Articles by John Twang

First a successful radio show and then a television hit, Jack Webb created and starred in Dragnet. The original theme was titled "Dragnet Ahead" when it hit television in 1951. The series continued until 1958. Later the show was syndicated as "Badge 714". Ray Anthony (Antonini) and His Orchestra recorded the "Dragnet" (Walter Schumann) theme and reached number three on Billboard in 1953.

South Philly crooner and singer for The Woody Herman Band, Joe Valino (Paolino) recorded "Learnin' The Blues" (Dolores Silvers) in 1954. The composer was really Vicki Hollander who was named Miss Press Photographer of 1948. According to a Philadelphia Daily News article "The moment the word got out that Sinatra would record it, offers from music publishers poured in to Vicki. She turned down half a dozen before she agreed to place her song with Barton Music, owned by Sinatra, and managed by Ben…

Leon Russell (Claude Bridges) recorded "A Song For You" with his Steinway in 1970 for the opening track of his self-titled debut solo album. Just a few of the artists involved: Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and Steve Winwood. Elton John recorded the 2010 LP "The Union" with him and referred to Leon as a "mentor and inspiration". Christina Aguilera and Herbie Hancock issued "A Song For You" which peaked at numbe…

Sam Cooke's nephew, R. B. (Ronald Bertram) Greaves was first to release "Fire And Rain" (James Taylor) in 1970 as a single and watched as it dented the Top One Hundred at number eighty-two. Also in 1970 James Taylor took his own "Fire And Rain" as produced by Peter Asher from the album "Sweet Baby James" to number three on Billboard . Carole King was on piano and vocals. The "Flying Machine" mentioned in the song, not to be confused with the British band, was a sixties group consisting of Ja…

The story behind "Baby, It's Cold Outside" from Wikipedia: "Loesser wrote the duet in 1944 and premiered the song with his wife, Lynn Garland, at their Navarro Hotel in New York housewarming party, and performed it toward the end of the evening, signifying to guests that it was nearly time to end the party. Loesser would introduce himself as the "Evil of Two Loessers", a play on the theme of the song, trying to keep the girl from leaving, and on the phrase "lesser of two evils". This was a perio…

D. L. Byron composed "Shadows Of The Night" for the 1980 film "Times Square" starring Tim Curry but it wasn't used because it wasn't considered commercial enough. David Byron was an opening act for both Bob Seger and The Boomtown Rats. Like so many other acts you must ask why he wasn't more accepted. "Shadows In The Night" (Byron) was first released in 1981 by the award winning American singer and actress Helen Schneider on the album "Schneider with the Kick". The single was most successful…

"All Fired Up" (Kerryn Tolhurst) was issued by short lived Australian group the Rattling Sabres (Robert Price, Kerryn Tolhurst, Chong Lim, John Lee and Leyton Greening) in 1987. The single did not chart outside their native country. Grammy winner Pat Benatar (Andrzejewski) recorded the hit cover for her album "Wide Awake In Dreamland". The lead single with lead guitarist and husband Neil Giraldo from the 1988 LP reached number nineteen on Billboard.

"Samba de Verao" (Valle - Valle) was first recorded by the composer, singer and producer Marcos Valle in 1965. The next year he and his wife were members of the group Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66. Brazil's Walter Wanderley (Mendonca) issued "Summer Samba (So Nice)" (Valle - Gimbel) in 1966 on the LP "Rain Forest". The single reached number twenty-six on Billboard's pop and number three on the Easy Listening charts.

The 1986 soundtrack to "Top Gun" contained lots of hits and one was "Danger Zone". Former lead vocalist with Sergio Mendes and once a backup singer for Laura Branigan, Alice Cooper, Janet Jackson, Barry Manilow, Eddy Money, Anne Murray, David Lee Roth and Barbra Streisand, Joe Pizzulo was asked to record the demo of "Danger Zone" (Giorgio Moroder - Tom Whitlock) but Columbia Records wanted the music to be recorded by an artist already on that label. For various reasons Toto, Bryan Adams, Corey H…

