John Twang's most read articles

Musicologist Alan Lomax found the 1939 record with Zulu musician Solomon Linda's (Ntsele) Original Evening Birds (Gilbert Madondo, Boy Sibiya, Gideon Mkhize, Owen Sikhakhane and Samuel Mlangeni) "M'Bube". Mr. Lomax gave the vinyl to Pete Seeger of the Weavers (Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman) who heard the title as "Wimoweh". In 1952 the group and the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra hit the top twenty. Hugo and Luigi produced the multi-talented Tokens (Jay Siegal, Hank Me…

“In the Mood” seems to have evolved just like so many other melodies. We start with "Clarinet Get Away” (Jimmie O'Bryant) by O’Bryant's Washboard Wonders in 1925 for Paramount records, the first minute of this post. Next is the 1930 recording by BBQ Joe and the Hot Dogs “Tar Paper Stomp” (Wingy Malone). In 1938 Edgar Hayes recorded what we now know as "In The Mood". This is perhaps the greatest Big Band tune ever! Glenn Miller's version of "In The Mood" (Joe Garland) rode atop the cha…

Pianist Otis Blackwell either composed or co-authored: "Fever" his pen name was John Davenport), "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", Handy Man", "Just Keep It Up", "Return to Sender", "All Shook Up", "One Broken Heart for Sale", "Don't be Cruel" but he did not write "Teddy Bear". Kal Mann (wrote "Butterfly", "Remember You're Mine", "Let's Twist Again" and "Wild One") and Bernie Lowe (founder of Cameo Records) wrote "Teddy Bear" and requested that Otis sing the demo for Elvis Presley's num…

Carnaby Street is part of the Soho fashion district in London. Germany's Kaiser Bill (Wilhelm) was Queen Victoria's grandson and "a batman" is a servant. The Carnaby Street Set released "I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman" (Cook - Greenaway) in 1967. The original title was "Too Much Birdseed". A few weeks later the fictional Whistling Jack Smith cover hit the Billboard top twenty. The name "Whistling Jack Smith" is no more than a "tribute" to "Whispering" Jack Smith. The song performance may have com…

Bernie Knee recorded the demo but the first professional recording came in 1960 when The Four Voices (Frank Posta, Allan Chase, Bill McBride and Sal Mayo) were the first to record "Sealed With a Kiss" (Peter Udell - Gary Geld). The group were winners on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Brian Hyland covered the song in 1962 and reached the top five. It may be interesting to note that Brian's cousin was Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. Despite his start with the novelty song of the decade his c…

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…

John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" was released in 1948 and is rightly considered to be one the most influential sounds R&B to rock and roll recorded. Just listen to Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top's "La Grange" and of course Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" which sold two million singles in 1970. Norman is Jewish. Doctor (Clive Jackson) and the Medics (Steve McGuire, Steve Ritchie, Richard Searle, Weny West and Colette Appleby) covered "Spirit In the Sky" on their 1986 album "Laughing At the P…

Former member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, soul artist P.P. Arnold (Patricia Cole) released "The First Cut Is the Deepest" (Stevens) in the spring of 1967. She reached the U.K. top twenty. The composer, Cat Stevens (Steven Georgiou and now Yusuf Islam) version came out late that year on his vinyl album "New Masters" side two, track one. Once a member of the Jeff Beck Group and the Faces, Rod Stewart had a monster top twenty hit with the song from the 1976 album "A Night On the Town".…

Motown's Marvelettes (Gladys Horton, Wanda Young, Katherine Anderson and Georgeanna Tillman) had the label's first number one hot with "Please Mr. Postman" featuring Marvin Gaye on drums in 1961. The tune has been credited to a bevy of various composers: Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland, Robert Bateman, Holland-Dozier-Holland. The Beatles featuring John Lennon's take on the song shows up on "With the Beatles" (UK) or "Beatlemania/With the Beatles" (Canada)…

