Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that
takes the classic mixtape approach to building
a modern playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn.
Joining me once again as guest curator is my
former TuneStyles co -host, Jay Sweet, as well
as friend of the show, Jimmy Mitchell. Gentlemen,
welcome to the program. Hello there. Good to
be here. Now, we all know Jay's a board shorts
wearing regular here, but Jimmy, you're a first
time guest. So I'd like to start by asking you,
what does the word mixtape mean to you? I used
to make mixtapes. I grew up in the cassette era
in the 70s outside of New York City. And a lot
of the mixtapes weren't even, we would just listen
to the radio, like oldies 101 FM, and I would
just run the tape. I got a lot of my oldies and
doo -wops from that. Well, Jay, back on episode
51, you and I dove into the ultimate golden oldies
and doo -wop of the 50s and 60s. And during that
episode, we said, we need to do a volume two
ASAP. Well, apparently ASAP in our terminology
means 40 plus episodes later. So in a better
late than never moment, we're finally getting
to volume two. What were you looking to bring
to the table this evening with your second batch
of oldies but goodies? Well, I got to tell you,
I think we talked a little bit about how the.
the music of uh if you know about me if you know
me well or if you know a little bit about me
music my musical tastes are are all for those
high tight harmonies and i got a lot of that
out of out of the doo -wop era so you know we
talked about american graffiti about how that
was probably the penultimate soundtrack for the
ultimate do -up and oldies music mixtape but
my dad uh we can we'll talk a little bit about
this i'm sure as we as we go on my father played
in a band called the professors when i was real
real young and they used to play uh all sorts
of covers of great oldies songs and i just fell
in love with it since i was knee high to a knee
as they say Now, Jimmy, as you're being a new
guest on the show, you're bringing an outside
perspective. Now, you've heard Volume 1, which
is Episode 51 for those listening, and now you're
joining us for Volume 2. What were you looking
to bring to the table with your bank of songs
for this evening? Well, I grew up in the 70s
in the disco area in New York City, and I hated
disco. And oldies was popping up, and the group
Sha Na Na. which originated in New York City
and was getting hot and then had a TV show. And
I fell in love with doo -wop. I was in a profession
that I couldn't be in a band or anything. And
20 years later, I took that love of doo -wop
and created a doo -wop acapella group up here
in Syracuse, New York. And after a few years
of that, added a full band and kind of did our
version of Sha Na Na. Doing those kind of harmonies
and songs that I love, and especially the deep
doo -wop. WCBS FM on Sunday nights, Don K. Reid
would dig into some cool classic doo -wop. And
then in the 90s, between the PBS doo -wop specials
and just all the stuff that we can get on the
internet, I could just find more and more about
this stuff. Well, for me, quite frankly, Jay,
I had so many leftovers from Volume 1. I'm just
going to keep pulling from those unless you guys
scoop me on these song choices. There are so
many. I mean, we talked about that towards the
end of the episode that, you know, we could do
a volume two, we could do a volume 20 at this
point. Well, tonight, as I mentioned at the top
of this show, for this volume two episode, Jimmy,
Jay, and I will be curating the ultimate golden
oldies and doo -wop of the 50s and 60s mixtape,
and we'll use the old cassette deck approach.
But since I have two guests this evening, the
format will be slightly altered from the usual,
as tonight Jimmy will begin side A with his first
song choice, and then we'll roundtable the panel
until we've mapped out 10 songs for side A. We'll
then give our mixtape a proverbial flip. And
we'll map outside, be only this time Jay will
kick off the roundtable discussions. Our overall
goal for the episode is to craft the best golden
oldies and doo -wop mixtape possible through
this new batch of 21 songs or seven song choices
each. At the end of the show, you can take our
conversation to the next level by visiting the
episode page at myweeklymixtape .com to give
our final mixtape a listen via the embedded playlist.
And if you like what you're hearing on the show,
you can help me out by either telling a friend,
leaving the show a five -star review wherever
you're tuning in, or becoming a Patreon mixtaper
at patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape.
There you can enjoy ad -free episodes of the
show, become a future guest, and so much more,
such as chiming in on episode topics such as
this one, which a few of the Patreon mixtapers
have done. And I'd like to give a quick shout
out to a few of those. Christopher Pazica chimed
in with the Penguins' Earth Angel. Philip Bergman
chimed in saying as someone who made 40 -ish
mixtapes just from the oldie station in his younger
days, picking one song is cruel. I think we all
feel that pain tonight. But he went back to the
dawn of rock and roll with Bill Haley and his
Comets cover of Big Joe Turner's Shake, Rattle
and Roll. Chad LaMassa chimed in with the monotones
The Book of Love. Mike Daly chimed in with a
more modern cover song, and you know me and my
love of cover songs. He went with Huey Lewis
and the News' take on the Soul Brothers 6's 1967
track, She's Some Kind of Wonderful, from their
Four Chords and Several Years Ago album. If the
Soul Brothers 6 doesn't ring a bell, in 1973,
Grand Funk Railroad covered this song, and that
version reached number three on the Billboard
US Hot 100. Ben from the Too Vague podcast chimed
in with Roy Orbison's 1964 hit Working for the
Man. Brandon from Virginia chimed in saying his
mother -in -law would force a divorce if he didn't
suggest Never My Love or Along Comes Mary from
the association since his wife's stepfather was
in the original band. And finally, Ed Kennard
chimed in with The Rays' Silhouettes. on the
shade. Once again, if you'd like to chime in
for future My Weekly Mixtape episodes, come join
the fellow mixtapers at patreon .com forward
slash My Weekly Mixtape. So Jimmy, the Patreon
mixtapers put a ton of musical food out in the
atmosphere. And with that, I'm officially pressing
the record button on our mixtape and the floor
is yours. Why don't you dive into the song you
chose to kick off side A. You know, everything
that you probably thought you knew about the
50s is probably wrong. Jay's mentioned American
graffiti and happy days and all that. Well, in
1968, you know, we had the riots recently and
they had closed down Columbia. On 68, they closed
down Columbia. Some students actually took over
the campus and kidnapped the dean. And then the
next year, Columbia was willing to do anything
to kind of. as a pressure release valve. So they
had their acapella group, the Kingsmen, do a
show. And they wanted to get a recording contract.
They had some guys there. And that group was
Sha Na Na? Sha Na Na. Oh, did I mean that out?
I'm sorry. Yeah. No, that's okay. I kind of knew
where you were going with that. It was Sha Na
Na. They couldn't be called the Kingsmen because
Kingsmen had Louie Louie. Right. So their agent
said, can't call you the Kingsmen. put -ons and
george leonard who is the genius behind this
whole creation said no we should be called shanana
after get a job by the silhouette and that's
what was born so to make the long story short
they decided to add a band and they did a couple
of gigs columbia And then they got a gig in New
York City and Steve Paul's the scene. And they
were playing for the theater crowd after they
got out. And they caused such a scene. And the
Village Voice called them the in act to see.
So the last night before the mob shut down the
scene for not paying protection money, this artist
came in and said, you guys got to be a Woodstock.
And they said, what's a Woodstock? And that's
why. Get a Job by the Silhouettes was played
at Woodstock. And that's my choice to kick off
this set. Oh, that's so cool. I love that. There
is so much to say about Sha Na Na. And I know
you mentioned that at the top of the show that
they had their own variety showcase. I believe
that. They were guests on The Muppet Show, were
they not? Mr. Bassman was sung on The Muppet
Show, but I don't think Shanana was on it. Okay.
And I know they were featured prominently in
the movie Grease in 1978, which was a lot of
these great standards, oldie standards that kind
of came out of that. It's an excellent pick.
