Category: 1960’s

The Cookies

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“Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby)” was The Cookies biggest hit at #3 on the R&B Chart and #7 on the Hot 100. Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Not to be confused with the Little Eva song that they sang on, “Keep Your Hands off My Baby”.

I debated including this group in my Rarities series but I felt they were likely more well-known, so a separate post it is. There are things about them you may not know. I’ve actually wanted to do a post on The Cookies for a long while and given my recent Forgotten Girl Groups post, now is the right time.

The Cookies were formed in 1954 in Brooklyn and were primarily a back-up vocal group. They released released five of their own singles from 1954 to 1957, but when they were backing Ray Charles on a few songs, it was then some members were transformed into The Raelettes in 1958. The Cookies also backed Big Joe Turner on his amazing version of “Corrine Corrina” in 1956.

The second incarnation was built around original member Dorothy Jones in 1961. It is this formation I wanted to focus on today. The new names were Earl-Jean McCrea and Margaret Ross. Again, they were primarily a backing vocal group, principally under the guidance of Carole King and Gerry Goffin. So they were a part of the Brill Building scene for a time. They would appear on hits for Neil Sedaka, Mel Tormé, and Steve and Eydie (Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé) among others.

They also backed Little Eva on her 1962 smash hit “The Loco-Motion”. They charted four of their own songs on the Hot 100 and three on the R&B chart. Like The Donays and “Devil in His Heart” one of their singles was covered by The Beatles. In that Donays post, I speculated how The Beatles came across such a rare record. So I wanted to thank Lisa from Tao-Talk.com who has since provided me with the answer. You can find her George Harrison story here. And a great link she provided to a Smithsonian.com article here. But for the Cookie’s record in particular George probably picked it up in a London Record Shop.

“Chains” (1962)

“Chains” was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and was released by The Cookies in November of 1962. The song did quite well and reached #6 on the Hot R&B singles, #17 on the Hot 100, and #4 on the Canadian Charts.

This is the BBC recording of “Chains” from 1963.

The Beatles recorded “Chains” on February 11, 1963 and it was released on the album Please Please Me that came out on March 22, 1963 in the UK. The US release was January 10, 1964 on their first North American album, Introducing… The Beatles, although not labeled this way it turned out to be Version One. It’s a long story but there was a Version Two of the album sent out around February 10, 1964. Depending on the pressing these albums, as you can imagine, are now worth into the many thousands of dollars. And “Chains” appears on both versions.

We know The Beatles loved a lot of American music and they covered other Girl Groups, The Marvelettes, The Shirelles, and technically in that class, The Teddy Bears. A good song is a good song. That’s why we have covers.

While The Beatles were certainly covering The Cookies song, the first to record “Chains” were The Everly Brothers on July 11, 1962, but it was not released until 1984.

Ok sorry for getting a bit off track, again, a bad habit of mine. Back to The Cookies.

Speaking of being the first to record a song, The Cookies recorded “On Broadway” in 1962. It was released on a Compilation LP, Dimension Dolls along with songs by Carole King and Little Eva. Then the song was reworked and we all know the version by The Drifters that came out in 1963 and the amazing cover by George Benson.

“I’m into Somethin’ Good” (1964)

Earl-Jean McCrea was the lead of the group and she left The Cookies and released some singles of her own. “I’m into Somethin’ Good” was written by Goffin and King and Earl-Jean released it in April of 1964. The song made a slow climb but hit a respectable #34 on Billboard and #38 on Cashbox by Summertime. There was a little thing going on at the time and no one realized just how big of a deal The British Invasion would become.

The Herman’s Hermits released a cover in July of 1964 and by September it was #1 in the UK. It entered the top 20 on the Hot 100 on November 21 and peaked at #13.

Earl-Jean released another single but it failed to chart. She would soon after leave the music business. If only they had picked a better name for her last song…

“Randy” was another Goffin-King composition. You just can’t make this stuff up!

The Velvelettes – Randy’s Rarities

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“Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I” the first release was by The Velvelettes in 1965.
The song was first recorded in 1964 by The Temptations as “Lonely, Lonely Man Am I” but not released until 1966.

In 1961 Bertha Barbee-McNeal and Mildred Gill Arbor were students at Western Michigan University and they got the idea to start a vocal group. Then add Mildred’s 9th grade sister Carolyn and her Junior High friend Betty. Bertha asked her cousin Norma to join as well. One of their college friends was Barry Gordy’s nephew and was able to arrange an audition at Motown. Carolyn (Cal) was chosen as the lead singer. They released their first single in 1963 with Stevie Wonder playing harmonica on both the A and B side but the songs did not chart.

“Needle in a Haystack”

Their highest charting song was “Needle in a Haystack” at #45 on the R&B chart in 1964. Their next three chart positions were #64, #95 and #102.

From 1965, the #64 song “He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin'” caught the ear of Bananarama (and the Fun Boy Three), and their 1983 single went to #5 in the UK.

The song was written by Eddie Holland, William Stevenson and Norman Whitfield

More music stuff at Lines by Leon.

