"…It
Hurts To Live…"
Most
people perceive Carole King as beginning her musical life in 1971 with the
magisterial and legendary "Tapestry" album (both it and her life
before that - are now the subject of the "Beautiful" musical which
has just hit the West End of London to rave reviews). But her songwriting
skills go back to the early Sixties where she and her husband Gerry Goffin
penned a huge run of hits for other people.
And that's where this rather lovely
CD compilation comes in - 4th in a series by Ace Records of the UK covering
Goffin & King's wide-ranging net of artists. Here are the American boys and
girls handling their teenage ups and downs...
UK
released March 2015 - "Hung On You: More Gerry Goffin & Carole King
Songbook" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace Records CDCHD 1427 (Barcode 029667070324) is a 25-Track CD compilation in the British label's Singer Songwriter Series that breaks down as
follows (67:17 minutes):
1.
Hung On You - THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS (1965 USA 7" single on Philles 129,
B-side of "Unchained Melody")
2.
That Old Sweet Roll (Hi-De-Ho) - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD (1969 USA 7" single on
Atlantic 45-2647, B-side of "Willy & Laura May Jones")
3.
Road To Nowhere - THE HEARTS AND FLOWERS (1967 USA 7" single on Capitol
5829, B-side to their debut 45 "Rock And Roll Gypsies")
4.
Don't Let Me Stand In Your Way - SKEETER DAVIS (1964 USA 7" single on RCA
47-8450, B-side of "What Am I Gonna Do Without You")
5.
You Turn Me On Boy - THE HONEY BEES (1965 USA 7" single on Fontana 1505,
A)
6.
What A Sweet Thing That Was - THE SHIRELLES (1961 USA 7" single on Scepter
1220, B-side of "A Thing Of The Past")
7.
Will Power - THE COOKIES (1963 USA 7" single on Dimension 1012, A and in
the UK on Colpix PX 11012, A)
8.
This Little Girl - DION (1963 USA 7" single on Columbia 4-42776, A)
9.
The Sheik - THE CLOVERS (from the 1960 US LP "Love Potion Number
Nine" on United Artists UAS-6099, Stereo)
10.
Am I The Guy - TONY ORLANDO (1961 USA 7" single on Epic 9452, B-side of
"Bless You")
11.
Show Me Girl - THE HONDELLS (1966 USA 7" single on Mercury 72626, B-side
of "Cheryl's Goin' Home")
12.
Sharing You - BOBBY VEE (1962 USA 7" single on Liberty 55451, A)
13.
When My Little Girl Is Smiling - THE DRIFTERS (1962, Atlantic 2134, A)
14.
Randy - EARL-JEAN (1964 USA 7" single on Colpix 748, A)
15.
Anything Can Happen - WALTER JACKSON
(1962 recording first issued in 2006 on the CD compilation "It's All Over:
The Okeh Recordings Vol.1" on Kent-Soul CDKEND 263)
16.
It's Gonna Be All Right - THEOLA KILGORE (1966 USA 7" single on Mercury
72564, B-side of "I Can't Stand It")
17.
Where Does Love Go - FREDDIE SCOTT (1964 USA 7" single on Colpix 724, A)
18.
Please Hurt Me - LITTLE EVA (1963 USA 7" single on Dimension D 1019, A)
19.
So Many Lonely People - HENRY ALSTON (1964 USA 7" single on Colpix CP 731,
A)
20.
Don't You Want To Love Me - CONNIE STEVENS (1966 USA 7" single on Warner
Brothers 5691, A)
21.
Keep Your Hands Off My Baby - THE ORLONS (from the 1963 US LP "All The
Hits By The Orlons" on Cameo C 1033, Mono)
22.
No One Ever Tells You - THE CRYSTALS (1962 USA 7" single on Philles 105,
B-side of "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)")
23.
The Boy From Chelsea - TRULY SMITH (1967 UK 7" single on Decca F 12700, A)
24.
Snow Queen - THE TOKENS (from the 1970 LP "Greatest Moments" on BT
Puppy BTPS 1012)
25.
