Los Bravos: "Black Is Black"

October 10, 1966 (1 week)

It was at the end of 1994 that a struggling boy band from Orlando, Florida made the bold decision to fly to Stockholm to work with a young producer and songwriter named Max Martin. Mind you, this may not have been the decision of AJ, Nick and the other three so much as it had been their record label and management calling the shots. (Needless to say, autonomy is not typically something boy bands and girl groups are given much of) Though by no means an overnight success, the Backstreet Boys eventually became huge and with their chart dominance came Max Martin as a hitmaker to the stars,

Americans are very precious when it comes to pop and rock. The invented it, they made it insanely commercial and they spread it around the world, so I guess it isn't any wonder why they tend to resent others trying to bring it back to them. Executives at Capitol Records in the States may not have even given The Beatles' "She Loves You" a single listen for all we know; just the fact that they were a British rock and roll group was evidently reason enough to turn them down. Then, when the British Invastion promptly hit, they set about trying to recreate it using their own songwriters, producers, engineers and studios. While The Beatles gave serious consideration to heading to Memphis to work with guitar ace Steve Cropper, do you think The Beach Boys or Byrds ever gave any thought to crossing the Atlantic in order to make an album at Abbey Road studios? (I am aware that there are exceptions but for the most part international musicians seek the United States rather than where the truly exciting music is coming from - which, to be fair, often is somewhere in the US)

Unburdened due to their country's lack of rock 'n' roll background, the Spanish quintet known as Los Bravos sought out the UK in order to make it with English language recordings. And, amazingly, they pulled it off (at least for a little while). While George Martin may not have been available or, if he had been, his services would have been prohibitively expensive, the band managed to link themselves up with Ivor Raymonde, a gentleman who had already made a name for himself as producer of many of Dusty Springfield's hits, including the sublime "I Only Want to Be with You".

Raymonde's stock in trade had been those lush but booming Dusty records, usually accompanied by a string section. Just as a good coach or manager in sport tailors his or her skills around the team rather than the other way around, Raymonde must have recognized that Los Bravos were a rock group who didn't need any superfluous backing. That said, there are credible reports that indicate that session musicians participated with minimal involvement from most of the band themselves. What can I say? If I producer isn't able to get much from the act their working with then they'll be more than happy to utilize others to fill in for them. The only concession made to orchestral beat music was German-born Mike Kogel's intonation that was not unlike Gene Pitney's.

Regardless of who appears on it, "Black Is Black" is an impressive breakthrough hit. True, it may sound a little formulaic (the intro eases the listener in with a simply rhythm section part, followed by a guitar, then an organ, by which point we are very much in sixties' garage rock territory) but the power and passion is hard to deny. While often lumped in with some of the darker songs from the era, it is melancholic but not wrist-slashingly so. It doesn't pretend to be a harbinger of doom in the era of flower power, it is merely a straightforward rocker to have on and enjoy and then forget all about until the next time you happen to encounter it.

Joe Meek was a mad experimental sonic genius and George Martin guided the biggest band in the world through the better part of a decade's worth of astonishing creativity. Yet, Swinging London failed to become a place where pop and rock stars flocked. Judging by the respectable results Los Bravos enjoyed, it's amazing more didn't go there to try something similar. A sixties version of Max Martin might not have materialized either way but it's tempting to ponder this particular — yet rarely discussed — pop music what if.

Score: 6

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Can Con

I haven't been too impressed with Gordon Lightfoot's sixties' material thus far. It sounds more and more like he spent the bulk of the decade attempting to find his way. Good on him that he eventually did but that doesn't save some pretty grim recordings from prior to him finding it. Yet, "Spin, Spin" indicates that he was getting there. His voice is beginning to take on his familiar, oak-aged combination of weariness and optimism. It may not seem like Gord was in his element with a straight up pop song but he pulls it off rather well. It is said that he resented The Beatles for their omnipresence and the fact that their rise to prominence coincided with a decline in folk music but I wonder if the Fab Four had a subtle impact on his work at around this time. Not, mind you, by Gord moving towards the mainstream but by allowing their breeziness to infiltrate his sound. In any case, much better things were coming: "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" for one.

Billy Joe Royal: "I Knew You When"

November 8, 1965 (1 week)

Many Tears Ago: Some Billy Joe Royal "Fun" Facts

✓    He Didn't Use a Stage Name

Stunning but true! The man born William Joseph Royal went on to pop success as Billy Joe Royal, which is hardly a radical change of identity. I would've guessed he had been baptized as something like 'William Joseph Dingle' or 'William Joseph Barraclough' only for a hucksterish manager from South Carolina to step in and gave him the much more, well, royal surname. Easily pop music's most contrived-sounding real name with the exception of the Captain and Tennille's Daryl Dragon.

