Articles by John Twang

The City (Carole King, Charles Larkey and Danny Kortchmar) recorded one album "Now That Everything's Been Said" in 1969. It's there you'll find the original recording of Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll) (Goffin - King) Blood, Sweat and Tears featuring David Clayton-Thomas gave us the cover as the opening track on "Blood, Sweat and Tears 3". Hi-De-Ho (That Old Sweet Roll) made it well into the top twenty.

Johnny Darrell was first to record lots of tunes that became hits for others; "The Son Of Hickory Holler's Tramp", "With Pen In Hand", "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town", not the least of which was his first single in 1965, "The Green, Green Grass Of Home" (Putnam). It's on the album "As Long As the Wind Blows". One year earlier he has been managing a Nashville area Holiday Inn. Cash Box magazine named him "Most Promising Country Music Artist of the Year" in 1966. The Sir Tom Jones (Woodwar…

Bill Nash of "The Nash Family Trio" was described by the composer of "For The Good Times" as a young Roy Orbison. The single was released in 1968. The multi-talented Kris Kristofferson recorded his own composition after Bill's version. You'll find it on his debut album, "Kristofferson". In 1970 Ray Price took "For The Good Times" to the top of the country charts and it crossed over into the top twenty on Billboard.

Roy Orbison recorded "Blue Bayou" (Orbison - Melson) in 1961 for the 1963 "In Dreams" album and as the flip of "Mean Woman Blues". Roy's original peaked in the top thirty. Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon fame produced Linda Ronstadt's cover that easily made the top five in 1977. The cover is on Linda's album "Simple Dreams".

Although they never met "The King", the Pomus (Jerome Felder) -Shuman team wrote 25 songs for Elvis Presley including "Viva Las Vegas". We feature Mort's version here. One of his best pictures, "Viva Las Vegas" was a 1964 Elvis movie with co-star Ann-Margret. The song was released as the B side to "What'd I Say" and hit the top thirty. The actual soundtrack recording wasn't issued until years after the movie.

Sonny Dae (Pascal Salvatore Vennitti) and His Knights were first to record "Rock Around the Clock" (DeKnight - Freedman) in 1953 and issue the tune in 1954. Sonny was once a drummer for the Tommy Dorsey band. "Rock Around the Clock" is one of the most played songs in the universe. Bill Haley and the Comets (Marshall Lytle, Dick Richards, Joey Ambrose and over 100 members through the years) who were once called the Saddlemen released the song as the B side of "Thirteen Women" later in 1954. T…

The Reverend Ford Washington McGee was the first to record "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" as a sermon in 1929. A month later, Bessie Johnson's Sanctified Singers (Betty with Sally Sumier, Melinda Taylor and others) aka The Memphis Sanctified Singers gave us their version of what is now the traditional gospel song. Thirteen year old Laurie London's 1957 cover with the Geoff Love Orchestra went to the top of the charts.

Jamaica's Bob Marley and The Wailers issued their first album "The Wailing Wailers" in 1964. "Stir It Up" is on the 1973 album "Catch a Fire". It's said that he wrote the tune for his wife Rita. Discovered by Arthur Godfrey in the fifties, Johnny Nash enjoyed success in that decade when he teamed with Paul Anka and George Hamilton IV for "The Teen Commandments". Johnny started his label JAD and using members of The Wailers covered "Stir It Up" in 1972 and this was when many outside Jamaica d…

An earlier version of "Till There Was You" titled "Till I Met You" was recorded in 1950 by an original star of Your Hit Parade, Eileen Wilson. Sue Raney and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra recorded the original "Till There Was You" in 1957 before the Broadway show opened. Broadway's favourite ingenue, Barbara Cook appeared in and won a Tony Award for her portrayal of Marianne the Librarian in the 1957 introduction of "The Music Man". Barbara recorded "Till There Was You" (Meredith Wilson) for…

Former marathon dance contestant, scat singer and "The Jezebel of Jazz" Anita O'Day (Colton) appeared with the Gene Krupa band, Count Basie, Woody Herman and Stan Kenton. She recorded "Vaya Con Dios" (Russell - Pepper - James) in 1942. In 1953 the innovative husband and wife team of Les Paul & Mary Ford topped the charts with their cover, one of their 16 top ten hits! Interesting fact: they were introduced by Gene Autry.

Bobby Gosh conducted Paul Anka's orchestra for two years. Bobby once opened for a Barbra Streisand Concert in Central Park. He composed "A Little Bit More" which is now available on the compact disc "A Little Bit More .... The Early Years'. Dr. Hook (and the Medicine Show) consisted of Ray Sawyer with the eye patch, Dennis Locorriere with the vocal similarities of Shel Silverstein, George Cummings, Bill Francis and sometimes drummer John David. Group changes followed a normal pattern for the…

Sonny (Joe) West cut "Rave On" (West - Tilghman) with The Big Beats, a group formed by the then unknown Trini Lopez, at the Norman Petty Studios in 1957, after "Oh Boy!" was a hit for Buddy Holly. The song was released on Atlantic Records. Fellow Lubbock, Texas native Buddy Holly covered "Rave On" at Bell Sound in NYC and it got into the American top forty and the top five in England.

Scott (Sheldon) English gave us the original "Brandy" (English - Kerr) which hit the 1971 top twenty in the U.K. and also charted in the States in 1972. He and Larry Weiss composed "Bend Me, Shape Me" (see other post on this blog) which became a top ten hit for the American Breed. They also wrote "Help Me, Girl" for Eric Burdon and the Animals. To avoid confusion with the Looking Glass hit "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" Barry Manilow (Pincus) changed the title to "Mandy" and in 1974 reached nu…

Lupita Palomera was the first to record "Perfidia" (Dominguez) in 1938. In the early forties Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Dorsey, Gene Krupa and even Glenn Miller and the Modernaires hit with the tune. Jerry Murad's Harmonicats (Jerry, Al Fiore and Don Les) recording can be found on their 1961 album "Peg O'My Heart. It may not have charted by the author of this blog likes it. In 1960 The Ventures' (Nokie Edwards, Don Wilson, Bob Bogle and Howie Johnson) cover reached the top twenty. It was on th…

Bill Giant (Zimmerman) who worked on close to forty tunes with Elvis Presley was part of the composing team of Baum - Giant -Kaye whose work also included "Devil In Disguise". Using the pseudonym Ethel Lee (his wife's maiden name) Bill wrote "Speedy Gonzales". The GBK trio wrote "That's Old Fashioned" a top ten hit for the Everly Brothers. Elvis took "Devil In Disguise" to the top three in 1963.

Composer/piano and guitar teacher Steve Gibb wrote "She Believes In Me" in 1978. Kenny Rogers hit the top of the country charts and the top five of the pop chart with his cover in 1979 from the album "The Gambler".

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. once with the Fifth Dimension. In 1978 they were the first to record "Saving All My Love For You" (Masser - Goffin) on the album "Marilyn and Billy". The pair are favourites of President and Mrs. George Bush Sr. They have been married in excess of forty years. Featuring Tom Scott on sax, "Saving All My Love For You" was the second release from Whitney Houston's self-titled debut album and topped at number one in 1985. Whitney was Cissy's daughter and Dionne…

In 1962 Burl Ives became the first to record "Busted" (Howard) for the Nashville album "Burl" produced by Owen Bradley and featuring the Anita Kerr Singers. Legendary Harlan Howard was from Kentucky and meant it to be a coal mining song. Ray Charles got to the top five of the R&B chart with his cover one year later.