It's an excellent get a job is a great way to
start off a mixtape with an oldies vibe because
of that great get a job. I love that. I don't
have the Basso like you do, but it rocks you
right into it. Released in 1957 and reaching
number one on the Billboard Pop and R &B singles
charts, it's the band's only hit single, making
them a perfect candidate if we were to ever do
a one -hit wonders of the 1950s episode. Now,
Jay, you already mentioned it, but I knew this
song growing up from the incredible soundtrack
to American Graffiti, which, let's be honest
here, if I were to just sit here and rattle off,
song by song for my seven choices, all from American
Graffiti. I could pretty much convince anybody
that I did a bang up job on my work for this
evening because to me, it's one of the best compilation
driven soundtracks I've ever heard. Absolutely.
And with that, Jay, you get to follow it up with
your first song pick of the evening, track two.
All right. And so I'm going to go off of the
Shauna Now Road. and introducing my introduction
to doo -wop at a tender age through the grease
soundtrack uh we mentioned as i mentioned just
a little while ago shauna not featured prominently
in that and tears on my pillow Little Anthony
and the Imperials. And that was a great song
and actually was one of the solos that I did
as a member of Street Corner. Did you sing that
to a broken wine bottle? A broken, that I did.
Somebody had broken a glass of wine and we, Robert,
Rob Searle, who was also in the group, and I
kind of riffed on that and sang tears about my
wine being broken. Tears of my pillow, Little
Anthony. Great documentary by Little Anthony.
Anthony and the Imperials. It's on YouTube. And
he talks about their first recording session.
And this song, Tears of My Pill, was given to
them kind of toward the end of the recording
session. The guy, you know, it was a new song
and the guys singing it thought it sounded like
Earth Angel. So instead of, oh, they just changed
it to, ooh. and it's pretty much the same progression
you know the same song in different key with
different words they could do that back then
This was released in 1958. It was Little Anthony
and the Imperials debut recording. The song reached
number four on the Billboard U .S. Hot 100 and
number three in Canada. It was a two -sided hit
because the B -side, Two People in the World,
also became a hit for the group. And you can
thank... legendary New York DJ Alan Freed for
the band name, as they were originally known
as the Imperials, but he announced them on air
as Little Anthony and the Imperials, and the
rest is history. Now, Jay, you know me and my
cover songs. In 1990, Kylie Minogue scored a
worldwide hit. with her faithful rendition of
the song that, while it didn't chart in the U
.S., hit No. 1 on the U .K. singles chart, No.
2 in Europe, No. 35 on Canada's adult contemporary
chart, No. 2 in Ireland, and No. 20 in Australia,
among others. So a worldwide hit. And considering
Kylie's cover of The Locomotion was such a huge
hit in the U .S. a couple of years earlier, I
was shocked. Her version of Tears on My Pillow
didn't catch on either. Yeah, I was going to
mention that her version of the locomotion was
a huge hit here. Yeah, you couldn't escape it.
And then this was apparently the follow -up that
hit all over the world, just not here in the
U .S. Except here. I didn't know it existed.
I'm looking forward to looking and listening
to that. It's a female fronted, very faithful
to the original with that little bit of late
80s, early 90s pop sheen on it. So it's an interesting
cover to say the least. Now, following up Get
a Job and Tears on My Pillow, I'm going to stay
in the 1950s and go with a song that was written
in 1959 by one of the greatest songwriting duos
of that era, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. This
song reached number 23 in the U S and number
20 in Canada. However, it wasn't until another
band re -recorded it in 1964, where it jumped
to number three on the billboard U S hot 100.
I'm going to go with the original and 1959 love
potion. Number nine by the Clovers. However,
the searchers version is the one that is the
quote unquote, bigger hit. Now, There's also
another cover version of this song that I'm sure
many, many vinyl collectors have probably seen
and maybe heard because anybody who's ever gone
vinyl hunting on this earth has certainly stumbled
across a copy of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana
Brasses 1965 album Whipped Cream and Other Delights.
If you've gone vinyl hunting and you see a copy
of this record, but you haven't heard it, pick
it up and give it a listen. It's a very interesting
rendition. This track, Jay, like the Silhouettes
Get a Job, also appeared on the American Graffiti
soundtrack and was the premise of a 1992 Sandra
Bullock movie of the same name. Yeah, I was going
to point out that the Clover version was the
one that was featured on American Graffiti. And
it is probably I'm trying to figure out why it
is that you were so enthralled with the Herb
Albert and Tijuana Brass album cover. I'm not
familiar. I'm not. Why? Why would that be? We're
an audio only podcast. I guess you'll have to
find the album cover and figure it out. Kids,
ask your parents permission. If you talk to doo
-wop aficionados, the Clovers version is the
only version we should be talking about. It's
got the great bass voice. And also, the cool
thing about this, now we recorded this with Street
Corner. And there were two versions of this.
And I believe the single just had the love potion
number nine on and on. And I think it was in
the album version. That at the end said, hadn't
so much fun that I'm going back again. I wonder
what happened with love potion number 10. So
it's such a short song. There's only two lines
in each verse. It's such a short song that when
we performed it, it was too short. So we added,
we wrote another verse. It was a little hokey.
We had Karen, a girl, singing it. And I think
she wrote, I'm glad I found Madame Ruth. I found
my man. Now he knows the truth. I've had so much
fun that I'm going back again. Wonder what happened
with Love Potion number 10 and then Love Potion
number nine. Well, Jimmy, with that, we are back
to you for track four. Where do we go from Love
Potion number nine or 10? OK, this song, anyone
who's any. kid has ever gone by a piano, you've
probably heard this. Well, that progression goes
back to the 30s. Then it became a standard doo
-wop progression. And it was actually the first
one to do it was Richard Rogers and Lauren's
Heart. with the song Blue Moon, which is a pretty
little ballad. In the 20s, I believe, my grandmother,
Martha Wetmore, studied expensively, as her father
called it, at the New York Institute for Music,
which is now commonly known as the Juilliard
School. And her classmates were Dick Rogers,
Larry Hart, Lawrence Hart, and Herbie Fields.
And they were impressed. That she wasn't Jewish
like they were, that she was female, not male
like they were, and that she wasn't from the
city. She was from Glens Falls, New York. So
they just had a wonderful friendship. And when
I was in the second grade and my grandmother
passed before I was born, I had an assignment
for music class and we had to reach out to stars
in New York City. And my mother just. just was
giggling with glee and had me write Richard Rogers.
And he typed me back and you could tell he typed
it himself because the punctuation was all wrong.
And if you know what a typewritten letter in
the 70s should have looked like, this wasn't
it. And he said, Jimmy, I certainly do remember
your grandmother. I remember stopping off on
an automobile trip in New England Falls just
so we could say hello to her. and she was a wonderful
woman so it doesn't surprise me to for you writing
me such a kind letter with such a kind note from
your mother and i have the letter and the picture
autographed and it says to jimmy mitchell from
his grandmother's friend richard rogers wow and
another gentleman who went to juilliard as a
kid and then went to columbia university as did
lawrence and hart and fields was john bowser
bauman who's known for so i give you blue moon
by the marcells amazing world's just colliding
all over the place because um obviously richard
rogers dick rogers is half of the infamous rogers
and hammerstein who uh did whole bunches of really
beloved musicals on Broadway. The Sound of Music
made famous, of course, by Julie Andrews about
the Von Trapp family who focused on singing and
those gorgeous tunes, those gorgeous medleys
that came out of Austria in the time of World
War II, pre -World War II. Glens Falls, which
is a place up there called Sandy's, which my
old band used to play at after I had my, after
my wife, I should say, had my first daughter.
our second daughter. We moved to Albany and I
was playing up there and we would do a whole
bunch of great covers up at Sandy's Clam Bar
and the fried clams were amazing and enjoyed
that thoroughly. But of course, Blue Moon, which
was also covered by Sha Na Na in Greece in 1978,
they did the more. down tempo version of that
the ballad version and uh at the end famously
uh one of the boys pulls his pants down as or
three of the boys right and the spotlights are
careening all over the place and uh they will
find you and uh they the there will be justice
meted out for that The 1961 single reached number
one on the U .S. Billboard Hot 100, as well as
number one in Canada, New Zealand, and the U
.K. It's also featured on the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock
and roll. I was surprised to learn that Elvis
Presley's cover, while it spent 17 weeks on the
Billboard U .S. Hot 100, peaked at number 55.
