Neil Sedaka!

For some reason, this song popped into my head this morning.

Elton John and Neil Sedaka teamed up for this hit from 1975...

Whenever I hear Neil Sedaka, I'm reminded of England.  He was popular during the years we lived there.  I was a little kid in those days.  It seems like so long ago, yet it also doesn't seem like that much time has passed.  I think of what life was like in the 1970s.  Of course it would be different for me back then because I was a small child.  At the same time, it doesn't seem so long ago that I was a child.  

Neil Sedaka is well know for his hit, "Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do"...  He had a fast version and a slow one.

His slower version...

"Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do" was also covered by The Carpenters.

I like what Karen and Richard did with this.

Neil Sedaka used to open concerts for The Carpenters, but apparently Richard fired him for being "too good" and stealing their show.  He also allegedly introduced Tom Jones, who was at a Carpenters concert, as a special guest.  Richard was supposedly upset about that because it's customary for headlining acts to introduce special guests.  I read about the incident in Ray Coleman's 1994 book The Carpenters: The Untold Story, which was an authorized biography.  You can also read about it on Wikipedia.  

Despite the firing, Karen and Richard went on to record Sedaka's "Solitaire".  It's one of my favorite songs by them.  I also like what Neil did with it.

Neil Sedaka sings "Solitaire".

"Calendar Girl" is another one of Sedaka's best known songs.  Every time I hear it, I'm reminded of commercials.  There was a time in the 70s and 80s when it was used in jingles.

Of course, being a child of the 70s and 80s, "Laughter In The Rain" was a part of the soundtrack of my youth.  I actually really like this song.

"Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen" always reminds me of the show Rags to Riches, which aired on NBC in the late 80s and was set in the 60s.  The girls on that show sang this song.

The pilot for Rags to Riches.

Neil and Dara Sedaka sing "Should've Never Let You Go".  Dara is Neil's daughter.

It's been a long time since I last thought about Neil Sedaka.  He was quite the star back in the 60s and 70s.  

My dad had this album.  Apparently, it was released on Elton John's label.  Listen to this song and you'll hear 70s era Elton all over it.  

Solitaire

In the spirit of all the Carpenters stuff I've put on my blog, I decided to try The Carpenters' version of "Solitaire" yesterday.  I think it turned out relatively well.

The Carpenters sing "Solitaire"…

Oddly enough, one of my favorite versions of "Solitaire" is Sheryl Crow's cover of The Carpenters' cover…

The Carpenters were certainly not the only ones who sang this song.  Neil Sedaka co-wrote it and sang it.  Andy Williams sang it.  So did Clay Aiken.  I have always liked it, though it's not my favorite of the many songs Karen and Richard Carpenter performed.  The lyrics are kind of depressing; what really attracts me to this song is probably the brooding melody.  Actually, I kind of wonder what it would sound like if Alison Krauss sang it.  

Neil Sedaka, by the way, used to open for The Carpenters.  According to Ray Coleman's book, The Carpenters: The Untold Story, Richard Carpenter got pissed because people liked Neil Sedaka's opening show better than The Carpenters' show.  I have visions of Richard Carpenter getting really angry and going off about being upstaged.  

Anyway, here's what I did with it.

I am not a big fan of vocally embellishing a lot.  Listening to this, I think maybe it's missing something… but hell, it's karaoke.  You'll probably prefer Karen Carpenter… but it was fun trying this.  

Carpenter ants...

Hilarious singer-songwriter-comedian Red Peters posted this on Facebook today...

I had to rip it off because it's perfect for my Dungeon of the Past.

You're The One...

A lesser known Carpenters song done by moi...  Might redo it at some point.  Photos are from Italy, France, Switzerland, and Germany.

Mike Sammes...

I have mentioned before that when I was a little girl, my dad would play music for me.  We both enjoyed Olivia Newton-John, so I have already blogged about her.  One thing I always wondered about was the identity of the deep voiced guy who sang backup on her earliest recordings.  I finally asked the right person, who discovered the mystery man's identity.  Why I couldn't find this out on my own, I'll never know.  I mean, I can Google with the best of 'em.  But now I know, so here's a blog post dedicated to the late Mr. Sammes, who had quite a colorful and interesting history in rock and roll.

Turns out Mike Sammes led a choir of sorts-- The Mike Sammes Singers-- who recorded seven albums in the United Kingdom and were responsible for backing vocals on The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus" and "Goodnight".

