150 Goodbye Connie Francis - Jealous Heart

Chart  entered  :  20  January  1966

Chart  peak : 44

Another  fifties  survivor  now  makes  her  exit  and  it  had  been  coming, this  one  being  the  last  of  only three  small  hits  since  the  arrival  of  the  Beatles.

"Jealous  Heart "  was  already  a  country  and  western  classic, written  in  1944  by  Jenny  Lou  Carson  but  popularised  by  Tex  Ritter. Since  then  there  had  been  numerous  versions  but  the  only  one  to  make  the  UK  charts  ( just )  was  by  an  obscure  Irish  girl  group, Eileen  Reed  and  the  Cadets, just  six  months  before  Connie's  version. It  was  the  title  track  of  a  forthcoming  album  of  standards, a  retro  move  after  her  attempts  to  update  her  sound  had  made  scant  impact. There's  not  too  much  wrong  with  it. Connie's   in  fine  double-tracked  voice  and  the  lush  arrangement  from  Ernie  Freeman  swings. It's  perhaps  a  little  over-produced  but  I  suspect  the  real  problem  was  it  just  didn't  sound  like  1966.

 Sadly "Jealous  Heart"  marked  a  series  of  "lasts"  for  Connie. Not  only  was  it  her  last  UK  hit, it  was  her  last  to  make  the  US  Top  50 ( number 47 )  and  the  album  was  her  last  to  chart  in  the  US  ( 78 ).

 Her  next  single  was  released  while  "Jealous  Heart"  was  still  in  the  charts. "The  Phoenix Love  Theme  ( Senza  Fine )"  was  featured  in  the  popular  film  The  Flight  Of  The  Phoenix. The  song  was  written  by  Gino  Paoli   and  the  melody  is  reprised  at  numerous   points  in  the  film. Connie's  reading  of  the  song  is  exquisite but  Italian  language  hits  were  thin  on  the  ground  and  it  didn't  make  it.

After  that  she  returned  to  working  with  Tony  Hatch  and  her  next  single  in  March  was  his  song  "Love  |Is  Me  Love  Is  You"  which  I  haven't  heard. It  got  to  66  in  the US. In  June  she  did  "Somewhere  My  Love"  from  Doctor  Zhivago  but  lost  out  to  a  rival  version  by  the  Mike  Sammes  Singers  which  hung  around  the  charts  for  nearly a  year. Connie's  version  is  rather  sporific. Its  parent  album  , the  self-explanatory  "Movie  Songs  of  the  60s"  didn't  do  any  better.

In  November  she  released  "Spanish  Nights  And  You"  a  lush  flamenco  ballad  with   a  double-tracked  Connie  emoting  amongst  the  strings. it  scraped  to  99  in  the  States. March  1967  saw  "Another  Page"  a  translation  of  an  Italian  song  as  Connie  sought  to  consolidate  her  enduring  popularity  in  Latin  territories. In  July  "Time  Alone  Will  Tell" was  more  of  the  same  given  a  big  production  number  by  Joe  Sherman. It  got  to  94  in  the  US. With  "My  Heart  Cries  For  You"  (  a  million  seller  for  Guy  Mitchell  in  1950 )  in  November  she  turned  to  France.

In  March   1968  she  returned  to  her  old  friends  Neil  Sedaka  and  Howard  Greenfield  for  the deeply  poignant  "My  World  Is  Slipping  Away". I  know  nothing  about  her  next  single  "Why  Say  Goodbye" beyond  its  release  in  May. November's  "Somebody  Else  Is  Taking  My  Place"  was  written  in  1941  and  had  been  covered  by  Benny  Goodman, Jerry  Vale  and  Al  Martino.

In  March  1969  "The  Wedding  Cake"  became  her  last  US  hit  peaking  at  91. Written  by  Margaret  Lewis  and  Myra  Smith  it's  a  fatalistic  country  ballad  about  the  trials  of  marriage  with  melodic  similarities  to  Gentle  On  My  Mind . The  sob  in  Connie's  voice  suits  the  material  and  the  Spanish  guitar  and  electric  piano  spice  up  the  arrangement.

