MITCH RYDER AND THE DETROIT WHEELS "DEVIL WITH A BLUE DRESS ON and GOLLY MISS MOLLY"

How many dress colors does the Devil wear?  There's the Devil with the Red Dress and then the Devil with the Blue... Does it have anything to do with being a Devil from Detroit, the Motor City?  Christine

Does Mitch Ryder have an official site?  You bet!  MITCH RYDER NET

(481) NANCY SINATRA'S BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKIN'

A while back we posted on Nancy Sinatra when she was one of the guests on the TV program that featured Elvis Presley and her father, Frank Sinatra, The Welcome Back Special. Elvis had just returned to the United States from Germany and the United States Army.

  

"Are you ready boots?  Start Walkin!"  These words are so associated with Nancy, who chose to record songs on Frank's Reprise label (where my friend Jimmy Bowen became a producer) that portrayed her as a take-charge, in control, and liberated woman.  The song was written for her by Lee Hazelwood and it became a number one hit in the United States and the United Kingdom, making Nancy one more American who Invaded Britain.

No doubt initially aided by her loving dad, Nancy, who appeared on the Welcome Back Special in what was a prim prom-gown kind of dress, had moved with the times, the early 1960's and the dancing Go Go Girls.

Now Nancy has her own site, but we found it down, and we think it may be bombarded because of the news recently that a son of Mia Farrow's may be Franks.  We proceeded to the Sinatra Family site and same thing. 

So we're going to post the links for you here and hopefully when you try them, they'll be up!

NANCY SINATRA OFFICAL link

SINATRA FAMILY OFFICIAL link

Lee Hazelwood passed away in 2007.  Here's a link to some good career information for the man who was known to be a rugged individualist!

CBENJAMIN WORDPRESS ON LEE HAZELWOOD link

Church Benjamin is a Blogger on Word Press!  His theme is SONGS YOU SHOULD HAVE HEARD, and he's a good writer.

(477) BUDDY KNOX "THE ROCKABILLY GOLD RECORD LEGEND" AND PARTY DOLL : COVERED BY STEVE LAWRENCE, RICKY "BONGO" JAMES, JOHNNY MAESTRO and THE CRESTS, and THE HULLABALOOS

LINK TO OFFICIAL BUDDY KNOX SITE : BUDDY KNOX OFFICIAL

In the end, I don't think Buddy Knox himself made much money on his hit "Party Doll," a song that was covered all over the United States by local bands and covered in many recordings which illustrate the role of the music arranger and music producer in a record, not considering the song's popularity and endurance. 

The song became a standard at local dance party type shows. It always got people up and jumping.  Buddy wrote the song when he was a teenager and it was one of the first he recorded while with Jimmy Bowen and their group The Rhythm Orchids.

We were checking out the videos of  Buddy and Jimmy on YouTube and found a lot of covers of "Party Doll," some which illustrate that American Invasion of Britain!

You'll find some excellent renditions of the song that go from Rock-A-Billy to Jazz to Mod Beatlesque circa 1966.  Take a few moments to listen to the variety of these recordings of Buddy's song.

This first video is from the Ed Sullivan show, I believe. 
The song was over quick. That's Jimmy Bowen on the bass.  

As Recorded on Roulette and Columbia and...

Steve Lawrence didn't hesitate. His recording came out in 1957, not long after Buddy's.

Same year the song was recorded in Britain by Ricky "Bongo" James and his group. Jazzy Cool.



Johnny Maestro of The Crests recorded it in 1960!  - looking for a hit four years after the became a hit for Buddy. 

 
1966 in Great Britain - The  HULLABALLOOS!               
Recorded on Roulette... Roulette wasn't giving up those residuals!

Rock-a-billy cover bands like Sha-na-na and The Jets cover the song in their live performances.

PBS SPECIAL CLIP : HULLABALOO TELEVISION SHOW

We've written about the television show called Shindig.  Hullabaloo was Shindig's competitor. This YouTube Contributor video starts with a lot of artists who we cover here at WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC and then some. The Byrds, Loving Spoonful, Sonny and Cher, Four Seasons, Trini Lopez,The Bobby Fuller Four, Mamas and the Papa's, Nancy Sinatra, The Righteous Brothers, and so very many groups from Britain that invaded America.

WIRED FOR SOUND A GUITAR ODYSSY : THE AMAZING STORY OF THE GUITAR : DVD/FILM REVIEW

WIRED FOR SOUND A GUITAR ODYSSY, subtitled THE AMAZING STORY OF THE GUITAR, features some of the "Guitar Gods" of the 20th/ 21st century: Scotty Moore of Elvis Presley's Blue Moon Boys, Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Hank Williams Jr., not to mention Rock and Roll performers like Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins... 

They talk about the guitar as an instrument itself, and there is plenty of historical film footage and interviews in this one!  There's a visit to Orville H. Gibson's work shop... and well, this is like a biography of the instrument itself. 

