Jimmy Soul’s If You Wanna Be Happy was adapted from Marry An Ugly Woman, a calypso tune written by Trinidad singer Hubert R. Charles and first recorded in 1934 and released on Melotone 12965: Charles re-recorded the song using the shortened title Ugly Woman and several different recording monikers over the ensuing years: The Lion accompanied by Gerald Clark and His Caribbean Serenaders (Decca 18143, 1941) Gerald Clark and His Original Calypso featuring Macbeth the Great (Guild 114, 1945) The Lion with Gerald Clark and His Original Calypsos (Musicraft 433, 1946) [same recording as 1945 release above] In 1957, Charles' song was remade by actor Robert Mitchum under the title From A Logical Point Of View for his Capitol album Calypso - Is Like So...: 2 From a logical point of view »
I asked about this earlier. It appears that IYWBHFTROYL has/had different chart dates in a variety of his books. Apparently the source I used when I created my own collection database differs from that found in his Pop Annual. The line about cooking always made me laugh. IIRC William Shakespeare said something like that in one of his plays; Bob Dylan sang something similar, but it's alright.
I played that once for my wife, who is from the Philippines, and explained that it was my first ever exposure to music from her country. She was not impressed. Great song, though.
My girlfriend at the time and I drove up to NYC from DC late spring of '63, and WABC was playing "Killer Joe" very, very often. It seemed like they played it once in every half hour segment. I didn't know the Rocky Fellers were from the Philippines, though, until some time in the mid-Eighties. BTW, there's a great sounding offering of the song on a CD called, "Foot Stompin' Oldies," Garland GRZ-011. Garland was part of DCC and was put together by our host, Steve Hoffman. It looks like this CD came out in early 1988.
A little more about Jimmy Soul’s #1 record . . . If You Wanna Be Happy was another of the low fidelity recordings made by Norfolk, Virginia record store owner-turned-record producer Frank Guida at his makeshift Norfolk Sound Studios, the same studio that had earlier produced Gary U.S. Bond’s #1 Billboard hit Quarter To Three, released on Guida’s Legrand record label. Guida no doubt had heard Ugly Woman while stationed in the West Indies during World War II and adapted it, with the help of his wife and recording engineer (see below), into If You Wanna Be Happy. The song was initially offered to Gary U.S. Bonds who rejected it so Guida placed it with Jimmy Soul as he did with another previous Bonds cast-off, 1962’s Twistin Matilda. The recording engineer on the If You Wanna Be Happy session was Guida’s record store sales clerk-turned-accoustic technician Joe Royster, the same man who had engineered the Legrand hits for Gary U.S. Bonds. If You Wanna Be Happy bears the hallmarks of Guida’s production style as implemented by Royster: a dense sound created by layering multiple “bounces” and double-tracked vocals squeezed to the hilt with compression. Jimmy’s vocals were cut in the studio’s bathroom, with voices and hand claps mixed into the background to give the song a spontaneous “party-like” live feel. The organ player on the recording was Bill Deal of Bill Deal & The Rhondels fame. For those who own or have listened to the original mono 45 of If You Wanna Be Happy released on Guida’s S.P.Q.R. label (the moniker was Guida’s homage to his Italian heritage; S.P.Q.R. stands for Senatus Populus Que Romanus, the senate and people of Rome) you’ll notice that it was cut very loud, another device Guida used to help the record stand-out from other songs of the time. Guida had a limited promotional budget for If You Wanna Be Happy as he did for all records released on his labels. At a time when it was not unusual for major record labels to place elaborate full page advertisements to promote their recordings in Billboard and other musical trade magazines, Guida opted to insert ads in the classified section of the trades. One of the few ads that appeared in Billboard for If You Wanna Be Happy was the spartan one below from the May 11, 1963 issue. Based on the magazine’s charges for classified ads at the time, the cost for this single ad would have been approximately $25! As I noted above, the original recording of If You Wanna Be Happy was released in mono. Stereo mixes of the song have surfaced over the years. The “better” stereo mixes allow the listener to hear some of the individual elements that make up the recording (not necessarily a good thing!) and provide an improved soundstage. To my ears, the stereo mixes dampen the “party” ambience of the recording and consequently undermine a major intent of Guida’s production style: I prefer the grungy, livelier sound of the original mono 45 of If You Wanna Be Happy to the tamer stereo mixes. I consider the stereo versions mere curiosities.
Speaking of Killer Joe, I like mixing that kind of song up with 4 Seasons type anthems, Newbeats, etc. BTW there is a jazz tune of that name. Gotta wonder which came first, and whether there was any awareness on anyone's part of the previous use of that title?
Yes, I have the jazz tune named "Killer Joe," which was from 1960 according to this source at youtube. My copy is on an album entitled Hit Jazz - 1955 - 1966.
Hello, Quincy Jones! Was this his first #1 record? One of the classics of the era - unforgettable, and Lesley Gore delivers an iconic performance.
Another great tune that just screams early 60s. Amazing that Quincy Jones had this #1 record so long before the Michael Jackson phenomena. Phil Ramone engineered it. Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows is another favorite.
Yes, I'm pretty sure it was the first #1 record either Quincy Jones or Phil Ramone were involved with. "It's My Party" was one of the few oldies I was already familiar with before I got into oldies big time when I was 14. I remember it was a favorite of mine a few years before that. I found a copy of the original 45 somewhere (I still have it), and I remember looking at the label and wondering if it was the song I thought it was, and then being really pleased when I put it on and found it was. I still think it holds up pretty well. I've heard some critics accuse Gore of whining, but I don't agree - how mature and collected would you be if you were in her shoes at that moment, after all? "Judy's Turn to Cry," on the other hand, is one of my absolute least favorite songs ever. Lesley should have told Johnny to take a flying leap when he tried to take her back. It's one of the great ironies of rock and roll, really, that Lesley Gore gave us "You Don't Own Me" - essentially "I Am Woman" a decade ahead of its time - but most of her other hits were about getting mistreated by a guy and proclaiming her love for him anyway.
Every once in a while I get early Janis Ian confused with Gore, but Ian's "Society's Child" is certainly a whole different sort of song which will seem far more appropriate when it charts four years later. The two had similar voices, though, and each deserving of their places in the annals of pop music. Of course, Ian will come back in a few years with the touching "At Seventeen" which would have no place in 1963 girl group music. IMO "You Don't Own Me" is Gore's best.