Connie's  next  release  in  the  UK  was  a reissue  of  her  last  major  hit  "Vacation"  but  she  had  one  more  new  single  to  come  before  the  sixties  closed. "Mr  Love"  was  from  her  album  "Connie  Francis  Sings  The  Songs of  Les  Reed"  recorded  in  London.  I  could  have  sworn  it  was  a  mid- sixties   Sandie  Shaw  singing  it.

It  marked  the  end  of  her  fourteen  year  contract  with  M-G-M  and  the  worn-out  31  year  old  was anxious  for  a  break. For  the  first  three  years  of  the  seventies  she  did  very  little  beyond  the  odd  TV  appearance  apart  from  one  flop  single  "Don't  Turn  Around "  ( another  Sedaka-Greenfield  number )  in  1971  which  wasn't  even  released  in  the UK. In  1973  she  returned  to  the  studio  to  record  an  answer  song  to  Dawn's  monster hit Tie  A  Yellow  Ribbon  Round  the  Old  Oak  Tree ( my  gran's  favourite  record ). "(Should  I)  Tie  A  Yellow  Ribbon Round  The  Old  Oak  Tree"  uses  the  same  melody  and  arrangement  ( save  for  a  weeping  guitar  solo ) and  while  Connie's  voice  remains  in  fine  fettle  you  wonder  why  she  chose  such  a  tacky  vehicle  for  a  comeback.

Connie  had  suffered  a  miscarriage  that  year  and  as  a  therapeutic  exercise  her  husband encouraged  Connie  to  tour  in  1974. This  ended  in  disaster  in  November   when  she  was  raped, robbed  and  nearly  killed  in  a  New  York  Motel. The  assailant  was  never  caught; Connie  reckons  he  might  have  spared  her  life  because  the pursuit  would  have  been  more  vigorous  if  he'd  killed  someone  famous. She  later  successfully  sued  the  motel  chain  for  its  inadequate  security. The  motel  owner  suggested she  was  making  it  up  and  the  strain  broke  up  her  marriage.

In  1977  she  had  nasal  surgery   which  drastically  affected  her  voice  and  she  needed  singing  lessons  to  recover. Connie  didn't  return  to  the  recording  studios  until  1978  to  record  the  album "Who's  Happy  Now ? " for  United  Artists. The   first  single  was a  discofied  version  of  her  1961  hit  "Where  The  Boys  Are"  which  is  just  hideous. Connie's  vocal  isn't  too  bad  - she  sounds  like  Nena - but  producer  Ken  Barnes  keeps  interrupting  the  flow  of  the  song  to  throw  in  another  disco  cliche. The  B  side  was  a  version   of  the  Eurovision  winner  "A Ba Ni Bi"  ( or  "I  wanna  be  a  polar  bear"  as  we  sang  in  the  playground ).   The  second  was  "My  Mother's  Eyes". Connie's  reluctance  to  do  much  promotion  torpedoed  their  chances.

Interspersed  with  these  were  a  couple  of  singles  on  Polydor  "Burning  Bridges"  and  "Three  Good Reasons"  which  actually  dated  from  1969  but  hadn't  previously  been  issued. The  latter's  a  slow ballad  that  sounds  more  like  Ruby  Murray i.e  a  decade  out  of  date  even  when  it  was  first recorded. After  that  her  only  UK  singles  were  reissues  of  her  hits.    

In  1980  she  re-emerged on  MGM  ( though  now  part  of  Polydor )  with  "I'm Me  Again" . It  was  the  title  track  to  a "new"  album  the  following  year. There  was  only  one  other  newly  recorded  song  on  the  album  which  was  otherwise  made  up  of  unreleased  material  from  the  50s  and  60s. Not  surprisingly  it  failed  to  garner  much  interest  but  it  did  get  her  out  on  the  road  again  despite  the  death  of  her  brother  in  an  apparent  Mafia  hit.

She  had  a  minor  country  hit  with  the  ironic  "There's  Still  A  Few  Good  Songs  Left  In  Me"  in  1983  but  by  that  time  she  had  been  diagnosed  with  manic  depression. Sporadic  further  recordings  were  made  in  between  hospital  stays  but  no  one  felt  inclined  to  release  them. Connie's  condition  didn't  stop  , in  fact  may  have  given  her  the  time  to  write  her  autobiography  inevitably  titled  "Who's  Sorry  Now"  which  was  published  in  1984  and  went  to  the  top  of  the  book  charts. She  also  headed  a  task  fore  on  violent  crime  for  Ronald  Reagan  and  became  a  prominent  spokesperson  for  victims'  rights.

