SHG: The Miracles: "Shop Around"

The Miracles: “Shop Around”
Entered the chart on: 12/31/1960
Peaked on: 2/20/1961
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “Calcutta” by Lawrence Welk

I know what you’re thinking. “Didn’t Mike promise us a whole bunch of instrumental hits in a row?” Well, you’re close, except for the “in a row” part. If it helps, the (deservedly) forgotten Lawrence Welk tune in the #1 spot is an instrumental.

You’re probably also thinking, “wasn’t ‘Shop Around’ a #1 hit?” And...no it wasn’t. For some reason I was remembering it was...when covered by the Captain & Tennille. But...no, apparently that was wrong too. Good. I don’t think I’d want to live in such a world. It’s bad enough that James Taylor’s wilted-lettuce rendition of “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” charted one spot higher than Marvin Gaye’s.

That’s Smokey Robinson’s Miracles, of course. This is from before the “Smokey Robinson and the” prefix was added in ’65. It’s so old, Smokey’s sister Claudette is still in the group (she’d quit in ’64, leaving the Miracles resolutely male ever since). It’s also the first song by them to hit the charts, and the first song on the fabled Motown label to be a major chart hit.



No question who the star of the show is. The opening is just Smokey by himself before the other Miracles join in and the song kicks in the octane. If you’re familiar with Smokey for his later reputation as a smooth balladeer (we’ll get there much later), his rousing performance of this tune will probably take you by surprise. I’m extremely impressed by some of the high notes he hits in this! Add him to the list of singers whose range I’m extremely envious of, alongside Marty Robbins and Roy Orbison.

I have to wonder what mother would advise her son, “you’re young, go ahead and play the field! Mess around with as many girls as you like!” but perhaps I’m over-thinking it. Smokey hadn’t crafted his poetic style yet, this was very much in the tenor of the times. For what it is, an energetic soul tune with a unique message, it’s very good.

Rating: 4

SHG: Ferrante & Teicher: "Exodus"

Ferrante & Teicher: “Exodus”
Entered the chart on: 11/28/1960
Peaked on: 1/23/1961
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “Wonderland by Night” by Bert Kämpfert

Here’s proof that instrumentals were the flavor of the month: both of the top 2 are instrumentals! I’m pretty sure I’ve never actually heard “Wonderland by Night” and if I have, I wouldn’t know it by name. I suppose that’s the peril of instrumental songs; how do you know what you’re listening to without the DJ to tell you what it is? Nowadays, with Shazam and its ilk, we’re pretty spoiled in that regard.

When I was very wee, I was actually a Ferrante & Teicher fan, thrilling to their extravagant twin-piano pyrotechnics on TV appearances and listening to their Greatest Hits on albums my parents owned. Even at the age of eight, I rather knew there was something deeply un-cool about liking them, and hid my fandom from my friends.

Little did I know they’d receive a hipster re-appraisal during the “lounge-core” era of the 1990s. Mind you, that was for their very early sides at Westminster, when they were doing Space Age prepared piano music, such fans considered them to have “jumped the shark” once they became Liberace-esque superstars at United Artists. Though even with the very early “prepared piano” stuff, we’re not exactly talking John Cage and David Tudor here. Even there, they were offering up renditions of the likes of “Tico Tico” and “Tea for Two.”

So, here we have a movie theme, which is what all their chart hits were (this is the follow-up to their two-pianos version of the theme from The Apartment). Exodus was a film by Otto Preminger, back when he was still a respected filmmaker, before the likes of Hurry Sundown, Skidoo and [shudder] Rosebud turned him into a laughingstock. So it pays to check out the original Ernest Gold orchestration before I listen to the Ferrante & Teicher arrangement. Which I shall now do.



Hmm...sounds like Ferrante & Teicher cloned Ernest Gold’s original arrangement of the intro, all big brass and strings, then shook things up in the rest of the track to spotlight their flashy piano playing. The original was bombastic movie music, spirited and very loud. Ferrante & Teicher’s rendition captures the feel of the original, just alters the arrangement to fit their pianos in and make it front and center. Hands down, this is the loudest orchestration we’ve had since “Don’t You Know.” Of course, for the big finale, they do that tinkly, descending semi-glissando thing (well, what would you call it?) which was their trademark.

People will argue until they’re blue in the face over which version is better, but it’s “push” as far as I’m concerned. As with Floyd Cramer’s tune, this one is just fine.

