Goodies [USA], "The Dum Dum Ditty" c/w "Sophisticated Boom Boom," Blue Cat BC 117 (rel. 5/1965)
Today's single is an attempt to make lightning strike twice. The music industry has, since its inception, been a Wile E. Coyote, determined to create a second X but forever walking off the metaphorical cliff, blinking its eyes and taking a long fall.
The Beatles, Everly Brothers, Coasters, Four Seasons and Elvis are the top five acts whom producers and executives most hoped to Xerox for personal gain. Some of these faux versions are quite good, but their origins are obvious. Here's one of the few knock-offs of Long Island-based girl group The Shangri-las--by the producer who designed their haunting, unique sound! Both its songs wound up in the Shangri-las' catalog after the epic fail of this rare May 1965 release.
George "Shadow" Morton followed in the footsteps of Phil Spector (minus the homicide bit); he presented as a non-conformist eccentric who flouted proprieties and just did things as he saw fit. This against-the-grain approach annoyed some of his colleagues, but his smash hits with The Shangri-las proved him right.
Born in 1941, Morton grew up in Long Island, and was at the right age to be gobsmacked by the onset of rock 'n' roll. He dug the Black vocal group sound and, by age 17, was an RCA-Victor recording artist and songwriter and lead singer for The Markeys. For Sir Records, he and some friends recorded as The Lonely Ones. None of this early work went anywhere, but Morton persisted and his discovery of The Shangri-las sealed the deal. He brought them to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's new label Red Bird Records along with a long, moody song called "Remember (Walking in the Sand)," which got them a #5 hit in the summer of 1964.
Morton's work with The Shangri-las is one of the peaks of mid-1960s music. He brought out all the drama and compassion in Mary Weiss' tough-yet-vulnerable lead vocals, while the songs of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry gave them controversial-yet-commerical material that's stood the test of time.
While the Shangs were still hot, chart-wise, Morton found another girl group and attempted to get a second outlet going for his songs and production. This time, he played Phil Spector on the A-side, a song with the unlikely title "The Dum Dum Ditty," co-penned by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, soon to conquer the charts with their songs and productions for The Monkees.
It isn't some new-fangled dance craze; it's a celebration of a bad boy who's "a rebel without a cause" who makes our narrator's heart go dum-dum-ditty. This New York answer to Spector's "wall of sound" is spot-on, but was too much musical information for Blue Cat (Red Bird's companion label) and its cheap-jack styrene pressings, courtesy of Shelley Plastics. Shelley styrenes are infamous for their fragility and lack of high fidelity; the top and bottom are shorn off and only a few plays, without painstaking care, render their grooves grey and inert.
The Goodies lack the strong Lawn Guyland accents of The Shangri-las, but they belt this big beat-ballad with bellicose bravura. (And that's alliteration!) This recording has long been a favorite of girl group enthusiasts. The single tanked; zero promotion, no reviews; only a few mentions in Record World magazine, which revealed that the single charted in Columbus, Ohio due to strong radio play there.
The Beatles, Everly Brothers, Coasters, Four Seasons and Elvis are the top five acts whom producers and executives most hoped to Xerox for personal gain. Some of these faux versions are quite good, but their origins are obvious. Here's one of the few knock-offs of Long Island-based girl group The Shangri-las--by the producer who designed their haunting, unique sound! Both its songs wound up in the Shangri-las' catalog after the epic fail of this rare May 1965 release.
George "Shadow" Morton followed in the footsteps of Phil Spector (minus the homicide bit); he presented as a non-conformist eccentric who flouted proprieties and just did things as he saw fit. This against-the-grain approach annoyed some of his colleagues, but his smash hits with The Shangri-las proved him right.
Born in 1941, Morton grew up in Long Island, and was at the right age to be gobsmacked by the onset of rock 'n' roll. He dug the Black vocal group sound and, by age 17, was an RCA-Victor recording artist and songwriter and lead singer for The Markeys. For Sir Records, he and some friends recorded as The Lonely Ones. None of this early work went anywhere, but Morton persisted and his discovery of The Shangri-las sealed the deal. He brought them to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's new label Red Bird Records along with a long, moody song called "Remember (Walking in the Sand)," which got them a #5 hit in the summer of 1964.
