Articles by John Twang

On his 1972 self-titled album "Willis Alan Ramsey" you'll find the song "Muskrat Candlelight". Shelter label owner Leon Russell plays keyboard on the album. His songs have been covered by the likes of Waylon Jennings, The Bellamy Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, Shawn Colvin and Jerry Jeff Walker. Husband and wife team The Captain (Daryl Dragon) and (Toni) Tennille's 1976 cover, "Muskrat Love" reached the number four position on Billboard's top one hundred. The tune is on their second album "Song of…

Written by Barry and Robin Gibb in 1975. The Bee Gees (Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb) "Come On Over" was on the trio's 1975 album "Main Course". "Come On Over" is the Olivia Newton-John album title issued in 1976. The album hit number two on the country charts and the top fifteen on pop. The single for this four-time Grammy winner peaked near the top twenty, in the top five on the Country chart and spent one week on the top of the adult contemporary chart!

Recorded by gifted composer Mark James (Francis Zambon) in 1968 "Suspicious Minds" was released and went nowhere. After several takes on the tune early on a January morning, Elvis Presley topped the charts in 1969 with his cover. This would be his final number one song in his lifetime.

Even though they recorded their tracks separately, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell released the duet "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" (Ashford - Simpson) in 1967 and hit the top twenty. This is from their album "United" featuring the Funk Brothers. In 1968 The Supremes and The Temptations teamed for an album called ""Diana Ross & The Supremes Join The Temptations". Diana Ross shows her vocal capabilities in 1970 with the album "Diana Ross" and reaches the top of the charts for the first time wi…

Although it wasn't a national hit Bobby Mitchell and the Toppers were first to record "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday" (Hayes - Domino - Bartholomew) in 1957 and it sold well in many regions culminating with a spot on American Bandstand. Two years later the Antoine "Fats" Domino cover hit the Billboard top twenty.

As the Jay Hawks they hit the top twenty with "Stranded in the Jungle" in 1956. As the Marathons they got into the top twenty again with "Peanut Butter" in 1961. The Vibrations' (Dave Govan - Don Bradley - Carl Fisher, Ricky Owens and James Johnson) "Hang On Sloopy" (Farrell - Russell) was originally titled "My Girl Sloopy" when released in 1964 and hit the top thirty. The rights to the song were apparently sold to Bert Russell and Wes Farrell by an anonymous young composer. The McCoys (Rick…

In 1957 Buddy Holly named the original tune "Cindy Lou" for his niece. The title was changed to "Peggy Sue" for drummer Jerry Allison who co-wrote the tune and was trying to impress majorette Peggy Sue Gerron, his future wife, at the time. In 1958 Buddy Holly released his self-titled album containing "Peggy Sue" (Allison - Petty) and watched it get into the top five on Billboard. After his death Buddy was credited as co-composer.

Elvis Presley recorded "Danny" (Wise - Weisman) in 1958 for the movie King Creole in which he played the character Danny Fisher. It was not used on the original soundtrack but is found on the 1997 release as a bonus track. Conway Twitty (Harold Jenkins) gave us some great early rock tunes along with a legendary career in country. Conway hit the top ten in 1959 with "Lonely Blue Boy" (Weisman - Wise). It's on the album of the same name.

"The Little Sparrow" Edith Piaf (Gassion) and Les Compagnons de les Chanson hit with "Les Trois Cloches" (Gilles - Herrand) in 1952. It was inspired by a real person, Jean Francois Nicot. Bert Reisfeld added the English lyric in 1948. The Browns (Jim Edward, Maxine and Bonnie) reached the top of both the Country and Pop charts with "The Three Bells" (the Jimmy Brown Song) in 1959. It even hit the top ten on the R&B listing. Like so many other RCA Victor hits it was recorded at Studio B in Nas…

