From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.
See also: the full collection of 33 Obscure Originators features.
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Country and pop singer Maria Dallas was a star in New Zealand. Her first single Tumblin' Down (1966, #11 NZ) won the
prestigious Loxene Golden Disc Award, but her most successful single in NZ was Pinocchio (1970, #1), her fifth to chart Top 30 there.
In Australia, though, Maria's biggest hit was with Ambush (1967,
#16), recorded in Nashville where she went after
working in Australia for a while. The song stood out for its
unforgettable rhythmic line at the end of verse and chorus: Your kissin’ leavin’ good-time
days are dead. It was later recorded by Teresa Brewer (1975) and by Australian country artist Craig
Giles (1993), but Maria's was the original release.
Ambush had been copyrighted a few months
earlier by its composers, two sisters from the small Texas town of
Moody, near Waco. As it happens,
Maria Dallas was also from a small town, Morrinsville in New Zealand.
Bobbie Jo and Elizabeth Ann Brown had been singing from an early age in The Brown Sisters, a solidly booked
country-gospel trio with another sister, Bettie.
Montreal, 1967
By the time of Ambush they were a duo called Bobbie & Dude. The stage name Dude was adopted by
Elizabeth because it seemed to go better with Bobbie. They toured widely, and performed during Expo ’67 in Montreal where their only
single had some radio airplay. As far as I can see they did not record Ambush themselves.
For a long time I knew almost nothing about Bobbie & Dude apart from their writing credits for Ambush and a few other songs. I was puzzled by the addition
of Elizabeth AnnBrown to co-writer Dude Brown's name in Ambush's copyright registration, but I had never thought of searching
for "bobbie and dude" in quotes.
As I have often typed here, Eventually, someone emails. This time it was someone who knew Elizabeth Ann well, and their tantalisingly brief
words gave me the clues I needed.
Hal Saunders (1904-1991) was born James Hallett Saundersin Armidale NSW. He was a prolific songwriter who made a name for himself writing radio serials from the mid-1930s before going into the music business in the 50s and 60s. He was also a visual artist specialising in etching and printmaking.
On his retirement from Festival Records in 1965 (noted in Billboard and Cash Box), Saunders was referred to as a producer, composer, arranger and musical director. That is a good start, but it leaves out lyricist, adapter, jingle-writer, scriptwriter, A&R man, pianist and bandleader.
Michael Looper has trackedSaunders' job titles at Festival from 1954 to 1960: musical director, musical consultant in
charge of local recording activities, recording supervisor and assistant
A&R manager. He was a prominent office-holder and advocate in songwriters' associations including APRA in the late 40s-early 50s.
Anyone who digs into the history of Australian popular music will come across Saunders' name in songwriting credits. In 1949, when hewas President of The Australian Composers and Songwriters' Association, the Sydney Morning Heraldcalled himAustralia's most prolific songwriterwho had copyrighted about 1,000 songs from the previous 15 years.1 He often worked behind the scenes, for example when he produced Lucky Starr's hit I've Been Everywhere (1962) without any credit on the label.
In the first half of the 1960s he wrote and (mainly) co-wrote for the latest crop of young pop stars at Festival. Frequent among his collaborators were influential Festival A&R man Ken Taylor and the multi-talented Franz Conde, at this time time a musical director at Festival.
As an adapter, Saunders also contributed to Jimmy Little's hit version of the old gospel song Royal Telephone (1963), and he wrote the English lyrics for Noeleen Batley'sLittle Treasure From Japan (1964) from the Japanese song Konnichiwa Akachan. April Byron, Judy Stone, Patty Markham, Noeleen Batley, and Lana Cantrell all recorded tracks with credits to Hal Saunders as writer, co-writer or adapter.
It is hard to say where Saunders contributed as composer or lyricist in his collaborations, but he was capable of either.
As a pianist in the 1930s he had led a swing quartet, Hal's Vagabonds, for at least one gig in Northern NSW, and his job descriptions at Festival included arranging and musical direction. Besides, his solo compositions confirm that he could write lyrics and compose music.
As for lyrics, when Peter Scriven produced Tintookies (1956), his well-known marionette musical for children, Saunders wrote the book and the lyrics.
