Articles by John Twang

I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor (Fowles) topped the Billboard and U.K. pop charts with "I Will Survive" (Freddie Perren - Dino Frekaris) in 1979. The gay anthem single is from her top ten platinum album "Love Tracks" and was issued as a B side to a cover of The Righteous Brothers tune "Substitute". Session singer, songwriter and dancer Chantay (Chante) Savage covered "I Will Survive" uniquely in 1996 and reached number twenty-four pop, number five R&B. This gold track is from her LP "I Will Sur…

The Academy Award winning song "Long Ago (And Far Away)" (Jerome Kern - Ira Gershwin) debuted in the 1944 Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly and Phil Silvers movie musical "Cover Girl". This was Columbia's first Technicolor musical. Martha Mears dubbed Rita Hayworth's singing voice. Martha also dubbed the singing voices of Loretta Young, Veronica Lake, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Eva Gabor and Lucille Ball. Helen Forrest (Fogel) and Dick Haymes teamed for the hit version and reached the number tw…

Legendary producer, songwriter, pianist and arranger Allen Toussaint wrote "Mother-in-Law". This is his version recorded at New York City's Bottom Line on February 6, 1987. Allen produced the 1957 Lee Allen hit "Walking With Mr. Lee" and Chris Kenner's "I Like It Like That" in 1961. His successful compositions include "Java", "Southern Nights" and "Working In A Coal Mine". Ernie K. Doe (Kador) had a flamboyant on stage persona and a monster hit with "Mother-in-Law" in 1961 with Benny Spellma…

Allen Toussaint plays "Brickyard Blues (Play Something Sweet)" (Toussaint) at the 1976 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Allen often used his mother's maiden name Naomi Neville for some of his compositions. Sylvester (James) and The Hot Band (Bobby Blood, Travis Fullerton, Kelly Hatch, Chris Mostert and James Smith) first recorded "Play Something Sweet" on the 1973 LP "Bazaar". Three Dog Night (Corey Well lead vocalist, Mike Allsup, Jimmy Greenspoon, Danny Hutton, Skip Konte, Chuck…

George Goehring, together with Rod MacDonald, Ellen Bukstel and Nicole Yarling perform "Lipstick On Your Collar" (George Goehring - Edna Lewis). George pitched the song personally to Connie Francis during a surprise visit to her New Jersey home where he played the song on her piano. George also co-authored the Gene Pitney hit "Half Heaven, Half Heartache" while Edna Lewis co-wrote Leslie Gore's "Judy's Turn To Cry". Connie Francis (Franconero) recorded "Lipstick On Your Collar" in 1959 and p…

The first musical production from Paramount Pictures was "Innocents Of Paris", a 1929 motion picture that introduced the film's star Maurice Chevalier singing "Louise" (Leo Robin - Richard A. Whiting) with Leonard Joy's orchestra. Maurice topped the American charts of the day. Quebecer Pierre Lalonde covered "Louise" in 1964 and reached number one in that province. I understand that it's unusual for me to post a recording that wasn't a hit on Billboard but not many know the incredible and di…

Jules Bihari owned Kent Records and had Lowell Fulson on the roster in 1967. Lowell recorded "Tramp" (Lowell Fulson - Jimmy McCracklin) that year and Jules took an initial dislike to the recording. Despite that, the song hit number five on Billboard's R&B chart and number fifty-two on the Top One Hundred. Authorship has been disputed and the name "Fulsom" was on the original single label. Otis Redding teamed with Rufus' daughter Carla Thomas for their album of duets titled "King & Queen" whi…

Jan (Berry) And Dean (Torrence) first recorded "Dead Man's Curve" (Jan Berry - Roger Christian - Brian Wilson - Artie Cornfeld) for the 1963 LP "Drag City". The actual Dead Man's Curve is real. The hit version of "Dead Man's Curve" was issued as a Jan And Dean single in 1964. This time there are extra horns, vocals, strings and sound effects. The track is on the album "Dead Man's Curve/The New Girl In School". Artie Cornfeld was co-producer of the original Woodstock in 1969. Roger Christian…

The 1998 animated film "The Prince Of Egypt" had Sally Dworsky and Michelle Pfeiffer singing the original "When You Believe" (Stephen Schwartz). This is from the soundtrack. Singer, songwriter Sally Dworsky acted and/or sang in The Wizard, The Lion King, The Cutting Edge, Mulan and Shrek. Sally's brother Richard was a regular band member on Garrison Keillor's live radio show "A Prairie Home Companion". Additional music and lyrics were added for the soundtrack by Whitney Houston and Mariah Ca…