Fred Neil was at one time a demo singer and appeared playing guitar on the demo version of Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover". The same Fred Neil composed the hit "Everybody's Talkin'" for Nilsson. Fred's first solo album in 1965 was sans drums, "Bleecker & MacDougal", contained "Candy Man" (Ross - Neil). It's said the song was written in the Brill Building specifically for Roy Orbison. "Crying" was the A side for Roy Orbison and the B side was "Candy Man" in 1961. "Crying" hit the number two slot w…

Grammy and Emmy winner Tony Bennett (Benedetto) hit the top twenty of the Billboard chart with "Blue Velvet" (Wayne - Morris) in 1951. The Polish Prince, Bobby Vinton's cover hit number one in 1963. This is from his album "Blue On Blue"

Dianne (Hall) and Annita (Ray) issued "A Groovy Kind Of Love" (Wine - Sager) on Scepter Records in 1965. It was never officially released in North America. After backing Wayne Fontana (Game of Love) for many moons The Mindbenders (Bob Lang, Ric Rothwell, Eric Stewart and Grahame Foote) went on their own after Wayne left them in 1965 and this top ten cover comes from their 1966 debut album "The Mindbenders". Former Genesis drummer Phil Collins topped the charts in 1988 with his slower cover…

The personable singer/actor Steve Lawrence (Sidney Liebowitz) was first to record "I've Got To Be Me" (Walter Marks) when he sang it during the Broadway show "Golden Rainbow" in which he starred with his wife Eydie Gorme (Garmezano). The song was released as a single in 1967 and hit the top ten on the adult contemporary chart. Produced by Jimmy Bowen "I've Gotta Be Me" by consummate entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. reached Billboard's number twelve slot in 1969. This was one of Sammy's biggest hit…

Alabama's Ernest Ashworth's recording of "Talk Back Trembling Lips (Loudermilk) hit the top spot on the Country chart in 1963. It's from his album "Hits of Today and Tomorrow" and earned him the "most promising male artist of the year" award.. The Johnny Tillotson pop cover reached the top ten on Billboard and is from his album "Talk Back Trembling Lips". It was Johnny's last visit to the top ten. Should you get a chance to see his positive performance in person, please do so! As a fan of th…

Ray Peterson gave us his four-octave voice and a number of memorable tunes including "Give Us Your Blessing" (Barry - Greenwich) which got to number seventy on Billboard in 1963. Featuring the production talents of George "Shadow" Morton, The Shangri-Las (although the members came and went for the majority of the time as a trio they consisted of: twins Mary Ann Ganser, Marge Ganser, sisters Betty Weiss and Mary Weiss) hit the top thirty in 1965 with their cover.

Webb Pierce released "I Ain't Never" (Tillis - Pierce) in 1959 and it got to the number two position on the Country chart, top thirty on the Billboard Pop chart. Pam's daddy, Mel Tillis gave us his version in 1972 and it topped the country chart. The Four Preps (Bruce Belland, Ed Cobb, Glen Larson and Marv Ingram) sang back up for fellow Hollywood High School student Ricky Nelson on the Ozzie and Harriett Show. This cover from 1959 is on their album "Down By the Station", got charted for t…

The incredible Gene Pitney composed "He's A Rebel" and in his words he wrote it specifically for the Crystals as a follow-up to "Uptown" even though other sources say he was writing it for the Shirelles. Three time Grammy winner Vikki Carr's (Florencia Cardona) debut single for Liberty Records was the first recording of "He's A Rebel". It's on her album "Color Her Great!". The Crystals scored a number one hit with this Phil Spector production in 1962 with Steve Douglas on sax and the rest…

Supposedly Jimmy Webb and Linda's cousin Susan Ronstadt broke up and that inspired Jimmy to compose "By the Time I Get To Phoenix". According to Wikipedia the first record he purchased was a Glen Campbell release. Jimmy wrote more hits than anyone to further Glen's career. "By the Time I Get To Phoenix" was first recorded in 1965 by Johnny Rivers (Ramistella) and is on the album "Changes" that was released the next year. The Glen Campbell cover from the 1967 album of the same name won Grammy…