For Nex'Town (1957), a musical devised and produced by Scriven, Saunders co-wrote the music and lyrics. His collaborator on Nex'Town, Iris Mason, later co-wrote the music for Saunders' own work for marionettes, Tales From Noonameena: an Operetta for Children (1973), staged at the opening of the Sydney Opera House.
Saunders' ability as a lyricist is unsurprising. He had started earning a living as a writer for Sydney radio during the 1930s when he wrote advertising copy and lyrics for jingles, but he went on to become one of the top radio playwrights in the country.
He is often identified with his popular serial The Black Spider(1935), a mystery set in Sydney that was first aired on 2KY, later on 3XY and other stations. A novelisation was published by Magpie Books in 1945.
A Sydney newspaper story in November 1935 announces the final episode of The Black Spider, but plugs a forthcoming comedy by Saunders, Gambler's Luck, as well as his Sunday morning adventure serial Jack Strong's Gold Reef. A few weeks later 2KY was airing Saunders' true-crime-based serial Sydney's Crime Sheet(early 1936), apparently commissioned in response to a similar show on another station.
This activity signalled a boom time for Australian radio that would last into the 1950s, an era when Australian variety and drama dominated programming. As Will Newton puts it in an overview of the period, I have always thought that Australian radio drama came into its own thanks, largely, toHal Saunders.
Away from the performing arts, the Australian Prints + Printmaking website has information about Hal Saunders, a print-seller, printer, printmaker, publisher, and writer, noted for his etchings.
A reader might not guess that this is Hal Saunders the A&R man or the writer of The Black Spider, but the connection is made clear in a February 1937Wireless Weekly article. Saunders talks about a medical crisis that forced him to abandon an earlier career in the legal profession. After recovering, he studied Art, and in 1928 he "toured New Zealand on behalf of the Commonwealth Government with paintings and etchings by Australian artists".
At the time of the Wireless Weekly article, Saunders had just written Hotel Revue, a musical comedy for radio with music by pianist Cliff Arnold.
Saunders says he "brought along half a dozen melodies" to the first meeting with Arnold but confessed his "knowledge of music was non est". Perhaps this meant that he lacked knowledge of musical technicalities, or perhaps he was being modest, or just building a narrative. Whatever the explanation, by December of 1937 he knew enough to handle the piano in Hal's Vagabonds, and by 1954 he was a musical director at Festival Records.
_____________________________ 1. It is hard to verify the reporter's figure of about 1,000 songs in 15 years, but a song every 5½ days or so seems doable. Besides, Saunders' voluminous output as a radio playwright shows that he had the drive and ability to work quickly and prolifically.
Sources • Many newspaper and magazine articles at Trove.com.au, Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchives.com, so allow for reporters' errors and recycling of promotional material. See links in the text and email me for more. • Discographic data at 45cat.com, 45worlds.com and Discogs.com. • Nancy Bridges, Wonderful Wireless (1983) pp 48-50 • Will Newton. "Wonderful World of Wireless: Golden Years of Radio", Sutherland Shire Historical Society Inc Quarterly Bulletin, February 1993
From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.
See also: the full collection of 33 Obscure Originators features.
Johnny Farnham'scover version of Friday Kind Of Monday (1968) was a hit in Australia (#6) and New Zealand (#11).
The original version from 1967 was by The Meantime, a group that came out of nowhere, released this one single that failed to chart
Top 100, and that was it.
This looks like a clear case of obscurity until you follow the lead in the writer credits. Friday Kind Of Monday was written by Jeff Barry
and Ellie Greenwich, one of the most successful songwriting teams of the 1960s, and a married couple from 1962 to 1965.
As Billboard announced, the lead singer on the Meantimesingle is
Ellie Greenwich but, more than that, the whole recording
is a studio project by Greenwich and Barry.
They had previously written and recorded as The Raindrops whose seven singles 1963-65 included He's The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget
(1963 #17 Bb, #15 CB) and What A Guy (1963 #34 CB). They charted moderately in most Australian cities, but in Adelaide they
had hits with Kind Of Boy (#4), and That Boy John (1963, #12).
