Articles by John Twang

Jerry Masters, who was a recording engineer at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, told the story: "We cut a demo of "Old Time Rock and Roll" on the writer of the song, George Jackson (Jackson-Jones), there at the studio when we didn't have anything else to do. It was a great demo, along with some others we cut that day. Bob Seger liked the song so much he tried to cut it himself, but after numerous tries, with the Swampers and with his band, he finally gave up. He and Punch Andrews decided to buy th…

In 1958 Little Kid Lex recorded "New Year Rock". It's probably the first and only time Bert Kaempfert recorded anything that originally used the word "rock". In 1962 Bert Kaempfert recorded "Afrikaan Beat" as a follow up to "A Swingin' Safari"

Composer Jenny Carson was a fan of Hank Williams and wrote "Let Me Go Devil" after Hank died and his fight with alcoholism. Country fiddler and vocalist Wade Ray recorded the song in 1953. The lyrics were rewritten the following year when "Let Me Go Lover" was featured on the television show Studio One. In this case it was sung by a pregnant Joan Weber. Charted covers were issued by Teresa Brewer and Patti Page. Hank Snow hit the top of the country charts with his version: "Let Me Go Wom…

Tony Renis co-composed "Quando, Quando, Quando" (When, When, When) in1962. The Italian composer, singer, actor and producer received a Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination for "The Prayer", by Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli, from the Quest for Camelot movie soundtrack in 1999. Pat Boone recorded a version in 1962 along with his name as one of the writers. Engelbert Humperdick (George Dorsey) had the worldwide hit in 1976.

Rumour has it that this is John Lennon struggling to demo "Nobody I Know" apparently written principally by Paul. It's the second of three Lennon-McCartney compositions given to Peter and Gordon who hit with the song in 1964. Peter's sister Jane dated Paul McCartney during this time.

Marvin Percy Rainwater had been a classically trained pianist, but after an accident had removed part of a thumb, he learned to strum a guitar enough to accompany his singing and compose songs on it. His career was established by "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird". In 1959 he recorded "The Pale Faced Indian". Egland's Don Farnon (Maughn) had a top twenty hit with it as "Indian Reservation Lament Of the Cherokee Indian)" in 1968. This is a track on the album "Lament Of the Cherokee). The composer J…

Bob and Joe Shelton (Bob Attlesey and Joe Attlesey) originally recorded "Just Because" later recorded by Elvis Presley whose name is listed as one of the composers on "Love Me Tender" and with Ken Darby. The Shelton Brothers recorded "Aura Lee" (writers: George Poulton, W.W. Fosdick) in 1938. In 1956 it was the title tune in the first Elvis movie and performed on the Ed Sullivan Show making it a million seller even before it was released.

Although it wasn't released until 1970 Eddie North recorded "Rainy Night in Georgia" at roughly the same time as composer swamp rocker Tony Joe White (Polk Salad Annie) in 1969, Tony wrote it in 1962. The incomparable Brook Benton had the hit in the next year.

Ruthann Friedman was born in 1944 and gradually headed to the west coast where Van Dyke Parks (exec producer on her lp Constant Companion) introduced her to The Association in 1964. The group recorded "Windy" three years later. Listen carefully and you'll hear the original lyric concerns a man while The Association version is about a woman.

In 1928 Bruno Rudzinsky recorded this European melody as Pawel Waltz. The title was changed by Tex Owens (Doye Hensley Owens) to "Cattle Call' in 1934. The Tennessee Plowboy, Eddy Arnold took it to the top of the charts in 1944 and again in 1955 with full orchestration by Hugo Winterhalter. The version featured here is a newer release.

The song was first recorded in early 1965 by Limmie Snell (who started recording for Columbia at the age of 11) under the name "Lemme B. Good". About a month later the song was redone -- with considerably rewritten lyrics -- by R&B/novelty artists The Olympics, but this version was only moderately successful at best, reaching number 81 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The tale is told that Rascal Felix Cavaliere heard it on a New York City radio station and the group added it to their con…

In the early '60s James Hendricks was part of the Big Three with Tim Rose and a pre-Mamas and the Papas Cass Elliot. Later James and Cass teamed up with Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty to form the short-lived Mugwumps. His first solo effort featured James Burton, Jerry Reed and Pete Drake. The above was produced by a truly great entertainer, Johnny Rivers (John Henry Ramistella) who hit with "Summer Rain" in 1967.

Mel Tillis has composed and recorded tons of hits including Detroit City, I Ain't Never and Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town. He was the spokesman and honorary chairman for the Stuttering Foundation of America and he leads of this "medley". Next is Johnny Darrell, the first to actually release "Ruby" shortly after being the first to release "The Green Green Grass of Home" then he was the first to release "The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp". On tap is Pavel Bobek is one of the greats of C…

Shirley Owens, Doris Coley, Addie Harris and Beverly Lee were the Shirelles. "Sha La La" composers were producer Luther Dixon along with Robert Mosely, Curtis Ousley and Robert Taylor.This hit the Top 100 for them in April of 1964. Manfred Mann (named after the keyboardist for the group) hit the Top 20 with the tune in December that same year.

Composers Carl Montgomery (Melba's brother) and Earl Green wrote "Six Days on the Road" and it was recorded by Paul Davis in 1961.Not the Paul Davis of "I Go Crazy" fame. Dave Dudley first released it in 1963, since then it's been referred to as the definitive truck driver song and maybe it is.

Rod McKuen gave us novelties like "The Mummy" and "Oliver Twist", but he also composed some of the most introspective songs of a generation. One of those is "Love's Been Good to Me" which he recorded in 1964. Later that year the Kingston Trio released their version. When Frank Sinatra released the album "A Man Alone" in 1969 the interpretation was arranged by Don Costa.

Pianist/composer/singer Gerard Kenny had a number of bands, including one with Billy Joel. He is the composer and the first to record "Made it Through the Rain" (Gerard W. Kenny - Drey Shepperd) in 1978. The album of the same name made the top twenty in the U.K. and the title track was surprisingly not released as a single. In his album "Barry", Barry Manilow (Pincus) changed the lyric a bit and "I Made it Through the Rain" (Jack Feldman - Gerard Kenny - Barry Manilow - Drey Shepperd - Bruc…

The El Capris from Pittsburgh formed in 1954. They thought Spanish for "bluebird" was"capri" and settled on the "El Capris". "el" means "the", so "the El Capris" would have translated to "the the bluebirds". "El" is the singular, so it should have been "Los" and "Capris" isn't even a Spanish word. Good times! Group members Leon Gray, James Scott, and James Ward wrote "(Shimmy Shimmy) Ko Ko Wop". It was recorded and released in 1956 with little attention. Bob Smith is credited with composing…