So it was there for a long time, but never cracked
the top 40. That actually surprised me because
I also having family members that were very big
into Elvis growing up was very familiar with
his version as well. This song was also covered
by the Mavericks for the soundtrack to the movie
Apollo 13, as well as by Rod Stewart with some
guy named Eric Clapton for his Stardust, the
Great American Songbook Volume 3 album. So Blue
Moon throughout the decades continues to brighten
people's musical lives. And yeah, just keep your
pants up. Jay, what are you following that up
with? All right. So where do we go from the Marcells?
Oh, let me go. All right, let's go back. I mentioned
I have been doing audio in some form or another
of mixing and creating. audio boards and consoles,
and then that naturally translated into radio
and then television, where I currently reside.
But I have been doing audio in some form or another
since I could distinguish the difference between
bass and treble, which I owe greatly to my father
and his band, The Professors. When I was, say,
eight, maybe seven, I was given a solid gold
guitar. And it was not a solid gold guitar. It
was a black plastic toy with nylon strings that
had solid gold emblazoned on it. And my dad's
band used to do a cover of this song. And this
was where I figured out how to play guitar. I
would sit on the edge of my toy box as my dad's
band was rehearsing The Professors. And I would
pluck away at the strings until I could match
the pitches. So I was my dad's first kind of
roadie, his sound technician. And I figured out
how to play guitar by ear, listening to them
play Run Around Sue by Dion. Wow, that's a great
dance song. I, you know, I DJed for some time
before I had the band and a little bit afterwards
and weddings and events and like that. What a
great song to dance. If you want to get the dance
floor full, you play Run Around Sue. Always had
it in our set list from the acapella days. through
the seven years of the band i was listening to
our last show and we were still singing that
song and if you're in a band long enough you
get bored with singing a certain song and we
would have different lead vocalists sing the
song over the years but great pick dion had left
the belmonts at this point and their backup group
that were singing this was a group called the
dell satins and they never i don't think they
ever had any hits of their own i know they tried
But they were a very well -known backup group
in studio work, the Dell Satins. Our first artist
revisit to volume one. I won't share what Dion's
song made the cut on volume one, just in case
you haven't heard that episode yet. But if you
want to check it out, myweeklymixtape .com, episode
51. The 1961 single that reached number one on
the Billboard US Hot 100, as well as in the UK,
Canada. and New Zealand. It also reached number
two in Australia. I get to do another movie reference
here, Jay. Normally, I'm not a big movies guy,
but the 1980s had a lot of movies that looked
back to the 1950s for their soundtracks. And
one of those was one of my favorite 1980s comedies
when I was in high school and in college, The
Hollywood Knights, starring Robert Wool. Tony
Danza, Fran Drescher, and Michelle Pfeiffer.
You might recall the song being performed in
the movie. And that was actually a cover done
by Casablanca recording artists, Brooklyn dreams.
Yes. That's the same Casablanca records that
has kiss. I just wanted an excuse to talk about
Hollywood nights because that movie is absolutely
hysterical. And with that, I'm going to use that
movie. To dive into my next song pick, which
is from another movie. I was introduced to this
next song via another 1980 soundtrack. And this
soundtrack came out in 1986. And the reason I
knew this song and I learned about it was because
Jerry O 'Connell, the actor, was completely out
of breath saying, guys, guys, let me catch my
breath. I ran all the way from my house and River
Phoenix, Will Wheaton and Corey Feldman. broke
into the impala's 1959 hit sorry i ran all the
way home reached number two on the u .s pop chart
and number 28 on the uk singles chart very much
like american graffiti stand by me has just one
of those perfect snapshots of the golden oldies
and doo -wop era and we might not be done with
that soundtrack yet so we go from 1960 in the
bronx right with the belmonts And formerly the
Belmonts with Dion. And then we move down to
go back in time to 1958 to Brooklyn with Joe
Speedo Frazier and the Impalas. What a fantastic
pick. The Stand By Me reference is, of course,
amazing. One of those great coming of age stories
that, you know, you can't argue with that that
soundtrack either. And again, we talk about a
whole lot of music that came off of that soundtrack.
Lead singer Joe Speedo Frazier. Great song, great
pick. This is one of many oldies that I heard
for the first time on the Sha Na Na TV show.
And it's on the Doo -Wop box set, volume one.
Just a great song. Well, with that, Jimmy, we're
back to you for track seven. Okay. You've heard
of this song, Unchained Melody, but most of you
have probably never heard it as it's done by
Vito and the Salutations. They did an up -tempo.
doo -wop version of this. Kind of went like a...
In classic doo -wop style with the lead being
sung in falsetto, a falsetto that I can't come
close to singing anymore. And it has the coolest,
craziest... vocal bass solo in the middle where
they sing lonely yep yep river flow flow to the
sea say look at the sea come pretty baby and
it was in the 1985 movie joey which if you had
hbo in the 80s you know that movies that you
didn't care about were just on tv all day long
and you finally saw enough of it that you're
interested in it Jimmy, I got to tell you, if
you don't remember this story, when I started
rehearsing with you guys back in, gosh, what
was that? 1998, 97, somewhere around there. You
came to me with the song and I said, that's not
Unchained Melody. And you, if I had punched you
square in the nose, I don't think I could have
hurt you any further than I did when I said that.
And I remember distinctly that you had said,
oh, no, no, no, no, no. This was the better,
the doo -wop version of that song. 1955, Alex
North, Hi Zaret, writing the song as a theme
for the prison film Unchained of the same year,
1955. And Todd Duncan originally sang the lead
vocals for the film soundtrack. This song, of
course, went on. We could sit here and argue
or debate over which song in the. doo -wop era
was the most covered song or the most iconic
covered song and i think that they uh 1988 ghost
or was that 90. 1990, 1990. OK, so, yeah, 1990s
ghost where the great scene with the pottery
wheel and the clay going all over and then revisited
again in a in a naked gun movie with Leslie Nielsen
and Priscilla Presley. Just hysterical. But yeah,
and I got to tell you, once the street corner
version of Vito and the Salutations version of
this song in 1963 hit my eardrums, I was sold.
And again, for me, it's all about those harmonies
and the gorgeous back and forth that you get
between the lead vocals and the background vocals
that Jimmy mentioned just a little while ago.
Well, Vito and the Salutations version did reach
number 66 on the Billboard US Hot 100 and was
featured on a 1990s movie soundtrack as well.