When you listen to a Raindrops record, you are most likely hearing Greenwich's voice double-tracked, with Barry's
bass vocals and prominent drumming. For live appearances and for photos of a trio, other personnel were recruited.
The Meantimewas a similar project, aRaindrops for the late 60s, created in the studio by Barry and
Greenwich. There is a cryptic clue in the group's name: think Greenwich Mean Time.
Only in Melbourne: tracks that didn't chart Top 40 in their countries of origin but did better in the capital of my home state, Victoria. See also: Only in Oz.
(5) Strawberry Children - Love Years Coming (Jimmy Webb) USA 1967 Soul City single (USA) #758 / SCR 758 Liberty single (Australia) #LYK-189955597 Australian charts: #17 Melbourne (#50 Australia) Released in Australia August 1967, charted September 1967. US charts: Did not chart Top 100 Billboard or Cash Box.
Survivor of my teenage record collection pile
When I bought this single as a 17-year-old in 1967, the writer credit (J. Webb) meant nothing to me.
A hit Jimmy Webb composition had already entered the charts here in July, The 5th Dimension'sUp, Up And Away (#1 Australia, #7 USA). It carried the same clipped credit on the Australian label (J. Webb) but I didn't own that single and wouldn't have made the connection.
Songwriters can toil away for years creating famous songs for famous artists without ever becoming famous themselves. My feeling is that in September1967, when Love Years Coming was charting in Melbourne, Jimmy Webb hadn't yet joined the group of exceptions, songwriters who become household names, but the process was well under way.
After several months at Motown Records, he had been signed to the publishing company owned by Johnny Rivers, also owner of the Soul City label. During 1967Jimmy Webb compositions dominated albums by The 5th Dimension (Up-Up And Away and The Magic Garden on Soul City), and by Johnny Rivers (Rewind on Imperial). In late 1966 Rivers' album Changes had included the original version of what would become a much-recorded Jimmy Webb classic, By The Time I Get To Phoenix.
In May 1968 came Richard Harris's MacArthur Park, a startling work that inevitably drew attention to its composer. It was followed byGlen Campbell's Wichita Lineman (#5 USA) in the same year then, early in 1969, Brooklyn Bridge's Worst Thing That Could Happen (#3 USA) and Campbell's Galveston (#4 USA). There are many others, and to browse further I recommend the 4-page Jimmy Webb discography by Hiroto Yanagida.
Love Years Coming, which I loved, carries the era's familiar message of peace (the lion shall lie down beside the manchild) and I tookStrawberry Children to be another one of those fine American bands that were emerging after the initial shock of the British Invasion, bands like The Association, The Box Tops, The Doors ...
Years later I had read with pleasure that Jimmy Webb wasStrawberry Children. More accurately, though, this is Jimmy Webb with a studio band assembled for the session, a practice that was more widespread than we realised at the time, and certainly not confined to the first recordings of The Monkees.
The team at the Jimmy Webb Facebook page confirms that he is on lead vocals, with Hal Blaine on drums and Larry Knechtel on guitar, both from the ubiquitous LA session team now known as The Wrecking Crew.
Don't miss the comments and photos at the Facebook page highlighting other personnel on the record including singers Endore’e Lukem, and "J.W. school friends" Glen De Lange and Mike Reilly.
There were no further Strawberry Children releases, so their only other track was the B-side, One Stands Here(J. Webb), a nicely arranged instrumental that could hold its own on a TV or film soundtrack.
Guest post by Philippe Edouard exploring some back streets of Italian beat music.
Philippe is a longtime friend of PopArchives from France. He has previously contributed accounts of 1960s yé-yé and 40s youth movementthe Zazous.
________________________________
A little bit of organization in my digital disco
wouldn’t be a bad thing. You download too much, and your brain forgets things.
Then suddenly I notice an Italian title that intrigues
me. I click on the song, and there, I’m struck as if by a liver-punch, carried
away by a frantic tornado of rhythm.
La Ragazza Bruttina is a nugget of Italian beat by I Tipi
(=the types i.e. guys, characters ...) from 1967.
