over the years. The Phi Spector Christmas Album was one the more played ones because of the Darlene Love and Ronettes tunes. I think Leon Russell was part of the album too. What a piece of crap Phil Spector turned out to be. |
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Post by rizzuto on Nov 4, 2022 17:35:35 GMT -5
Rainy day in Dallas. Ritz Crackers and Pimento Cheese, washing it down with some lemonade. Anyone know this song:
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Post by rizzuto on Nov 4, 2022 17:43:33 GMT -5
My favorite version of this song:
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Post by Renfield on Nov 4, 2022 18:26:17 GMT -5
That was sweet, rizz!
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Post by chiyankee on Nov 4, 2022 18:33:27 GMT -5
My favorite version of this song: Thanks Rizz, for the past hours I have "Call me the breeze, I keep blowing down the road" going through my head.  |
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Post by kaybli on Nov 4, 2022 18:52:28 GMT -5
My favorite version of this song: Cool song! I'm going to add it to my playlist. |
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Post by chiyankee on Nov 4, 2022 18:58:15 GMT -5
You have to check out the Skynyrd cover too. Same song, played two different ways.
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Post by kaybli on Nov 4, 2022 19:04:50 GMT -5
My favorite version of this song: Thanks Rizz, for the past hours I have "Call me the breeze, I keep blowing down the road" going through my head. lol, now I got it stuck in my head.
They call me the breeze....  |
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Post by kaybli on Nov 4, 2022 19:05:41 GMT -5
You have to check out the Skynyrd cover too. Same song, played two different ways. I looked up this version too before you posted it. Good song but I prefer the original. |
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