✓    Canadians Really Took to Him

Two number one hits north of the border for his nibs when the best he could do in his native United States was a measly number nine with "Down in the Boondocks". "I Knew You When" did no better than fourteen down south. While the normally reliable setlist.fm is of little use to me, I'm pretty sure he played more than one Canadian gig during this period. If anything, you'd think the concert opportunities would have been plentiful up in Canada. Ontarians no doubt embraced his southern bar band rock stylings while out in the prairie provinces they could sense a future country and western star a mile away. (Hell, Quebeckers were probably fooled by his patois, assuming he ever bothered affecting one)

✓    His Second-Biggest Hit Is a Step Up from His Signature Tune

Not by a whole lot, no, but I'd take "I Knew You When" over "Down in the Boondocks". Dancing around the Gene Pitney comparisons with his first big hit, he fully embraces them here and - to hell with originality! - he was right to do so. Dramatic and impassioned, Royal utilizes his voice to its fullest extent without going over the line into sickly melodrama. (Ed.: The above isn't a fact, rather it is simply the opinion of the writer of this so-called review) 

✓    The RPM Chart Wasn't Exactly Brimming with Pop Classics

The bizarre practice of purging descending singles from the Top 40 was still in effect which meant that The Toys were done after a fortnight on top and The Beatles' "Yesterday" was nowhere to be found after a relatively modest peak of number four a week earlier. Instead, there are some eccentric covers including a largely forgotten version of The Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by The Silkie (yes, the singular 'Silkie' rather than the plural regardless of what the good people at RPM would have you believe) and unexpected arrangement of a Dylan song (see below). In addition, a so-so bunch of future Canadian chart toppers were on the rise as was The Byrds with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" which unjustly failed to reach number one. With all due respect to a solid entry from Royal, his competition wasn't exactly stellar.

✓    Billy Joe Royal Would Go on to Success in Country Music

Yeah, no shit.

Score: 6

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Can Con

As mentioned above, yet another Dylan cover was doing well in the charts as 1965 began drawing to a close. Up ten places and into the Top 20 this week is Gordon Lightfoot with "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". The penultimate track on Dylan's most recent album Highway 61 Revisited, it doesn't strike the listener as a potential hit single the way both "Tombstone Blues" and the title track do. So, points for making something out of an apparent commercial dud. That said, it's not great. Yes, it did receive acclaim at the time and returned Gord to within inches of his first number one hit but I find it impossible to separate from both Dylan's vastly superior original and Lightfoot's own creative peak to come. In a way, Lightfoot is too good for the material. Not that it's a poor song, far from it, but it's a great example of someone over-correcting Dylan's modest singing. That beautiful, oak-aged voice of Gord's is present and correct but ill-suited to grasping all of Dylan's humour, irony, literary-ness and rage. Yet, Orillia, Ontario's favourite son isn't the worst thing about it. Horns and backing vocals and a lush arrangement may have seemed like a good idea at the time but they how can they compare with that tinny piano part in the original? They can't. In retrospect, Lightfoot's sixites represented a build up to his mammoth seventies so I like to think that his messy recordings from this period represent growth on his part. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to reviewing some of his genuinely great singles. In the meantime, how about an actual Bob Dylan song for me to sink my teeth into?

Elvis Presley: "Return to Sender"

November 5, 1962 (2 weeks)

It was still about six years away from happening but the idea of Elvis making a comeback was already being floated around in 1962. Though the hits kept on coming, it had become clear that this wasn't the same King from 1957. Seriously, did no one figure he'd be different when he was released from the army? One look at him gallivanting on stage with Frank Sinatra at his Welcome Home show should have confirmed it: hillbilly wildcat Elvis was gone and mainstream, fit-for-the-establishment Elvis had taken his place.

And you know something? Presley seemed to be making the best of it. His output had been admittedly erratic but he hadn't exactly been consistently great ever since the peak of '56. His return from Germany in 1960 coincided with opening himself up to a variety of style that he other wise wouldn't have dabbled in. That said, what seemed to stymie his development in the early sixties, however, was his inability or unwillingness to pick a lane. Middle-of-the-road lounge music seemed to be where he was heading but the pull of old school rock 'n' roll was still there and his heart seemed to be in gospel.

Hints of a growing musical maturity kept being blocked by a combination of pressure to remain a teen idol and the increasingly lightweight roles he was being given in Hollywood. The last time Elvis topped the Canadian charts it was with the average "Good Luck Charm" but flip side "Anything That's Part of You" indicated there were hidden depths. Then he put out follow-ups "She's Not You" and "King of the Whole Wide World" which were as trite and/or moronic as ever. Has there ever been an artist whose progress could be halted on a dime by outside influences as readily as Elvis Presley?