Fuzz guitar and distortion, raw
sound, choirs, bursts of machine gun fire from the drummer … This immediately
reminds us of The Who. As for the coda, it is monstrous.
In short, I Tipihave assimilated the essence
of swinging London, giving birth to this freakbeat italiano.
The
lyrics of La Ragazza Bruttina (the ugly girl) are
against judging by appearances and gossiping, topics that ring true today. In
the song the lovers, the young man and his “ugly girl”, are indifferent to
this.
So I set off to investigate the trans-alpine sites and
… surprise! We don't know much about this combo.
Originally from Milan, the band was formed around
1964, and comprised Tino Guasconi (harmonica, guitar and vocals), Tonino
Cantacessa(drums), Mauro Baroni (bass guitar), Rodolfo Pace
(lead guitar and vocals), Franco Mutti (organ and vocals). Another less detailed
source also cites Wolfango (guitar) and Secondo(bass).
They recorded at West-Side,
a small Milanese label. The single was distributed by MPM, also from the
Lombard capital. It is produced by Cesare La Loggia, owner of the label.
The A side, Oggi Sono Tanto Triste is a cover
of a Cliff Richard song, 50 Tears For Every Kiss from Cliff’s LP 21
Today (1961), written by Sammy Bella (Wilbur Meshel). It
was also the B-side of Cliff's Italian single, How Wonderful To Know
(1962), an adaptation of the Tito Schipa standard, Anema E Core.
Oggi Sono Tanto Triste is a typical slow song of the era, adapted by former Samurai guitarist Giuseppe
'Beppe' Cardile and singer-songwriter Dante Pierretti, with an
arrangement by Ugo Marino.
I Tipi'srecord was not a hit, but another cover of Oggi Sono Tanto Triste appeared on the B-side of Giuliano E I Notturni's singleIl Ballo Di Simoneon
Milan label Rifi (April 1968) a #3 hit in Italy). DidGuiliano'ssuccess negatively affect Il Tipi’s sales figures or did it help them? Readers can make up their own minds. We don't know, so we might as well be non-commital. In the following decades other artists recorded this romantic
song.
By turning the record over we discover the gem. It is
a safe bet that few people heard the masterpiece, La Ragazza Bruttina when
it was first released (as La Ragazza), especially since there was an error
on the sleeve of the initial pressing.
The wrongly printed title is Il Ballo Di Simone, a title that we saw above, as the hit A side of Giuliano E I Notturni's version of Oggi
SonoTanto Triste, in April 1968.
Should we conclude that the two records were released
at the same time, and caused confusion at the printer? Il Tipi’s 45 would
then date from 1968 and not 1967. Indeed, on the back of its sheet
music, several hits from 1968 are offered to budding musicians.1
In images
found online, a white sticker has been affixed over the erroneous title on the front
of the sleeve with la ragazza typed in a similar font. On the
back of the sleeve, the title has been hastily struck out with a white marker2.
Nevertheless, this famous first edition, with the red-orange
label, is sought after by collectors today.
Composer credits for La Ragazza Bruttina are to the conductor Ugo Marino
who also arranged the track, and to Tea(Teresa Russo) who had written Lonely Girl(1966), an excellent jerk style record for The Black Stars, aGerman beat band in Italy that had some critical success on the peninsula. She co-wrote
the same group’sCi Fermiamo Due Minuti (1966).
Bad luck or perhaps inexperience affected Tea.3 She is
the co-author of Senza Di Te for the
popular singer Fausto Leali, but her
name disappears from the credits. The same thing happens with Io Potrei / Je Voudrais, a song in
Italian and French by Orietta Berti,
an entry for the Festival de la Canción del Mediterráne in Barcelona
(1967). Fortunately, Tea
has now regained her rights to this title. For La Ragazza Bruttina it's
worse, since on the third pressing her name is replaced by that of the band's
harmonica-guitarist, Tino Guasconi.
Despite everything, I Tipirecorded a new
single. If we follow the logic of record company data, 1968 seems
more likely than the 1967 seen everywhere on specialized sites. Un
Pensiero... Una Lacrima is a baroque and soaring slow song
by the Tea-Marino duo that has aged quite well. This title competes with
Lalla Castellano's version.4
Once again, it's the B-side that is captivating. I
Tuoi Capelli is the cover of Just A Little by The Beau Brummels. The
song, using the characteristics of the A-side, is slowed down and the
arrangement works wonders. The adaptation is uncredited, which is surprising.