Doris Troy – Randy’s Rarities

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A 16-year-old Doris Elaine Higginsen was working at The Apollo Theatre as an usherette and somehow James Brown found out she could sing. She got a job as a Background Singer and used the stage name Doris Payne and eventually formed The Sweet Inspirations with Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick. All three would have solo careers, with Dionne Warwick of course becoming a Superstar.

Doris wrote “Just One Look” (1963) with R&B singer Gregory Carroll and she released it on Atlantic Records under the name Doris Troy. It was her one and only hit on the Billboard Hot 100 where it reached #10 and #3 on the R&B Chart and #1 on the Chum Radio Chart in (Toronto) Canada.

“Just One Look” was covered right away and then in 1964 The Hollies had a #2 hit in the UK. Linda Ronstadt put the song on her album Living in the USA, the single hit #44 in 1979. There are about 60 versions of the song now, but I have to say I favour the original and the version by Anne Murray, she released it in 1974 where Doris Troy had that #1 showing in 1963, Anne reached #11 in Canada and #86 on the Hot 100. In all the song has charted for five different artists. Not very many songs have done that.

This is a great album, Love Song and that is the actual cover. It has to be one of the worst looking album covers ever. I kept thinking, what is that thing on her head!! Poor Anne but she did win her first Best Country Vocal Performance Grammy Award for her cover of the Loggins & Messina, “A Love Song” in 1974.

Doris would find she was in greater demand in the UK and besides performing and doing backup singing for The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, she was a vocal director. She sang on Carly Simons “You’re So Vain” and songs for Humble Pie and Dusty Springfield. She met George Harrison while doing some work at Abby Road Studio and he signed her to Apple Records. She did just one album in 1970 and wrote songs with George but although critically acclaimed, the album Doris Troy did not get much attention. She did another album with Polydor in Germany, also excellent but not much chart-wise. Her last solo effort was Stretchin’ Out (1974) on the Peoples Label in the UK.

Here is a stirring rendition of the African American Spiritual, “Jacobs Ladder” from that album Doris Troy.

Mama, I Want to Sing is a stage musical based on her life and it was made into a movie released on DVD in 2012. Maybe not a ‘rarity’ as much as a rare talent. Doris (Mama Soul) died in 2004 at age 67.

The Donays – Randy’s Rarities

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The Donays released their one and only single in 1962 “Bad Boy”.

The end.

Oh, wait there is a B side to these singles, right? That’s the song I have!

“Devil in His Heart”, written by Richard P. Drapkin, who as it happens also recorded only one single “If That’s What Makes Her” as Ricky Dee.

Somehow this record by an unknown artist from Michigan, that did not chart, makes it’s way into the hands of George Harrison. It was recorded in July of 1963 as “Devil in Her Heart” and ended up on their second UK album, With the Beatles, released November 22, 1963.

The Apollas – Randy’s Rarities

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“Just Can’t Get Enough of You” written by Jo Armstead, Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson
“I Just Can’t Get Enough of You” covered by Lesley Gore in 1965.

The Apollas were a California-based group formed in the 1950’s but in this iteration we look at the 1965 line-up. They were signed to the new Warner Brothers created Loma Records.

The label included artists such as Ike and Tina Turner and J.J. Jackson (“But It’s Alright“) and they were trying to compete with Motown. Despite having incredible talent at and behind the microphone they had very limited chart success. Even with the generally successful Dick Glasser overseeing the A&R but for whatever reason they could not get Loma noticed. I am not sure Warner Brothers put in the necessary effort to support this spin-off label.

There were a few exceptions for Loma such as “Stay with Me” that charted for Lorraine Ellison, written and produced by Jerry Ragovoy. He left to join Bert Burns at Bang/Shout Records and would co-write “Time is on My Side” and “Piece of My Heart”. After leaving some troubles behind in New Orleans, Mac Rebennack would do some producing and session work for Loma. He would also sit in as part of the Wrecking Crew. It was during his time in LA that he developed the persona of Dr. John. They also had Ashford and Simpson on board but could not keep them, and it was off to Motown where they achieved legendary status with songs like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”.

The Apollas were said to be Loma’s answer to The Supremes. Membership included lead singer Leona Jiles, Leona Jameson, and Billi Barnum. They were initially a Gospel/Spiritual group that turned to secular music with great vitality, but they just did not catch the necessary chart success. Apparently, their songs became quite popular in the Northern Soul movement in England that started in the early 1970’s. The interest there involved a love of 1960s American Soul music from anywhere but (generally not) the Motown sound.

The Apollas recorded several songs from 1965-68 but never reached the charts once. Honestly, I don’t know how that happened, to me they were quite remarkable.

There was a brief run of a program hosted by Sam Riddle called Hollywood a Go Go. Here are The Apollas with a live version of “Lock Me In Your Heart”. Written by J.E. Herring, Jr. and J. Steward, Jr. If you do nothing else I urge you to click here for the song or try the video clip below. This may not be Staxx or Motown, but they certainly were not also-rans either.

“Lock Me in Your Heart”
“You’re Absolutely Right”
“Seven Days”
“Open the Door Fool”
“See the Silver Moon”