Stay

Maurice Williams - Stay

Just the other day I was in Nukuʻalofa, the captial of the Kingdom of Tonga. One night, I ventured out to a bar where a local cover band was entertaining the revillers. With a seemingly endless series of rotating vocalists, they were mainly dishing out southern rock staples; CCR, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. As I found out, swampy tunes suit tropical climes. But, when they slided into a version of today's selection, I knew what my next blog post had to be.

Stay is an absolutely georgeous song, albeit a little brief. It was written by a fifteen year old Maurice Williams after he unsuccessfully tried to convince his date to break her curfew. However, it was seven full years later when Williams and his group, The Zodiacs, climbed all the way to number one with it in 1960. Stay's inclusion on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack -- one of the best selling albums of all time -- ensured that William's gentle and sweet doo-wop pleading reached a new generation of listeners. My sincere hope is that this blog post will have a similar effect.

Diddy Wah

Bo Diddley - Diddy Wah Diddy

This is a multifaceted blogpost. Firstly, I recently became aware that I've neglected to provide you with a rip of Bo Diddley's 1955 recording of this blog's namesake song, Diddy Wah Diddy. So I'm hereby correcting that.

Secondly, a few weeks ago, a very nice hardcover book of Robert Crumb's music related drawings was delivered to me, unannounced. It includes the classic Cheap Thrills cover and some of his Heroes of the Blues, naturally, but there's also much more. The Complete Record Cover Collection now sits proudly on one of my shelves, next to another R. Crumb book.

Thirdly, I need to let you know that I've started doing radio again. I've been given a slot on a station that popped up earlier this year in Dalston, London. It's called NTS and my show is imaginatively titled Diddy Wah. So far I've presented two programmes, both show-specials. The first one is all tunes used in John Waters' flicks, the second is all about girls names. You can listen to them here.

Finally, I wanted to give you a heads-up that for the next month I'll be about as far away from my records as is humanly possible. I'm going to Australia. So you might notice the post frequency dropping a little below the level you've grown accustomed to. Stick with it though, I'll be back in full effect early in twenty-twelve.

Rockin-On-'N'-Off

B. Bumble & The Stingers - Mashed #5
B. Bumble & The Stingers - Rockin-On-'N'-Off

Can't believe it's taken me so long, a matter of months, to post this -- one of my favourite recent vinyl acquisitions. If you're familiar with the work of B. Bumble & The Stingers, it's possibly through their biggest hit, a UK #1, Nut Rocker -- which was a rockin' interpretation of the most familiar part from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. This time the same group (read about them here and here) decided to take classical inspiration from Beethoven, with Mashed #5, and Rachmaninoff, with the ingeniously named Rockin-On-'N'-Off.

Released in 1962, for my money Mashed #5 should have been the A-side. Beethoven's Fifth just has that natural swing, something that didn't pass Walter Murphy by -- he turned it into a disco hit in '76. Prelude In C Sharp Minor on the other hand is a darker, more serious affair and this comes shining through on Rockin-On-'N'-Off. Anyway, if you love hearing rock interpretations of classical themes, you're going to dig both of these, a lot.

Who put the ram?

The Edsels - Rama Lama Ding Dong

Here is a very welcome new addition to my collection of great fun doo-wop boppers. The Edsels originally named themselves The Essos, after the oil company, before settling on being named after a model of Ford car -- perhaps they were hoping for an endorsement deal. They recorded and first released their biggest hit, Rama Lama Ding Dong, in 1958, but it didn't catch on until 1961. It's referenced in Barry Mann's Who Put The Bomp, also from 1961, which in turn is referenced in Le Tigre's superb Decepticon. You would have to try quite hard to not enjoy today's selection.