With these interesting attempts, we can't wait to
listen to their third opus, knowing that a new title is being recorded. But the
group disappears like a meteor lighting up a summer night. Too bad, we would
have liked to hear the rebellious and unreleased track, I Ragazzi Della
Revolta.
In 1995, the CD Flower
Punk Rock was released, compiling several current
combos including I Fichissimi, creators of the legendary EP Un Mondo Fichissimo the previous year. They wonderfully
covered I Tipi’s La Ragazza Bruttina and then also disappeared, while
complaining that some were speculating on the resale of their vinyl record.
In 2016I Tipi Della Casa Occupatapaid
tribute, as a wink, toI Tipi andI Fichissimi by covering La
Ragazza, released
via YouTube by “cultural association” Killerdogz
Music Factory.
It may be frustrating but ultimately, I TipiandI Fichissimi did not have time to disappoint us. What do you think?
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FOOTNOTES
1. Il Ballo Di Simone
was originally released in December 1967 as Simon Says by 1910
Fruitgum Company but it charted #4 USA in January 1968. Note also that 1910 Fruitgum Company recorded Il Ballo Di Simone for release in Italy, but with the title Semplicissimo (Simon Says), no doubt hoping to benefit from Giuliano E I Notturni's success with the song.
2. The correction may have been made later by the owner of the record. No image of the intact cover has
appeared on the net so far.
3. The name Tea/Teresa
Russo remains truly mysterious. Who is behind it? Is it a generic or
collective name? She can be found in the late 70s and early 80s on series of
library music LPs, such as Ball Bearing Group or Horizons on
the old label of Abramo
Allione (1895-1982). Moreover, at the time of the
Black Stars, she was already rubbing shoulders with Allione who is
credited under the name of Brolma (or was it his son Italo?).
4. Originally from Candela,
in the south of Italy, Lalla
Castellano went to Milan for her studies, took
singing lessons at the conservatory and played the transverse flute. While she
sang as an amateur, she was spotted and signed with Decca. She recorded a
series of yéyé tracks and then moved to Italo Allione's Equipe label
where she rubbed shoulders with The Black Stars (see Tea).
*A note on the title Beauty is the Beast, a twist on Beauty and the Beast, works even better in French where the words est (is) and et (and) are homophones, thus creating a play on words. In speech, La Belle et la Bête and La Belle est la Bête sound the same.
I Tipi - La ragazza bruttina (1967)
I Tipi - I Tuoi Capelli (1967), adaptation of Beau Brummels - Just A Little
I Fichissimi - La ragazza bruttina (1994, 1995)
I Fenomeni - La Ragazza Bruttina (2010, 2023)
I Tipi della casa occupata - La ragazza bruttina (2016)
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BONUS TRACK1910 Fruitgum Company, Simon Says, Italian version
1910 Fruitgum Company - Semplicissimo (Simon Says), (1968), also released byGiuliano E I Notturnias Il Ballo Di Simone (1968)
From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.
See also: the full collection of 33 Obscure Originators features.
The Grooviest Girl In The World was a #3 New Zealand hit in 1969 for Hutt Valley band The Simple Image.
The original version was released in the US in 1968 by The Fun And Games, a six-piece band from Texas with four members who had been band-mates since their high school years in Houston. They included the Romano brothers,Joeand Rock, who both went on to successful careers in various
branches of the arts (there is a Wikipedia
page about Rock).
The Fun And Games version of The Grooviest Girl In The World was produced by one of its writers, Gary Zekley. He is partly
known for singing, co-writing and producing on the single Yellow Balloon (1967 #25 USA) and the subsequent album by The Yellow
Balloon. These later became artifacts of the retrospectively named
genre of Sunshine Pop.
The Simple Imagewere one of those fine New
Zealand bands of the 60s-70s that topped the charts in New Zealand with
records that were unfamiliar to most Australians. NZ artists such as The Simple Image, The Dedikation, The Avengers, and The Fourmyula had #1 or #2 NZ hits that never surfaced in Australia.
