Song Nebula

“The Jitterbug” (1939) – Judy Garland * Written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg * 78: “Over the Rainbow” / “The Jitterbug” * Label: Decca

“The Jitterbug” is a song that was axed from The Wizard of Oz film, but appeared as the B-side to Judy Garland’s hit version of “Over the Rainbow,” released the same year.  It tapped in to the high energy dance craze of the day and was slated to feature Dorothy and her yellow brick road cohorts jitterbugging to exhaustion under the influence of the title’s critters. Most notable about this recording, though, is the melody Harold Arlen uses in the verses, which foretells Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Bali Ha’i” exactly ten years before South Pacific. This places it in the timeline after Franz Waxman’s 1935 score for The Bride of Frankenstein, which is often cited as a possible influence on “Bali Ha’i.”

“My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'” (1973) – The Chi-Lites * Written by Eugene Record and Stanley (Stank) McKenney * 45: “My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'” / “Just Two Teenage Kids (Still in Love)” * LP: A Letter to Myself * Label: Brunswick * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#92)

The early seventies saw an influx of hybrid genres and formats reflecting both a new cultural complexity and more sophisticated methods of audience analysis. The idea of “soul country” thus drifted about, with the massive success of Charley Pride—himself a hardcore country singer— raising questions about such a blend. Chicago’s Chi-Lites brought particular attention to themselves as “soul country” experimentalists, prompting a name check by Nashville promotional executive Chuck Chellman in the Music City News. He referred to recent adds of the Chi-Lites to country station playlists as evidence that country’s dalliance with rock music was leading to far greater travesties. Although their “Oh Girl,” with its laid back, harmonica-driven feel, may spring to mind as an example, it was a 1972 track called “My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'”—a unique hodgepodge of barnyard fiddle, drawled vocals, Philly soul polish, pizzicatto strings and street corner doo wop—that made the strongest pitch. This was “soul country” if there ever was any.

“Morning Much Better” (1970) – Ten Wheel Drive featuring Genya Ravin * Written by Michael Zager and Aram Schefrin * 45: “Morning Much Better” / “Stay With Me” * LP: Brief Replies * Produced by Guy Draper * Label: Polydor * Charts: Billboard Hot 100 (#74)

New Jersey’s Ten Wheel Drive competed with Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears in the thriving late-sixties/early-seventies jazz rock market, where band rosters could also function as fully-staffed softball teams. Among Ten Wheel Drive’s assets was singer Genya Ravin (formerly of ’60s girl group Goldie and the Gingerbreads), who was known to remove her upper attire and perform in body paint. Their lone charting single “Morning Much Better” now stands out for sounding like a precursor to the Family Feud TV game show theme, which debuted in 1976. Although that piece of music, written by Walt Levinski, doesn’t borrow any melodic ideas from the Ten Wheel Drive single, they both share a distinctive banjo and blaring horn DNA. Band member (and “Morning Much Better” co-writer) Michael Zager would later create the 1978 disco hit “Let’s All Chant,” while Ravin would produce Young, Loud and Snotty, the 1977 classic US punk debut LP for the Dead Boys.

“Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)” (1983) – Circle Jerks * Written by Tandy Almer, Burt Bacharach, Hal David, Bill Danoff, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Bobby Braddock, Curly Putnam * 45: “Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45)” / “Rats of Reality” * LP: Golden Shower of Hits * Producer: Jerry Goldstein * Label: LAX Records

The “punk version” shtick seems to only work when levels of sincerity and subtlety manifest themselves, as they do here, courtesy of a Los Angeles band who never knew the meaning of either of those concepts. Behind all the toilet and pee is a series of 5 late-sixties and early-seventies radio hits from the roster’s formative years all strung together into a concise love-found-then-lost narrative. When you’re laughing all the way through, you’re laughing to fight off nascent anxiety. (The five songs: The Association’s “Along Comes Mary,” The Carpenters’ “Close to You,” the Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight,” Paul Anka’s “Having My Baby,” and Tammy Wynette’s “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.”)

“Why Don’t Somebody” (1977) – Crazy Cavan ‘n’ the Rhythm Rockers * Written by Cavan Grogan and Lyndon Needs * LP: Our Own Way of Rockin’ * Produced by John Schroeder * Label: Charly

This Welsh group helped rally a seventies Teddy Boy revival in the UK which was also catching fire across mainland Europe. The late fifties Teddy Boy look was a suitable fit for the glitter-rock years, when layers of long hair could fold up into a greasy, stringy pompadour worn with an Edwardian gold lamé jacket and leather pants. Throughout most of that complicated decade, the English speaking world already nursed a general case of fifties nostalgia, but by the latter part of it into the early eighties, the “rockabilly revivalism” of groups like Crazy Cavan ‘n’ the Rhythm Rockers developed into more of a distinct genre that bordered on orthodox religion.

