Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 11 March 2022. Here are RPMer's choices, hopefully allowing a little spiritual balm for this, another deeply troubling week; over to...

Philip -

"Greetings to all RPMers. This week I've chosen 3 numbers by female-fronted bands, from the '60s, '80s and... er... what do you call them? The teenies?"

Nina -

"Hi folks, it was International Women's day on Tuesday. Here's to happy women every day, although it's none too happy in the Ukraine. Tracks from 3 sassy gals...

Take care, all,

Cheers!"

John -

"Hi RPMers, I trust you're all well. I also hope that your spirits are lifted in these troubled times by all the wonderful music we've been sharing with each other via the Seven Day Soundtrack. Here's my contribution for this week - hope you like 'em..."

Alan -

"Three 'not who it sounds like' tracks this week............ so, this is not The Beatles, Bob Dylan or Donovan, no matter how much they may have loved to be!!"

Shake and Scream by Kenny Lynch - (From 'We like Kenny' LP released October 1965. Music for Pleasure label) "Kenny seemed to be ever present on our screens in the sixties; whether it was films such as 'Just for fun', 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors' or even 'Carry on loving' or TV shows 'Ready, Steady, Go', Twice a fortnight' and 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium'. You just didn't seem to be able to get ri.... avoid his pretty banal attempts at singing, comedy and/or acting no matter how you tried. However, between 1960 and (unbelievably) 1980 he clocked up eight Top 50 singles and (co)composed several goodies such as 'Sha La La Lee', 'You'd better believe it' and 'Sorry she's mine' for the Small Faces, 'Love is just a broken heart' a number 5 hit for Cilla Black and 'Don't bother to knock' the unforgettable (sic) Eurovision entry by Midnight which saw them achieve second place in 1978 (them wert daze, eh?). Famously, whilst touring with Helen Shapiro and upcoming beat-band The Beatles in early 1963, Kenny 'overheard' John and Paul pitching 'Misery' to Helen and her manager on the tour bus and, when Helens manager nixed the idea of the chirpy songstress singing such a negative sounding song, Kenny immediately volunteered to do the dirty deed........... perhaps the screams of the nations teenagers were still ringing in his ear! As a follow up, he offered to 'co-write' a new number with the boys that they were working on. A few days later Lynch bailed out, quoting that the soon to be most succesful pop composers of all time had 'no ability to compose music'!!! The song they were working on? 'From me to you', a UK number one single for seven weeks and in the charts for a total of twenty one weeks. And Kenny's version of 'Misery'? Not even Top 40! When HMV decided to compile 'We like Kenny' (the title itself a fairly downbeat reflection of Kenny's popularity methinks) they rounded out the album with this pretty obvious copy of the Beatles stand out 'Please Please Me' album closer, complete with screams and a Lennon-esque vocal. Also included were several cover versions of US hits (including his moderately successful covers of 'Stand by me' and 'Up on the roof') plus a couple of his own earlier minor hits and an early version of Bacharach and David's 'Story behind my tears', a US hit in 1961 for Vic Dana. 'Shake and Scream', where Kenny is backed by The Laurie Jay Combo, had never gained a UK single release but had been issued in several European markets, with very little success. Laurie Jay, of course, is the 'legendary' drummer who has backed Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis (not in their prime I suspect), and taught Dave Clark to 'play' the drums (😂) before finding success managing Billy Ocean. The Combo at the time of 'Shake and Scream', however, featured John Weider (soon to be a Moment, a New Animal and a Family member, ), Vic Briggs (later to play with Steampacket, the New Animals and Johnny Halliday) and Graham Dee (who we met t'other week as composer for Les Fluer de Lys and Sharon Tandy). Despite the pedigree of those involved, their half a dozen singles failed to sell in any appreciable amount."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5us3XcXvq-8

A Public Execution by Mouse - (7" single released in US December1965. Fraternity label. Unreleased in UK. This from 'Nuggets.....' released October 1972. Elektra label)

"Mouse (or Ronald Lon Weiss as he was originally known) initially conceived 'A Public Execution' as a studio project at Tyler, Texas Robin Hood Studios along with lyricist Knox Henderson in mid '65, at the very time that Dylan was 'going electric' and stunning the record buying public with his classic 'Like a rolling stone' single.Signed to Cincinnati's Fraternity label, the single bubbled under the Billboard Top 100 in early 1966 and became a big seller in many Texas cities. The pair formed Mouse and the Traps to tour the single and went on to record several essential garage/psych singles including 'Maid of sugar, maid of spice', 'L.O.V.E. Love' and 'Sometimes you just can't win' plus a fantastic cover of Count Five's 'Psychotic Reaction' under the Positively13 O'Clock alias (yet another nod to Dylan!). The band were later produced by Dale Hawkins (of 'Susie Q' fame) and appeared on two of his later singles and an album before they split up in 1969. There were reunions of the original line up in 1972 and, more successfully, in 1986 before the band achieved their long held ambition and recorded an entire album of Bob Dylan's songs entitled 'Walking in Dylan's shoes' which was released on December 20th 2020 and was accompanied by a full length documentary which included six of the bands early recordings and five from the new album. Perhaps surprisingly, although 'A Public Execution' was not released in the UK, there were concurrent releases in Canada and, strangely, Australia on the W&G label ( a subsidiary of Melbourne's White and Gillespie Engineering who released several rock and roll and blues singles from the ABC - Paramount label in the early to mid sixties)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q3D8bnvyQs

