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And The Stiffs Just Keep On Comin'

Savage said:
uccess.)
Chanson D'Amour - Art and Dotty Todd (including the hideously obvious splice-edit right at the key change towards the end)
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I could swear I had a single of Chanson D'Amour by The Ames Brothers when I was a kid. Ring any bells for anyone?
 
I found a "Melodie D'Amour" in both my Whitburn and Goldmine. 1957. I see it came on the heels of a cover of Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy". Both were Top 5. Same song perhaps?

What amazes me is the number of cover versions back in those days. I did Music Of Your Life for a short time, back in 1985...we had half-a-dozen versions of "Slow Boat To China", all of them hits I presume. "Buttons & Bows", "Sh'Boom", "I'm Yours" all had two hit versions IIRC. Kinda puts context to Pat Boone's Little Richard/Fats Domino covers (although it makes them no less awful. just gives them context.)

Ok, back to the thread, 6 stiffs to make up for mentioning 6 hits:

James Taylor - "Long Ago And Far Away"
R. Dean Taylor - "Taos New Mexico"
Greg Kihn (w/o his band) - "Lucky"
Cliff Richard - "Carrie", "Give A Little Bit More"
J. Geils Band - "Looking For A Love"
Carole King - "Hard Rock Cafe"
 
I am reading a book "King Of The Queen City The Story Of King Records" in Cincinnati. They actually use the word stiff in regards to Hank Mizell and "Jungle Rock".
 
chas108 said:
I found a "Melodie D'Amour" in both my Whitburn and Goldmine. 1957. I see it came on the heels of a cover of Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy". Both were Top 5. Same song perhaps?

---Melodie D'Amour...That's the song I was thinking of (and it was a LOOOOOONG time ago).

Ok, back to the thread, 6 stiffs to make up for mentioning 6 hits:

James Taylor - "Long Ago And Far Away"
R. Dean Taylor - "Taos New Mexico"
Greg Kihn (w/o his band) - "Lucky"
Cliff Richard - "Carrie", "Give A Little Bit More"
J. Geils Band - "Looking For A Love"
Carole King - "Hard Rock Cafe"
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Cliff Richard's "Give A Little Bit" is from one of my all time favourite albums, "I'm No Hero," produced by the highly under-rated Tarney-Spencer (as in Tarney Spencer band). Worth a listen!
 
Frequently in the 1950s and 1960s there were big hits for black artists which were then covered by white artists for the suburban-America kids. Bobby Vee's "Devil Or Angel" was originally done by, IIRC, The Clovers. Same deal with "Sh'Boom." LaVern Baker's "Tweedlee Dee" was covered by Georgia Gibbs, and Ricky Nelson did Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'."
 
SirRoxalot said:
I think that we need to define "stiff". I believe that a stiff is a record from a group that's already had a bonafide hit, that was actually released as the "A" side of a single, and failed to move up the charts. Rarities, "deep" album cuts, outright failures, and local hits that never broke nationally aren't really stiffs. Riffling through Whitburn for every song that nudged its way into the Top 100 could add another 600 pages of songs that nobody remembers to this thread.
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Rox, you are correct with your definition but good luck enforcing the "stiff rule" on this board. :D Besides, some of the stories I've been hearing about "non-stiff" records make this thread well worth the price of admission. ;) For my stiff I'll submit John Waite's second solo single, the follow up to #1 "Missing You". I give you "Tears", which "peaked" at #37. Have a good weekend all!
 
The thread police have arrived. ;D
Actually, I agree & disagree at the same time. I have spent little time on this thread as the novelty has worn off.
At least it's a mainstay here, as few other threads are any more intriquing...at the moment.
Guess it's in what fire the rockets. ::)

That's all
 
Debaser said:
Cliff Richard's "Give A Little Bit" is from one of my all time favourite albums, "I'm No Hero," produced by the highly under-rated Tarney-Spencer (as in Tarney Spencer band). Worth a listen!
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Agreed, the Tarney/Spencer band was under-rated; I thought they only had AOR airplay. I dug around and found they had one chart appearance, "No Time to Lose" which reached #84 when first released in 1979 and #79 on it's second time on the charts in the early 80s. Alan Tarney would later produce a big hit for A-Ha.
 
yugoidar said:
Didn't Brian Hyland have the original release of "The Joker Went Wild"?
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So that's the "sounds like" deal! I sure perpetrated a faux pas on that one. Thank you for pointing that out, yugoidar. If I had been playing the slots, however, I guess the Joker would have still been the wild Cherry Cherry.

<I'll be the one hiding behind the table that is turned on its side so that the tomatoes will hit that instead of me>.
 
yugoidar said:
Didn't Brian Hyland have the original release of "The Joker Went Wild"?
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Brian Hyland had the hit in 1966, and I'm fairly certain both versions were produced by Snuff Garrett as he did most all the Gary Lewis & the Playboys tunes... Jerry Lewis was Snuff's neighbor.
 
What a GREAT song!!! Was it ever a single? I only know it from hearing David Marsden play it...and he is well known for not playing hits (which could account for the song's "stiff" status).
 
I can hear it now..."there goes Fred with his hands on his head, cause he thinks he hears the bomb"

Sure was a 45...my younger sister had it and played it endlessly (1968-69). She couldn't play LP's on her miniature phonograph (listen to me..."minature" and "phonograh"... what a geezer I am).

One day I brought up an old LP from the basement and my son thought it was cool. He asked me to play the "big CD" again.

Geezer, indeed!

Okay, another one from the Kenner Close-n-Play days....Wait 'Til Tomorrow from the Banana Splits. Yes it was a single, yes it got airtime on KB, and yes, it was a stiff (I think it went to something like 46 nationally). It can't hold a candle to The Tra-La-La Song.
(cmon, you know the words, and you're not going to be able to get it out of your head for a couple of days)
 
Sure was a 45...my younger sister had it and played it endlessly (1968-69). She couldn't play LP's on her miniature phonograph (listen to me..."minature" and "phonograh"... what a geezer I am).
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You mean those little jobbies that sat right on top of the chest of drawers, on which you wore out the grooves on your favorite 45? What great fun! When you had your friends over, you just put it down on the floor and went on with it. Those were the days of "stacks of wax", when you snapped on the adapters, you snapped on the looooooong post adapter and just piled the records on there. The record player on which we did that was a little bit bigger, but it was still in a carry case.
 
Those were the days of "stacks of wax", when you snapped on the adapters, you snapped on the looooooong post adapter and just piled the records on there. The record player on which we did that was a little bit bigger
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OMG!! I think I'm getting old. Been here..done this!! (frickin adapters were like 30 cents for 3 of em)!

That's all
 


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