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Andy Sullivan: Against the Grain

This week I have another Covers installment.  I’ll begin with a classic oldie, “Sugar, Sugar”.  

“Sugar, Sugar” was written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim.  It was originally recorded by the virtual band The Archies.  This version reached #1 on the U.S in 1969.  The Archies were the group that performed on the Saturday morning cartoon Archie.  The group itself was never seen, just the cartoon characters.  The song was performed by session musicians Kim, Toni Wine, Ron Dante and Ellie Greenwich.  Kim had a hit in 1974 with “Rock Me Gently”.  Dante produced “Mandy” for Barry Manilow and “Heartbreaker” for Pat Benatar.  Greenwich and Barry, who were married from ’62-’65, wrote many famous songs including “Be My Baby” and “Chapel Of Love”.  Toni Wine wrote the hit songs “A Groovy Kind of Love” and “Candida””.  In an interview, Kim said it was written  with preschoolers in mind since Archie was for 3-4 year old’s.  Still, they wanted the song to appeal to adults, so they included the line “I just can’t believe the loveliness of loving you”.  In 1973, Lou Reed said he wish he’d written the son.  Wilson Pickett covered the song in 1974.  It hit #41 for Pickett on the R&B charts.

I always thought Jimi Hendrix was the first to record “Hey Joe”(’66).  Not so.  The song was registered copyright in 1962 by Billy Roberts.  In 1965 and ’66, the Leaves, Sufaris, Standells, Love(whose version I heard on Underground Garage), Wilson Picket’s cover of the song went to #59 in 1969.  The song was recorded as recently as 2006 by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  If level of greatness is measured by how many times a song has been recorded, I’d say the song is a classic.

“Rave On” was released in 1958 by the late Buddy Holly.  The title was inspired by Carl Perkins’ “Dixie Fried”(which was redone by the Kentucky Headhunters), which uses the refrain “rave on”.  The most recognizable cover(to me anyway) was by John Mellencamp for the Cocktail soundtrack in 1988.  

That’s just a little taste of what’s on my covers list. I’ll be back to the covers from time to time.  

 

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