Obscure Originators (29): Drafi Deutscher And His Magics

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 29 Obscure Originators features.

Singer-songwriter Drafi Deutscher was a chart-topping pop star in mid-1960s Germany, but to most  Australian pop fans at the time his name would have been, well, obscure.

Johnny Chester's moderate 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 of Drafi’s B-side Shu-bi-du-bi-do The Slop, again with Drafi's recycled backing track.

The following year, W&G did this again when Merv Benton sang new lyrics by Noel Watson over the backing tracks from both sides of Drafi's single Shake Hands / Come On, Let’s Go.

English translations or rewrites of songs are not unusual. The lady in Mark Holden's I Wanna Make You My Lady (1976) was an angel in the original Swedish hit Jag Ska Fånga En Ängel. You're My World came from Il 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 1957 The Diamonds covered both sides of The Rays’ single Silhouettes / Daddy Cool, and in 1964 Australian band The Cicadas covered both sides of The Marauders' British single That’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 track must be unique.

 

3AW creates a chart (1959)

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 3AW for 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 records on 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, is a 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's 3AW 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 record was 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 3AW Ralphe Rickman made a prediction: Take A Message To Mary - Denis Gibbons. 

Ralphe sure could pick those hits!

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Further reading:
1. 3AW charts at ARSA.
2. Gavin Ryan's chart books are out of print and hard to find. The State Library of Victoria has a copy of his Melbourne Chart Book 1956-2002 on site and members can order a digital copy.
3. Denis Gibbons: Kimbo's Australian Music History,  Discogs.com and Wikipedia.

Thanks to Terry Stacey for spotting the chart and Denis Gibbons.

Only in Oz (20): Diana Trask - Long Ago Last Summer (1960)

Another in my series of posts about tracks that were more popular in Australia than in their countries of origin. See also: Only in Melbourne.

20. Diana Trask - Long Ago Last Summer
(Hal David - Burt Bacharach)
USA 1960
Columbia B-side (USA) # 4-41711
CBS Coronet B-side (Australia) #KS-400

Australian charts: #10 Melbourne, #39 Sydney | #26 Australia

See also Only in Oz (14): Diana Trask - Oh Boy (1974)
I have also written more about her career at my website under Diana Trask - Going Steady (1958)

Long Ago Last Summer is an overlooked rarity amongst early Burt Bacharach and Hal David compositions. 

It is not easy to find on Bacharach collections, but not impossible. A 2013 CD from Cherry Red subsidiary Él even gives it top billing: Burt Bacharach - Long Ago Last Summer 1959-61. (Raven's 52-track The Rare Bacharach omits it.)

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 released two 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 outside Billboard'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 Bacharach and David's earliest successes with Marty Robbins's The Story of My Life (1957 #15 USA) and Perry Como's Magic 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, including Sherman Edwards on Sarah Vaughan's Broken Hearted Melody (1959, #7 USA) and Paul Hampton on Don Gibson's Sea Of Heartbreak (1961, #21). (Hampton also 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.

See also Only in Oz (14): Diana Trask - Oh Boy (1974)
I have also written more about her career at my website under Diana Trask - Going Steady (1958)

 

Diana Trask - Long Ago Last Summer (1960)

Bonus track: Glenn Osser And His Orchestra - When You Used To Dance With Me (1958)

Playlist: 33 tracks on Burt Bacharach - Long Ago Last Summer 1959-61. 

Only in Oz* (19): John D. Loudermilk - Callin' Doctor Casey (1962)

 Another in my series of posts about tracks that were more popular in Australia than in their countries of origin. See also: Only in Melbourne. 

*Again, a case of Only in Oz and NZ.

19. John D. Loudermilk - Callin' Doctor Casey
(John D. Loudermilk)
USA 1961
RCA Victor single (USA) #47-8054
RCA single (Australia) #101322, New Zealand #4/60304

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 series that debuted in the US in October 1961 and ran until 1966. Callin' Doctor Casey was released in June 1962 during Ben Casey's peak 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?)

There was clearly something about the songwriting of John D. Loudermilk that appealed to Australians.

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 Loudermilk himself, but the song became better known in Australia, thanks to a classic local version:

 

Betty McQuade - Midnight Bus (1961, #29 Australia [#6 Melbourne]; 1963 reissue, #69 Australia [#17 Brisbane, #1 Perth)  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, typically Tobacco 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, a series that includes the same premise as Only in Oz. 
2. Two other Sue Thompson records 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.

Further reading:
John D. Loudermilk at Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.