I'd just live in Misery

The Dynamics - Misery

What an amazing tune from Detroit's The Dynamics is presented here for your listening pleasure. I only stumbled upon Misery recently and, although I must have sampled before buying, didn't fully realise its utter brilliance until I took the square brown cardboard package it arrived in home and put a needle on the record. Wow. I just had to keep listening to it, over and over. I was floored. As regular readers are no doubt aware, I'm very attracted to sounds that fall between the cracks of musical genres and this is a perfect example. With original beat and vocal styles, Misery is hard to place but devastatingly effective. As has been written about before, the band that went on to become The Who, The High Numbers, released an uncredited version of this as their first single. They called it Zoot Suit.

Je Ne Pourrai Jamais Vivre Sans Toi

Louis Armstrong - I Will Wait For You

This song was written by Michel Legrand as the Love Theme for the French flick Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (translation: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) which won the Palme d'Or at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. In the film, which is of the musical variety, the song is sung by Catherine Deneuve, a lady who I'm most familiar with from playing Bjork's friend in Dancer In The Dark -- also a Palme d'Or winning musical. Louis Armstrong's recording of it is from 1968 and includes an orchestra directed by someone featured on this blog just a couple of posts back, Dick Jacobs.

Rhythm of Life

Sammy Davis Jr - Rhythm Of Life
Sweet Charity Orchestra - The Pompeii Club - Rich Man's Frug

This a a great record to own, total fun on both sides. These tracks are taken from the soundtrack to the 1969 movie production of the musical, Sweet Charity. Side A features Sammy Davis Jr as Big Daddy Brubeck, the guru head of a hippy cult called the Rhythm of Life. As the chap in the movie says, it started out as a jazz group in San Fransisco and turned into a religion. A few years ago this tune was used in a successful Guinness ad, the one where three blokes in a pub evolve backwards into mudskippers.

A psychedelic big band version of the instrumental, Rich Man's Frug, written by Cy Coleman, is on the B side. The Frug was a jerky dance craze, apparently popular in the sixties. Sweet Charity features a scene with people dancing The Frug, a classic example of Bob Fosse's choreography. Beyonce even took inspiration from it in the video to her 2007 single, Get Me Bodied. Actually the whole soundtrack is excellent and also contains a super version of (hey) Big Spender.

His Chorus And Orchestra

Dick Jacobs His Chorus And Orchestra - Spartacus - Love Theme

A strangely alluring tune from Dick Jacobs is today's offering. What can you say about a guy that had his own chorus and orchestra? Wikipedia tells me he was a musician, conductor, arranger, orchestrator and music director, as well as being an A&R geezer for a number of record labels -- I would love to have seen his business card. Great track though. I haven't yet tested it out on an unsuspecting dancefloor but I reckon it might go down a treat.

Bumble Diddy Bop

I've just been listening to Bumble Diddy Bop, the latest installment in the Diddy Wahcast saga, and I'm pleased to report that it's a sure fire winner. Only at a pinch could the commentary be described as insightful, but it's the tunes that raises this one above the pack. From swinging ballads to bopping rockers with some Belgian poppers thrown in for good measure -- you'll recognise that it's pure quality from go to whoa.

mp3: Bumble Diddy Bop

Cozy Cole - Bad
Joe Valino - Caravan
Dion - (I Was) Born To Cry
Big Maybelle - That's A Pretty Good Love
Jet Harris - Chills And Fever
Ray Peterson - Fever
The Bobbettes - Look At The Stars
Billy Williams - The Pied Piper
Lavern Baker - Bumble Bee
Wanda Jackson - Honey Bop
Elvis Presley - I Got Stung
Hollywood Flames - Buzz Buzz Buzz

Do the Popcorn

James Brown - The Popcorn

Just as, in the early 1900s, Pablo Picasso had his 'blue period', James Brown, in the late 1960s, went through what's known as his 'popcorn period'. But, whereas Picasso was inspired by a Spanish soul, Brown took his inspiration from Latin Soul. And it's right there that this tenuous analogy reaches its natural conclusion. Just get down and turn around to this popping instrumental from Soul Brother Number One featuring a super solo from guitarist Jimmy Nolan.