Gerry Pond- The Happiness Song' (7" US single released June 1966. Reprise label. This from 'Transparent Days: West Coasts Nuggets.' V/A album, released 1st August 2017. Rhino label) "Born in Seattle, Pond enrolled at Washington State University and became a regular in the local folk clubs but, aged 20, he suffered a ruptured appendix. So serious was the rupture that he died on the operating theatre table and it was only the skill of the doctors which saved his life. It was this profound experience that, a little later on, led him onto a lifelong spiritual quest which continues to this day. In 1966 he relocated, initially to Vancouver before joining the exodus to San Francisco where he took up residence in Jules Antique Shop in the Haight/Ashbury district. It was here he befriended Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the early Grateful Dead, who he supported at the Matrix Club on many occasions. He was spotted at one of their gigs by Joe Gannon of Trident Productions who secured a one off single deal with Reprise and booked him into the studio. The obvious likeness to Donovan's voice and 'minstrel' style of playing saw Gannon sign up some of the Bay Area's best jazz musicians and record 'The Sometime Girl/The Happiness Song' single, his only secular release. The top side is a much looser affair, with eastern wind instruments and a vigorously shaken tambourine (imagine Don fronting early Pentangle) where the vocal inflections are not quite so obviously inspired by Don. 'The Happiness Song', however, seems to ache to be 'Turquoise' or 'Sunny Goodge Street', which featured some of the UK's top 'jazzers', but is none the worse for that. Despite favourable local reviews and airplay on the new fangled 'FM' radio stations, the single slipped from view for many years. In the meantime Gerry's name had come to the attention of the FBI who opened a 'peacenik' file on him which resulted in his speedy relocation to Mexico where he studied in the mountains with the Maraakame master shamen. Changing his name to Guru Singh, he relocated to LA where he followed the teachings of Yogi Bhajan and began teaching Kundalini Yoga at his masters Yoga West Studio. Following Yogi Bhajans death in 2004 Singh established his own studio where he has taught such luminaries as Seal (with whom he made an album), Steven Tyler, Meredith Brooks, Britney Spears and the actress Amy Smart amongst many others. He has also recorded four nonsecular albums, written several teaching books and, to top it all, is recognised as one of the world's foremost Kundalini Yoga instructors and is a friend of the Dalai Lama!! Copies of the original single are currently attracting prices of anywhere between £20 for a standard issue and £200 for a mint demo!!

The 'Transparent Days....' album, by the way, is probably one of the best 'starter' albums (with 'Nuggets....' being the best) for anyone seeking an intro into psychedelia's many facets."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMoZJYCGuwQ

Re The Kinks- 'Long Tall Sally': "Back up North, since the mid eighties, we have had 'probably' Britain's biggest car boot every Sunday in Oldcotes which runs from 5.30am to 14.30pm. Of course, in deep midwinter, it's not quite as big but, to give a example of the size, when I worked at Ericsson Mobile Phones in nearby Carlton I would call in on my way home from work at 6am, go round until 8, nip home for a quick breakfast and take Sue to Oldcotes church, go back to the bootsale, pick Sue up and then return for a third time for a last look round!!! One one of those treks, in the late eighties, I spied a little old lady packing away a small box of singles.'Could I have a look while you pack up?' I asked. 'Don't be long, I've nearly finished' she answered. 'How much?' I queried. 'I've been asking 60p but if you want any you can have them for 30p!!'. Tucked away, as you've probably guessed, was a mint copy, still in its original PYE sleeve, of 'Long Tall Sally'!!! So....... 30p for a single which is currently valued between £65 and £150 on Discogs!!!

By the way, I did review the single in my 'Can Blue Men Sing The Whites Pt 1' way back BC (before Covid!!).

Anyone else notice that there appears to be no daily reports regarding the latest COVID figures?

Stay safe..."

Tony -

"Thanks for keeping us in suspense, Tim, with the desert island disks - you've built up the anticipation really well. Hopefully it will take us away from all the bad news that the world seems powerless to prevent. (Should be out this weekend, Tim.)

Here's my 3 for the week, wishing all you fellow RPMers best wishes and I'm sure all our thoughts are with the brave Ukrainian people as they defend their land against Russia, misled by this evil throwback.

Best wishes."

Jayne -

"Greetings RPMers one and all; this week I’ve chosen three Norwegian tracks to share with you."

Dave -

"Hi rpmers hope you are all well enjoying your play lists . Here’s my three this week."

Jackie -

"Been up on the moors a few times this week and it always makes me think of this poem."

Piers -

"Some nice tunes.... "

Tim -

"Here's three from the past week's listening..."