The "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" medley (Rado-Ragni-MacDermott) comes from the 1967 "tribal rock" musical and movie "Hair". Other hits from the production include: "Hair" by the Cowsills, Three Dog Night's "Easy to be Hard" and Oliver's "Good Morning Starshine". We start with the original Broadway cast recording followed by the hit. Check the internet for truly fascinating facts about this enduring show. The Fifth Dimension (Billy Davis Jr, Marilyn McCoo, Florence LaRue, LaMonte McLemore…

Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich composed "Be My Baby" in 1963. The first version here is by composer Ellie Greenwich. Next is the Ronettes as produced by Phil Spector. That was the big hit! While Canadian Andy Kim charted the song in 1970 with the Jeff Barry production. The Beach Boy's Brian Wilson has declared 'Be My Baby' the greatest pop record ever made!

"Those Were the Days" (Gene Raskin), is a Russian song called "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" (Boris Fomin, Konstantin Podrevskii). One of the first recordings from the twenties featured Alexander Vertinsky. Gene Raskin played the folk circuit in 1960s New York and there the Limeliters heard the tune. Raskin and his wife played London's "Blue Angel" every year, always closing their show with the song. Paul McCartney frequented the club and, after the formation of The Beatles' Apple Records label, rec…

We had the chance to watch Tim Hardin on stage with Kris Kristofferson at the National Art Centre in Ottawa. Kris enjoyed the booze, Tim was addicted to heroin. Tim composed "If I Were a Carpenter" which hit large for Bobby Darin in 1966 then, in 1969, Tim recorded Bobby's "Simple Song of Freedom" which was Tim's lone effort to chart in the top fifty. Tim Hardin's most enduring song has to be "Reason to Believe" which he recorded in 1965. Rod Stewart's version hit number one in 1971. The liv…

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…

Hoyt's mother, Mae co-wrote "Heartbreak Hotel". Hoyt Axton's first album "The Balladeer" in 1962 was performed live at the Troubadour in Hollywood and featured "Greenback Dollar" (Kingston Trio). In 1971 he issued "Joy to the World" with hits like the title tune, "Never Been to Spain" (Three Dog Night) and "The Pusher" (Steppenwolf). While opening for Three Dog Night and Hoyt promoting "My Griffin is Gone" the group had their exposure to "Joy to the World" and took the song to the top of t…

P. F. Sloan (Philip Gary Schlein) co-wrote Round Robin’s "Kick That Little Foot, Sally Ann", “A Must to Avoid” for Herman’s Hermits, Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" the Turtles' "You Baby” and in 1965 Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction”. Barry McGuire was a member of The New Christy Minstrels. Barry’s first song written for the group also became their biggest hit. “Green, Green”. Although he didn’t get credit for it, he and Hoyt Axton along with Ken Ramsey composed the Kingston Trio hit “…

Britain's David Whitfield hit with "Cara Mia" (Lee Lange - Tulio Trapani) backed by the (Annunzio) Mantovani Orchestra in 1954 and reached the top ten on Billboard. Composer Lee Lange was in reality David Whitfield's producer Bunny Lewis and Tulio Trapani was really Mantovani. From the album "Blockbusters" the Jay & the Americans cover peaked at number four in 1965. The "Jay" this time was David Blatt aka Jay Black. In "Songfacts" original group member Kenny Vance explains: "When Jay Traynor…

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was a John Ford western from 1962 starring John Wayne and James Stewart. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote a song based upon the movie and called "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance', a Top 10 Gene Pitney hit that was not used in the film. Apparently, Mr. Pitney didn't record it until April 1962, after the film came out. He had been requested to record it for the movie following the success of his "A Town Without Pity". Obviously it was not produced on tim…

Gordon Jenkins' 1953 Seven Dreams concept album and the song "Crescent City Blues" with vocalist Beverly Maher provided more than the basis for this hit. After "Folsom Prison Blues" became popular Johnny Cash reached a settlement with Gordon. The man in black performed the song at Folsom Prison itself in 1968, and this version was eventually released on the At Folsom Prison album . According to Wikipedia the cheering from the audience following the line "I shot a man in Reno / just to watch…