Voice recording No. 240, Jan. 2.
Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth", '65 or '64. Buffalo Springfield was kind of a pacesetter in those days. Some band members went on to bigger and better things. A good group. 2,400.
Peter and Gordon, "I Go to Pieces", 1965. 4,150.
Junior Walker and the All Stars, "Shotgun", 1965. 3,950.
Tommy James and the Shondells, "Hanky Panky" from '66. 3,200.
Beatles, "Hey Jude", 1968. 600.
Cannibal and the Headhunters, "Land of 1,000 Dances", 1965. This might have been the original. It's not nearly as good as Wilson Pickett's version. 4,200.
Jefferson Airplane, "Somebody to Love", I think '66 or '67. A really good song. Great vocals by Grace Slick -- I first said Stevie Nicks; wrong group. Great guitar work. 1,200, could go higher.
Blood Sweat & Tears, "Spinning Wheel", '69. This has some similarities to the Jefferson Airplane piece, mostly in that I liked it more as it went on. There was more in it than I remembered. It has horns in it, a calliope sound near the end, some psychedelic effects in trying to keep up with the drug culture of the times. 3,600.
Jan and Dean, "Little Old Lady from Pasadena", year? They had a number of surfing hits. I guess Southern California's car culture of the '60s counts as a subset of surfer music. This might be their best hit. The instrumentation isn't much to speak of, but the lyrics and the harmony were really good. "She drives real fast and she drives real hard. She's the terror of Colorado Boulevard." You should be able to picture driving down that street crashing into the floats in the Tournament of Roses parade. "Go, Granny, go, Granny, go, Granny, go!" 1,950.
Charlie Rich, "Mohair Sam", I think '65. This seemed out of place with its times. 4,800.
Herman's Hermits, "I'm Into Something Good" from '64. I've done this before, and I'm guessing I scored it on either side of 3,000, I'll say 3,100 now.
Sly and the Family Stone, "Stand", 1969? Not Sly's best, 4,400.
Shocking Blue, "Venus", I think '68. Later done by Bananarama, which I think had the better version. This one isn't bad. 3,800.
Sonny and Cher, "The Beat Goes On" from '64. 3,200.
The Kinks, "A Well Respected Man", '66. 2,050.
B.J. Thomas, "Hooked on a Feeling" from '68. I've done this before and I'd say it was rated 2,100 or 2,200.
Dave Clark Five, "Over and Over", '64 or '65. Not sure whether I've done this one before. I really like Dave Clark Five. This had some harmony, some harmonica and some good lyrics. I'm disappointed that major league baseball player-turned-coach Dave Clark never seems to wear uniform number 5. 1,750-1,800.
Rolling Stones, "Get Off of My Cloud", 1965. I remember this one as a freshman in college, when we'd have dances and mixers at the Phi Delta Theta house and this song would come on, my roommate, Tom Lindstrom, and I would be telling each other to get off our clouds. That was kind of weird, I know. I didn't give it a score, will have to hear it again.
Sam and Dave, "I Thank You" from '68? Not their best. I think I've done it before and gave it 4,100 or 4,200.
Flaming Ember, "Mind Body and Soul" from '69. Not very good. 4,600.
1910 Fruitgum Company, "Indian Giver", 1968. A song would not be made with this name at this time in our history, probably shouldn't have had it anyway. It's about what you'd expect. The drums play kind of a cliched version of what European immigrants would expect from Native American drumming. The group's name indicates that it's bubblegum music. There's an organ. 4,300.
Herb Alpert, "This Guy's in Love with You", 1968. Herb was better as a songwriter and orchestra leader than as a singer. This orchestra has piano, horns and strings. It's a good song, but very slow moving. 4,150.
Gary Lewis and the Playboys, "Everybody Loves a Clown" from 1965. This is not one of the best clown songs, which would be good to have: "Tears of a Clown", "Cathy's Clown" and others. I'm pretty sure this was during my senior year in high school, and his last words pretty well expressed where I was in my development: "Dreamin' of your love, and not knowing where to start." 4,350.
Martha and the Vandellas, "Jimmy Mac" from '67. I did this one a few nights ago, and probably gave it 4,300 or closer to 4,400.
Neon Philharmonic, "Morning Girl" from '69. The steady drumbeat in this one doesn't seem to play very well with the orchestral part. There are strings, keyboards and horns. Not very good. 4,750.
Neil Diamond, "Cherry Cherry" from '66. 2,200.
Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Green River", 1969. 4,400.
Four Seasons, "Workin' My Way Back to You", '66. That was about the time when I saw the Four Seasons at the Chemung County Fair in Elmira. I went with a group of my friends from high school; I think it was '66, after my freshman year of college. While waiting for the show, we did the usual fair things for late-teen boys. We saw the girly show in one of the tents. I don't remember anything about the woman, which would confirm my suspicion that they were nothing to write home about. I do remember we could buy a box of stale popcorn for a dollar and have a chance to win a prize. Can't remember whether there was a prize in every box or just "big" prizes like a cheap, sparkly ring. There was s shill planted in the audience who actually found a ring is his box. We might have been hicks, but we weren't stupid. It wasn't too much after this that Frankie Valli went off on his own for a bit. 2,100.
Tom Jones, "Delilah", 1968. I was not a big Tom Jones fan, probably because I wasn't the right demographic. I didn't have any panties to throw at him, as women used to do. I'm pretty sure he took his name from the Henry Fielding novel that became a popular movie that was racy for its time. The most risque movie I'd seen, but that wouldn't be saying much. 4,100.
Next: voice recording #243, Jan. 3.
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