Something In The Morning - THE AMERICAN BREED (from the 1968 LP "Bend Me,
Shape Me" on ACTA Records 8003, Mono)
NOTES:
Tracks:
5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14 to 16, 18 and 19, 20 to 24 and 26 are MONO
Tracks:
1 to 4, 6, 9, 12, 13, 17 and 25 are STEREO
There's
the usual fact-filled 16-page booklet from Ace with great liner notes from MICK
PATRICK - the text peppered with label photos of those rare 45s on Colpix,
Dimension, Philles and Scepter (to name but a few). There's a repro of sheet
music for Vee's "Sharing You", superb black and white publicity shots
for Skeeter Davis, Tony Orlando and The Cookies and the rare US picture sleeve
for "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers (its B-side "Hung
On You" opens the compilation). It's a typically lovely job done. The
audio is remastered by an engineer of long-standing - NICK ROBBINS - and
despite the differing sources - the audio is uniformly excellent throughout
(even on those dense Philles recordings). In some cases the audio is
exceptional.
"Hung
On You" heavily features the Sixties Girl-Group Sound - Pop tunes full of
catchy melodrama and High School joy/misery. Period charm oozes out of these
grooves - even if at times it's dolloped on with way too many spoons of sugar.
It opens strongly with a nice one-two of The Righteous Brothers and Dusty. But
a piece of genuinely forgotten Pop genius crops up with The Hearts And Flowers
flipside on Track 3 - "Road To Nowhere". The Hearts And Flowers were
a West Coast Folky-Rock ensemble similar to the cheery sounds of The
Association and they produced a winner with this concoction. The song was later
picked up Judy Henske and Britain's Trash - it's a total nugget on here (and in
fabulous audio quality). You're then hit by a four flusher for Girl Power -
Skeeter Davis on "Don't Let Me Stand In Your Way" (produced by Chet
Atkins), the infectious "You Turn Me On" by The Honey Bees (sounding
so Phil Spector) - but the best of all is the catchy "Will Power" by
The Cookies featuring the lovely vocals of Dorothy Jones, Earl-Jean McCrea and
Margaret Ross (Earl-Jean gets a solo outing "Randy" on track 14).
Breezy
Pop comes in the form of Tony Orlando's "Am I The Girl" followed
quickly by the Herman's Hermits sound of The Hondells doing "Show Me
Girl" and the cheesy bubblegum pop of Bobby Vee.
Wobbles
- "The Sheik" feels like The Clovers reaching for a novelty hit and
not quite making it - while the Stereo mix of "When My Little Girl Is
Smiling" actually sounds strange after all these years of hearing the Mono
version (all those plucked strings). Walter Jackson sounds uncomfortable with
the obvious Pop slant of "Anything Can Happen" - but despite that he
still puts in a fabulous vocal performance that lifts the song. And I'm not
sure the PC brigade who watch over us all (nice of them) would approve of the
emotional flagellation advocated in Little Eva's sappy "Please Hurt
Me". Countering that is the surprisingly lovely "Where Does Love
Go" where Freddie Scott puts in a Soulful belter of a performance (the
Cash Box trade advert for Colpix CP 724 is reproduced on Page 10). The mournful
"No One Ever Tells You" by The Crystals is a young-girls advice song
(lyrics from it title this review). Even more disarming is the gorgeous longing
in "The Boy From Chelsea" by Truly Smith (Josephine Taylor) - an
overlooked British Pop nugget musically directed by Island Records' Chris
Blackwell. It was penned a few years prior and slated to be used by Davey Jones
of The Monkees - and you can see why its wistfulness and melodrama appealed to
Northern Soul fans (quite apart from the fact that it sold zip on release).
As
ever - Ace Records pull off a neat stunt - another CD winner (their 4th) for
one of the most successful songwriting duos in History - Gerry Goffin and
Carole King. And would we have it any other way...
PS:
the other three Ace compilations covering the Goffin & King output are:
1.
Goffin & King: A Gerry Goffin & Carole King Song Collection 1961-1967
(October
2007, Ace Records CDCHD 1170)
2.
Honey & Wine: Another Gerry Goffin & Carole King Song Collection
(March
2009, Ace Records CDCHD 1216)
3.
Something Good From The Goffin & King Songbook
(March
2012, Ace Records CDCHD 1327)
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