"Amoureuse" was initially written and recorded by French singer, producer and songwriter Veronique Sanson for her 1972 LP of the same name. Veronique married Stephen Stills in 1973. Veronique Sanson teamed with lyricist Gary Osbourne to write and record the English version of "Amoureuse" in 1972. Gary wrote "Little Jeannie", "Part Time Love" and "Blue Eyes" with Elton John. Kiki Dee (Pauline Matthews) released the Elton John produced "Amoureuse" (Veronique Sanson - Gary Osbourne) with th…

Merle Travis wrote the bulk of "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" (Merle Travis - Tex Williams). Merle wrote the classic "Sixteen Tons" and "Dark As A Dungeon". Merle was also noted for his finger picking style of playing the guitar. Merle was a feature artist on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band respected LP "Will The Circle Be Unbroken". Tex (Sollie Paul) Williams and his Western Caravan (Milton Berry, Rex Call, Larry DePaul, Paul Featherstone, Ossie Godson, Manny Klein, Earl Murphey, Eugene…

Ernesto De Curtis and his brother Giambattista De Curtis were supposedly requested to write "Torna a Surriento" by the mayor of Sorrento to celebrate Prime Minister Giuseppe Zanasdelli's 1902 vacation in the area. Mario Massa was first to record the song in 1905. A new set of lyrics were added by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman for Elvis Presley in 1961. "Surrender" (Doc Pomus - Mort Schuman - Ernesto De Curtis) topped the charts. Nashville's A Team were represented here by Floyd Cramer, Boots Ran…

Chet Atkins produced Don Robertson singing "I'm Yours" (Don Robertson - Hal Blair) in 1968. The song was written for the wedding scene in the movie "Blue Hawaii" but it wasn't used. Elvis Presley recorded "I'm Yours" in 1961 and it appeared on his LP "Pot Luck" although it was not released as a single until 1965 when it was heard in the movie "Tickle Me". The single reached number eleven on the Top One Hundred and topped the Easy Listening chart.

This is Jimmy Breedlove and the demo for "Hard Headed Woman" (Claude Demetrius). Jimmy was a member of The Cues (Eddie Barnes, Abel DeCosta, Ollie Jones and Robbie Kirk), a group formed to back up various singers on Atlantic Records in the fifties. Elvis Presley issued "Hard Headed Woman" and seemed to have fun with the song in the movie "King Creole" topping the Billboard charts and peaking at number two on both the Country and R&B listing in 1958. The soundtrack LP reached number two on Bi…

Tunesmiths Arthur Kent and Ed Warren wrote "Take Good Care Of Her" in 1961, the year it became number seven on Billboard's Top One Hundred, number twenty R&B for Adam (Patrick Henry) Wade. During the mid-seventies Adam was the host of the CBS television game show "Musical Chairs". The Southern Gentleman, Sonny James (James Loden) topped the Country chart in 1966 with "Take Good Care Of Her" from his LP "True Love's A Blessing". During a solid Country career Sonny had twenty-six number one re…

"I've Lost You" (Steve Barlby) was written for Iain Matthews (Ian Matthews MacDonald) by Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard using a pseudonym. Recorded in 1969 it was a track on Iain's first solo LP "Matthews' Southern Comfort". Covered in 1970 by Elvis Presley "I've Lost You" became a gold record and peaked at number thirty-two on Billboard, higher on other national charts reaching the top twenty on Cash Box and number five on Billboard's Adult Contemporary listing while a top ten Canadian succes…

Smiley Lewis (Overton Lemons) hit the R&B charts at number eleven with "One Night" (Dave Bartholomew - Pearl King) in 1956. This included the lyric "one night of sin is what I'm now paying for". Smiley grew up in the same area as songwriter, producer and bandleader Dave Bartholomew. The original lyric for "One Night" was recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957. The suggestive words halted the cut from being released. This version was not released until 1983. Elvis Presley himself changed the l…

In the early fifties James (Hans) Last was crowned the best bassist in Germany. Later James and his orchestra sold hundreds of millions of albums through out the world. Mr. Last composed "No Words" in 1969 and it appears on his 1971 release "Starportrait". Wayne Newton was the first artist to recorded "Fool" in 1972 on his album "Can't You Hear The Song". The first track on the 1973 LP "Elvis" was "Fool" (Carl Sigman - James Last). When released as a single and the B side "Steamroller Bl…