“Are You Ready” (1970) – Pacific Gas and Electric * Written by Charles Allen and John Hill * 45: “Are You Ready?” / “Staggolee” * LP: Are You Ready * Label: Columbia * Produced by John Hill

This Jesus-rock track became a 1970 #14 Billboard hit for the LA multiracial soul rock outfit Pacific Gas and Electric (who would need to change its name to PG&E by 1972 to avoid ire from the real life utility company.) The song begins by acknowledging the Vietnam War and ecological concerns (“There’s rumors of war/ Men dying and women crying/ If you breathe air you’ll die”) before stirring up a fuzzed out gospel choir frenzy. The end was nigh, warned the record, and the message must have resonated. The group featured lead vocalist (and Arthur Lee lookalike) Charlie Allen along with former James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who was likely responsible for their Godward tilt, having been converted to Christianity by street preacher Arthur Blessitt. (Known back then as the “Minister of Sunset Strip,” Blessitt is now remembered for having carried a cross through every nation of the world.) Did Schwartz feel sold out by the album cover? Did God rock, already popular at the time, really need sex to sell it? The 45 for “Are You Ready” gives co-billing to the Blackberries, a group of backup singers associated with the Motown label’s LA studio.

“Disco Inferno” (1976) – The Trammps * Written by Leroy Green and Ron “Have Mercy” Kersey * 45: “Disco Inferno” / “You Touch My Hot Line” * LP: Disco Inferno * Producer: Baker, Harris and Young Productions * Mixed by Tom Moulton * Label: Atlantic * Charts: Billboard disco (#1, 1977); Billboard Hot 100 (#11, 1978)

First released in 1976, the Trammps’ “Disco Inferno,” with its sonically expansive Tom Moulton mixing treatment, had already hit #1 on the Billboard disco chart before getting a recharge from its appearance on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. In his Heart of Rock and Soul (1989), Dave Marsh writes of hearing the record at the height of its spring 1978 popularity at the New York Yankees’ batting practice on opening day and finally catching the vision of disco: “Reggie Jackson stepped to the plate… [and] began sending balls flying out of the park… Reggie was crushing the ball as well as he would six months later against the Dodgers in the last game of the World Series, when he hit three that counted. [Marsh forgot that Jackson had actually done this in the ’77 World Series.] [Y]ou could feel Reggie get pumped right along with the music… Jackson made me feel the vitality of the music as a bubbling stew of drum and bass, building and building and boiling over and building again til you were wrung out and breathless” (pp. 59-60). That “til you were wrung out” element is an important part of the disco story. The Trammps gave it its perfect anthem, bearing a title that played off of both The Towering Inferno—the 1974 film that contained a burning discotheque scene—and of Dante’s Inferno, which tells of a special hell reserved for the hedonists “who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites.” And yet the song itself still shows no signs of burning out.

“Heisser Sommer” (1968) – Chris Doerk and Frank Schöbel * Written by Gerd Natschinski and Jürgen Degenhardt * East Germany LP: Heisser Sommer * Label: Amiga

The East German film Heisser Sommer (hot summer) masquerades as a Beach Blanket Bingo knockoff but is at heart a cultural missive in which the “need for restraint” and the “good of the group” are reigning concepts. With its brash musical numbers, rich colors, and pretty cast, it makes for weirdly mesmerizing viewing. The Heisser Sommer title song lingers thanks to a high and shimmering string arrangement. This was a popular technique since the days of Percy Faith, but by the late sixties/early seventies it came into vogue to express deep emotion (Delfonics, “La La Means I Love You,” 4 Seasons/Walker Brothers, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”), mystical ethereality (Spirit, “Taurus”), desertion (Ennio Morricone, “Una pistola per Ringo”), decay (Johnny Rivers, “Poor Side of Town”), foreboding (Temptations, “Papa was a Rolling Stone”). Those last three concepts—desertion, decay and foreboding—are likely what you’ll hear telegraphed loudest, though, when you watch those kids shout out their opener on the streets of East Berlin.

“O-O I Love You” (1967) –  The Dells * Written by Bobby Miller * Producer: Bobby Miller * 45: “O-O I Love You” / “There Is” * LP: There Is * Arranger: Charles Stepney * Label: Cadet * Charts: #61 (Billboard Hot 100); #22 (Billboard R&B)

In the late sixties, the Dells came into clearest focus when the Chicago doo wop vets updated two of their earlier hits, “Oh What a Night” (1956) and “Stay in My Corner” (1965), transforming them into showcases for the group’s pleading, seamless vocal interchanges against the starry, shimmering backdrop of Charles Stepney’s instrumental arrangements. Those two tracks, especially the full six minutes of “Stay in My Corner,” may be the ultimate Dells experiences, but an earlier one called “O-O I Love You” previews the highly-charged, emotionally drawn-out direction they were headed toward. When the hammy basso recitation by Chuck Barksdale begins (“and…uh…words are born”), you assign it to the throwback throwaway category. But then lead tenor Johnny Carter takes over and you lose yourself and drift off to the aching, majestic bridge. Lead baritone Marvin Junior then emerges with a burst of fireworks, setting up a final recitation by Barksdale, who now sounds entirely seductive. Junior and Carter then close things out with more dueling fireworks before fading into the silence of the stunned.