No One Else Remembers 1/12/10

[H2IZCOOL]

Well .. last month i promised I'd bring this feature back, albeit in modified format. Then I posted one set of three songs and since then ....nada.

Time to get my butt in gear and get back to it. So here are three more songs.

1. As The Years Go By - Mashmakhan (1970; peaked at #31) Some of you may remember this as being discussed here on The Click maybe 2 years ago or so, during one of our parties. I think Viki was the person who described a song with an organ accompaniment that morphed into the lead singer singing in a loud melodramatic voice "I will love you forever!" After several people tried to figure out what the song was, I think it was MC who correctly hit on it.

IMO, that is a whole lot more recognition than the song deserves. The organ sounds tinny, the whole song sounds like it was recorded underwater and worst of all the lyrics are both trite and stupid. Other than that, it's a great song! I did hear it a lot (too much) back in the day.



(Note: I'm posting this from work, so I can only access the URL address, I can't see if it's the right video. Let me know if it is not, and I'll repost when I get home.)


2. Loving You Has Made Me Bananas - Guy Marks (1968; #51)
Guy's real name was Mario Scarpa. He was a comedian and impressionist, and had this one basically novelty hit. It is a spoof of the style and sound of the big band era. The lyrics contain a bunch of non sequitors including the very funny line "your red scarf matches your eyes". I remember this from the day. It didn't get a lot of airplay, but the DJs would throw it in now and then as a change of pace.



3. Moonshine (Friend of Mine) - John Kay (1973; unranked)
When I moved to Canada (Nova Scotia) in the fall of 1973, this song was all over the radio. I had never heard it in the States, and figured that John Kay must be some Canadian country and western singer (they do have that 30% Canadian content thing there). I really liked the song though. Until I did my research for this post though, I didn't realize the rest of it. Yes. It is THAT John Kay - frontman of Steppenwolf. And yes, he is Canadian.

[Ken]

1. As The Years Go By - Mashmakhan (1970; peaked at #31) - I remember hearing this song many times in the 70's and 80's, but I didn't discover the name of the band until sometime in the mid 80's.I've always liked both the organ part and the drumming.

A little trivia: Drummer Jerry Mercer later joined April Wine (he is now retired!

2.Loving You Has Made Me Bananas - Guy Marks (1968; #51) I've never heard it before, reminds me of "Winchester Cathedral"

3.Moonshine (Friend of Mine) - John Kay (1973; unranked) I'm more familiar with the version by The Five Man Electrical Band. I knew John covered it, but didn't hear this version until a couple of years ago.

[Dawn]

I remember that post about "As the Years Go By." I agree that the sound quality of the recording could have been better, but it's an interesting tune. It would have been a perfect choice for the Rhino Have A Nice Day series.

Like Ken, I had not been familiar with the Guy Marks song. It's definitely dated for 1968, but does have a certain charm.

I'm surprised the John Kay song didn't catch on better in the States, as the country-rock style was beginning to become more and more popular by 1973, and this would have fit in well. I wonder if it got much airplay on U.S. country stations?

[H2IZCOOL]

Jan 12, 2010 22:53:22 GMT -5 Ken said:

1. As The Years Go By - Mashmakhan (1970; peaked at #31) - I remember hearing this song many times in the 70's and 80's, but I didn't discover the name of the band until sometime in the mid 80's.I've always liked both the organ part and the drumming.

A little trivia: Drummer Jerry Mercer later joined April Wine (he is now retired!

2.Loving You Has Made Me Bananas - Guy Marks (1968; #51) I've never heard it before, reminds me of "Winchester Cathedral"

3.Moonshine (Friend of Mine) - John Kay (1973; unranked) I'm more familiar with the version by The Five Man Electrical Band. I knew John covered it, but didn't hear this version until a couple of years ago.

I've only become familiar with the Five Man Electrical Band version about a year or so ago. I prefer the John Kay version probably because of the "heard it first" syndrome.

[H2IZCOOL]

Jan 12, 2010 23:54:25 GMT -5 Dawn said:

I remember that post about "As the Years Go By." I agree that the sound quality of the recording could have been better, but it's an interesting tune. It would have been a perfect choice for the Rhino Have A Nice Day series.

Like Ken, I had not been familiar with the Guy Marks song. It's definitely dated for 1968, but does have a certain charm.

I'm surprised the John Kay song didn't catch on better in the States, as the country-rock style was beginning to become more and more popular by 1973, and this would have fit in well. I wonder if it got much airplay on U.S. country stations?

In the '67-'68 timeframe there were a few songs similar to the Guy Marks tune that had a style popular maybe 25-30 years earlier. As Ken pointed out, one was "Winchester Cathedral" by The New Vaudeville Band (another version also by The New Happiness). Another was "Hello, Hello" by The Sopwith Camel, and still another was "The Eggplant that Ate Chicago" by Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band (who was really Norman Greenbaum).

[m c dornan]

I never heard of the Marks and Kay songs before (both by artists using aliases, BTW).

"As the Years Go By" is certainly not trite. I don't know of any other song that goes into all the different things people can mean by "i love you", Your typical love song certainly doesn't.

[Pete70s]

I didn't know John Kay had another solo single, all I knew was "I'm Moving On", the Hank Snow song. Definitely a change of pace from the hard-rocking Steppenwolf! (BTW- John was born and raised in East Germany, and fled to Canada as a teenager. His autobiography is very fascinating!)

Mashmakhan I know, don't love it, don't hate it.... It's just "eh..."