What we learned?

Americans coming through Liverpool brought American records and American guitars which were sold in the stores, some so precious that they were kept behind glass.

The DVD/film is C 2000 Cottonport Holdings Nashville.

(465) JOAN BAEZ : SHE OWNED THE LABEL PROTEST SINGER

BBC - Joan invading Britain.  When Less is More.  Simply beautiful voice, and a strong connection to  the Americanfolk and country music. 

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan worked together and were involved very early on.  She says she introduced him to audiences and he moved on and didn't look back of return the favor.  Yet they both stayed true to themselves.

JOAN BAEZ OFFICIAL!  There's an excellent biography here that explains the social causes Joan has backed through many years, a discography, and so much else.

FOLK SINGER BOB DYLAN INVADES BRITAIN AND GOES ELECTRIC

Bob Dylan went to England as an established "American Folk Singer" and went Electric and fans protested. Bob was protesting being called a "Protest Singer."

DVD : ED SULLIVAN PRESENTS ROCK N ROLL REVOLUTION : THE BRITISH INVADE AMERICA - AMERICA FIGHTS BACK

I performed on the Ed Sullivan show, and a while back we contacted the owners of the archive to see if they have preserved that performance.  Never heard a thing.  These days the Ed Sullivan Show (SOFA Entertainment) has their own YouTube station.

This DVD is a series of Ed Sullivan show performances of The Beatles, Gerry (Marsden) and the Pacemakers, The Rollings Stones, The Animals, The Byrds, Bob Dylan, The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, James Brown, The Supremes, The Righteous Brothers, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas and the Papas, The Beach Boys...Well selected by SOFA ENTERTNAINMENT to truly present the American and British bands that were hitting the charts about the same time in the min 1960's.  As you can see from the list, it touches on the American Invasion of Britain as well.


Hosted by Graham Nash and Michelle Phillips, Producted by Andrew Solt, Greg Vines, Leslie Tong, and written by Andrew Solt...  C 2011 SOFA Entertainemtn.

(460) FOLK ROCK : A SYNERGY OF FOLK MUSIC and COUNTRY and ROCK AND ROLL

Country music, Folk music, Rock Music... In the mid 1960's music by the Turtles and the Byrds was recognized as something called FOLK ROCK.  Some say Bob Dylan's song "Mr. Tambourine Man," was the song that began the Folk Rock "revolution."

Let's go to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, where we got our definition for HARMONY, and see how the term is officially explained:

BRITANNICA : FOLK ROCK Link! 

The definition begins :  "As the American folk music revival gathered momentum in the 1950s and ’60s, it was inevitable that a high-minded movement that prided itself on the purity of its acoustic instrumentation and its separation from the commercial pop mainstream would be overtaken and transformed by pop music’s rapidly evolving technology. Rock music also was transformed by its intersection with folk. Although rock previously had been perceived and created almost exclusively as entertainment, it now began to take on folk music’s self-conscious seriousness of intent...

(456) THE VOGUES : WOOING GENERATIONS

VOGUES OFFICIAL SITE - TOUR INFO - CD - HISTORY link  They are still performing and have a new CD out!

|Christine here.  The song "Turn Around Look At Me," which is a Classic Cover Tune if there ever was one, was recorded by many regional recording artists who had success with it.  (I think I first heard it on the radio as recorded by a group called The Skyliners.)  The Vogues song that especially stays with me is " You Are My Special Angel," which came out in '68. 

Dicography link FIVE OCLOCK WORLD : VOGUES DISCOGRAPHY


"Inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001, The Vogues remain one of the top vocal groups on the oldies scene today."

(451) THE BRITISH INVASION OF AMERICA and THE AMERICAN INVASION OF BRITAIN CONTINUE

So now that we've said what we've said about hits and charts, we looked at a number of charts for the year 1966 saw discrepancies about what number a song or three achieved. We were reminded of personal favorites and looked for songs we remember hearing that we expected to see.  Could be some of the songs we remember were on albums. 

For American songwriters, the mid 1960's were competitive and anxious times because of the success of bands like the Beatles of Great Britain and the Beach Boys of the United States were writing and performing their own songs and didn't need us.  There was an emphasis with the record companies that bands should have their own songs and with fewer hit makers looking to us to write songs for them, and a feel of change in the air, a lot of people in the business began to change their careers.

Even Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound that had put so many songs on the charts was loosing.  (Sonny Bono talks about that in his memoir, having to break the news to Phil, who he worked for prior to Sonny and Cher making it, that the Sound was beginning to be dated.)

What we see overall is evidence that the British Invasion of America is ongoing.  It's not all about the Beatles.  It's also about British hit makers Petula Clark, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Rolling Stones, Donovan, and Peter and Gordon, on the same American charts as The Mamas and the Papas, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Supremes,  Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Rivers, and the made for television competition for the Beatles, The Monkees.

