Ever notice how Hot Child In The City, from 1978, by Nick Gilder (a U.S. One Hit Wonder) copies the opening of HTW? I first noticed this a couple of years ago. On Sirius-XM's 70s channel, a replay of American Top 40, which counted-down this week in 1978 and included that tune, reminded me of the similarity.
That's why the song at the top of the charts, it means little in the total context of things. Some No. 1s can remain "stuck" in that spot for MONTHS, like Endless Love, and block many other great songs which were just as good (if not better) out of the top spot. There's a reason Louie, Louie (#2 in 1963), California Girls (#3 in 1965) & many Creedance Clearwater Revival songs (many "only" hit No. 2, never No. 1) are played A LOT years later. They're great songs, even if they didn't hit the very top.
Discussing In The Ghetto... the first song I recall having such a pronounced fade-out, fade-back was Do You Love Me by The Contours, a Motown act from 1962. Brian Wilson's LP version of Help Me, Ronda, in 1965 also used a similar effect. Then this great Elvis song.
No, the stereo mix does have the fadeout/fade-in. The song has been released in various different iterations and remixes since the 80s, so perhaps you're confusing one of those versions, but the original stereo mix fades out and back in, same as the mono. I'm puzzled by your comments about the bass. I don't hear any difference between the stereo and mono mixes, and it's unlikely there could have been. The horn overdubs on the two versions are completely different, but everything else is the same. The reason for the different horn overdubs is that all eight tracks of the multi were filled, so engineer Bill Porter had to mix the song live to tape as the horn overdubs were being recorded. As a result, the horns only exist on the final mixes (not the multi-track tapes) and it's impossible to remix the song with horns included. Of course, the actual recording of the song is only 3:24... the song is artificially lengthened to 4:20 via looping of a section of the song several times. It's notable that the fade out on the song was a subject of controversy. The song's producer Chips Moman was very unhappy that was added (without his consent) by Felton Jarvis (who had been Elvis' producer up to that point). Moman was concerned that the fade would make the song unpopular with DJs, due to the potential for momentary dead air.
I also love the song which was a nominee for Grammy "Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance - Female" in 1973 but hat not won.
Hmmm . . . the way I heard the stereo "Suspicious Minds" on the radio, they must've edited it in such a way you don't realize that too had a fade-out and -in. I'll have to check.
Yeah, there's some real emotion in his singing on "In the ghetto." It's subdued, but it has real depth. Maybe because he really understood what being poor was like. From what I know about his life in Memphis prior to his music taking off, his family lived in a place not that far removed from an actual ghetto.
The only release on the Motown imprint "Weed" , that W.B. mentioned. At one time that album, "C.C. Rides Again" was very rare and quite valuable, only selling around 250 copies in it's original release.
Haven't been commenting much because I've been busy, and also because I really don't have much to add for some songs, since 1969 was one of those years I lived through but don't remember at all (due to YOUTH, not DRUGS!). You may notice that sometimes I attach these 1969 songs we are discussing to something later that I do remember (e.g., my earlier post re: early '70s pop songs that reference religion in one way or another). WRT "Suspicious Minds" -- all I'll say is that it is one of only about two post-1955 (post-Sun) Elvis songs I still like -- the other one being "(Marie's The Name) His Latest Flame".
Suspicious Minds is a pretty good song. I also like Fine Young Cannibals' version (a band whose style was not really up my alley but who rarely put a foot wrong anyway): After this I'm not really a fan of much Elvis did but I do like Kentucky Rain and I think his cover of Lightfoot's Early Morning Rain is the best one.
Next, it's time for "Wedding Bell Blues" by The 5th Dimension, #1 from November 8 - November 28, 1969.
Wedding Bell Blues is one of the better Fifth Dimension singles in my opinion. I don't rank it as highly as Go Where You Wanna Go or Carpet Man or Blowing Away, but it's still a quality song.
One of my all-time favorite songs, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis have been married almost 50 years now. Amazing.
