Gee, I really like "Mrs Robinson" as a high point (not "the" high point) in the S&G career. The acoustic guitar has a jazziness, the lyrics are sharp and the arrangement is sort of unique, to my ears. It always sounds fresh to me, whereas the songs you point out (which I like very much) have sort of a serious cadence that I need to be a little more in the mood for. I'm only commenting because I've always thought "Mrs R" really stood out in a group of rather great songs, so I'm a little surprised.
I should have MacArthur Park in my collection. That Hard to find 45s might have done the trick if there had been other songs on it I wanted. Is it on a Waylon Jennings cd?
One more comment about "Honey" (which I can't remember) is I keep thinking of the song "Sunny" by Bobby Hebb. That's an agreeable little tune.
"Mrs. Robinson" is classic Simon and Garfunkel, unbelievably catchy yet still with something on its mind. I remember reading that Joe DiMaggio -- retired from baseball but very much alive and well at the time -- was rather miffed that some people heard the song and thought he was dead.
Mrs. Robinson: I like the song, but I went off it for two or three decades, only coming back to it within the last few years. I do prefer some of their other songs - Hazy Shade of Winter, Fakin' It, The Boxer, I am a Rock, Sounds of Silence - but it's a quality track. I wonder if that one line of lyrics is really "goo goo goo joob" and lifted from the Beatles? MacArthur Park: I like it a lot. The infamous lyric has any number of equals in songs that plenty of people love. He always sings "MacArthur's Park", the possessive rather than the nominative, but whatever. Anyone who likes over-the-top-ness in general (which I do) should check out The Yard Went On Forever if they aren't familiar with it:
The band in the clip is the Chicago-based group Boston Tea Party which featured multi-instrumentalist Michael John Carr and drummer Frank Donaldson among others. Boston Tea Party were the opening act and backing band for Archie Bell & The Drells during a tour of the Midwest in 1968. Archie was serving in the U.S. Army and stationed in West Germany when Tighten Up became a hit. He would fly in for short tours when granted the opportunity and for recording sessions in New York on weekends. The performance of Tighten Up in that clip is from an appearance on the Upbeat musical variety show that was produced at an ABC-TV affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio and syndicated to many television markets nationally. The band that backed Archie Bell & The Drells on the recording of Tighten Up was another Houston-based group the T.S.U. Toronadoes, named from the initials of the school they attended (Texas Southern University) and an Oldsmobile car model (Toronado): I interviewed Archie Bell when I was in radio and he told me how the T.S.U. Toronadoes came to play on the recording. Tighten Up actually began as an instrumental jam the T.S.U Toronadoes played at their shows. Houston disc jockey Skipper Lee Frazier, who managed both Archie Bell & The Drells and the T.S.U. Toronadoes, had the idea to pair the two acts for a recording. Although Tighten Up sounds like a hastily thrown together song, the actual recording process was anything but, requiring some 25 to 30 takes at Jones Recording (the studio opened by recording engineer Doyle Jones after he left Gold Star Studios) until Frazier was satisfied with the results. The original Drells were Archie’s friends James Wise, Willie Parnell and Billy Butler. On the recording of Tighten Up their contribution was limited to handclaps, whistling, and some chatter. The studio (T.S.U. Toronadoes) and touring (Boston Tea Party) backing bands were never considered Drells.
My goodness, that's an impressive post! Thanks for the info. I was kind of joking about trying to figure out who counts as a Drell, but it does seem weird that the guys who clap hands are credited in the group name, while the guys who play the instruments aren't. I mean, that happened a lot in the sixties I guess (Motown credited artists, for instance, were almost always the singers, not the instrumentalists), but at least all the Temptations sang, even if just backup. I suppose the other Drells did get to sing on other songs of theirs?
IIRC Simon has said he did in fact get that line from I Am the Walrus (he said the line was sang as 'coo coo ca choo', by the way, so not quite the same). I was curious about that claim, because I knew that the song featured in The Graduate, which came out so close to when I Am the Walrus was released that I figured Simon couldn't have written that line with that song in mind. Last time I saw the movie I noticed that it's a different version of the song there, one that doesn't contain that line (I think it's only played in snatches during the film, like when Benjamin is speeding along in his sports car near the end of the film). I guess it's still possible Simon wrote a version with more complete lyrics later, after he had heard the Beatles track.