Like the 1985 movie, Joey, that you mentioned,
Jimmy, was also featured in the 1990s movie,
Goodfellas. So both versions, the fast and slow,
receiving their love in the films of the 80s
and 90s. What's interesting is the fact that
Both Vito and the Salutations and the Righteous
Brothers versions are both covers that go in
completely different directions. One interesting
thing about that is that Vito and the Salutations
version was kind of a New York cult thing. It
didn't get a lot of play. I didn't know anything
about it until the John and I TV show. And the
Righteous Brothers version, from my perspective
growing up in this time, It wasn't a very popular
song until the movie Ghost, and then it just
exploded. And I remember seeing the Righteous
Brothers in concert, and they alluded to that,
that it was a not well -regarded song until the
movie Ghost. All right, Jay, following up Unchained
Melody, where do we go from here? That's a good
question. I can go in a couple of different directions
here. I think, though, right about now is usually
around the time where I point out a significant
lack of a certain sect of our species. We've
got a song about a girl, but we don't have any
girl voices in this mix yet. So let me rectify
that. And let's travel to 1958. And it's a song
written by another famous. Songwriter, duo of
Howard Greenfield and Neil Sedaka. And it is
a huge hit for Connie Francis, Stupid Cupid.
I love the pick. There's another Connie Francis
song that I like, Lipstick on Your Collar. Street
Corner, we performed both of those songs back
to back. And I always thought Lipstick was the
better song. But the audience didn't think so.
And Stupid Cupid, we ended up dropping Lipstick
on Your Collar and just doing Stupid Cupid for
a while. Connie Francis was somewhat of a failure
with her record label until this song, I think,
was recorded. And then she just had hit after
hit after hit and recorded in multi -languages.
Great song for her. Great song choice, Jay. Reach
number 14 on the Billboard US Hot 100. And Jay,
I don't know about you, but growing up with a
daughter who loved... the princess diaries movies
in the two thousands. I actually remember Mandy
Moore's cover being used in the movie. Oh my
gosh. I had forgotten that Mandy Moore had a
cover of that. No. And now that you mentioned,
because so there's a story right there, Bri,
you remember we were working at, at Westwood
in early 2001 and Mandy Moore had come into the
studio and was, and was plugging that very vehicle.
Very much so. Yes. Well, following up Stupid
Cupid, I'm going to go with, man, I feel like
I'm channeling some Gomez tonight from Playlist
Wars days because when I talked about the Impalas
before being used in the movie, Stand By Me,
believe it or not, sorry I ran all the way home
while used in the movie for the joke like I talked
about. Wasn't on the actual soundtrack itself.
And I want to use this point to actually pull
a song directly from that soundtrack because
I really genuinely loved that entire soundtrack.
And this one, the second time this evening, I'm
going with this songwriting duo. It's again,
a Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller song originally
written in 1958. And I'm going to go with the
Coasters' Yakety Yak. Don't talk back. It topped
the US R &B charts for seven weeks and the top
100 pop list for one week. In 1999, the original
recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of
Fame and the saxophone solo in the song. which
was performed by the legendary King Curtis, inspired
the 1963 Boots Randolph song, Yakety Sax, which
then Chet Atkins reimagined as Yakety Ax as a
solo artist, and then decades later as a duo
with Mark Knopfler. And if you're a fan of that
song and that duet, I highly suggest looking
up the song dive episode of Mark Knopfler's Guitar
Heroes Going Home as Guy Fletcher from Dire Straits
tells the entire story about that duo working
together. And it's an incredible story that I
highly recommend you check out. It's over on
myweeklymixtape .com. And in 1988, if you want
to really dive deep into that cover song, rabbit
hole, the two live crew performed the version
of the song for the twin soundtrack, as well
as Arnold Schwarzenegger while he was on the
plane in the movie. I'll leave it up to you to
decide which version you like more, the two live
crew or Arnold Schwarzenegger. But regardless,
Yakety Yak by the Coasters, all time classic.
You mentioned, so Yakety Sax obviously becoming
the theme music for the Benny Hill show, which
was a huge show over across the pond, as they
say. in merry old England. And that was a favorite
of my dad's when we were really, really young.
And we were having sexy parties, Brian. It was
a lot of fun watching them chase the girls around
the car as the Yakety Sax played. Atco Records,
of course, being a huge label for this time period,
you can't throw a rock without hitting. I think
you're going to... Come to find this out. You
can't throw a rock without hanging a Lieber and
Stoller tune. They were prolific right up through
the 70s, if I'm not mistaken. And this song is
just an incredible song. You scoop me. I actually
had a Long Came Jones, which is a Coasters tune.
My uncle had this 8 -tracks. Kids, 8 -tracks
used to be these little, they were like plastic
carts, but they had thicker tape. And my uncles
had a bunch of these novelty eight tracks. And
I was introduced to a whole group of great songs
like Ray Stevens, The Streak, and Along Came
Jones was on that, Nervous, Norvus, a whole bunch
of different songs that also turned into my love
for Dr. Demento, which is a whole nother show
that we could get into another time. But yeah,
you cannot go wrong with The Coasters. Anything
by The Coasters is well received here. Coasters,
what a great pick. They also did Charlie Brown.
A lot of hits. Searching, Ying Yang, The Little
Egypt. Fluid, fluid membership in this group.
Kind of like Street Corner and probably any band.
Did you know, I heard on your last episode of
The Oldies, you talked about Smokey Joe's Cafe.
Well, that song was sung by The Robins, which
were two members of The Coasters. Carl Gardner
and Billy Guy moved to New York and the other
guys in the Robins didn't want to move. And they
became the Coasters, theoretically, because they
went from East Coast or West Coast to East Coast.
You know, also there's the Coasters, the Drifters,
the Platters. A lot of these groups were imitated
and sold as the real group. And they had no relations
to these people. And Bowser, John Bauman. testified
to congress and they actually passed made into
law passed the bill in the truth and music act
that you have to have had an actual person or
somebody had something to do with that group
at that time that bill's kind of gone by the
wayside because they've all passed on and some
of those phony groups are probably still out
there oh yeah we got you get that all the time
and prior to that uh that law being signed in
that you got a lot of groups who were kicking
around and would fall apart and reform again.
I think the Detroit Spinners, for example, were
eventually morphed into the Spinners and you
went for some doo -wop stuff that the Detroit
Spinners used to do to work in my way back to
you cover in the 70s and the early 80s where
they, you know, it was a completely different
sound for them. Well, Jimmy, you kicked off Side
A, but the way our roundtable is working, you
get to close it as well. What are we closing
out Side A with? I'm going to go Shaboom, Life
Could Be a Dream. Now, this is an early duet
song by the R &B vocal group The Chords. Please,
please don't confuse it with the exact same song
done by The Krukuts. This song was written by
a bunch of guys in 54 in New York City. And the
origins, there's a really cool YouTube video
of this. Boom was slang. They'd say, you know,
come across Jay in the street. Hey, Jay, boom.
Hey, Brian, how you doing? Boom. And shaboom
was kind of like a bomb. Boom. And then ding
dong, lang, lang, lang. There were a lot of churches
on the street. And they were always going ding
dong, lang, lang, lang, lang, lang. And then
the words, whoa, whoa, Bip. Bip was an uncle
of one of the singers. And Bip was a bit of a
drinker. And these guys would be rehearsing in
the hallways of their apartment house. And Bip
would come into that hallway. And he had an aroma
problem when he had been drinking. And they go,
whoa, Bip. And if you compare that to the cleaned
up versions of the crew cuts of the lyrics, they're
night and day. The crew cuts, you know, in the
50s, a lot of Southern radio stations and other
radio stations didn't want to appeal to what
they called race music. And the crew cuts from
Canada covered, they had a lot of hits. I think
they took this one to number one. And none of
them were their own. They were all covers. of
black artists. This song for me, it serves so
many memories because of one of my favorite shows
that I've ever performed. And I think I may have
mentioned it a few times on the various podcasts
that you and I have done. Brian is forever plaid,
which featured a quick vignette where one of
the members of the of the plaids, the four plaids
starts singing about the juke talking about the
jukebox that was in the diner that his parents
used to run when he was a child. And they give
them. the guys would come by and replace the
45s and they would hand them down to this character.