Leona Williams and her Dixie Band aka The Original Memphis Five recorded "Sugar Blues" (Williams) in 1922. Clyde McCoy's instrumental version of "Sugar Blues" hit for the first time in 1931. It reached number two on Billboard and became his theme song. Clyde was the co-founder of Down Beat magazine and a family member in the celebrated Hatfield-McCoy feud. Composer Clarence Williams and his orchestra does his take on "Sugar Blues" from 1934. Louis Jordan is on alto sax and Chick Bullock…

The Guess Who's (Bachman - Cummings, Jim Kale and Garry Peterson) "These Eyes" (Randy Bachman - Burton Cummings) is on the 1969 album "Wheatfield Soul". The single originally titled "These Arms" peaked at number six on Billboard and became the group's first million seller. Sax-man and vocalist Junior Walker (Autry Mixon Jr.) and the All-Stars (James Graves, Willie Woods and Vic Thomas) cover of "These Eyes" issued later that same year reached number sixteen on the pop and number three on the…

Mitchell Torok wrote "Mexican Joe" in a half-hour, before political correctness was a issue. It was 1953 and Mitchell hit with his own release of "Caribbean". Abbott Records was Mitchell Torok's label and that record company issued the original Jim Reeves version of "Mexican Joe" with Floyd Cramer on piano in 1953. It was later released by RCA and was Jim's first single on the country chart. This topped that chart, hit number twenty-three on the pop chart and the song became part of the albu…

Pioneering director, producer, writer, singer and actress Ida Lupino sang "Again" (Cochran - Newman) in the 1948 motion picture "Road House". The star-studded cast included Cornel Wilde, Richard Widmark and Celeste Holm. Ida was the only woman to direct episodes of the original Twilight Zone television series. Actress, singer and animal activist Doris Day (Kappelhoff) and The Mellomen reached number two on Billboard with this version of "Again" in 1949. As a singer Doris received the Grammy…

The Great Society (Grace Slick, husband Jerry Slick, brother-in-law Darby Slick, Peter Vandergelder, Bard Dupont and Dave Miner) released "Somebody To Love" (Darby Slick) in 1966 to little fanfare. The track is on their 1968 live concert album "Conspicuous Only In Its Absence". Later that year Grace left The Great Society to join The Jefferson Airplane (Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jack Casady, Jorma Kaukonen and Spencer Dryden). Their album "Surrealistic Pillow" contains the hit…

Lord Invader (Rupert Grant)'s original "Rum And Coca-Cola" (Lord Invader - Lionel Belasco) is a calypso protest song. Lionel Belasco wrote the music based on a Martinique folk song. The Yankees referred to the American soldiers stationed in Trinidad. The Andrews Sisters (Patty, Maxine and LaVerne Andrews) 1945 single "Rum And Coca-Cola" topped the Billboard chart. Some Decca labels list composers as Amsterdam-Sullavan-Baron and others lists comedian Morey Amsterdam as the lone writer. Wikipe…

The original titled "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn" ("To Me You‘re Beautiful") was written in Yiddish by Sholom Secunda and Jacob Jacobs for the 1932 musical "I Would If I Could". The play was presented for one season at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn, where it was performed by Aaron Lebedoff using the title "Bei Mir Bistu Shein". This track is from the Budapest Klezmer Band and performed in the original Yiddish. In 1937, the Andrews Sisters manager, Lou Levy, it's rumoured, heard a shoe-shine boy si…

The Grammy winning Isley Brothers (Rudolph, Ronald and O'Kelly Isley) wrote and recorded the single "Who's That Lady" for the first time in 1964. Some of the lyrics were changed, the song re-written by the six members and the song was re-introduced as "That Lady (Parts 1 and 2)" (lead vocalist Ronald, O'Kelly, Rudolph, Ernie, and Marvin Isley with brother-in-law Chris Jasper) by The Isley Brothers in 1973 for the platinum album "3 + 3". This is Part 1 that peaked at number two R&B and number…

The Kinks (Ray and Dave Davies, Peter Quaife and Mick Avory) peaked at number seven on Billboard and topped the U.K. charts with "You Really Got Me" (Ray Davies) in 1964. The single showed up on their debut self-titled album. Van Halen's (David Lee Roth, Eddie and Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony) cover of "You Really Got Me" was released in 1978 and inched into the top forty while the album hit the top twenty. Like the Kinks, the track is from their self-titled debut album and this was Va…