Rating: 4

SHG: Floyd Cramer: "Last Date"

Floyd Cramer: “Last Date”
Entered the chart on: 10/24/1960
Peaked on: 11/28/1960
Weeks at #2: 4
Song at #1: “Are You Lonesome To-Night” by Elvis Presley

A little warning, this is the first of a big chunk of instrumental songs that hit the charts in 1961. Actually, I gave you a heads-up on that during the Ventures review. Here’s the first one and it’s from pianist Floyd Cramer, who’s been on hundreds of country hits. In fact, he played on the Johnny Tillotson song I just reviewed. Is that the first time that’s happened on Second Hand Goods, where a session musician on one hit winds up as the soloist on the next one?

Anyway, Cramer earned a reputation for a technique he called “slide piano,” using a lot of grace notes to make it sound as though the notes are gliding into one another. Oh, you’ll hear what I mean when you listen to it.



It’s hard to explain the appeal of this one. Floyd Cramer has had more exciting tunes than this one (listen to the follow-up, “On the Rebound”), but there’s something about the lazy afternoon feel of this one. It’s a slow tempo but it doesn’t drag. I suppose you could call this a “ballad” if it had words to it. It’s rather “sitting on a porch swing sipping a mint julep” music to my ears.

It’s not drowning in the string arrangement, which is a relief. The strings come in and enhance the melody without swamping it, which they totally could if left to their own devices. Unsurprisingly, this is, like “He’ll Have to Go,” another “Countrypolitan” Chet Atkins production.

Obviously, this tune resonated with lots of people, since cover versions of it proliferated, including one by SHG veterans the Ventures*. Another SHG veteran, Joni James, did a vocal interpretation saddled with the cumbersome alternate title “(My) Last Date (With You).” It was her last entry into the Billboard Top 40.

For an easy-listening instrumental, it’s actually pretty easy to listen to. Sometimes, that’s all I ask.

Rating: 4

*my parents owned the album that had their cover on it, Another Smash! I’ve always wondered what silent movie the cover still came from. For some reason, I remembered it as being from a Three Stooges short, but it seems I was mistaken.

SHG: Johnny Tillotson: "Poetry in Motion"

Johnny Tillotson: “Poetry in Motion” Entered the chart on: 10/24/1960 Peaked on: 11/14/1960 Weeks at #2: 1 Song at #1: “Georgia on My Mind” by Ray Charles

Florida native Johnny Tillotson eventually earned his name as a country singer. I say “eventually” because somebody at Cadence Records got the “brilliant” idea to sell the young singer out of the gate as the Dixieland answer to the Philadelphia scene (Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, et al). That may have shifted some units in the short run but it’s pretty much worthless to us now. I should always worry when I get three or four highly-rated songs in a row.



Oh my God, could his voice be any more affected and precious? It’s like he received the direction, “You’re not enunciating enough! Emphasize ev-er-y syl-la-ble clear-ly!” “Ad-o-er”? Ugh!

Everything about this song is just twee beyond belief. Even the saxophone enunciates! And what’s with the wailing female backing singer? Did she get lost on the way to the Paul Anka session?

Eh...it’s not horrible like “Puppy Love” but it sounds like something square parents would cook up that they think their kids might like. I definitely don’t ever need to hear it again.

Rating: 1

SHG: Sam Cooke: "Chain Gang"

Sam Cooke: “Chain Gang”
Entered the chart on: 8/29/1960
Peaked on: 10/3/1960
Weeks at #2: 2
Songs at #1: “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” by Connie Francis and “Mr. Custer” by Larry Verne

Looking at the above hurts. Nobody should have to suffer the indignity of being blocked from the top spot by the leap-frogging “Mr. Custer,” possibly the most tasteless and execrable of 60s novelty songs, and believe me, there’s some serious competition for that trophy. Least of all Sam Cooke, who’s actually pretty likable.

Maybe I’m just talking out my butthole, as I frequently am, but I see Sam Cooke as one of the inheritors of Nat “King” Cole’s legacy. But whereas Nat sang ballads because it paid more than the instrumental piano jazz at which he also excelled, Sam sounds like he’d be more comfortable singing ballads, but sang whatever his producers threw his way, frequently some bordering-on-vapid teen-oriented uptempo material like the trendy “Twistin’ the Night Away” and the high-school themed “Wonderful World.” He elevated such material with commitment and superlative singing, one of those vocalist who could sing proverbial entries out of the phone book and make it sound good.