Morton's work with The Shangri-las is one of the peaks of mid-1960s music. He brought out all the drama and compassion in Mary Weiss' tough-yet-vulnerable lead vocals, while the songs of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry gave them controversial-yet-commerical material that's stood the test of time.
While the Shangs were still hot, chart-wise, Morton found another girl group and attempted to get a second outlet going for his songs and production. This time, he played Phil Spector on the A-side, a song with the unlikely title "The Dum Dum Ditty," co-penned by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, soon to conquer the charts with their songs and productions for The Monkees.
It isn't some new-fangled dance craze; it's a celebration of a bad boy who's "a rebel without a cause" who makes our narrator's heart go dum-dum-ditty. This New York answer to Spector's "wall of sound" is spot-on, but was too much musical information for Blue Cat (Red Bird's companion label) and its cheap-jack styrene pressings, courtesy of Shelley Plastics. Shelley styrenes are infamous for their fragility and lack of high fidelity; the top and bottom are shorn off and only a few plays, without painstaking care, render their grooves grey and inert.
The Goodies lack the strong Lawn Guyland accents of The Shangri-las, but they belt this big beat-ballad with bellicose bravura. (And that's alliteration!) This recording has long been a favorite of girl group enthusiasts. The single tanked; zero promotion, no reviews; only a few mentions in Record World magazine, which revealed that the single charted in Columbus, Ohio due to strong radio play there.
"Sophisticated Boom-Boom" is a schizophrenic delight. It begins with stand-up bass and a hip-chick rap about our narrator's discovery of a proper teen dance; the kids are dressed up and conduct themselves with decorum. While the lead Goodie can't equal Mary Weiss' streetwise delivery, she does well enough; the highlight of both versions is the moment when one of the other members gets too het-up in their "yeh yeh"s and the narrator clucks, "that's not very sophisticated!"
And, just for fun, here is The Shangri-las' version of the song, which first appeared on their second Red Bird LP in 1965, then as a single B-side in early '66...
The Shangs win the battle-of-the-bands here, but the slight differences in both versions are fascinating.
The Goodies vanished into the twilight after this lone single. "Shadow" Morton went on to produce Vanilla Fudge (including their psych-pop hit "You Keep Me Hangin' On") and proto punk band The New York Dolls (including no hits).
Tomorrow: fantastic 1956 rockabilly by Memphian Mac Curtis via a classic King Records release: two top-tier boppers for your Tuesday groovin'!
Sometimes I hear these great songs and when you add the information that they were pressed on cheap styrene I wonder if kids were hip to this and just said nuh-uh to buying them. Hence these record went nowhere. Bet even the DJs wouldn't play them. "Dum Dum Ditty" may be the first song I've heard where the THIRD verse is the same as the first. Have I told you lately that I hate lazy writing? Both records of "Sophisticated Boom-Boom" are wonderful—Shangri-la's version is of course a better recording. Any idea what that screeching instrument is at about 1:15? Sounds like someone squeezing a dachshund really hard.Youch! Oh, and, lawn guyland—PRICELESS!
ReplyDeleteSo many of the well-played singles I come across are styrene. I didn't know the difference until 15 years ago, when I had it pointed out to me. But I imagine some musicphiles knew the styrenes were not so good. (There are decent-to-great styrene pressings; the Bestway plant in New Jersey made excellent styrenes that deliver full hi-fi sound. But most labels went for the cheapest cost--even Columbia, who put out thousands of classic songs on low-quality styrene!)
DeleteAs to that instrument, which you so amusingly described, that's a trumpet with a mute in its bell played at its higher notes; something else is done to it to get that dachshund-as-accordion effect. It always makes me laugh!
Thanks for the fun post, Frank! Boy, that "The Dum Dum Ditty" is really growing on me. Especially like the outro. And nice tom tom sound all through!
ReplyDeleteI just downloaded "The Dum Dum Ditty." Thanks, Frank! Love also that high organ part in the second verse. Listening to this few times and looking at the promo photo made me feel a little sad, though (in a good way)...an era was coming to and end unable to ever really be recreated....the "fun years" to me as a young teen then.
ReplyDelete