BEACH BOYS : LITTLE SAINT NICK : AFTER THEIR AMERICAN INVASION OF EUROPE

From 1965, a best selling Christmas album, the Beach Boys use their harmonies so well.


BEACH BOYS 50th ANNIVERSARY OFFICIAL SITE link here!

(428) GENE PITNEY : SINGER-SONGWRITER, RECORDING ARTIST, PERFORMER

Gene had an album out in 1965, was still performing, still writing songs, still covering tunes recorded by other artists. He performed on Shindig, the hot rock and roll television show broadcasting from Los Angeles that featured the Americans who invaded Britain and the British who were invading the United States!

(423) BEACH BOYS : PROMOTIONAL FOR GIRLS ON THE BEACH SHOWS OFF THE COMPETITION BETWEEN THE BEACH BOYS AND THE BEATLES

The competition between the Beatles, who lead the way of the British Invasion of America, and our home grown Beach Boys was a theme of the summer '65 movie "The Girls On the Beach," as this promo proves. ( Christine : Hey, are those girl guitarists? Who has more fans? Which Beatle or Beach Boy was on the poster on your bedroom wall ?) This might have been the height of the song writing competition between Brian Wilson and the Paul McCartney - John Lennon team.

You can link to the Beach Boys on our sidebar where we just listed their site as it is today, which features their band as it is and a new CD. On this post we're linking to the IMBd movie database about the film so you can learn more! The actress Ahna Capri, who we blogged about in the past, appeared in this film. Use the search feature of this Google Blogger to locate that post and read a little Wes Bryan history.

(421) P.J. PROBY 1965 : RECORDING LENNON-MC CARTNEY SONGS WITH GEORGE MARTIN AS PRODUCER

As some of you know, P.J. Proby was up for some serious charges in Great Britain, but in March 2012 he walked free, acquitted of benefit fraud - all 9 counts. So on this post, because we've linked to his official sites in the past and they're always on our sidebar for you to link to, we're going to link to a news article about this legal issue. Friends of P.J.'s here in the United States were concerned but never lost faith that he would walk free and are hoping to hear from him soon.

On this YouTube video, of the song "That Means A Lot," we see a label that has many names familiar to this blog. P.J. was certainly a big part of the American Invasion of Britain. In fact, he loved the British as much as they loved him, which is why he went to live there and the whole legal issue was so upsetting.

"That Means a Lot," is written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, The Beatles, who were almost everyone's biggest chart competition in '65. The Producer is George Martin, the Beatle's producer, and this is on Liberty Records, the small record label that we've blogged about a lot.

To quote the article we've linked to: "In a statement read by his solicitor, Chris Hilton, PJ Proby said: "For the last four years I have lived in fear of becoming homeless - because my housing benefit was cut off - and of being wrongly sent to prison for a crime I never committed."

THE GUY MITCHELL APPRECIATION SOCIETY : LES PECKHAM and FRIENDS : GREAT BRITAIN

We're updating the link to this club, in Great Britain, which celebrates the music of American Guy Mitchell, who was one of my early favorites growing up. Early in our blogging, we contacted the club because there's a bit about Guy Mitchell in the book we've been writing! They run an official site for the Guy Mitchell estate as well. As usual, feel free to search this blog for our post on Guy!

(394) CHANGE WAS IN THE AIR

No doubt change was in the air.

One of the things that started happening about this time is that executives from various labels started changing labels.

Some of us who had been musical artists, singer-songwriters, and "Singing - Acting Sensations" started moving from making demos to music production.

There was a shuffle there, as the popularity of The Beatles and phenomenal sales of their records started creating more competition for chart space. (But keep in mind that a single or an album didn't necessarily have to chart to eventually sell enough to earn a Gold.)

Many of my peers who had put in more time entertaining than I did and who were identified with the 1950's started to feel it in their pocketbooks which meant that their labels were feeling it in their pockets too: eventually so many of those talented artists who had kept us all entertained, who had provided us the soundtrack of our youthful lives, would slowly loose coverage in the media too.

BUT NOT ELVIS!

(392) PJ PROBY ON SHINDIG AND AROUND THE BEATLES

Texan PJ Proby was on Shindig a few times, 1964 and 1965. Here's one of the Youtube videos of PJ's performance in 1964, which I believe was taped in England, his adopted country. (P.J. is still in England, still performing, and we've posted a lot about him so search!)



We're grateful to the YouTuber who posted this video of PJ. being presented by the Beatles on a 1964 TV show called "Around the Beatles". (The Beatle's first performance on Shindig was also taped in England.) UPDATE: We'll replace this video as soon as possible.Technical difficulties.

BEACH BOYS 1964 ON BRITAINS READY STEADY GO SHOW!

(145) GENE VINCENT 1961 BRITISH INTERVIEW

What do you know! AOL video site has an 1961 interview with rock 'n roller Gene Vincent!
Click on the title above to go right to the interview!

(And check out our previous posts on Gene with a search of our blog or go to the links about him to the left!)