“Window Girl” (1970) – Luiz Bonfá * Written by Luiz Bonfá * LP: The New Face of Bonfá * Produced by Ernie Alschuler * Label: RCA Victor Brazilian composer and guitarist Luiz Bonfá wrote the song of his career, “Manha de Carnaval, in 1959 for the Black Orpheus film. (Its many cover versions often show up as the “Black Orpheus Theme.”) He released three albums for RCA in the early seventies, with the first of these, The New Face of Bonfa, showing up on Los Angeles MOR powerhouse KMPC’s album airplay list. The lead-off track “Window Girl” showcased the 12-string guitar (a Giannini Craviola) that Bonfá was favoring at the time, although the flugelhorn of Alan Rubin took the lead. Bonfá, who did the arranging for most of the album, let Marty Manning do the honors on “Window Girl.”
“Sweet Georgia Brown” (1945) – The King Cole Trio * Written by Ben Bernie, Kenneth Casey, and Maceo Pinkard * 78: “Sweet Georgia Brown” / “It Is Better to Be By Yourself” * Label: Capitol With this record, Nat King Cole (piano), Oscar Moore (guitar), and Johnny Miller (bass) run a California clinic on how to make a small jazz combo cook. All three of them rip through this instrumental version of a standard (that was only twenty years old at this point), sounding like they could twirl their instruments on a fingertip if they wanted. In Moore’s guitar playing, you hear a clear prototype of the glimmering West Coast sound Barney Kessel would later pursue in the fifties with his own combos.
“The Dis-Advantages of You” (1967) – The Brass Ring * Written by Mike Leigh * Produced by Steve Barri * 45: “The Dis-Advantages of You” / “The Dating Game” * LP: The Dis-Advantages of You * Label: Dunhill * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 #36
A 1966-67 TV ad campaign for Benson & Hedges 100’s focused on the extra long cigarettes’ disadvantages, making for situational giggles. The commercial was popular enough for the alluring musical backdrop to get some airplay on its own. Written by Mitch Leigh, the same man who scored the Man of La Mancha musical, the genuine as-heard-on-television article made enough noise in Cleveland to chart locally and to get listed in a 2/11/67 issue of Billboard as a potential breakout hit. This record was credited to “The Answer” on the red Columbia label, and the arrangers are listed as “Music Makers,” aka Leigh’s own production house. (Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles erroneously cites Bill Dean and John Campbell as the songwriters.) Another arrangement of this song, by Phil Bodner’s studio assembly the Brass Ring, entered the charts a week earlier on the Dunhill label with the hyphenated title “The Dis-Advantages of You” (and an arrangement of the “Dating Game” theme on side B). Peaking at #36, it won the battle of the jingle singles, outpacing the original as a full-blown Top 40 hit.
“Casual (Live)” (1982) – The Marina Swingers * Written by the Marina Swingers * Produced by Phil Culp * CD: Sunken Treasures
Their era spawned a number of new wave comedy groups, like Blotto in New York and the Judy’s in Houston, but the Marina Swingers gave their shtick a consistent SoCal yuppie angle. They appeared a number of times on LA’s New Wave Theatre, which found a national cable audience as part of the USA network’s Night Flight. A 1999 compilation called Sunken Treasures gathers up all their recordings, including songs that had only existed as live TV segments, such as “Casual” (“going all the way to Casualfornia/ in my Volkswagen bus”).
From keyboard player Esteban Elka’s liner notes: “We weren’t sure if we wanted to be an artsy-intellectual new-wave act, a bloodthirsty dance-band, a multi-media comedy round-up, a surf/swing/big-band/punk ensemble or just an experiment in soul-splitting personality exploration (therapy that doesn’t work). So we did all of the above, often at the same time….We got to open for some zesty acts… Not one of them put in a good word for us with their management…We don’t expect you to just listen to this CD. We think you’ll wish you had been there. We want you to be sorry that you weren’t. Where were you when we needed you? Come to think of it, where are we now?… One of us had a stroke, one of us has leukemia, one of us had a brain tumor, two of us used drugs way too hard, one of us is wearing a crooked toupee, but two us are bald. One of us still gigs, most of us still record and we all walk, talk, pass wind and lie, except maybe the dead guy. Someday, you will be dead too. Special thanks to: A lot of you tried but it’s results that count. We didn’t make it, so the bulk of you shouldn’t expect a major pat on the fanny…”
“Superstar” (1969) – Murray Head with the Trinidad Singers * Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice * 45: “Superstar” / “John Nineteen Forty-One” * LP: Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) * Produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice * Label: Decca * Charts: Billboard #14; UK: #47
The 1969 leadoff single for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s ambitious rock opera starring the Son of God did its part in generating anticipation for an album that wouldn’t hit shelves until late 1970. The single sleeve attributes the track as coming “from the Rock Opera ‘Jesus Christ’ now in preparation.” The single would enter the US Billboard charts three separate times between 1970 and 1971, and appeared on the UK singles chart as late as 1972. A promo clip featuring vocalist Murray Head, who would be Judas Iscariot in the musical and who had recently starred in a London run of Hair, shows him climbing around cathedral ruins and singing alongside a chorus of six women billed as the “Trinidad Singers.” Its early association with the “Respect” or “Oh Happy Day” tradition ought not to be discounted as a broad appeal factor.
