My Vinyl: Leslie Gore (A Quincy Jones Production)

I had the exceptional honor of interviewing Ms. Leslie Gore, who was born as Leslie Goldstein, in her suite at the Hilton hotel on Avenue Of The Americas in the spring of 1992. She was in town for performances, of course, and I got wind of it and reached out to her.  Oh…my..God!, she granted me this talk maybe because I was jocking the seven pm until midnight shft at an oldies station, WXNJ 94.3 in Avalon, New Jersey at the time. It is one of the highlights of my life as a radio on-air talent! I mean, this was a real recorded interview on a cassette tape and if I can ever get my life together again and retrieve it/process and reproduce it, I will share it again with the world via YouTube, maybe!

Known for the smash, “It’s My Party”, Leslie Gore’s body of musical work encompassed many more Top 40 hits with bullets [to number one status]. I didn’t know until recently that she was produced by the legendary Quincy Jones and that she had turned “femenist/gay”. Yet even those personal choices, from her music, it did not sway me. That is rare for me, an “old school G”. Many have been burnt and mischaracterized by that kind of mentality – including family members.

from Wikipedia I read, “The lyrics of “She’s a Fool” tell of a romantic triangle.^[5] The singer is upset that the boy she likes is being treated poorly by his current girlfriend.^[6]Allmusic critic Richie Unterberger believes that the success of this song was crucial to Gore’s career because it was dissimilar lyrically and musically from the two singles with crying themes that preceded it, and thus she was able to avoid being typecasted”.

Whateva. I had no hint that she was gay. I think she even flirted with me. It is all so silly and confusing with that shit. lol
Leslie was a great interview and I think that if I’d been brave enough to ask her out for a post-interview drink, she would have said “yes!” with enthusiasm. I always hear her music in my mind from time-to-time, or randomly sampled on some commercial, as they do these days in the twenty-first century of media advertising.

I began this post upon the news of her death in February of 2015. I am sorry that I let it lay dormant in my “drafts” until now. Please forgive me, Ms. Gore. When I think of my old transistor radio that I would keep under my pillow, so that my parents could not hear me listening to MusicRadio77 WABC when I should have been asleep on school nights, I cannot help but hear you singing, “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want to…”

By the way, for more of my musical musings, check out my burgeoning music-only blog, https://achilliadsmyvinylrecordshoppe.wordpress.com/

Recurring MOR Dream: “Cathy’s Clown” by The Everly Brothers

“Whoa, Nellie!” Now here is a ‘TUNE WEDGIE’ that you can help me figure out:
Why does this tune play in my “DJ Mind” even while I am in non-REM sleep or while making my breakfast before going to weekday work? Maybe it is because I am a Baby Boomer and product of being raised in New York City with some of the greatest and legendary terrestrial radio stations of all times?…
Whatever…This song by the Everly Brothers is one of the first hits I ever heard when I discovered radio in the early 1960s.
They were country-influenced rock and roll performers, best known for their steel-string guitar playing harmony sound. Their hottest streak of chart success was between 1957 and 1961, but radio stations played them as “recurrents” well into the 1970s! Even today I can hear, in my musical mind, the likes of DJ Dan Ingram back-announcing “Cathy’s Clown” or any number of the Everly Brother hits with a clever double-entendre. Back then, if you had to classify their music, they called it “Middle-Of-The-Road” or “MOR“.
“Cathy’s Clown” was track #14 on the Everly Brothers album with a bullet!
I always liked their kind-of competitive interplay when they sang; unsure whether they really were “brothers” or even if they liked each other (standing so close to each-other like that) when I saw them on shows like “The Ed Sullivan Show” or “Shindig”!
Come on now, and sing along!

Don’t want your love any more
Don’t want your kisses, that’s for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that’s Cathy’s clown

I’ve got to stand tall, you know a man can’t crawl
For when he knows you’re telling lies
And he lets them pass him by
He’s not a man at all

Don’t want your love any more
Don’t want your kisses, that’s for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that’s Cathy’s clown

When you see me shed a tear
And you know that it’s sincere
Don’t you think it’s kind of sad, that you’re treating me so bad?
Or don’t you even care?

Don’t want your love any more
Don’t want your kisses , that’s for sure
I die each time I hear this sound
Here he comes, that’s Cathy’s clown
That’s Cathy’s clown, that’s Cathy’s clown

Well, that’s a wrap for this “Wedgie” and please pray with me now that this tune will not intrude on this night’s sleep. Comments welcome and I will reply when I awaken from my “Dream, Dream, Dreams. Bye-Bye, Love!”

Happy Valentines/President Washington’s Birthday Weekend Song

Hey, look, I don’t go searching for these things, they just attack my former terrestrial music radio Disc Jockey musical mind! (A terrible affliction to endure without the ability to “climax” available to distract me, lol) And so in-keeping with the theme of this “holiday” weekend in the USA which is a bastardization of Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday (February 12th), “Ash Wednesday” (February 13th), Valentine’s Day (February 14th) and George Washington’s birthday (February 22nd), the “father of our country” [for those of us who were BORN here in the States], we have “President’s Day”!

Those of you who were not born here, please go back and take the new Achilliad “Citizenship Test” because I have noticed many of you newbies wandering aimlessly around – especially in New York City, lately.

Answer to question one: The official name of Monday’s day off is “George Washington’s Birthday.” There really is no such thing as “President’s Day”. Presidents’ Day was first established in 1885 to honor the February 22nd birthday of our first president (the man on the dollar bill note), George Washington.

The holiday is still officially known by the federal government as Washington’s Birthday.

In 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill into law making Washington’s birthday a holiday. In 1971, the date of his holiday, February 22nd, was screwed-up with the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

In some U.S. states, the holiday honors George Washington, while in others it honors both George Washington and the February 12th birth-date of Abraham Lincoln. As a grade-school pupil, I loved February because we had two separate holidays for these great Presidents.

Question 2:  “Are we really “united” states?

Riddle Question: What did Casanova say to his betrothed when she asked him what he was going to give her for Valentine’s Day?
Answer: “Candy, girl!”

And here is a song that comes to mind  as a Valentine:

“I’ve been a-searchin’ all this wide world Now finally I’ve found my
Candy girl Candy girl
I found me a girl (Candy girl) She sets my heart a-whirl (Candy girl) With huggin’ and kissin’ and lovin’ (Huggin’, kissin’)
(She’s mine) Mine (Mine) Mine Whoa oh oh (Candy girl)
We get along so well (Candy girl) I know just why I fell (Candy girl) She’s thrillin’, oh, chillin’ (Thrillin’, chillin’) Yes, she’s so divine
(She’s mine) Mine (Mine) Mine Whoa oh oh (Candy girl)
When we’re out together Everyone knows the way we feel We both seem to glow with the glow of a love And it’s plain to see, our love is real
I’m happy as can be (Candy girl) She vows eternally (Candy girl To hold me and love me (Hold me, love me) Until the end of time
(She’s mine) Mine (Mine) Mine Whoa oh oh
Candy girl Candy girl Candy girl …”

(Formerly dedicated to my Ukrainian Inna, before she disappeared on me in 2015…a tale for another blog)

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PickHitt: When Lincoln, Ash Wednesday, Valentine’s and George Washington holidays combine like they do every few years, there has GOT to be a party!  Your song dedications are invited in “comments”!! February is very busy for the shortest month of the calendar year, isn’t it?