"Return to Sender" is a partial return to form. Only partial because it's pretty idiotic but The King sounds like he's having a good time and not simply going through the motions so that's a definite plus. The song is charming enough even if it overplays its postal delivery metaphor hand. Yet, it remains an unconvincing stab at a rock 'n' roll comeback. It had been just a year since "Little Sister" and "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame" which showed The King in effortless mid-fifties form; in this case, it's not so much that he's struggling with a genre that he once defined and more that he's doing a competent pop song that's trying to act like vintage Elvis when it's patently clear that it's not up to the task. For his part, Presley probably was up to it but this is a man who couldn't write on his own and wasn't always serviced with the best outside material.

"Return to Sender" also happened to be Elvis' first single A side in Canada since "Hard Headed Woman" all the way back in the middle of 1958. I don't know why so many of his flip sides (many of whom varied in quality) were given such prominence or indeed why the practice was stopped here but it does signal that the double A side would slowly begin to fade from the charts. Only one would get to number one in 1963 before The Beatles briefly brought it back during their conquest of the Top 40 in the early part of '64 but that would be only a few months away from the changeover to the RPM chart where opposing sides of the same single were able to chart separately.

Score: 6

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Can Con

I've been trying to ignore him but, what the hell, Paul Anka's still having hits so why not give an update. The Latin rhythms of "Eso Beso (That Kiss!)" suit his overconfident voice. In fact, Anka has always been at his best when he sounds like he's vaguely annoyed. Catchy, good fun and it probably deserved a bit better than only getting to number eleven. A pleasant surprise given my usual antipathy towards Ottawa's favourite son — and a good deal better than Gord Lightfoot's latest effort, the lame country-gospel "It's Too Late, He Wins". By the seventies, the idea of preferring Paul Anka over Gordon Lightfoot would be laughable; a decade earlier and Canada's original lounge lizard wins easily.

Bobby Vinton: "Roses Are Red (My Love)"

June 25, 1962 (3 weeks)

That boyish smile, those honey-drenched melodies, being nicknamed the 'Polish Prince': Bobby Vinton seemed to be the ultimate teen idol. (Indeed, going by the name 'Bobby' rather than 'Bob' or 'Robert' or even 'Rob') Yet, he was twenty-seven by the time "Roses Are Red (My Love)" reached number one in Canada and the US. This is obviously no great age in the scheme of things but by a pop star standards of the time, he was getting up there. He was the same age as Elvis Presley who was still being strongarmed into putting out teenage love songs and other fluff but he also seemed to be looking for a way out. What excuse did Vinton have?

Oh wait, I know! He had the smile and the voice but not much else to speak of! Of course he was going to be doing nothing but songs of teen heartbreak when his talents were so relatively modest!

That's not to say that there's anything wrong with "Roses Are Red (My Love)", only that it's just nothing special. Well, scratch that: it's kind of engaging in its own way. The tune is surprisingly solid and Tom Breihan even makes the worthwhile point that a "country singer could have made something out of it". Too bad Vinton is far too bland to make this recording of much interest. That said, the guitar picking is pretty nifty. (Perhaps this is why Breihan got the idea that it could've been an effective country number)

In the fourth season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, cousins Will and Carlton begin university and they start sharing an apartment. Rich kid Carlton manages to get a date and he asks her to dance. The music being played is "Mr Lonely" by Bobby Vinton, which bemuses the statuesque Jackie. Carlton had already expressed a fondness for the likes of Tom Jones and Barry Manilow which is supposed to make everyone laugh that an African American would be so fond of such painfully white music. But being into the 'Polish Prince' makes him seem like even more of a square with tastes that are even more old-fashioned. (Significantly, it was during this same season that Will and Carlton pledged to a frat house only for the latter to memorably be rejected for "not being enough of a brother to be a brother")

Why did I bring this anecdote up? Mainly to pad what is an admittedly slight review but also to bring up the fact that teens fell for Vinton's shtick, even though he had been out of high school for the better part of a decade. Somehow or other, they kept buying it even as another ten years would pass by — as we'll be discussing further in the very next entry on here.

Score: 4

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Can Con

A Canadian single on the CHUM charts?!? And in the Top 10 no less??? It feels like it's been a while. And we've got a future titan! "Gord" Lightfoot - yes, this is actually how he was credited on the single, minus the inverted commas - isn't much remembered for his work in the pre-singer/songwriter era but he was big enough in his homeland to manage to crack the Top 40 on multiple occasions. That said, this is a far cry from "If You Could Read My Mind", "Sundown" and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". That distinctive, warm voice is present but his talents as a songsmith aren't apparent. If I'm being extremely charitable then I'd say that "(Remember Me) I'm the One" shows promise but, in truth, I'm only bringing this up because I know what he would one day become. A welcome reminder to never give up!