“Walk Walk” (1964) – The Freewheelers * Written by Sunny Skylar and Al Caiola * Produced by Bob Morgan * Arranged by Mort Garson * 45: “Walk, Walk” / “The Best of It” * Label: Epic * Charts: Billboard Bubbling Under #119
The century-old Appalachian “eefing” technique – which has to do with inhaling and exhaling in a rhythm – had a bit of a cultural flareup in the early sixites. (If you’re not up to speed on eefing, see this informative post at the WFMU blog.) R&B singer Joe Perkins took a number called “Little Eefin’ Annie” to Billboard‘s #76 in ’63, while the following year’s “Walk, Walk,” a slab of jingle-ready Dixie-corn involving Al Caiola and future Moog master Mort Garson (and which didn’t make that WFMU post), bubbled under at #119. Not sure who did the eefing honors, which begin at 1:19 (numerologists take note), since there’s no info anywhere about this perhaps justifiably forgotten record.
“The Jitterbug” (1939) – Judy Garland * Written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg * 78: “Over the Rainbow” / “The Jitterbug” * Label: Decca “The Jitterbug” is a song that was axed from The Wizard of Oz film, but appeared as the B-side to Judy Garland’s hit version of “Over the Rainbow,” released the same year. It tapped in to the high energy dance craze of the day and was slated to feature Dorothy and her yellow brick road cohorts jitterbugging to exhaustion under the influence of the title’s critters. Most notable about this recording, though, is the melody Harold Arlen uses in the verses, which foretells Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Bali Ha’i” exactly ten years before South Pacific. This places it in the timeline after Franz Waxman’s 1935 score for The Bride of Frankenstein, which is often cited as a possible influence on “Bali Ha’i.”
“My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'” (1973) – The Chi-Lites * Written by Eugene Record and Stanley (Stank) McKenney * 45: “My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'” / “Just Two Teenage Kids (Still in Love)” * LP: A Letter to Myself * Label: Brunswick * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#92) The early seventies saw an influx of hybrid genres and formats reflecting both a new cultural complexity and more sophisticated methods of audience analysis. The idea of “soul country” thus drifted about, with the massive success of Charley Pride—himself a hardcore country singer— raising questions about such a blend. Chicago’s Chi-Lites brought particular attention to themselves as “soul country” experimentalists, prompting a name check by Nashville promotional executive Chuck Chellman in the Music City News. He referred to recent adds of the Chi-Lites to country station playlists as evidence that country’s dalliance with rock music was leading to far greater travesties. Although their “Oh Girl,” with its laid back, harmonica-driven feel, may spring to mind as an example, it was a 1972 track called “My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'”—a unique hodgepodge of barnyard fiddle, drawled vocals, Philly soul polish, pizzicatto strings and street corner doo wop—that made the strongest pitch. This was “soul country” if there ever was any.
“Morning Much Better” (1970) – Ten Wheel Drive featuring Genya Ravin * Written by Michael Zager and Aram Schefrin * 45: “Morning Much Better” / “Stay With Me” * LP: Brief Replies * Produced by Guy Draper * Label: Polydor * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#74) New Jersey’s Ten Wheel Drive competed with Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears in the thriving late-sixties/early-seventies jazz rock market, where band rosters could also function as fully-staffed softball teams. Among Ten Wheel Drive’s assets was singer Genya Ravin (formerly of ’60s girl group Goldie and the Gingerbreads), who was known to remove her upper attire and perform in body paint. Their lone charting single “Morning Much Better” now stands out for sounding like a precursor to the Family Feud TV game show theme, which debuted in 1976. Although that piece of music, written by Walt Levinski, doesn’t borrow any melodic ideas from the Ten Wheel Drive single, they both share a distinctive banjo and blaring horn DNA. Band member (and “Morning Much Better” co-writer) Michael Zager would later create the 1978 disco hit “Let’s All Chant,” while Ravin would produce Young, Loud and Snotty, the 1977 classic US punk debut LP for the Dead Boys.
“Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)” (1983) – Circle Jerks * Written by Tandy Almer, Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Bill Danoff, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Bobby Braddock, Curly Putnam * 45: “Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)” / “Rats of Reality” * LP: Golden Shower of Hits * Producer: Jerry Goldstein * Label: LAX Records The “punk version” shtick seems to only work when levels of sincerity and subtlety manifest themselves, as they do here, courtesy of a Los Angeles band who never knew the meaning of either of those concepts. Behind all the toilet and pee is a series of 5 late-sixties and early-seventies radio hits from the roster’s formative years all strung together into a concise love-found-then-lost narrative. When you’re laughing all the way through, you’re laughing to fight off nascent anxiety. (The five songs: The Association’s “Along Comes Mary,” The Carpenters’ “Close to You,” the Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight,” Paul Anka’s “Having My Baby,” and Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.”)