Yeah, the two versions of "Mrs. Robinson" on the GRADUATE soundtrack album are different than the studio recording on BOOKENDS. In fact, they may be different from what's in the film as they are "interrupted" by cellos simulating Ben's car, I suppose.
"Mrs. Robinson" has a great line, once I would use with clients years ago--my current clients aren't as likely to know it as those 30 years ago: "Either way you look at this, you lose." If a client in a criminal case has an offer from the state that is for significant penitentiary time, but the case is airtight against him/her, so going to trial could carry more time, either way is a loss. In a recent DHS case, a 16 year old was making wild allegations against the father. If we won the case at the hearing, the case was dismissed and the incorrigible daughter was sent home. If we lost, dad was considered a child abuser. There are times that I can say the client will win either way a particular ruling goes, and then I switch it to "either way we look at this, THEY lose." JcS
When I read this I remembered that I have the song "Play The Music Toronados" in a Stax box set: The T.S.U. Toronados* - Play The Music Toronados
Interesting that there are what feel some adult contemporary songs in the fast few recent #1 songs.Not your typical teen fare.Love is Blue,Mac Park and now This Guys..
1968 was certainly a banner year for the instrumental, "This Guy's In Love With You" and it's long run at the top kept this other popular instrumental stuck at #2:
IIRC this was A&M's first #1 single as well as Herb Alpert and Bacharach/David. Of course, Alpert had many chart singles up to this point, all instrumentals and many top selling albums. The real surprise is no #1's for B/D until this rather pedestrian effort. I do like the song but more for the melody and Alpert's signature horn playing than any vocal expertise. In fact, I hear similarities to the Carpenter's version of Close To You, again due to the horn charts. Kind of ironic that despite Alpert's success with instrumentals, it took his voice on record to give him a #1 single.
I had forgotten all about The Horse.This is one of those songs you rarely if ever heard on oldies radio.Reminded me of being in elementary school in the early 70s listening to the high school marching band playing it.
I can accept "This Guy's in Love With You" being #1 for 1 week, maybe two at a stretch, but not for a MONTH.
Fun fact: Herb Alpert is the only artist to have both a vocal and an instrumental #1 hit, as we'll see when we get to 1979. The Tijuana Brass were my first musical love as a little kid (the Going Places! album was my favorite), and I did like "This Guy's In Love With You," but I don't feel it's aged terribly well since then. Definitely a representative slice of late-'60s adult contemporary, though. One thing I do still like about the song: it's a great example of why I fell in love with records at such a young age. If you look at the 45, you can see patterns in the grooves sort of like ripples in a puddle, as the vocal and instrumental parts of the song alternate. You don't get that kind of distinction with iTunes!
Herb's first #1 came about as a result of his TV special, THE BEAT OF THE BRASS that aired on CBS-TV in April of 1968. The show largely contained scenes of the Brass performing all over the country - on riverboats, in parades, etc., and the producer, Dwight Hemion wanted Herb to do something with his voice - sing a song, or something. Herb asked his friend Burt Bacharach if he had any old songs in his vault that hadn't lived up to their potential and Burt pulled out "This Guy's I Love With You." Herb recorded it for the TV show with Burt Bacharach conducting the orchestra, never dreaming it would ever be a single. In fact, he did it on one take and was told not to mess with it - it was perfect. So for the filmed segment, Herb strolled through the woods with his then-wife Sharon and sang the song which aired at the end of the TV show. Then the switchboard at CBS lit up with requests on where to get the record, and not being born yesterday, Herb and Jerry Moss figured out pretty quickly that they needed a single out there. By June, the single had shot up to #1 - and as mentioned - it was the first #1 single for A&M, the first #1 for Herb, and the first #1 for a Bacharach composition. Our esteemed A&M Corner co-hort Steve S. has been uploading Billboard magazine ads that appeared for A&M Records over the years. Here's the one for Herb's big hit:
Tighten Up: I know that it's not much of a song but it's so infectious. Mrs. Robinson: One of my favorite S&G songs. McArthur Park : Never been a fan of this song but I do remember the faster instrumental section was used as the theme for the CBC show What's New? throughout the 70s and early 80s.
