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| From | "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Re: Youtube = Me dunce |
| Date | Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:12:35 -0500 |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "floatingunder" <underthefloat@msn.com>
> I've always loved the song "Venus" by The Shocking Blue. Who
> wouldn't! Great guitar riff, cool vocals. I had the 45 as a kid and
> naturally now have it on my MP3 player. I even sang along to it as
> a
> kid, one of my top 20 songs as a kid. You know, as kid I even
> imagined being the guy in Shocking Blue singing along. Great fun!
>
> Only via Youtube I find out last night he's a WOMAN. OK, I realize
> confessing this to a group of musically knowledgeable people may be
> foolish. But man, I feel like I'm a new maybe slightly less twisted,
> version of "The Crying Game"!!
Hell, I was *way* into my 30s before I discovered that the black woman
who sang lead on "More Today Than Yesterday" by the Spiral Starecase
was a white dude!
> The other Youtube moment...
> I watched "Smile a little Smile for me" on Youtube. I watched it
> twice. Only each version has a different lead singer but it's the
> same vocals. I'm blanking (ARGGH) on the real singer's name (he's
> also seen on Hitchin' a Ride by White Planes). I know YOU know who
> I'm talking about.
I think you're thinking of Tony Burrows, but according to Wayne
Jancik's BILLBOARD BOOK OF ONE-HIT WONDERS, bizarrely enough, no one
seems to know for sure who sang the lead vocal on "Smile A Little
Smile For Me," although most people seem to think it's Tony Macauley,
who co-wrote and co-produced the song.
Although just to be anal: White Plains was the band that did "My Baby
Loves Lovin'," not "Hitchin' A Ride." Tony Burrows *was* the singer
of White Plains, but he wasn't the singer of "Hitchin' A Ride," which
was done by Vanity Fare, who were a proper band led by a singer named
Trevor Brice. (Bonus fun facts: "Hitchin' A Ride" was written by
Mitch Murray, who had written the Beatles reject "How Do You Do It,"
and Vanity Fare's keyboardist Barry Landeman had previously been in
Kippington Lodge with Brinsley Schwartz and Nick Lowe.)
> But who is the guy pretending to be the lead singer? Anyone know? I
> assume he one of the band members? Or does anyone know the
> circumstances for "why" they did this? How common place was this for
> someone to provide the vocals, sort of like a session guy and then
> simply get out of the way "allow" someone else to fake it?
Also according to Jancik, the touring lineup of the Flying Machine was
a band that had previously recorded under the name Pinkerton's
Assorted Colours, so I assume Samuel Kempe, their lead singer, is the
guy in the second video.
Anonymous studio groups were fairly common during this era: a
songwriting/production team like Tony Macauley and Geoff Stephens
could record their songs with studio musicians, throw them out as
singles, and if one of them happened to click, a "real" band could be
assembled.
S
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