And he puts the 45 record up to his mouth and
starts singing Shaboom by the Crew Cuts and his
lips get stuck in the little 45 hole in it. It's
very funny. It was a great sight gag and we had
a really, really great time with that. But of
course, the Crew Cuts version has been all over
pop culture, most notably in Back to the Future.
And it's considered the first doo -wop song to
reach the top 10 on the pop charts. Now, this
is what I was talking about earlier because the
Crew Cuts version did hit number one, like Jimmy
mentioned earlier, in the same year. Can you
imagine in 2024 if a song by, I don't know, Dua
Lipa was just covered by Ava Max about a month
or two later? That's something that happened
in the fifties all the time. A song would get
released and then another band would release
it. And then, and there's sometimes three, four
or five versions of a song out there as a song
itself. Rolling stone ranked at number two 15
on its 500 best songs of all time. And along
with back to the future, Jay, the song was also
featured in clue roadhouse. And for the parents
that are our age, Jay, the 2006, Pixar slash
Disney classic cars. If you consider it a classic
or not, that's here nor there, but this song,
I was going to say, I figured you would with
a son that would probably watched it all the
time. I've seen way, I've seen it way too many
times, even with two girls in the house, but
this song again, just transcended bands decades.
It's. Just an absolute classic. And what a great
way to conclude side A of our Golden Oldies and
Doo -Wop mixtape, which kicked off with The Silhouettes'
Get a Job, Little Anthony and the Imperials'
Tears on My Pillow, The Clovers' Love Potion
No. 9, The Marcells' Blue Moon, Dion's Run Around
Sue, The Impalas' Sorry I Ran All the Way Home,
Vito and the Salutations' Unchained Melody, Connie
Francis' Stupid Cupid, The Coaster's Yakety Yak,
and The Chord's Shaboom. Head over to myweeklymixtape
.com to hear all the songs we've discussed in
this mix through the playlist embedded on the
episode page. Now, Jay, I'm flipping this 45
over to side B, if you want to call it a 45,
because that's what a lot of these songs were
back in the 50s and 60s. What are you serving
up for us for track one? Oh. What a great segue
right there. I do want to say it's very interesting
that you use the term serving up and kind of
referencing the buffet or the feast that we are
currently engaged in here. A lot of, so again,
in high school and early in my college years
before I'd gotten hooked up to the radio station,
I was helping my family friends. manage the heroes
and legends cafe at the great new york state
fairgrounds and we would and that that was a
place that my grandmother's so hold on my grandmother's
friend's son bought his uncle's cousin's former
roommate, former roommate. Yes. But he he bought
this part of the released this part of the center
of progress building at the great New York state
fair and turned this into a fifties and sixties
themed diner with the bright pink and baby blue
lights. And the floor tiles were marble with
the black and the white checker pattern. It was
a great little throwback. And on the music system,
which I don't think is called music anymore.
They used to run a whole lot of these doo -wop,
these great doo -wop songs. And I got to really
every night would just, while I'm sweeping the
floors like Goldie in the Back to the Future,
I'm going to be mayor someday. We would sing
along into the broom handles and the customers
would just love it. We had a great time with
that. And one of my favorite songs that would
ever play on the system was One summer night
by the Danaliers. Wow. It's been a while since
I've sung on a podcast, period. Boom, boom, boom,
boom. Nice. It's almost like blow harmony, which
is a real thing. It's not dirty. It's just singing
while you're expelling air. Who's the group that
did that a lot? The Moon Glows. But yeah, the
Dan Lears, One Summer Night. What a great song.
Just kind of in 58, one of those songs that you
would fall in love with on the radio as you're
watching the submarine races with your girl.
I didn't do that in 58. I was born in 59. But
I've heard about it. Reach number four on the
then Billboard U .S. black singles chart and
number seven on the U .S. bestselling pop singles
chart. While the song sold over a million copies.
It was for the second time tonight. This band's
only hit a one hit wonder. Although in 1961,
the Diamonds covered the song in that version,
went on to reach number 22 on the U .S. Billboard
Hot 100. Once again, songs just getting reused
and recycled and reshuffled through. They're
like, well, this was a hit three years ago. Let's
make it a hit again. And it really. They didn't
waste any time with Turnaround. They just kept
recycling these songs. And if it was a hit once,
there was a good chance it was going to be a
hit a second time. And I'm going to use that
as my reasoning for my next pick, because this
song was a top 10 hit on the Billboard US charts
twice. The first time. In 1961, it reached number
four on the Billboard US Hot 100, number 27 on
the UK singles chart and number 16 in Canada.
Then the end of 1986 and the beginning of 1987
because of the movie soundtrack of the same name
that I've already mentioned twice tonight. I
don't care. It went back and reached number nine
on the U .S. Billboard Hot 100 and was a top
ten hit in eight countries, including West Germany,
Austria, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. And
it also hit number one on the U .K. singles chart,
as well as in Ireland and Canada. I'm going with
Ben E. King's Stand By Me. Third time, I'm going
back to the Lieber and Stoller Well. However,
this time... They wrote under the pseudonym Emo
Glick, so I guess you could put an asterisk on
that one for me. Now, Jay, you talked about a
lot of covers of songs happening. There's over
400 covers of Stand By Me, including Otis Redding,
Tracy Chapman, Weezer, and Florence and the Machine,
among many, many, many others. One of the most
iconic bass lines ever? No question about it.
You've got Benny King, who also, by the way,
came from the Drifters, notably was lead singer
on the song There Goes My Baby. That guy could
wail. There's no question about the power. When
you talk about rhythm and blues, Benny King,
if he is not part of that conversation, you have
a missed opportunity there for sure. Great singer
with the Drifters. He was actually with a group
called the Five Crowns. And back in the day when
I think it was the Treadwell family owned the
trademark of the Drifters. They were unhappy
with those guys. They fired all five of them.
They said, hey, Five Crowns, you're now the Drifters.
And that was Benny King and Charlie Thomas, who's
also in the Hall of Fame with Benny King as the
Drifters. And Benny King went solo because he
could make more money that way. And the producers
would say, you know, you don't need. A baritone
singer, you can get that sound from a trombone
and you don't need the second tenor because you
can get that on the piano or whatever. And they
had doo -wop sounding instrumental that sounded
like voices or the same that they would do. All
right, Jimmy, what are you going to follow up
Stand By Me with? Oh, I don't know. Oh, you know
what? You just mentioned this. Here's another
example of songs that were covered. So here's
a song, Little Darling. It was written by 16
-year -old Maurice Williams and the Gladiolas.
And if you've seen the PBS special, the Diamonds
sang this song with Maurice playing piano and
then came out and did a verse with them. I actually
like the Diamonds version better, but... I think
I'm a little, might be a little tainted here.
When we were at Street Corner, somehow when we
wanted to get noticed, we would go out and just
show up at places and sing. And WSCN in Syracuse,
Jay mentioned that on the last program we did,
had all these shows at the Waymark Theater in
Syracuse. So one year we went and we just kind
of showed up and were singing as they were standing
in line. And then we weaseled our way into the
box office and we saw a cop looking at us, kind
of funny. And he walked up to us and we thought
we're going to get thrown out. And he said, you
guys do any Dion? So we were invited back the
next year by the radio station to do the after
party. And down the stairs is my sixth grade
through high school classmate, Wendy Kay, who
was the manager for David Somerville. of the
diamonds and he was doing his act solo we were
singing in the still of the night and this man
in his tuxedo walked over stood next to us and
started singing the bass line it was cool wow
that is an amazing story you mentioned maurice
williams who went on to be with the zodiacs as
well and featured in the dirty dancing soundtrack
And Little Darling, what a fun song with the
percussion and the vocalizations of the... It
was so much fun to listen to this stuff. And
you can't go wrong with, again, the American
Graffiti soundtrack. Of course, you know, we're
going to keep going back to these 80s and 90s
soundtracks. And I'm probably going to do it
again tonight. No, I don't care. Yeah, you have
to. I mean, the Diamonds version went on to reach
number two on the U .S. Billboard Hot 100, number
11 in Canada. So probably the more known version.