On the 1969 The Record double album it doesn't have the fade in. Before the single came out Elvis was already performing the song in Vegas and wanted to extend it like he did it live. Supposedly the head of the UK Elvis fan club, Todd Slaughter. told Elvis the studio Suspicious Minds was 'nothing special' which convinced Elvis he should get Felton to extend it. Because of the FTD collectors label every take of Suspicious Minds is available.
Ghastly. I don't like message songs that much, well, from this perspective like this or "Give A Damn."
It didn't help that Chris' 1969 album was mainly banal covers of pop songs. She was better off in '66.
Same here. I didn't realize this song had a fade until I bought the single. By then, it was an oldies radio fixture for decades.
Wedding Bell Blues is hands down one of my favorite 5D singles. The production - Bones is the man! - is light and breezy and really swings. Absolutely love the brass and keyboards on this one. The story behind the song goes something like this. By the time of the Aquarius album, Marilyn & Billy were engaged so Bones thought Laura Nyro's WBB would be a fun song to do and Marilyn should naturally sing lead. She wasn't an experienced lead singer so there were upwards of 20 edits that had to be made to come up with the final take. You'd never know it from listening to this wonderful recording. This was the third single released from The Age Of Aquarius album following their Top 20 single Workin' On A Groovy Thing. They had one more - Blowing Away, another fine Laura Nyro cover - and if that one had climbed one more notch, all four singles would have attained the Top 20. Yeah, I'm sure they cried all the way to the bank! Getting back to Workin' On A Groovy Thing, while I'm a huge fan of the group and love all their cover versions, in this case, my go to is and always has been Patti Drew's mellower take from a year earlier. It only reached #62 but it will always be a #1 hit in my fantasies.
The saying goes that Liberty exec Al Bennett didn't hear "single" with respect to this song - and after it went #1, he won a Tin Ear award. It also portended future 5th Dimension singles after the quintet moved to Bell, in that during much of their run there the bulk of their 45's would be de facto Marilyn McCoo records with the other four backing her up, albeit credited to The 5th Dimension. (It was also not long after switching to Bell that producer Bones Howe shifted the recordings of their material from the United/Western complex to Wally Heider's studios - and the mastering to Artisan Sound Recorders. I bring up all this as we will never hear from them in terms of future singles reaching the summit again.) As for "Workin' On A Groovy Thing" . . . the single was one of the very few on any of the Liberty labels to be pressed by Columbia at that point. Moreover, Pitman's pressings used that plant's fonts, rather than Santa Maria's which was the custom for West Coast-based labels as Liberty was. What I find peculiar is why, of their Soul City singles, only this one - as opposed to, say, "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" and "Wedding Bell Blues" - would have been given the CP treatment. To be sure, I'm grateful, which is why this one that fell "in-between" is in my collection. Its B side, "Broken Wing Bird," from their prior Stoned Soul Picnic album, spotlights the soulful vocals of Billy Davis, Jr. Curiously, the B side matrix has a higher number than the A side . . . This one also happens to be a favorite of mine from their oeuvre . . .
Oddly, two of the four singles from Age Of Aquarius (the middle two) have b-sides from the previous album Stoned Soul Picnic. This recurred in their Bell Years with various singles having b-sides from earlier albums. The capper came in early 1970 in the transition from Soul City to Bell. After Blowin' Away and before The Declaration on Bell appeared, Soul City tried to squeeze one more hit out of their catalogue by releasing The Girl's Song, a tune from their 1967 lp The Magic Garden. This was one of the more Marilyn-esque songs from the past and the b-side? Another tune from Stoned Soul Picnic. The capper you ask? That tune, It'll Never Be The Same Again, had already been a b-side on California Soul! And this won't be the last time we see this happen either. Oh and one more thing, their first Bell lp Portrait can be cobbled together in it's entirety from various singles.
Translation: Before they lost those masters to Bell. That their Soul City product would be reissued in various slicings and dicings on Bell beginning in 1971 (including an entire album, I.I.N.M. entitled Reflections) explains that Soul City's rights didn't last long enough for Liberty to be deep-sixed and United Artists to do a whole batch of compilations of their work (including their Legendary Masters Series) the way that label did with Jan & Dean, Eddie Cochran, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, Cher, et al.