By  1989  she  was  well  enough  to  resume  performing  and  recorded  "Where  The  Hits  Are"  a  double  album  of  re-recordings  of  her  biggies  plus  a  handful  of  classics  such  as  "Are  You  Lonesome  Tonight". In  1992  a  German  producer  placed  a   medley  of  her  German  hits  on  the  charts  there  as  "Jive, Connie"  ( no  prizes  for  guessing  the  inspiration  there ). A  somewhat  overweight  but  otherwise  well-preserved  Connie  appeared  on  German  TV  to  promote  it. She  went  on  to  do  a  couple  of  duets  with  Peter  Kraus  but  her  new  German-language  album  was  never  released. In  1996  she  released  a  Buddy  Holly  tribute  album  "With  Love  To  Buddy"  which  is  her  last  widespread  release  to  date  though  subsequent  recordings  have  sporadically  been  issued in  small  quantities  on  her  own  Concetta  label.

At  the  turn  of  the  millennium  she  started  working  with  Gloria  Estefan  on  an  autobiographical  film  in  which  the  Cuban  singer  would  play  her. The  project  was  eventually  cancelled   in  2009  after  the  women  could  not  agree  on  the  writer.  She's  also  been  involved  in  litigation  against  UMG  firstly  for  allegedly  taking  advantage  of  her  condition  to  delay  royalty  payments  and  then  for  licensing  her  music  to  sexually  explicit  films. She  didn't  succeed  in  either  suit.

Now  75  , Connie  hasn't  yet  retired  from  performing  although  a  series  of  Botox  injections  haven't  done  her  voice  any  favours  and  a  youtube  video  of  a  concert  posted  last  year  is  unwatchable; the  poster  must  really  hate  her.

149 Hello Barbra Streisand - Second Hand Rose

Chart  entered  :  20  January  1966

Chart  peak : 14

Number  of  hits  : 18

On  into 1966  and straightaway  we  start  encountering  artists  who'd  make their  fullest  impact  in  the  subsequent  decade. This  was  an  outlier  hit , a  full  five  years  before  her  next  one, one  of  the  longest  gaps  in  chart  history  between  a  first  and  second  hit.

Barbara  was  born  in  New  York  to  second  generation  Jewish  immigrants in  1942  and lived  in straitened  circumstances  after  her  father's  death  when  she  was  a  baby. She  was  a  singer  from  an early  age  and  made  her  first  demos  at  13. She  became  a  nightclub  singer  while  still  in  her  teens and  also  acted  in  theatre. She's  also  to  be  found  in  a  porn  film; she's  always  denied  this  but  it's clearly  her. From  1961  she  started  appearing  on  TV  and  after  a  string  of  appearances  on  a  show called  PM East / PM West  she  was  signed  by  Columbia  despite  their  President's  dislike  of  her showboating  style.

Babs  negotiated  her  own  contract  particularly  a  clause  that  gave  her  control  over  what  material  she recorded. Her  first  single  released  in  March  1962  was  a  version  of  Milton  Ager's  "Happy  Days Are Here  Again"  written  in  1929  and  quickly  appropriated  by  the  Democrats  for  FDR's  election campaign. Barbara  deconstructs  the  song  and  comes  up  with  an  ironic  torch  ballad. From  a  low- key  beginning , her  vocal  attack  is  almost  overpowering  by  the  song's  end. It  wasn't  a  hit ; in  fact only  500  copies  were  pressed  for  the  New  York  market. In  November  she  released  "My   Colouring  Book"  which  is  equally  full-on  before  her  first LP  the  following  March, the  Grammy -winning  "The  Barbra  Streisand  Album"  comprised  of  Broadway  standards  rather  than  contemporary songs. Her  imaginatively titled  "The  Second  Barbra  Streisand  Album"  came  out  just  six  months  later without  any  singles  and  reached  number  2.