But again, you had mentioned Maurice Williams
and the Zodiacs who did Stay, which was on Dirty
Dancing. I mean, all of these songs for at least
my generation was learned through the pop culture
of the 80s, going back and revisiting them. And
it also helped, like I mentioned on volume one,
that my... Father was in a car club and we used
to go to all of these car shows all the time.
Led East and all the different swap meets that
had a lot of different bands playing and a lot
of different vendors selling cassettes that were
comprised of nothing but 50s and 60s music. So
I really got my education through that. And Little
Darling was always one of those songs that I
thought was a standout doo -wop track. I loved
some of the vocalization, just how they would
take one word. And just stretch it out. And just
holding the notes and kind of building it in
this almost rhythmic, percussive, like you said,
Jay, pattern in the song. And Little Darling
was one of those ones that, I mean, what the
hell is a bump bump shawady wady? I don't know,
but I was invested in that shawady wady every
time I heard that song. And with that, Jay, I'm
throwing it back to you to bump bump shawady
wady into track four. All right. We can peel
off of the American Graffiti soundtrack again.
You know, I'm going to take an artist that was
featured on that soundtrack, but I'm not going
to go with the song that was featured in American
Graffiti with it. I'm going to go with The Crests.
And obviously, Sixteen Candles was probably one
of their most notable songs, if not the most
notable Crest song. Immediate flashbacks to my
sophomore year or freshman year of high school,
where this girl that I absolutely had the worst
crush on ever. was turning 16 that year. And
I called her up and played 16 Candles over the
phone for her birthday. And she ended up with
the quarterback of the football team. Because
of course, how do you not? But The Crests also
had a song that I absolutely love the way that
this song is arranged and the vocal harmonies
in this is called My Juanita. Well, Jay, you
know, we used to do that song and it was on the
doo -wop box set. But it wasn't the original
recording. It was with the Brooklyn Bridge. Now,
Johnny Maestro, after the crests had split up,
I'd mentioned the Dion song, the Del Satins.
Johnny Maestro joined the Del Satins, and they
would do shows. And in 68, his manager, Betty
Sperber, she did like a Battle of the Bands thing.
And there was a horn band called the Rhythm Method,
I think. And somebody said, well, let's get the
Del Satins and merge them with the Rhythm Method.
And somebody said, oh, yeah, that'll be easy
to sell as the Brooklyn Bridge. So they became
the Brooklyn Bridge. No kidding. Yeah. And it
was with the Brooklyn Bridge during a live performance.
that they would sing that song, the first verse
and the first chorus acapella, and then kick
up with the sax solo and then finish the song.
And it was a very cool rocking number. And like
I said, Street Corner did that a lot. And as
we did it, totally acapella. Now, Jay, this song
came out in 1956. And while it didn't chart,
this was one of the songs that helped the crests
get discovered while they were singing. In the
New York city subways. So to me, that was like
an important part of their history. I'm surprised
you didn't go with 16 candles. Cause there would
have been another movie reference, regardless
if it was on the soundtrack or not, because who
can forget the John Hughes classic from the eighties.
And then while we're talking cover songs, obviously
the stray cats cover of the song from that original
soundtrack, but musically coming out of little
darling, my Juanita makes perfect sense here.
And I think to follow that up, I'm going to go
with another song that was featured on a 1980s
soundtrack. Although for everybody who's cringing,
I'm not going to pull something from the Stand
By Me or American Graffiti soundtrack this time.
No, no. I'm going to pull something that immediately
people are going to think of the number one hit
cover from the wildly popular 1987 movie of the
same name. which starred Lou Diamond Phillips.
Ooh. Because Los Lobos' cover of the song La
Bamba was not only number one in the US, it was
number one in over a dozen countries, including
the UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Spain.
But we're not here to talk about Los Lobos. Jay,
in another wait, that's a cover song example.
And no, I'm not talking about Los Lobos. I'm
talking about Richie Valens 1958 version of the
song La Bamba here. La Bamba, Richie Valens version
is a cover as well because the original was recorded
in either 1938 or 1939 by Alvaro Hernandez Ortiz
under the name El Girocho. And I apologize if
I butchered the pronunciation there. But Valens'
version went on to reach number 22 on the Billboard
US Hot 100, number 49 on the UK Singles Chart,
number 89 in Australia, and was a number one
hit in Canada. Valens' version ranked number
35 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500
greatest songs of all time. And while it's more
than likely because of the Los Lobos version,
The song lives in the Weird Al parody songbook
as well, because on the Even Worse album, we
got lasagna. That's right. So we have to talk
about Richie Valens in this list. I feel like
just an iconic song that I don't know how I didn't
squeeze it into volume one. I had to find a way
to squeeze it in here and coming out of my Juanita.
I think it's a perfect fit. I agree with you
wholeheartedly. Richie Valens obviously had,
this was a song, if I'm not mistaken, and Jimmy,
you might know a little bit better than I would,
the record company did not want him to do this
song because it is considered more of a traditional
Mexican folk song, correct? It was a Mexican
folk song. In fact, you can't, you go to Mexico
now, you're going to hear that song all over
from the mariachi bands walking the street. And
Richie had some beautiful songs, of course, Oh
Donna, which was a wonderful song. And then,
unfortunately, as his career was just taking
off, no pun intended, the plane that he was taking
also unfortunately crashed in a storm and ended
his life and his career abruptly. Who knows what
might have been as he just was an unstoppable
force in 1958. Mom, Let's Go was another hit
of his. 17 years old and probably physically
the most mismatched actor playing a role because
Richie Valens was a pretty big guy and Lou Diamond
Phillips, not so much. And you mentioned Los
Lobos. They were actually in the film as the
mariachi band. And I believe that they recorded
the song for the movie. because they couldn't
get a quality from the original 57 cut of Ritchie
Valens. I don't know if it was 57, but the original
cut wasn't good enough. So us Lobos remade it.
And that's why it was very faithful to the Ritchie
Valens version for that reason. And Brian, we
talked about last time we talked about Brian
Setzer's cover of of Summertime Blues, which
was another fantastic song. And the La Bamba
soundtrack, the movie soundtrack is loaded with
some really, really great covers. I mean, how
many times can we say the 80s really knew how
to go back to the 50s? Well, and they did it
time and time again. And it was always successful
in one way or another. And for very, very, very
good reasons. Jimmy, what are you going to follow
up La Bamba with? I'm tempted to go Buddy Holly,
but I'm going to fight it off. I was also tempted
to go Brooklyn Bridge, but I think that would
violate some rules. So this is just a fantastic
love song of a young man getting ready to go
out on a date in the 50s. It's by a group called
the Jive Five. It's not their more popular song,
My True Story, which was a hit. But what time
is it? And this is another song that I first
heard and fell in love with on the Shaanana TV
show. And it's got, you know, the church chimes.
Listen to the clock. And it's just getting ready
for a date. What time is it? It's six o 'clock.
