Several years ago I did a series of posts on “song obscurities“. I’m still (mildly) embarrassed to admit that I missed Just to See Her by Smokey Robinson at the time of its release (it reached somewhere between #8 and #1, depending on the chart you consult!) If you do visit (revisit) that particular post you’ll get the “bonus” opportunity to hear ABC‘s tribute When Smokey Sings.
Anyway, that brings me to today…
More Obscurity
As I mentioned, we’ve been enjoying a trial subscription to Sirius XM (see February’s instalment I Didn’t Know). While listening yesterday, I heard something I’d never heard before… I Could Be So Good to You by Don and the Goodtimes. This time round I think I could be excused for missing the song when it was released in 1967. It was the band’s biggest hit… and it only reached #56 on Billboard’s Hot 100. That said, it’s a great song to sing (and dance) along with the band. Join the gang…
The “Don” who fronted that band was Don Galluci. At fifteen he had already achieved pop music fame as the keyboardist in another group called The Kingsmen. It is his keyboard riff on Louie Louie which, along with the unintelligible lyrics, helped propel the song’s rise to #2 on the Billboard charts in 1963 (and #1 on Cashbox). As David Marsh, in his book The History and Mythology of the World’s Most Famous Rock ‘n’ Roll Song said of it, “It is the best of songs, it is the worst of songs…” So here’s the best AND the worst…
That may or may not be Galluci seen in this live performance on YouTube. Because he was deemed too young to tour with the band, he quit in 1964 and formed his own group.
A Tribute and Yet More Obscurity
This month marks the passing of Kenny Rogers (March 20), a major figure in Country Music for over fifty years. Oddly I first remember hearing him as lead singer (of The First Edition) in an unlikely psychedelic tune called Just Dropped In in 1967.
The song became Rogers‘ first top ten hit (#5)… but certainly not his last.
However, today I’ve chosen a lesser known track from his 1979 album, Kenny… You Turn the Light On.
While the song may not be the best known in the Kenny Rogers canon, it benefited from greater attention than a recording of the same song by The Association. We (Jane and I) saw the band perform in a Toronto club in the early eighties and I was sufficiently impressed with their interpretation (the recording quality below does not do justice to their live performance that night) that I commented to Terry Kirkman (of the band) that their song deserved greater exposure. He replied that, unfortunately, Rogers’ version had its premiere before the band could release their single.
The Association never released an album containing this single and it, consequently, remains an obscurity which only a few fans will remember.
The Morgan Musings 