In  January  1964  she  released  two  contemporary  songs  from  her  soon-to-open  Broadway  musical  Funny  Girl . " I  Am  Woman" ( no relation  to  the  Helen  Reddy  song )  was  the  nominal  A  side  but  was  ignored  in  favour  of  "People"  which  rose  to  number  5  and  became  her  signature  song.  The  song's  hit  status  cemented  its  place  in  the  musical  after  the  producers  had  evinced   a  dislike  of  it. It's  noticeable  how  much  more  controlled  her  vocal  is  than  on  the  previous singles.

Barbara  also  had  time  to  release  "The  Third  Album"  before  the  show  opened.  Again  there  were  no  singles. Six  months  later  she  released  her  fourth  "People"  ( her  first  number  one ) . The  title  track  was  the  only  song  from  the  musical  but  the  opening track  "Absent  Minded  Me"  was by  the  same  writers  and  that  was  released  as  a  single  in  August  1964. Once  again  people  preferred  the  B-side  "Funny  Girl" which  hadn't  actually  been  used  in  the  musical. It  made  number 44  despite  being  as  dull  as  ditch water.

Her  next  single  was  in  March  1965  "Why  Did  I  Choose  You"  yet  another  torch  ballad  from  a  musical  called  The  Yearling. It  reached  number  77. It  also  featured  on  her  next  album  "My  Name  Is  Barbra" released  in  May  just  after  her  Emmy-winning  TV  special  of  the  same  title. The  final  track  "My  Man"  was  originally  recorded  by  the  subject  of  "Funny  Girl"  , Fanny  Brice  in  1921  and  was  released  as  the  next  single  in  June.  It  wasn't  in  the  musical  but  Barbra  got  to  perform  it  in  the  film  version. It  got  to  number  79  but  sounds  tuneless  and  over-the-top  to  me.

In  September  came  "He  Touched  Me" , another barnstorming  ballad  from  a  musical  called  Drat ! The Cat ! . It  reached  number  53  and  became  the  opening  track  on  her  next  album  "My  Name  Is  Barbra Two"  released  in  October. The  sixth  track  and  next  single  is  this  one.

"Second  Hand  Rose"  was  another  song  that  Fanny  Brice  had  recorded  and  like  "My  Man"  would  be  incorporated  in  the  film version.  Breaking  away  from  the  ballads, it's  a  Tin  Pan  Alley jazz  tune  about  having  to  settle  for  hand-me-downs  which  Barbra  performs  in  character  with  exaggerated  New  York-isms  - "piana", "nive" (nerve) ," befaww"  and  so  on. Why  this  particular  tune  should  be  the  only  one  to  tickle  the  fancy  of  the  UK  singles  buyer   from  her  first  eight  years  of  recording  is  difficult  to  fathom.

148 Hello Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Tich - You Make It Move

Chart  entered : 23  December  1965

Chart  peak : 26

Number  of  hits : 13 ( Dave  Dee  had  one  solo  hit  and  the  others  had  one  without  him  as  D.B.M & T).

This  lot  arrived  in  the  charts  dated  on  my  first  birthday  and  hung  around  for  the  rest  of  the decade.

We've  already  encountered  the  perma-grinning  Dave  Dee ( actually  Harman )  as  the  unlikely  beneficiary  of  Eddie  Cochran's  fatal  accident. A  couple  of  years  later  he  quit  the  police  and  formed  his  own  band,  Dave  Dee  and  the  Bostons  with  fellow  denizens  of  Wiltshire,  Trevor  Ward-  Davies  ( Dozy ) on  bass, John  Dymond  ( Beaky ) on  guitar, Ian  Amey ( Titch ) on  guitar  and  Michael  Wilson ( Mick,  imaginatively  enough ) on  drums. Dee  handled  lead  vocals.

