No One Else Remembers #11

[H2IZCOOL]

As promised, heres another edition for the weekend. Don't forget to read and respond to #10 also.

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas (1968 - #81) From the movie of nearly the same name (no “the” in the movie title) starring Sydney Poitier and Abbey Lincoln. It featured those great Mamas and Papas harmonies that we had grown accustomed to, but for whatever reason, it never climbed higher. It was also close to their last charting single.

Baby Face – Bobby Vee (1961 – unranked)
For Me and My Gal – Freddy Cannon (1961 - #71)
That Old Black Magic – Bobby Rydell (1961 -#21)
I’m listing these three together because of what they have in common. In 1961 three of the established rock/pop stars of the day each recorded an old standard that dated from at least a couple of decades earlier. I know of no reason for the more or less coincidental recordings. Bobby Vee still tried to sound like Buddy Holly when he sang Baby Face, Freddy Cannon shout-sang For Me and My Gal like he did with every other song he sang, and Bobby Rydell did a pretty good imitation of a lounge singer for That Old Black Magic. All three songs received a considerable amount of airplay that year, but only the Rydell effort came close to cracking the top 20.

Me and My Arrow – Nilsson (1971 - #34) Harry Nilsson interspersed a couple of huge hits with several secondary ones like this. I know JP did a Nilsson song as a lost song recently. I don’t thing it was this one, but it would fit the bill.

Swamp Witch – Jim Stafford (1973 - #39) Jim Stafford made a living in the early ‘70s with a series of novelty hits – or at least comedic songs. But before that, his first chart record was this. There was nothing funny about this one. Seeped in mystery and hidden danger and proverb type “judge not” message. It was also a rap before there was rap.

The Eggplant That Ate Chicago – Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band (1966 -#52) Capitalizing on the sudden revival of the Vaudeville sound of hits like Winchester Cathedral came this novelty song that spoofed a nonexistent movie called The Monster That Devoured Cleveland.

First Quarrel – Paul and Paula (1963 - #27) Following the success of the duet of Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson performing as Paul and Paula with Hey Paula and to a lesser extent Young Lovers, the duo continued their spiral down into oblivion with this third chapter of the Paul and Paula life story. No one else remembers this because it is quite forgettable. They were certainly an “every song sounds alike” duo.

I (Who Have Nothing) – Terry Knight and the Pack (1966 - #46) Interesting cover of the Ben E King classic. It includes a narration. The vocals are very good, but the narration I could do without. The Pack included Don Brewer and Mark Farner, later of Grand Funk.

Unwind – Ray Stevens (1968 - #52). Another noted novelty artist with a very good non-novelty, straight pop/country song. This one and Mr. Businessman really were polar opposites fro Ahab the Arab and The Streak.

[55dodger]

The only song I know is Me & My Arrow.

[m c dornan]

Well, I remember "I Who Have Nothing", "Unwind", "Me and My Arrow" (ugh), and "Eggplant that Ate Chicago"

"Me and My Arrow" was indeed one of the Lost Songs of the Day.

I know the song "For Love of Ivy", but I think I heard it by a solo girl singer.

Did Mitch Ryder also do "I Who Have Nothing"?

Nice to be reminded of Unwind! Would like to hear that again...

[H2IZCOOL]

mcdornan1 said:

Did Mitch Ryder also do "I Who Have Nothing"?

I don't think he did, Mike.

I wonder if you're thinking of What Now My Love - which is somewhat a similar song. Mitch did a psychedelic version of that.

[m c dornan]

h2izcool said:

mcdornan1 said:

Did Mitch Ryder also do "I Who Have Nothing"?

I don't think he did, Mike.

I wonder if you're thinking of What Now My Love - which is somewhat a similar song. Mitch did a psychedelic version of that.

Nope- I was checking the song. Looks like Mitch never covered it. But Tom Jones did (later in the 60s) , and I think that's the song I had in my mind.

[Dawn]

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas (1968 - #81)
I have a Mamas & the Papas collection, but I don't think this is included. I'd like to check it out, though. Their later career work is quite solid, yet very overlooked.

Me and My Arrow – Nilsson (1971 - #34)
I heard this for the first time about 7 years ago. Not quite up there with Everybody's Talkin' and I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City, but a nice little tune.

Swamp Witch – Jim Stafford (1973 - #39)
Very unusual song. As you say, much darker and mysterious than the other hits he's known for. This one reminds me of another song I've heard, but I can't quite put my finger on which one.

