DESDINOVA'S TWENTY FAVORITE LEIBER & STOLLER SONGS

When songwriter Jerry Leiber passed away last month, I mentioned I would have "more to come" on the subject. I wanted to give some sort of tribute other than the link to an article on his death. There are many great sites and biographies on Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, which give plenty of information on their career and work.

I decided instead to give you a list of twenty of my favorite recordings of Leiber & Stoller songs. A few of these are not the original versions, but cover versions that I prefer.

1. "Love Potion #9" - The Clovers.
2. "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots" - The Cheers.
3. "Jailhouse Rock" - Elvis Presley.
4. "Poison Ivy" - The Rolling Stones.
5. "Alligator Wine" - Screaming Jay Hawkins.
6. "Little Egypt" - The Coasters.
7. "Hound Dog" - Elvis Presely.
8. "I (Who Have Nothing) - Terry Knight & The Pack.
9. "Is That All There Is" - P. J. Harvey.
10. "Kansas City" - The Beatles.
11. "Charlie Brown" - The Coasters.
12. "Dance With Me" - The Drifters.
13. "Down In Mexico" - The Coasters.
14. "D. W. Washburn" - The Monkees.
15. "Riot in Cell Block #9" - The Robins (Later became the Coasters).
16. "There Goes My Baby" - The Drifters.
17. "I'm a Hog For You Baby" - Screaming Lord Sutch.
18. "Is That All There Is" - Cristina Monet (A punk-new wave version with outrageous, new lyrics by Monet. Leiber and Stoller sued to prevent its release for several years).
19. "Ruby Baby" - Dion
20. "I'm a Woman" - Peggy Lee (Most people of my generation remember this song from the commercials for Enjoli perfume).

I'M OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR A ONE HIT WONDER Part 1

As I mentioned in my last post, it is not easy to determine which songs are one hit wonders. You are either surprised that an act had another hit or that the other song wasn't a Top 40 hit. Many musical acts are called one hit wonders, even though they had another hit or two in the Top 40 or Hot 100.

Why? Part of this is memory lapse on the part of people discussing music. This in turn effects polls being conducted by magazines, radio stations or online sights. Another cause of this can be laid at the feet of the radio industry, which frequently limits the number of songs by an artist on their playlist. Many oldies and classic rock stations only play one song by an act. The worst offender is reference books and articles (print and online) written on the subject which are either poorly researched or purposely ignore the facts. Some CD and LP compilations have done this also.

I looked over several listings of one hit wonders and decided to list the ones that were glaring mistakes. This one contains the acts that had other Top 40 hits. I plan to follow this up with groups that had hits that "bubbled under" the Top 40. Also, if the song charted on or was higher on another chart, I designated that chart. Some I listed because they received radio and MTV airplay.

Johnny Preston - "Cradle of Love" #7 and "Feel So Fine" #14 in 1960 after "Running Bear."

Big Bopper - "Big Bopper's Wedding" #38.

C. W. McCall - "Wolf Creek Pass" #40 and "The Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Trucking Cafe" #54. Both had a connecting story line featuring the waitress named Mavis, sidekick Earl and Sloan, the dog of the truck driving narrator, Rubber Duck.

A-Ha - "The Sun Always Shines On TV" #20, "Cry Wolf" #50 and "The Living Daylights" #113.

Great White - "The Angel Song" #30 and "Rock Me" #60.

Tommy Tutone - "Angel Say No" #38.

Strawberry Alarm Clock - "Tomorrow" #23.

Question Mark & the Mysterians - "I Need Somebody" #22 and "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" #56.

Falco - "Der Kommisar" #72, "Vienna Calling" #18 and "Sound of Musik" #13.

The Rembrants - "Just The Way It Is, Baby" #14.

The Foundations - "Baby, Now That I've Found You" #11.

Keith - "Ain't Gonna Lie" #37 and "Tell It To My Face" #37.

The Left Banke - "Pretty Ballerina" #15 and "Desiree" #98.

Maxine Nightingale - "Lead Me On" #5.

Taste of Honey - "Sukyaki" #3.

The Fat Boys - "The Twist (Hey Twister!)" #16.

Looking Glass - "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" #33.

Steel Breeze - "Dreaming Is Easy" #30.

Maury Head - "Superstar" #14 in 1971. This song is best known as "Jesus Christ Superstar." Head played Judas in the original version in London.

The Romantics - "One In a Million" #37 and "What I Like About You" #47.

Blue Swede -"Never My Love" #7 and "Hush/I'm Alive" #61.

The Soul Survivors - "Explosion (In Your Heart)" #33 and "Impossible Mission" #68.

