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"…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)