The  band  honed  their  craft  in  Hamburg  and  like  The  Barron  Knights  developed  a  comedy  routine  in  their  act  but  failed  to  get  signed  in  the  wake  of  the  Beatles. They  were  playing  summer  season  at  a  holiday  camp  in  1964  when  they  got  their  lucky  break  with  a  chance  to  support  temporary  sensations  The  Honeycombs  who  had  just  hit  number  one  with  Have  I  The  Right. Their  managers  Ken  Howard  and  Alan  Blaikley, two  songwriting  polymaths,  liked  them  and  got  them  a  deal  with  Fontana. They  decided  on  the  band's  name  change  in  a  not  entirely  successful  bid  to  emphasise  the  members'  individual  personalities  by  publicising  their  nicknames ; a  group  of  girls  would  have  rather  more  success  with  this  tactic  thirty  years  later. Their  first  recording  sessions  were  with  Joe  Meek   but  they  weren't  able to  play  at  half  speed  as  he  required; Meek  threw  one  of  his  hissy  fits,  stormed  out  and  the  session  came  to  an  end.

 They  recorded  their  first  single  "No  Time"  elsewhere  and  it  was  released  in  January 1965. It's  a  beat  heavy  pop  number  somewhat  reminiscent  of  the  Dave  Clark  Five . There's  an   interesting  acid  guitar  line  that  pops  up  every  now  and  then  but  it's  lacking  a  strong  chorus. It  got  them  onto  Ready  Steady  Go  but  no  further.

"All  I  Want"  followed  in  June  and  is  a  competent  Hollies  impersonation  that  sounds  a  bit  tinny  and  primitive  given  what  else  was  around  at  the  time. Dave  Dee  later  said  the  band  were  at  the  point  of  breaking  up  when  it  flopped.

They  gave  it  one  more  shot  with  "You Make  It  Move"  another  Howard - Blaikley  song. Blessed with  a  sledgehammer  beat,  a  generous-helping  of  Satisfaction -style  fuzz  guitar  and  harmonies  that sound  pretty  similar  to  Get Off  Of  My  Cloud , it  did  the  trick  despite  a  confused  middle  eight where  the  keyboard  player  appears  to  be  playing  a  different  song. Like  Hot  Chocolate  in  the following  decade  they  were  never  destined  for  critical  plaudits  but  maintained  their  position  by assimilating  current  sounds  as  here.

147 Hello Otis Redding - My Girl

Chart  entered : 25  November  1965

Chart  peak : 11

Number  of  hits  : 15

Another  black  legend  here  but  it's  something  of  a  surprise  to  me  that  he  racked  up  15  hits  even   if  most  of  them  were  relatively  small.

Otis  was  born  in  Georgia  in  1941  to  a  farmer  of  the  same  name  who  was  also  a  gospel  singer. The  younger  Otis  could  sing  and  play  from  a  young  age  but  as  a  teenager  grew  up  on  Sam Cooke  and  Little  Richard. Leaving  school  at  15  Otis  worked  in  some  dead  end  jobs  as  well  as playing  piano  behind  local  performers. In  1958  he  won  a  talent  contest  and  gradually  built  his reputation  as  a  singer  with  various  bands  including  a  short  stint  with  Little  Richard's  backing  band   after  he  abandoned rock and  roll.

In  1962  Otis  signed  with  the  small  Confederate  label  and  recorded  his  first  single  the less  than sensitive  "Fat  Gal" backed by  his  friend  Johnny  Jenkins' band,  The  Pinetoppers. It  was  an  original Otis  composition  but  betrays his  love  for  Little  Richard  both  in  the  singing  and  playing  and  it's  rock and  roll  sound  is  antique for  1962. It  had  to  be  re-issued  on  another  label Orbit  because  R & B stations  wouldn't  play  a  disc  with  a  Confederate  flag  design  on  the  label.

Later  that  year  Otis   drove  Jenkins  to  a  recording  session  in  Memphis and  got  the  chance  to  sing   a  couple  of  self-penned  numbers  when  Jenkins  finished  early. Studio  chief  Jim  Stewart  was   impressed  by  the  second  song  "These  Arms  Of  Mine"  and  signed  him  up. It's  a  rolling  piano  ballad featuring  Jenkins  on  the  keys  and  some  interesting  guitar  work  from  Steve  Cropper. Otis  is  finding his  own  style,  less dependent  on  Cooke  and  Richard  but  there's  a  bit  too  much  syllable-stretching for  my  tastes. Nevertheless  it  created  enough  ripples  to  become  a  minor U.S. hit  the  following March.