[H2IZCOOL]

admin said:

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas (1968 - #81)
I have a Mamas & the Papas collection, but I don't think this is included. I'd like to check it out, though. Their later career work is quite solid, yet very overlooked.

Is it an early collection, or is it just left off? It seems that there are a lot of greatest hits collections floating around that are incomplete, leaving out some hits (usually lesser hits) but including some totally obscure songs. I guess sometimes the compiler does not have rights to some of the music and has to substitute, but at other times I think they take too many liberties with what they call hits.

[Pete70s]

I know and like the Mamas & Papas song.

Me & My Arrow is a little strange, but good. From "The Point".

And Terry Knight & The Pack: My sister had a double album on ABKCO called "Mark, Don & Terry" (Done in the same style of the Grand Funk collection "Mark, Don & Mel", with a blue cover and green lettering instead of Black & Red), obviously compiled to capitalize on the success of Grand Funk. Most of the songs on it were rip-offs of other artists styles ("Dimestore Debutante" was a blatant "Like A Rolling Stone" re-write, "I've Been Told" was a re-write of the Stones "Play With Fire"). "I (Who Have Nothing)" was on this album, and it also appears on the Cameo/Parkway box. But it's not that good (and yes, the narration KILLS it for me!) They made better music as Grand Funk.

[KittyKat - RIP Luciano]

I usually don't remember the songs that you list in these posts Ed, but these most recent ones I'm actually familiar with more than a couple.

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas
I like this song better than a few of their "hits". I do have it on a Greatest Hits collection for them that I bought about 10 years ago. It was the first time I became familiar with the tune.


Me and My Arrow – Nilsson
One of Harry's best IMO.

First Quarrel – Paul and Paula
A little story (that I might've told here on the Click before actually) - my mother's name is Paula; and when she was in highschool and college this duet group was fairly popular, especially in SW Pennsylvania where she lived. All the boys in school used to torture my mother by singing "Hey Hey Paula" as she would walk down the halls or on campus. So she developed a immense hatred for this duo and all of their songs.
Fast forward a couple of decades - my dad loves to tease/torture my mom by singing Paul and Paula songs to her. It's actually very cute - this is one of his faves to sing.

[Dawn]

h2izcool said:

admin said:

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas (1968 - #81)
I have a Mamas & the Papas collection, but I don't think this is included. I'd like to check it out, though. Their later career work is quite solid, yet very overlooked.

Is it an early collection, or is it just left off? It seems that there are a lot of greatest hits collections floating around that are incomplete, leaving out some hits (usually lesser hits) but including some totally obscure songs. I guess sometimes the compiler does not have rights to some of the music and has to substitute, but at other times I think they take too many liberties with what they call hits.

It covers pretty much their entire hit span, but doesn't seem to include a couple of their lesser singles. You make a good point about the incomplete greatest hits collections. Although the more recent releases seem to be getting more comprehensive, as you mentioned there are still a lot of them with missing hits and odd track selections. One example that comes to mind is the Association's Greatest Hits. For some reason, Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies, a top 40 hit, wasn't included, but several lesser-known tracks were.

[H2IZCOOL]

pete70s said:

And Terry Knight & The Pack: My sister had a double album on ABKCO called "Mark, Don & Terry" (Done in the same style of the Grand Funk collection "Mark, Don & Mel", with a blue cover and green lettering instead of Black & Red), obviously compiled to capitalize on the success of Grand Funk. Most of the songs on it were rip-offs of other artists styles ("Dimestore Debutante" was a blatant "Like A Rolling Stone" re-write, "I've Been Told" was a re-write of the Stones "Play With Fire"). "I (Who Have Nothing)" was on this album, and it also appears on the Cameo/Parkway box. But it's not that good (and yes, the narration KILLS it for me!) They made better music as Grand Funk.

I think I remember you posting about Terry Knight and the Pack before, Pete. Were they featured in your Contender series or something else?

[H2IZCOOL]

kittykat said:

I usually don't remember the songs that you list in these posts Ed, but these most recent ones I'm actually familiar with more than a couple.

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas
I like this song better than a few of their "hits". I do have it on a Greatest Hits collection for them that I bought about 10 years ago. It was the first time I became familiar with the tune.