There's a twist to the story of The Grooviest Girl In The World that I discovered later. Although most Australians would not be able to hum the tune
for you, a Boomer from South Australia might know it. The original version by The Fun And Games charted in Adelaide March-May
1969, peaking at #3 (in the US it reached only #78Billboard). This is a surprising outlier which I suspect is down to
radio airplay on Adelaide's 5AD.
From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.
See also: the full collection of 33 Obscure Originators features.
In 1960Bob Wilson released the original version of (And Her Name Is) Scarlet. A later version by
TheDe Kroo Brothers was a #9 Australian hit in 1963
Bob Wilson's recording came out on LA label Era. It was written by Steven Howard, a pseudonym of Era's co-founder and owner
Herb Newman (1925-1976). He had co-written The Wayward Wind, a hit for Gogi Granton an Era single
(1956, #1 USA).
Before The De Kroo Brothers got to it, Keith Colley had recorded Scarlet, again on Era (1962), and there had been a
German version in 1961.
This was interesting, and not hard to find out, but who was Bob Wilson? The trouble is that the world is full of Bob Wilsons,
so his
identity was infuriatingly difficult to search for. I
discovered that even BMI, the US copyrighting outfit, had registered
compositions by at least three different
Bob Wilsons together under one name.
Eventually, someone emails. This time, it was a longstanding friend of Wilson who had much information about his life and career. Thanks to
him and some further digging, I was even able create a passable Bob Wilson articleat Wikipedia.
This Bob Wilson was a guitar virtuoso and
singer-songwriter from Pleasant Hill, California. As a teenager just out
of high school he recorded some
singles on Era, then had a long career as a schoolteacher
with occasional reappearances on record.
For example, he featured on an album by folk artistJanet Smithin 1968, and he released albums with Rick Shubb (the
Shubb Capo inventor) in 1976 and
1999. In the mid-2010s his Bob Wilson Ensembleappeared at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
From my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records.
See also: the full collection of 33 Obscure Originators features.
In 1960s Germany, singer-songwriter Drafi Deutscher was a chart-topping pop star, but to most Australian pop fans at the time his name would have been, well, obscure.
Johnny Chester'smoderate hit Teeny (1963 #28 Australia), with English lyrics by Johnny himself, is a cover version of Teeny by Drafi Deutscher And His Magics.
More
than that,Johnny is singing over the backing track recorded for
Drafi’s single, and he repeats the procedure on the B-side with Do The
Stomp, a cover ofDrafi’s B-side Shu-bi-du-bi-do The Slop, again with
Drafi'srecycled backing track.
The following year, W&G did this again when Merv Bentonsang new lyrics by Noel Watson over the backing tracks from both sides ofDrafi'ssingle Shake Hands / Come On, Let’s Go.
English translations or rewrites of songs are not unusual. The lady in Mark Holden'sI Wanna Make You My Lady (1976) was an angel in the original Swedish hit Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel. You're My World came fromIl Mio Mondo, and My Way came from Comme d'habitude.
The
idea of recording vocals over the backing track of an original version
is not unheard of either. Six months before Johnny Chester's Teeny, Ben
E. King's 1963 hit I (Who Have Nothing) had used the backing track from Uno Dei Tanti (1961), the original version by Joe Sentieri.
Other double-sided covers exist, too. In 1957The Diamondscovered both sides of The Rays’ single Silhouettes/ Daddy Cool, and in 1964 Australian band The
Cicadascovered both sides of The Marauders'British singleThat’s What I Want / Hey Wha’ D’Ya Say with some regional chart success.
But
W&G's twofold use of the manoeuvre I like to call the double-sided
cover version with English adaptation and recycled backing trackmust be
unique. ___________________
Earlier, I wrote about radio station charts in the 50s-60s-70s when sales figures were randomly or casually collected, and stations were free to favour songs from their own playlists or, well, whatever they reckoned. (See my Toppermost of the poppermost: the charts.)
The chart from Melbourne's 3AWfor 28 June 1959 gives us a neat insight into the workings of both radio station charts and the retrospectively compiled charts we use for big cities or the whole country.