Better hurry up and put my tie on. Just a wonderful,
wonderful song to listen to and slow dance with
your honey too. Oh, and another thing with the
Jive 5, they've got a five -second hit that you
guys have probably heard, but they were the creators
and the performers of Nickelodeon. I didn't know
that. I didn't either. But yeah, the Jive 5 originally
started in 1954 as the Genies. Eugene Pitt, Jerome
Hanna, Richard Harris, Thurman Proffitt, also
known as Billy Proffitt at the time, and Norman
Johnson. They renamed themselves the Jive 5 and
found chart success in 1961 with My True Story.
Beltone Records reached number three. Right,
Brian, on the top Hot 100? Yes, My True Story
reached number three. And What Time Is It reached
number 67. They had 10 hit songs between 1961
and 1968. And then fast forward almost four decades
later to 2006, It's Christmas hit number 157
on the U .S. charts as well. So one of these
bands that I feel like. I don't know, didn't
get as much due as they should. And I had no
idea about the Nickelodeon thing. That just blew
my mind. That's wild. I love that. He obviously
stayed in the business and they were very popular
on the oldie circuit. They're on the PBS specials.
Gene Pitt, he passed a few years ago, but he
was in the industry till the day he died. All
right, Jay, with that, we are back to you for
track seven. Well, I think it would be a shame
if we did not pull up this next artist. I cannot
let an entire mixtape go without hearing the
dulcet, wonderful, soulful tones of Sam Cooke.
And I think coming out of a song of What Time
Is It? I think we should go into What a Wonderful
World. Oh, you scoop me. Don't know much biology.
Don't know much history. Don't know much trigonometry.
don't know much of anything really i'm empty
up here in my head a funny thing about this song
uh misunderstood lyrics there's an oldies band
very popular from these parts i won't use their
name but there's the one lyric don't know what
a slide rule is for do you guys know what a slide
rule is because these guys saying don't know
what a slide ruler is for because they had no
idea that a slide rule if you were old like me
And in the eighth grade in science class, and
you'll have to look this up on the internet,
but the slide rule was basically like an analog
calculator. It was a ruler and it slid and it
had gadgets and clear plastic on it. And you
could... do your multiplication and division
and you could do cosines and tangents and mathematical
symbols that I don't even understand. Oh my God.
Core memory unlocked. And it's a lyric that is
not understood by anybody who's younger than
me. I absolutely remember the slide ruler that
had that little piece that you would slide along.
I had one of those and you just unlocked a memory
from my childhood. Jesus. Oh my God. The closest
thing I think that I can relate to that is the
old scales at your doctor's office, right? That
you would slide the weight down the, it's a similar.
Mine was going up. Well, Jay, I have to go with
another movie reference here. I know, even though
in 1960, the song reached number 12 on the US
Billboard Hot 100, number 27 on the UK singles
chart. I can't think of this song and not picture
John Belushi stacking food onto his tray in Animal
House right before the food fight. Every time
I hear this song, I hear, I'm a zit. I'm a zit.
Get it? I absolutely love the song and I'm not
going to lie. I was introduced to it because
of Animal House. Sam Cooke had a couple of songs
on that soundtrack as well. Yeah, I mean, that's,
once again, another soundtrack that borrowed
heavily from the 50s and 60s. I was in college
when that movie came out. And unfortunately for
this one kid, he decided having a food fight
would be really cool. And he had a food fight
and got kicked out of school. Oh, no. Yeah. Soon
he dealt high. Well. To follow that up, I am
actually going to jump on something you said,
Jimmy, because you floated a name out there before
and you didn't go with it. And I'm not going
to miss the shot because I only have a couple
songs left. Buddy Holly, we got to get him in
here. And I'm going to go with a song that was
originally recorded by Buddy Holly and the Tree
Tunes in 1956 and then re -recorded a year later.
By Buddy Holly and the Crickets in 1957. That'll
be the day. Reach number one on the Billboard
US Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart. This song
was recorded by a bunch of other artists and
bands, such as Linda Ronstadt, whose incredible
version of the song reached number 11 on the
US Billboard Hot 100, as well as this group called
The Quarrymen. Who would eventually go on to
be known as some group called The Beatles. I
don't know. Maybe you heard of them. But Buddy
Holly is one of those artists that did so much
for music in such a short period of time and
was such a major influence on the state of rock
and roll even now to this day. That I don't think
we could go, Jay, through two volumes of golden
oldies and not talk about the incredible contributions
he made to the world of music, period. No, absolutely
not. And again, Buddy Holly was on that plane
with the Big Bopper and with Richie Valance.
And you mentioned the tree tunes. He had the
crickets and he did his own thing, which is just
a testament to how much the guy could put out.
Oddly enough, so. Buddy Holly reference again,
all over pop culture. And remember a little show
called quantum leap with Scott Bakula. They did
an episode where Sam leaped back in and, and
Buddy Holly was the farm hand and he was writing
Peggy Sue about a pig. And he called it. Hey
buddy, try Peggy Sue. That's right. Dean Stockwell,
Scott Bakula. I don't remember the young actor
who was playing young Buddy Holly at that point.
What a great show. Great pick. You gotta love
That'll Be the Day. Again, featured prominently
on the American Graffiti soundtrack and all over
pop culture. Great choice. Two things. With Buddy
Holly and Richie Valens and the big bopper that
died in the plane crash. Do you know who else
was on that tour? who decided not to buy a seat
on that plane. And it was because it would have
cost him around $56. And that was about a month's
rent for his parents' apartment in the Bronx.
And that's Dion, who was on tour with the Belmonts.
Oh, no kidding. He was on that tour. I knew that
story. And Dion has a wonderful interview. It's
lengthy, it's detailed, but it's fascinating.
But anyway, we're talking about Buddy Holly.
He was a solo rock and roll, and he wrote so
many songs, great hits. Who knows what he would
have done had he lived? For sure. That was a
great choice. Well, we are at that point, gentlemen.
We are down to one song pick each to close out
volume two. Jimmy, what is your last song choice
of the evening? Oh, you know, I'm going to go.
With a Jerry Lee Lewis song, but this really
isn't about Jerry Lee Lewis. A whole lot of shaking
going on. Nice. About the time that I was researching
and deciding these songs that I wanted to do
for this set list on September 5th, Screamin'
Scott Simon of Sha Na Na, who was not with the
band in Woodstock, but he was with the band for
50 years. And he passed away at the age of 75
of sinus cancer. He was the kind of rock and
roll piano player that Jerry Lee Lewis called
the best rock piano player in rock and roll.
And he would play with his arm and with his feet
and his elbows. And when he saw that he was a
Columbia student and he was graduating and Shanana's
piano player, Joe Whitkin, was going on to med
school because most of these guys in Shanana,
all but about five of them, they eventually went
on. to grad school. They became lawyers and became
a rabbi. They were theologians. They were professors.
And some of these guys, John Bauman joined the,
Bowser joined the band because he was going into
music as a career. And Scott Simon played a whole
lot of shaking going on with the rest of the
band. And he just blew those guys away. He became
a managing partner with them. He took care of
all the details on the road. And, you know, the
Shanana fans, there's maybe, oh God, there's
got to be seven or eight dozen of us. But, you
know, this is how important it is. He had his
obituary in the New York Times. Wow. And I mean,
when you talk about that boogie woogie rock pianists,
the conversation just, it's almost like a niche.
You've got your Jerry Lee Lewis, you've got your
screaming Scott Simons. And it invokes a whole
genre of emotion, if you will. And I'll tell
you, Jerry Lee Lewis, for the controversy and
all of the behind -the -scenes stuff that was
going on, I remember reading a book that a good
friend of mine had recommended, gosh, eons ago.
