Listen: Sign Of The Times / The Belle Stars BelleStarsSignOfTheTimes.mp3

I did some research, having posted about The Bodysnatchers a few weeks back. I was sure some of them evolved into The Belle Stars and wanted to confirm – which I finally did. Meanwhile, I started playing their singles. They had quite a few greats. One of the later releases, and a final hit, ‘Sign Of The Times’ is really a testament to what practice and touring can do if you’ve got some skills. They were a bit of a shambles initially but got good quick. This was almost a hit here. A nice one to rediscover.

Listen: No Regrets / Tom Rush TomRushNoRegrets.mp3

Can’t stand the sound of a lawn mower. Really hate them. Probably because they remind me of how I earned money to buy records as a kid, mowing the lawn of every neighbor in the block. Lucky for me, all my friends were lazy – so the jobs came my way. I would go up and down each yard, factor out every financial threshold point that meant….ding ding ding…..enough to buy another album.

By this time, I was scamming stacks of 45′s from the local adult station, WMCR. Albums were another story though. The station got very few, meaning those I had to buy. One lawn mowing marathon, bitterly undertaken while my buddies got to go swimming, yielded The Cream FRESH CREAM and Tom Rush THE CIRCLE GAME. Remember it vividly.

I was eyeing that Tom Rush title for a few weeks. It was on Elektra, a plus. I liked the quality of their pressings and packaging, having already owned both the first two Love album, The Doors and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s EAST WEST by then. Elektra meant good stuff and all us record nuts trusted the label’s taste.

Little did I know, Tom Rush would indeed become a national treasure, to me at least. I reckon he’s the US equivalent of Nick Drake. Not that anyone’s ever mentioned that, but I do wish they would.

How chuffed was I when The Walker Brothers covered ‘No Regrets’ in ’75, and so incredibly as well. It was a nice feeling of reward for being an early fan. I know that song – see I was right.

Listen: Meet Me Boys On The Battle Front / The Wild Tchoupitoulas 02 Meet Me Boys On The Battlefront.mp3

Listen: Brother John / The Wild Tchoupitoulas 01 Brother John.mp3

Listen: Man Smart, Woman Smarter / Robert Palmer 03 Man Smart Woman Smarter.mp3

Turns out the legendary album by The Wild Tchoupitoulas was even more legendary than originally thought. It was a bit of a first in it’s day, critics choice and all that. I remember Kathy Kenyon sending an envelope of singles to my college radio station back in ’76. She worked at Island then, left for several years and ended up returning when I started in the 80′s.

That package included these two Wild Tchoupitoulas 7″s and Robert Palmer’s ‘Man Smart, Woman Smarter’. Seems the label was going through a New Orleans fetish. Robert Palmer’s album, as well as Jess Roden’s then current one, were all recorded there with either The Meters, The Neville Brothers and/or Allen Toussaint contributing. When Chris Blackwell goes for something, he goes for it.

Apparently, The Wild Tchoupitoulas project lead to the formation of The Neville Brothers, who until it’s recording, had never played together. Hard to believe they, not only as brothers but a band, started a long career as a result of that very album.

Listen: Tell It Like It Is / Aaron Neville 08 Tell It Like It Is.mp3

For some reason, Island UK reissued the Aaron Neville single ‘Tell It Like It Is’, originally on Stateside in England. That newly re-issued pressing was also included in Kathy’s package. It reminded me of how much I loved it, not owning the original at the time.

All in all, a pretty memorable package, thanks Kathy.

Listen: That’s What I Want / The Square Set ThatsWhatIWant.mp3

Nice thing about collecting records, you always find something you didn’t know you needed. Thankfully that never ends. This record is an example.

Apparently, pretty sought after by mod jazz collectors, I stumbled on it via an eBay listing back in 2007. I have a daily search set up for UK A labels. So one day, there it was, listed for auction and on UK Decca, which is a favorite. Luckily, the dealer posted an mp3 too. I checked it out and was immediately interested. I wasn’t prepared for the closing price though, about $200, and therefore got horribly outbid.

Had been searching ever since, waiting for another copy to be listed. Nothing.

Luckily, I finally found my copy, sitting there in a pile of 50p demo singles during a crack of dawn troll of Portobello Road junk dealers a few Saturdays ago while in London. Minor miracle indeed.

Still don’t know much about these guys. I think they’re from South Africa, and like the track’s retro psych style, their charm was all about sounding quite out of date, even in their time.

Although released in ’71, it has a perfect mid 60′s jazz organ sound, not sounding unlike Manfred Mann, if they’d attempted a Flamingo Club all nighter styled single. It’s since become a party staple.

US Picture Sleeve: Front (above) / Back (below)

Listen: My Ship Is Coming In / The Walker Brothers
My Ship Is Coming In / The Walker Brothers

I will never forget the Friday night I walked into Two Guys Department store with my parents. As usual, I headed straight to the record department while they proceeded to do some weekly shopping. The singles were displayed all along the the tops of the album bins, each in their own metal rack holding about 25 copies. I wish I had photos.

There in brilliant full color, was the above Walker Brothers picture sleeved single, ‘My Ship Is Coming In’, a solid 25 copies freshly unboxed. I could hardly breathe. They looked fantastic in bulk. The sleeve just radiated about one hundred times more intensely than anything else in sight, like a messiah. I still get tingles looking at the cover. It brings me right back. I owned it minutes later.

I could not get home fast enough, freaking out in the dark car, holding this masterpiece but only getting to glimpse at it as we passed under traffic lights and street lamps. God knows how many times I played it that night. It was not guitar based British beat, but instead sounded like music grownups listened too. Yet clearly there was something addictive in it’s air. I decided then and there, I was going to love this record. That was that. I did then and I still do.

Years later Scott Walker would reveal that while all his contemporaries in London were modeling themselves after American blues greats, his attention was focused on becoming the next Eddie Fisher. How genius was this guy?

Listen: The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore) / The Walker Brothers
The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore) / The Walker Brothers

The world was not ready for the followup to ‘My Ship Is Coming In’. Mine certainly wasn’t. How could The Walker Brothers possibly up the perfection of that record? Then along comes ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)’, a flop a few years earlier for Franki Valli. He and The Four Seasons had loads of great records, and he’s no slouch in the vocal department. But Scott Walker he is not, no one is.

I swear, this record can still stop me in my tracks when it comes up on the ipod or BBC’s Radio 2. I heard it on the 60′s Sirius radio channel aboard a JetBlue flight recently. As diverse and truly exciting that the many other songs were, this just grabbed the prize unchallenged.

I saw Matt Pinfield the other day. He had Matt & Kim on his morning WRXP radio show, so I went along. Pinfield is the most kind hearted and passionate music fan, really knows his stuff, loves records. We worked together at Columbia and got connected at the hip. Somehow the subject of ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)’ came up. Almost in unison, we both blurted out nearly identical sentences.

“This may be the greatest single of all time.”

Deservedly, it spent a month at #1 in the UK. See the three consecutive NME charts below, reprinted from 40 YEARS OF THE NME CHARTS. Despite not one US TV appearance or live show, it did get played here and had a decent chart run, peaking at #13 in BILLBOARD. It should have, at least, gone Top 10 but given the many singles that never ever charted, there’s some contentment in it’s placing.