Denis Gibbons, a highly regarded folk singer-guitarist-composer, recorded several albums, mainly of Australian folk songs, some of them intended for use in schools, and he also released some singles.
Here is Denis with two recordson 3AW's Top 30. Not bad for someone who was never a big star, certainly not a teen idol, and probably more at the square end of the music market, as we might have said back then.
But as well as being a folk-singer, Denis Gibbons was an announcer at 3AW, where he'd landed a big city job after starting out on 3SR in Shepparton.
I think it's fair to say that Denis did well on the charts at 3AW, but not so well at the stations where he didn't work.
One of his 3AW hits, at #5, isa cover of the Everly Brothers'Take A Message to Mary which was still on the charts at other stations and doing well. Gavin Ryan's Melbourne chart book has the Everlys peaking at #1, with no mention of Denis's3AW hit.
When we say #1 in Melbourne in 1959, we are referring to a retrospective chart, in this case compiled by Gavin using radio charts available to him at some later time. In his Melbourne chart book for this period Gavin used charts from 3UZ and 3DB. Although I don't have those charts we can infer that the Everlys reached #1 or nearby at both stations, and it seems unlikely that Denis's recordwas even played on 3UZ and 3DB.
I'm no statistician but I believe that if Gavin had included 3AW's chart, Denis's #5 single would've earned a placing in his retrospective chart, maybe even in the Top 20.
Because the 3AW chart so obviously boosts Denis's records, it might be a good thing that it was omitted from Gavin's calculations, whether through editorial judgment or unavailability.
As I typed earlier, though, radio station surveys reflected station playlists. It's not surprising that Denis's records might be played on his employer's station, and the 3AW chart reflects that.
A few weeks earlier, Denis's colleague at 3AWRalphe Rickman made a prediction: Take A Message To Mary - Denis Gibbons.
So far I have found only Diana Trask's version, and I am confident it is the only release of the song. In the discography at Bacharach site A House Is Not A Homepage, for example, Diana Trask's is the only version listed.
Australian singer Diana Trask (b. 1940) moved to the US from Melbourne in 1959. She soon became known as a regular on Mitch Miller's TV show Sing Along with Mitch and in 1961 she releasedtwo albums, Diana Trask (later known as Vocal Jazz Classics) and Diana Trask On TV.
Her singles made the US Country chart eighteen times 1968-1981, peaking with Say When (1973, #15), It's A Man's World (If You Had A Man Like Mine) (1973, #20), When I Get My Hands On You (1973, #16) and Lean On Me (1974, #13).
On the pop charts, Trask's appearances were limited to two singles that under-bubbled just outsideBillboard's Hot 100, but back home Long Ago Last Summer was one of six singles that charted Top 40 for her in Melbourne 1959-1975.
The orchestra on Long Ago Last Summer is conducted by classically trained Glenn Osser(1914-2014) who would produce Trask's self-titled album (1961). Osser's experience went back to the Swing era when he arranged for many big names in music and played in Les Brown's Band of Renown. After the War he worked with Paul Whiteman's orchestra and as music director for the ABC network, and later became a house arranger for Mercury then Columbia Records. His array of credits is impressive.
Long Ago Last Summer (1960) came after Bacharachand David's earliest successes with Marty Robbins'sThe Story of My Life (1957 #15 USA) and Perry Como'sMagic Moments (1958, #4), but a couple of years before their hits for Gene Pitney,The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, #4) and Only Love Can Break a Heart (1962, #2), as well as the hugely successful collaboration with Dionne Warwick, beginning with her first Top 40 chart entry, Don't Make Me Over (1962, #21).
Along the way, Bacharach often wrote with others, notably Bob Hilliard, his co-writer on The Drifters' Please Stay (1961, #14) and Gene McDaniels' Tower Of Strength (1961, #5). On The Shirelles'Baby It's You (1962, #8) his co-writers were Hal's brother Mack David and Barney Williams, an alias of Luther Dixon.
Similarly, lyricist Hal David had other collaborators, includingSherman EdwardsonSarah Vaughan's Broken Hearted Melody (1959, #7 USA) and Paul HamptononDon Gibson's Sea Of Heartbreak (1961, #21). (Hamptonalso wrote with Bacharach.)