"That's  What  My  Heart  Needs"  was  released  in  June  1963. It  was  a  hit  on  the  R & B  chart  only  and  suffers  a  little  from  its  similarity  to  Bring  It  On  Home  To  Me.  It  does  however  have  some  good  clipped  guitar  from  Cropper, some  timely  brass  interventions  and  in  the  last  half  minute  the  gospel  screams   from  our  man  that  influenced  everyone  from  Joe  Cocker  to  David  McAlmont.

That  November  he  scored  his  biggest  hit  to  date  with  "Pain  In  My  Heart"  written  by  Allen   Toussaint  under  the  contract-dodging  pseudonym  "Naomi  Neville"  and  previously  recorded  by  Irma Thomas  as  "Ruler  Of  My  Heart" . It  establishes  the  classic  Stax  sound, a  simple  piano  riff, impassioned  singing,  inventive  rhythm  guitar  and  sympathetic  swelling  horns. Rob  Bowman's description  from  Soulsville  USA : The  Story  of  Stax  Records  is  worth  quoting " Otis's  dynamic   control  is  front  and  center  as  he  uses  his  voice  as  a  horn, swelling  and  decreasing  in  volume  , swallowing  syllables  and  worrying  the  word  "heart "". It  was  his  first  release  in  the  UK  on  London.

It  became  the  title  track  to  his  debut  LP  released  at  the  beginning  of  1964. It  made  a  minor  impact  on  the  Billboard  chart. His  next  single  "Come  To  Me"  a  co-write  with  Phil  Walden  wasn't  on  the  album   and  is  another  deep  soul  ballad  with  understated  organ  replacing  the  horns. He  then  went  back  to  the  album  for  another  single  "Security" which  is  more  uptempo  but  has  melodic  similarities  to  Stand  By  Me. It  barely  made  the  charts.

His  next  single  was  "Chained  And  Bound"  with  Cropper  producing  as well  as  playing  lead  guitar on  another  wracked  ballad. A  local  disc  jockey  characterised  his  style  with  the  epithet  "Mr  Pitiful"  upon  which  Otis  and  Cropper  promptly  came  up  with  a  song  of  that  name  released  in  January  1965. It's  a  sprightlier  affair  with  a  self-justifying  lyric  and  a  punchy  horn  arrangement  and  became  his  biggest  hit  to  date  in  the  US. His  modestly-titled  second   album "The  Great  Otis  Redding  Sings  Soul  Ballads"  followed  on  its  heels  and  outsold  its  predecessor  though  not in  the  UK.

 In  April  1965  he  released  "I've  Been  Loving  You  Too  Long" co-written  with  Jerry  Butler  of  The  Impressions. It's  probably  the  quintessential  Otis  Redding  ballad  and  the  first  to  crack  the  US  Top  30. It  was  almost  immediately  covered  by  The  Rolling  Stones  on  their  LP  Got  Live  If  You  Want  It   (  although  it  was  a  studio  track  with  dubbed  audience  noise )  which  raised  his  profile  with  white  audiences. Otis  later  covered  "Satisfaction"  in  gratitude.

He  followed  it  up  with  "Respect", the  song  soon  to  be  immortalised  by  Arethra  Franklin. Otis's version  lacks  the  barnstorming  spelling  out  of  the  title  which  was  Franklin's  own  innovation  and  is more  of  a  plea  for  sex  from  his  spouse  than  an  empowerment  anthem.

The  latter  three  tracks  mentioned  all  featured  on  Otis's  next  album  "Otis  Blue"  released  in  September  1965 . At  this  point  Atlantic  who  had  taken  over  Otis's  licensing  in  the  UK  diverged  from  the  US  release  schedule  and  picked  his  cover  of  "My  Girl"  for  a  single  release  because  The Temptations  version  had  been  so  minor  a  hit.

Otis's  arrangement  isn't  radically  different  from  the  original. The  brass  is  more  in  your  face  and Otis's  vocal   is  much  more  ragged  than  David  Ruffin's. There's  an  obvious  question  whether  Otis's  style  is  suited  to  a  song  of  sweet  contentment  but  I  guess  if  you're  a  glass  is  half  empty  person  you'd  plump  for  this  version. Otis  knows  such  joys  are  fleeting , perhaps  have  already  passed  by.