But it was about a rockabilly musician who could
just... bang out on that piano, kind of a cross
between an Elvis and a Jerry Lee Lewis. And when
you read the descriptions and you hear, you can
hear Jerry Lee playing in the background and
making the piano sing. It's an amazing pick.
Love the story behind that. Excellent, Jimmy.
Excellent. Originally recorded in 1955 by Big
Mabel, the killer's version. No, not. The Killers
like the band now. Jerry Lee Lewis, that The
Killer. Jerry Lee Lewis was The Killer. Yes,
1957. His version reached number three on the
U .S. Billboard Hot 100 as well as, and I think
this part's extremely important and interesting
here. It reached number one on both the R &B
as well as country charts. Some records we're
talking about here. R &B and country charts,
this song had a massive crossover appeal. I mean,
that is literally two completely different musical
demographics straight to number one. It also
hit number eight on the UK singles chart. And
in 1999, the song was inducted into the Grammy
Hall of Fame. And in 2004, Rolling Stone ranked
it the 61st greatest song of all time. And in
2005. The library of Congress selected it for
permanent preservation in the national recording
registry. Obviously, I've talked about movies
and 80s movies all night tonight. I'll just throw
out there Dennis Quaid in the 1989 film Great
Balls of Fire. Oh, yeah. That one was another
time where a soundtrack was all dedicated to
that sound and style. And Jerry Lee Lewis went
and re -recorded all of those songs for the soundtrack.
And they all, again, started getting radio airplay
once again in the late 80s, which I thought was
amazing. You know that Jerry Lee Lewis had a
famous cousin who's also a piano player? More
of a country guy. Mickey Gilley. Really? I'm
kidding. Yeah. I didn't know the relation. Look
on YouTube. There's some talk of that and them
playing together. Wow. And Mickey Gilley was
on the Shannon Ott TV show. Oh. Well, Mr. Sweet,
it's your last pick of the night. All right,
let's keep this piano rock going. And we're going
to go with a little Richard Wayne Penniman. also
known as Little Richard. Now I'm going to go
with Tutti Frutti. Nice. Did you know when they
approached him about recording that song, he's
like, we can't do that. It's a dirty song. But
the lyrics were Tutti Frutti, good booty. Get
it, Gracie? Slides easy. So he cleaned that up
to record, and that became a hit. And then it
was ultimately, you know, this is the mid 50s,
like 50s are talking about the homogenization
of rock and roll. It was done by Pat Boone, who
cleaned up the lyrics even more. And there's
a TV appearance on YouTube where he's wearing
his sport coat slung over his shoulder so he
could look cool. Song was inducted into the Grammy
Hall of Fame in 1998, and Rolling Stone magazine
declared the refrain, and I quote, the most inspired
rock lyrics ever recorded. In 2007, Mojo ranked
Tutti Frutti number one on the top 100 records
that changed the world, calling the song the
sound of the birth of rock and roll. And since
I'm Mr. Moviefone tonight, I'm going to go with
a real deep. Terrible pick here. And if you know
this movie, you're going to either cheer with
me or cringe with me. 1988's Hot to Trot with
Bobcat Goldwaite and John Candy as the voice
of Don the Talking Horse. Brian, there's another
actor in there that brings this full circle.
John Jaco Marcellino of Sha Na Na. was one with
Dabney Coleman, one of the bad guys trying to
get this horse. Wow. So you both know the movie
too. Only because of Jocko. All right, Brian,
bring us home. I'm going to bring us home now
and I'm going to go with, guess what? Another
1980s movie reference because Jay, we went through
volume one and we've gotten all the way through
volume two and we haven't talked any Chuck Berry.
So written and recorded. By Chuck Berry in 1958,
although you might have to credit his cousin
Marvin for the assist. See if you get that reference.
Believe it or not. Oh, Marvin Berry. Johnny B.
Good. Believe it or not, this song only reached
number eight on the U .S. Billboard Hot 100 and
was not a number one hit for Chuck Berry. And
it ranked higher, number seven to be exact. on
Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs
of all time. So I guess that more than made up
with it. But for our generation, Marty McFly,
like you said, Jimmy, and the Starlighters covered
the song on the 1985 Back to the Future soundtrack.
And then in 1988, Jay, we're going to raise up
our metal horns for this one. Judas Priest famously,
or infamously, depending on how you want to look
at it, covered the song as the title track, to
the movie of the same name as well as their Ram
It Down LP. Do you remember Judas Priest's cover
of Johnny Be Good? I don't, but I'm going to
go back and listen to it now. It opens up with
a Rob Halford scream that will send shivers down
your spine. It is not the Johnny Be Good you
are familiar with. So much so that it came on
shuffle in the car and Katie, my wife, turned
to me and she goes, the hell are you listening
to? Well, to that, I can only say maybe she's
not ready for that, but her kids are going to
love it. Chuck Berry is another one of the artists
that you cannot have a conversation about classic.
And I say classic. before I say rock, but it's
not classic rock. It's that classic rock and
roll. You can't have a conversation about that
without including Chuck Berry, one of the pioneers
of guitar rock and a very prolific songwriter,
had some great songs throughout his entire career.
And Cleveland, Ohio, if I'm not mistaken, right,
is where he hails from. I'm not sure you could
be right. Yeah, I have no idea. I'm going to
have to look that up. But for now, Jimmy. A couple
of things with this song. It was on a Lost Tapes
recording of Chuck Berry, Johnny B. Goode. And
they started out and you hear him go, stop, wait,
wait. You and the piano, you're playing a role
of Beethoven. Stay away from that. Stay away
from that. It's basically the same song. And
another story, I mentioned my friend, Wendy Kay,
who is a... She deals in oldies acts. So for
our high school reunions, she books the bands.
So at one reunion, Terry Silvestri of the Howies
was there with their band, The Criers, and Danny
Lane from Paul McCartney and Wings. And I was
allowed to go up and I started singing a song,
Johnny B. Goode. And I went up on the second
half of the first verse. And on the video, you
can see the bass player is looking at me. He's
getting ready to sing. And he figured out where
I was. And when you go up on the lyrics, you
just start making sound. And then I finished
the verse and went into it. And then up to the
stage comes Danny Lane playing guitar along with
me. And then as soon as that's over, he goes,
man, that was great. What else do you know? And
we did what I say. And we both sang it together.
Ray Charles classic. Yeah. very soon but with
chuck berry johnny be good you can't you can't
close the tape better than that No, and I couldn't
have been any further from the truth with Cleveland,
Ohio. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. There's
probably people screaming and yelling at the
radio. Who needs facts, Jay? That's why I bring
you on the show. You can find me at Jay Sweet
on Facebook. You can bring it. He's in that building
in Cleveland, Ohio now. That he is. That he is.
But yeah, what a great way to end a record. Well,
there you have it, mixtapers. Side B of our golden
oldies and doo -wop mixtape, Volume 2, which
consists of the Dan Lears' One Summer Night,
Benny King's Stand By Me, the Diamonds or the
Gladiolas' Little Darlin', the Crest's My Juanita,
Richie Vallon's La Bamba, the Jive 5, What Time
Is It?, Sam Cooke's What a Wonderful World, Buddy
Holly's That'll Be the Day, Jerry Lee Lewis'
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Little Richard's
Tutti Frutti, and Chuck Berry's Johnny Be Good.
Head over to MyWeeklyMixtape .com to hear all
the songs we've discussed in this mix through
the playlist embedded on the episode page. Well,
gentlemen, this has been an extremely fun discussion
tonight. Thank you both for joining me on My
Weekly Mixtape. It's been a pleasure. Honored
to be here. So glad you asked me. Thank you.
And remember listeners, you can find my weekly
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the tunes.