Of 33 tracks from 1959-61 compiled on the Él label's Bacharach CD, 14 are by Bacharach with a writing partner other than Hal David.
US charts: #83 [Billboard] Australian charts: #4 [#6 Sydney, #2 Melbourne, #10 Brisbane, #10 Adelaide, #6 Perth] New Zealand charts: #9 [Freeman]
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Doctor Casey was the fictional neurosurgeon in Ben Casey, a popular TV seriesthat debuted in the US in October 1961 and ran until 1966. Callin' Doctor Casey was released in June 1962 during Ben Casey'speak ratings of 1961-1963.
This is not any kind of official tie-in with the series. The lovesick singer is calling on Dr Casey to mend his broken heart. The deep voice that answers, "Ye-e-es?" is a comical Ben Casey that sounds nothing like the character played by Vince Edwards. (Is it a parody of some old horror movie star? Boris Karloff maybe? Bela Lugosi?)
At least three Loudermilk compositions recorded by others also did better in Australia than in the US:
Mark Dinning - Top Forty, News, Weather And Sports1 (1961, #81 USA, #17 Australia)
Sue Thompson – James (Hold The Ladder Steady) (1962, #17 USA, #6 Australia, #15 NZ)
Sue Thompson- Paper Tiger (1964[USA]-1965, #23 USA, #3 Australia)2
Loudermilk's Midnight Bus was first recorded in the US by Billy Graves then by Loudermilkhimself,but the song became better known in Australia, thanks to a classic local version:
Betty McQuade- Midnight Bus (1961, #6 Melbourne, #29 Australia; 1963 reissue, #17 Brisbane, #1 Perth, #69 Australia). See my history of Midnight Bus.
As well as Callin' Doctor Casey, another of Loudermilk's own records was popular down under (especially in New Zealand):
John D. Loudermilk – The Language Of Love (1961, #32 USA, #21 Australia, #8 NZ).
In fact, in a world where most songwriting credits went unnoticed, Loudermilk would have been known down here mainly as a singer. For connoisseurs of the fine print, he was an extraordinarily prolific and diversifying songwriter.
When he died in 2016, obituarists tried to summarise Loudermilk's huge songwriting repertoire in a few lines. Many started by mentioning two or three well-known and contrasting compositions, typicallyTobacco Road, Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye or Indian Reservation.
When I attempted a list of "better known recordings" of Loudermilk's songs I tried to keep it short but I ended up with 27. I wanted to convey the volume of familiar songs he had written, but I was also struck by the wide range of styles and ideas they took in.
An economical way of dramatising Loudermilk's versatility is to pair one of his songs with another that is markedly different from it. Like this:
• Top Forty, News, Weather And Sport (Mark Dinning) • Abilene(George Hamilton IV)
• Talk Back Tremblin’ Lips (Johnny Tillotson) • Tobacco Road (The Nashville Teens)
• Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye (The Casinos) • Norman (Sue Thompson)
• The Language Of Love (John D. Loudermilk) • Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian) (Raiders, Don Fardon, Marvin Rainwater: title varies)
• Thou Shalt Not Steal (Dick & DeeDee) • This Little Bird (Marianne Faithful)
• Midnight Bus (Betty McQuade) • Callin' Doctor Casey (John D. Loudermilk)
Listen to the list on this playlist:
Footnotes 1. Top Forty, News, Weather And Sports was on Volume 3 of Glenn A. Bakers Hard To Get Hits, aseries that includes the same premise as Only in Oz. 2. Two other Sue Thompsonrecords written by Loudermilk were hits both in the US and in Australasia: Sad Movies (Make Me Cry) (1961, #5 USA, #6 Australia, #2 NZ) and Norman (1961, #3 USA, #4 Australia, #1 NZ), later adapted in Australia as Norman-“Normie" (1966), a tribute to local pop idol Normie Rowe
Essential reading: Kees van der Hoeven's John D. Loudermilk site is the definitive, indispensable source where the ultimate aim is to document every Loudermilk song and recording. He must be getting close.