First Quarrel – Paul and Paula
A little story (that I might've told here on the Click before actually) - my mother's name is Paula; and when she was in highschool and college this duet group was fairly popular, especially in SW Pennsylvania where she lived. All the boys in school used to torture my mother by singing "Hey Hey Paula" as she would walk down the halls or on campus. So she developed a immense hatred for this duo and all of their songs.
Fast forward a couple of decades - my dad loves to tease/torture my mom by singing Paul and Paula songs to her. It's actually very cute - this is one of his faves to sing.

Reading your comments on the Mamas and Papas Greatest Hits and Dawn's makes me wonder just how many Greatest Hits albums a group needs -- theoretically it should be just as many as it takes to fit all of their greatest hits on to. Instead, if you take a group that had -say - 20 hits, and their career is over - you may have to buy 4 different greatest hits albums to get all their hits. Each one will miss a couple, and add some non-hits or whatever, and before you know it, you've shelled out $50 or more to get what should cost $20.

I had a co-worker here several years ago whose name was (and I suppose still is) Paula. Every time I'd see her instead of saying Hi Paula, I'd say Hey Hey Paula, and she'd reply Hello Mr. Ed.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

h2izcool said:

kittykat said:

Reading your comments on the Mamas and Papas Greatest Hits and Dawn's makes me wonder just how many Greatest Hits albums a group needs -- theoretically it should be just as many as it takes to fit all of their greatest hits on to. Instead, if you take a group that had -say - 20 hits, and their career is over - you may have to buy 4 different greatest hits albums to get all their hits. Each one will miss a couple, and add some non-hits or whatever, and before you know it, you've shelled out $50 or more to get what should cost $20.

Well Ed, I think you know the reason for this-$$$. Record companies will try to put out as many versions as they can, occasionally offering a "new" or "lost" track. Sometimes it'll be many years inbetween, but many times, they'll put out a double or triple disc or a box set and then a year or two later, put out a "more affordable" single disc "sampler". So they're getting money from the diehards and then later from the casual fans. They'll also do it the reverse way, putting out a single disc thinking this is all you'll need, then later coming out with a bigger collection hoping you'll realize they had more than a disc's worth of stuff.

[H2IZCOOL]

sat said:

h2izcool said:

Reading your comments on the Mamas and Papas Greatest Hits and Dawn's makes me wonder just how many Greatest Hits albums a group needs -- theoretically it should be just as many as it takes to fit all of their greatest hits on to. Instead, if you take a group that had -say - 20 hits, and their career is over - you may have to buy 4 different greatest hits albums to get all their hits. Each one will miss a couple, and add some non-hits or whatever, and before you know it, you've shelled out $50 or more to get what should cost $20.

Well Ed, I think you know the reason for this-$$$. Record companies will try to put out as many versions as they can, occasionally offering a "new" or "lost" track. Sometimes it'll be many years inbetween, but many times, they'll put out a double or triple disc or a box set and then a year or two later, put out a "more affordable" single disc "sampler". So they're getting money from the diehards and then later from the casual fans. They'll also do it the reverse way, putting out a single disc thinking this is all you'll need, then later coming out with a bigger collection hoping you'll realize they had more than a disc's worth of stuff.

Exactly right, Adam. Now - the question is, with all the download sites available, both paid and free, will this practice go away?

[Laura--I wuv u all :)]

For The Love Of Ivy – The Mamas and Papas (1968 - #81)

Don't know this one.

Baby Face – Bobby Vee (1961 – unranked)
For Me and My Gal – Freddy Cannon (1961 - #71)
That Old Black Magic – Bobby Rydell (1961 -#21)

I'm familiar w/these songs, but not these particular versions.

Me and My Arrow – Nilsson (1971 - #34)

This is a good one. I remember watching the cartoon "The Point", which had this song in it.


Swamp Witch – Jim Stafford (1973 - #39) [/quote]

Ah yes--Hattie and the Black Bayou! Love this one!

The Eggplant That Ate Chicago – Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Junk Band (1966 -#52)
First Quarrel – Paul and Paula (1963 - #27)
I (Who Have Nothing) – Terry Knight and the Pack (1966 - #46)
Unwind – Ray Stevens (1968 - #52)

Nope, don't know these! The title "I Who Have Nothing" sounds familiar, but I haven't heard that version. I need to correct something on your #10 post, though--Paul and Paula were an interracial duo and they charted before B. Vera & J. Clay. "Paul" was white and "Paula" was black. I know this from seeing photos of them. "Paul", aka Ray Hildebrand, went on to write Christian music, btw.