Back we go then, to last week’s unfinished business, interrupted as we were by “technical issues”.
And in what I’d love to take credit for as entirely planned, but which is actually utterly coincidental and fortunate, this morning’s song is one which was written by one of the three co-writers of yesterday’s tune. Nope, not Phil Spector, nor Jeff “Not John” Barry: I speak of the wonderful Ellie Greenwich.
Between 1963 and 1967, Greenwich and Barry were responsible for an impressive array of classics. Check this list out: The Crystals’ Da Doo Ron Ron and Then He Kissed Me; The Ronettes’ Be My Baby and Baby, I Love You; Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home); The Exciters’ (more famously covered by Manfred Mann) Do-Wah-Diddy; The Dixie Cups’ Chapel of Love; and The Shangri-La’s Leader of the Pack.
That’s not a bad list of credits, right?
This morning’s tune was bumped from the summery playlist I recently prepared for JC’s site time and space reasons; I wanted it to be around the hour mark, and something just had to go to keep the length there or thereabouts.
Plus, I couldn’t quite make up my mind which rendition of it I’d include.
So in a homage to Hong Kong Phooey, I thought I’d post all three versions I own and which were in contention, and you can make your own mind up.
(And in case that reference goes over your head, here:)
Would it be Elkie Brook’s version, which was first a single in 1977 and appeared on her Two Day Away album, but which I first encountered via the former Vinegar Joe lead singer’s wonderful, if M.O.R., 1981 album of (mostly) covers, Pearls:
Elkie Brooks – Sunshine After The Rain
Or, perhaps it would be two-hit wonder Berri’s version from `1994, which lobs a healthy chunk of Donna Summer’s 1977 smasheroo I Feel Love into the mix to bring things…erm…bang-up-to-date:
Berri – The Sunshine After The Rain
Or perhaps I’d have just stuck with the original:
Ellie Greenwich – The Sunshine After the Rain
Could be…!
In the end, I couldn’t make my mind up, so bumped the song entirely, in a painfully transparent reason to include Hong Kong Phooey on these pages.
More soon.
A History of Dubious Taste 