The Chiffons: "He's So Fine"

March 25, 1963 (3 weeks)

Who are the great secondary songwriters in bands? By this I mean composers who were less prolific than their counterparts in the same group. Let's see, there's Dave Davies of The Kinks, Chris Bell of Big Star, Bryan MacLean of Love and Colin Moulding of XTC, individuals who took a backseat to Ray Davies, Alex Chilton, Arthur Lee and Andy Partridge respectively. There aren't all that many really. (If you happen to know of other examples, please leave a comment below; feel free to also remind me of just how ignorant I am while you're at it) Oh, but there is one more who shouldn't be forgotten: George Harrison.

Long in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney, the quiet one gradually improved. Most observers could tell that he was a first-rate composer in his own right by the late sixties but arguably the only two people who weren't aware of this were the senior partners in his own group. Abbey Road is frequently cited as George's coming out as the equal of John and Paul but the album would almost certainly have been better with more of his material in place of, say, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and/or "Sun King".

Harrison had so many unused and unwanted songs that his first solo album, All Things Must Pass, ended up being a triple disc set. And even though it would have been priced at a premium, it still sold like crazy while at the same time Lennon and McCartney stumbled out of the gate somewhat. Harrison even had a (mostly) global number one with "My Sweet Lord", a song I ought to be saving for later but for the fact that it technically never topped the charts in Canada. (The subject of which I will deal with in a future entry either through deep research or idle speculation)

In the aftermath of his new found solo purple patch, Harrison was sued by Bright Tunes Music, the company that owned the publishing to the Ronnie Mack song "He's So Fine". Legal wranglings connected to it continued for a few years. Though it wasn't his sole roadblock, it is said that Harrison's momentum halted and he never had quite the same confidence as a songwriter. The judge in the case famously found him guilty of what he called "subconscious plagiarism" and in the end he paid dearly for his carelessness.

George Harrison lost the famous "He's So Fine" case but it wasn't simply Bright Tunes Music who won. The Chiffons themselves got in on it by recording a version of "My Sweet Lord" in the mid-seventies and it's likely the publicity did them no harm. But the song itself ended up winning as well: by finding in its favour, it gave people the misguided impression that it was much better and more significant than it ever deserved to be.

Sure, "He's So Fine" went to number one on both the CHUM charts and the Hot 100 so obviously plenty of young people enjoyed it at the time. (For all I know, maybe it even had some older fans as well) And listening to it now, it has a perfectly agreeable tune that can really implant itself in the brain. Songs like this hard hard to dislike. But there's not much more to it than that. Clocking in at under two minutes, it's surprisingly short, even for the era. More importantly, it's pretty much all chorus. It's as if Ronnie Mack had developed on the germ of a song but hadn't quite seen it through, like he needed a collaborator or even just someone else to bounce ideas off of.

The Chiffons do give a strong vocal performance and it's impossible to ignore that hook (had Harrison not "subconsciously plagiarized" it, someone else surely would have) but beyond that there's not much else to it. A solid if routine piece of music that lucked out when a much more capable songwriter actually did something with it when Mack wasn't up to the task himself. Whatsmore, The Chiffons have better songs in their discography. The Goffin-King "One Fine Day", for one, is miles better than bloody "He's So Fine" — and George Harrison would never have pilfered from it since it's great just the way it is.

Score: 6

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Can Con

Coming from a country in which virtually all of our famous comedians, hockey players and musicians end up relocating down south, I've always held American immigrants to Canada in high esteem. While her life north of the border was far from ideal, Jackie Shane recognized that she was in a much safer situation residing in Toronto. For a jazz lounge act, her debut single "Any Other Way" did surprisingly well going all the way to number two on CHUM. A shame she didn't have any more big hits though. This one, however, is sultry and seductive and indicates there would have been much more to her live act than cheeky gags. It's great, too, that she is finally receiving posthumous acclaim now that we live in an age that's finally coming to terms with accepting and respecting transgender individuals — at least among some of us, though sadly not so much in her native US of A.