The Electric Prunes - "Get Me To The World On Time" #27.

Vanilla Fudge - "Take Me For A Little While" #38, "Seasons of the Witch" #65, "Shotgun" #68 and "Where Is My Mind" #73.

Brownsville Station - "Kings of the Party" #31, "Lady (Put the Light On Me)" #46, "I'm the Leader of the Gang" #48, "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" #57 and "Martian Boogie" #59.

Spandau Ballet - "Gold" #29 and "Only When You Leave" #34.

Swing Out Sister - "Twilight World" #31 and "Am I The Same Girl" #45/#1-AC.

The Cardigans - "My Favorite Game" #16-Alternative.

Madness - "Must Be Love" #33.

Semisonic - "Singing In My Sleep" #33-#11 Modern, "Secret Smile" #21 Modern and "Chemistry" #39 Modern.

Lighthouse - "Sunny Days" #34 and "Pretty Lady" #53.

American Breed - "Step Out of Your Mind" #24 and "Green Light" #39.

Alias - "Waiting for Love" #13.     

UPDATE ON THE "CUTTING LOOSE" LP - I'M NOT ALL WET (BUT SHE IS)

One of the early post on this new blog was about a 70's hits compilation I bought at the Heartland Antique Mall in Lebanon, MO. It was called Cutting Loose and featured a photo of a sexy girl in denim cutoffs painting a rainbow down the center of a highway. I also noticed that she had a "stain" on the seat of her shorts. I thought it was possible water damage to my cover, until I saw photos of it on other websites. It was on that photo too.
I made jokes to the effect that the girl had an "accident."
Last week, I began receiving several hits on this post from a progressive rock forum called Progressive Ears. There was a post from a forum member saying their brother had the LP when he was a kid. Another forum member posted a link to the post on my blog. Some commented on my evaluation of the cover and my questions about the model being incontinent. One person said the post was "tasteless" and one said I needed to get a life (How many times have I heard that?).
They also posted a link to another website with a photo of the LP with a credit to a website called Bizarre Records. I looked at this website until I found a post about it. The post on that website is entitled "Technicolor Pee."
Glad to know I'm not crazy.

CUTTING LOOSE (AN ODD 70's COMPILATION LP)

I collect various artist compilation of the 70s and 80s. These were the forerunner of today's Now That's What I Call Music and Totally Hits CDs. Most of them were put out by K-Tel, others by Ronco and a few were by Tee Vee Records.
I purchased one at Heartland Antique Mall in Lebanon over the weekend. This one is odd. It is a 1978 Tee Vee compilation called Cutting Loose.

The track listing is:

Samantha Sang – Emotion
Atlanta Rhythm Section–So Into You
Tina Charles–I Love To Love
Three Degrees-When Will I See You Again
Bachman-Turner Overdrive-You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Gloria Gaynor–Never Can Say Goodbye
Jim Stafford–Wildwood Weed
Lou Rawls–Natural Man
KC & The Sunshine Band-Keep It Coming Love
The Emotions–Best Of My Love
David Soul-Don't Give Up On Us Baby
Lighthouse–Pretty Lady
Righteous Brothers-You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
Joe Simon–Get Down, Get Down
Lou Christie-Lightnin' Strikes
Eric Burdon & The Animals–San Franciscan Nights
Rod Stewart–Maggie May
Atlanta Rhythm Section-Imaginary Lover

Granted most of these compilation, as with their current counterparts, have a wide variety of current hits on them. Most of the songs on this LP are within four years of 1978. Two, "Maggie May" and "Natural Man" are from 1970/71, but both Rod Stewart and Lou Rawls were having hits in 1978, so we can overlook their inclusion. Now what is odd is the inclusion of "Lightning Strikes" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin" (both from 1966)  and "San Franciscan Nights" (from 1967).

Now for the other odd thing about this: the pretty girl on the cover. On the back, she is smiling at us while she paints a rainbow down the center of the road. On the front, is a view of her cute derriere in denim cutoffs. On closer examination we find that our sexy cover model is apparently incontinent. I thought that was the roughed up copy I got maybe had something spilled on it, but them I saw the photo of the cover on Disc Dogs and it too looks like she had some sort of "embarrassing little accident" in her tight cutoff shorts. So why did they release the cover that way? Would it have cost that much to either airbrush that out or re-shoot the photo after she changed her pants? Did she sue them after the record was released or die from embarrassment? Did wet or mess her pants, because an 18 wheeler nearly run over her while she was painting the rainbow down the center of the high way? Too many unanswered questions.