Category: Artist Profiles

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!

Forgotten Girl Groups – Randy’s Rarities

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I don’t think the term itself needs to be clarified as it’s been in use for about 70 years. Some may say it is antiquated but we have Boy Bands and neither term seems to be going anywhere. I have mentioned a couple of these lesser-known groups in this series such as The Velvelettes, The Donays, and The Appollas. Many of them were session singers and tour backup vocalists. There were a few more of these rare names in my music collection and of course, many dozens I haven’t got, yet.

So here are my last sweet six groups.

“Teach Me Tonight” (1954)

The DeCastro Sisters were protegees of the great Carmen Miranda and appeared in her movie ”Copacabana.’ The three (Peggy, Cherie, and Babette) of them were very successful and quite popular in the late 1950s. But for the music charts, they are really only known for this cover of a song written by Gene de Paul with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. First recorded by Janet Brace with Orchestra directed by Jack Pleis in 1954, but it was this second effort that hit #2 and there are now over 400 versions.

“Cry Baby” (1956)

The Bonnie Sisters (real nurses, not actually real sisters) with “Cry Baby” (1956), this song apparently inspired the John Waters film of the same name in 1990.

“Casanova Brown” (1962)

The Young Sisters got to #94 with “Casanova Brown” in 1962, and they were two sisters, Lisa and and Angela Pomilla and Patti Massaglia, all from Detroit. They backed Del Shannon on “Little Town Flirt” and six other songs.

“Welcome To My Heart” (1965)

“Welcome To My Heart” was released in 1965 under the name The Bouquets, the group were mostly back-up singers and had different members at times, they also recorded as The Clickettes and The Fashions.

“I Wonder” (1964)

“I Wonder” from 1964 seems to be the only single from The Butterflys which was a name I have run across a couple times, seemingly completely different groups. Once again it seems they were primarily backup singers. Like “Welcome To My Heart” above, I really do ‘wonder’ why this was not a huge hit, it’s a great song.

“The 81” (1964)

Candy and the Kisses were from Staten Island but in 1964 they had a local hit in Philadelphia, based on a dance called “The 81”. Who knew?

Moot Davis – Randy’s Rarities

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“Whisky Town” by Moot Davis (2004)

One would think it’s a pretty big break to have one of your songs appear in an Oscar-winning film, but here we are 20 years after Moot’s song “Whisky Town” was in the movie Crash (2004) and I am not sure too many of you have ever heard of him. The song did not appear on the Soundtrack and while he is on Spotify that song/album is not there either. I found it on Apple Music however I think he remains largely unknown. We all have our artists in these niche or undefined genres that just can’t catch a big break, I have many names similar to Moot so he’s a bit of a representative sample.

Moot is from New Jersey and wanted a career in Country Music and with the help of the great Rosie Flores it was off to Nashville with an introduction to Dwight Yoakam’s producer Pete Anderson. This resulted in two albums, the song I just mentioned was from the first in 2004, Moot Davis.

Some of his songs have been used in TV series such as Justified starring Timothy Olyphant (great show btw), not sure how much that helped him either. Five albums have come and gone and I can’t find much about Moot these days. No Wikipedia page and his website has not been updated in some time. No tour dates and his last album was released in 2021. He just hasn’t been able to find a wider audience.

He just announced a new podcast “The Highway Ain’t For The Weak” so I know he’s still around. As I mentioned, he is one of those hard-to-classify artists. He can be straight up Country, to Country Rock, Rockabilly, and the sort of undefined Americana. working with Dwight Yoakam’s producer, he has some Bakersfield sound as well.

I do like his more bar-room/Honky Tonk-style songs. This variation can often be a problem for artists, sometimes finding a lane and sticking to it may be the way to go. Anyway, I enjoy his music and do hope he’s doing well. I will leave you with another Hank Williams-style tune “Highway Kind”. (not the TVZ song)

MootDavis.com

Geraint Watkins – Randy’s Rarities

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“Easy To Say, Bon Temps Rouler”
“I’m Just Crazy About You” from his 2004 album, Dial ‘W’ for Watkins

Geraint Watkins (geh-ruhnt) is from Wales and is a multi-instrumentalist and a first-rate Rock and Roll piano, and accordion player. He’s a singer/songwriter with several solo works to his credit. I found him through his association with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe (here playing bass in the “Easy To Say, Bon Temps Rouler” clip). He toured with Nick back in 2010 and I saw them play at the Axis Club in Toronto. And a great night of music it was, Nick pointed out the Toronto based Ron Sexsmith in the crowd, a friend of Lowe’s and they have toured together also. Among many things, Geraint has teamed up with Bill Wyman and His Rhythm Kings.

This clip above is a live performance from that 2010 tour that I saw, Nick Lowe and Geraint Watkins’s “Only a Rose”.
“Deep in the Heart of Texas” written by Geraint Watkins, Geraint Watkins & The Dominators (1979)
“Deep in the Heart of Texas” covered by Dave Edmunds on the album D.E. 7th in 1982.

Will Trent, (caution: Spoiler Alert and a Nick Lowe nerd alert)

This seemed to be a good spot to mention that in the TV series Will Trent, (caution: Spoiler Alert) which I would recommend, in the most recent episode he meets his Uncle for the first time. At the end of the episode, he is presented with what is described as his (Will’s) mother’s favorite album. Purely coincidental to todays topic.

Nick Lowe’s Jesus of Cool (1978)

The episode closes with this song. Now that’s cool.

Credit for the still photo from the TV, Donald Teplyske- Fervor Coulee: RootsMusicOpinion @FervorCoulee

Don and Dewey -Randy’s Rarities

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Don “Sugarcane” Harris and Dewey Terry got together in High School in Pasadena and formed their first group in 1949. By 1956 the two were still together gigging as session musicians which is where Don got the nickname “Sugarcane” and became known for his unique electric violin work. They often played with the great Earl Palmer. The very talented pair recorded several singles but nothing charted. However, some of their songs did very well when covered.

“I’m Leaving It Up to You” written and recorded by Don and Dewey in 1957
Dale and Grace hit #1 on the Hot 100 in 1963
Donny and Marie reached #4 on the Hot 100 and #17 on the Country chart.
“Farmer John” written and recorded by Don and Dewey, released in 1959
The Premiers would hit #19 on the Hot 100 in 1963.

The B side to “Farmer John” was “Justine” and was covered by The Righteous Brothers who also remade their song “Big Boy Pete”. The Kingsmen had a #4 hit with “Jolly Green Giant” when they put new words to the tune of “Big Boy Pete”.

“Justine” could have been by Little Richard, they really rock out on this song

I encountered Don and Dewey for the first time when I bought the Shakin’ Stevens album in 1978 and he did this great cover of “Justine”. An incredible pair I thought you should know about.