Oddly enough, my first exposure to the song "Goodnight" was a rendition by The Carpenters, which also used a choral sound to back up her lead vocals...

The choir in this version came from the Carpenters' alma mater, California State University, Long Beach, and Richard Carpenter's professor and friend, Frank Pooler.

Anyway, all that is cool and shit, but I'm most interested in Mike Sammes' distinctive vocals.  Check 'em out...

 You can hear him on the chorus...

And even more on "If You Love Me Let me Know"...

Here too... This video is totally freaky...

In this video, Olivia's got quite the accent.  I was in the womb when this was recorded.  I feel old now.

Mike Sammes' career apparently really suffered by the mid 1970s, because artists were using overdubbing and multi-tracks to do their own backup singing.  The Carpenters were really into doing that.  And I know Olivia did a lot of her own backup, too.  Still, Mike Sammes had a very interesting and distinctive voice that lent some color to Olivia's otherwise whitebread songs.  He sort of gave those songs a real old school country feel.

I might have to learn more about this guy.

Rainy Days and Mondays...

It's pouring outside.  It's Monday.  I had a terrible night trying to digest last night's high fat dinner of short ribs.  This morning, I've spent some quality time at the toilet as my body kicks everything out...  To top it all off, I dry heaved after trying to brush my teeth.  Yep, I'd have to say today has not gotten off to the best start.  So I think this classic Carpenters song is the perfect theme for this morning...

I have actually always loved this song, even though it's what a good friend of mine would call "Brently".  Never heard the term "Brently"?  Allow me to explain.  When we were in college, this friend and I were pretty much inseparable.  We lived in the same dormitory freshman year but on different floors, because he was a guy and I was a gal and the dorm had communal bathrooms.

Anyway, there was a weird guy who lived on my friend's floor, name of Brent.  Brent looked like a cross between Ronald McDonald and Jesus Christ.  He used to ride around campus on a bike with no shirt on.  He was emaciated, so it wasn't the prettiest sight.  Normally, I wouldn't make fun of a person due to their looks, but Brent had an equally unpleasant personality.

He was not popular with others on our hall because he was a tattletale-- He busted his hallmates for underage drinking during their freshman seminar class.  He was very arrogant-- he actually told women that he could have any "white girl" he wanted.  Brent happened to be involved in an interracial relationship, which is not a big deal, but he seemed to have a problem with it, hence his unfortunate and untrue comment about his ability to date women of his own race... or any woman, for that matter.

Brent was also an asshole.  One time, he sent my good friend a letter that was supposedly from our college's Honor Board.  My friend knew the letter was fake because it was very poorly written.  He decided to get back at Brent by "busting" him for his sword collection, which was a big no no on campus.  My friend, who was a fellow English major, sent Brent a very professional letter that actually looked like it came from a disciplinary board at our school.  Brent freaked out and started running up and down the hall in a panic.

My friend felt bad for Brent, so he came clean about what he'd done.  Instead of being relieved that he was the victim of a prank and wasn't about to be kicked out of school, Brent grabbed my friend by the lapels, backed him up at the wall, sneered "Oh... so you think it's funny, huh?", and then promptly kneed my poor buddy right in the nuts.  As he crumpled up on the floor, my friend croaked, "No Brent... I just feel SICK."

So anyway, Brent had a bad habit of looking at the dark side of things.  He was a bit of a self-pitier and would go around moaning and groaning.  And I guess he had good reason to moan and groan, because he also claimed to have amoebic dysentery.  One day, on the way to the dining hall, Brent said, "Shit!"  When other people from the hall asked him what was wrong, he said he'd just shit himself.  Apparently his condition did not lend itself to bowel control.

My friend noticed how self-pitying and whiney Brent tended to be, so he took to using Brent's name to describe someone who was being a victim, whining too much, or succumbing to self-pity.  Twenty years later, I still use that word sometimes when something or someone seems to be feeling too sorry for themselves.  And "Rainy Days and Mondays", while it is one of my favorite Carpenters songs, is a tad on the whiney side.

Nevertheless, it seems to fit today's mood, since not only is it a rainy Monday morning, but my bowels are acting a bit like ol' Brent's.  I guess I'll go fix myself a nice gentle breakfast so I don't spend the rest of the day feeling too "Brently".

I'll Never Fall In Love Again...

I found myself in a Burt Bacharach mood this afternoon when this cover of "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" from the show Promises, Promises popped into my head...  Gotta admit the lyrics are pretty clever!