And then there’s this song which, at least as regards lyrical content, might just be the strangest song we’ve come across thus far at Second Hand Goods.



I’d say the vast majority of songs we’ve reviewed thus far tend to fall into the categories of “It’s wonderful to be in love” or “It sucks not to be in love,” or some variation thereof. And then there’s “Chain Gang.” Do note that said chain gang, unlike the Pretenders’ “Back on the Chain Gang,” is not a metaphor. It’s just a song about the sound of the men working on the chain gang. All right, I’ve heard Cooke did intend this as a metaphor for the Civil Rights struggle.

Whatever it was, Glenn Osser went all out with the arrangement, with the anvil clinking, the grunting hook and the bass singer offering counterpoint to Sam’s soaring lead. It sure must have resonated with a lot of listeners in any case. Regardless of whether the theme was metaphorical or not, Cooke sells it. His voice is so supple and express it he could pretty much sell me anything and I’d buy it.

This isn’t knocking “You Send Me” off the top of my Sam Cooke favorites, but it’s still a damn classic. Splendid.

Rating: 5

SHG: The Ventures: "Walk—Don't Run"

The Ventures: “Walk—Don’t Run”
Entered the chart on: 7/25/1960
Peaked on: 8/29/1960
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “It’s Now or Never” by Elvis Presley

It’s funny, this is the first instrumental I’ve reviewed since “Raunchy” all the way back in 1957. “Funny” because I’m looking ahead, and I see three instrumentals (more or less) in quick succession in my near future. Funny because I’m looking at the plentitude of instrumentals that charted in 1961. But more on that later.

It’s also funny that the Ventures, the most successful and influential of instrumental rock bands possibly of all-time, are hardly ever talked about these days. Imitators like Dick Dale receive gushing praise from hipster lips all the time, but hardly anyone mentions the originators of the surf-guitar sound anymore. And I have to wonder why that is?

For the record, this originated as a 1956 jazz guitar tune by Johnny Smith. It had also previously been done by country guitarist and musical arranger Chet Atkins (the man behind the memorably subtle orchestration of Jim Reeves’ “He’ll Have to Go”), on whom the Ventures apparently based their version.



I have to say, there’s a certain something about the Ventures’ rendition of this that just clicks with me the way the Johnny Smith and Chet Atkins versions don’t. The melody is there and present in all three versions, but why does the Ventures version seem so much better to me? I guess the other two are competent, but rather typical. The Johnny Smith version follows a steady “head-solos-head” form that was typical of 1950s jazz, while the Chet Atkins tune could be any instrumental track off of a “guitarist plays popular songs” album of the day.

The Ventures version has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Maybe it’s that drum fill that opens the tune, making you stand at attention. Maybe it’s that spiky guitar tone that’s present on both lead and rhythm guitars. For whatever reason, it really works for this song and it’s memorable melody. Bob Bogle’s handling of the melody is very fluid, and he knows just when to bend a note and how to do so to make the most of it.

Apparently this song influenced a ton of young, budding musicians to pick up guitars and form bands of their own. And you know, I can hear that. Timeless stuff.

Rating: 5

SHG: Roy Orbison: "Only the Lonely"

Roy Orbison: “Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)” Entered the chart on: 7/25/1960 Peaked on: 7/25/1960 Weeks at #2: 1 Song at #1: “I’m Sorry” by Brenda Lee

Up until 1964, the 60s has this reputation for being a vast wasteland, a barren boneyard populated by anti-rock teen idols, dumb dance fads and toxic novelty songs. That reputation isn’t entirely without some basis in fact, the one-two punch of Bobby Rydell and [shudder] Paul Anka should be proof enough of that, but it doesn’t tell the entire story. There was some real, enduring talent born in this period. Enter Roy Orbison.

Orbison, like Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins before him, gestated at Sun Records as a would-be rockabilly star. Those early sides have their critical admirers but they didn’t earn him much in the way of commercial success. My guess is someone at Monument Records said, “a kid with this vocal range is wasted on this uptempo stuff. Give him some ballads to sing, something that shows off that golden voice of his!” Which begat his first foray into the Billboard Top 40: “Only the Lonely.”

Slight aside, this is another one from my parents’ record collection. So let’s re-visit this golden oldie:



Starts off fairly typical intro, plinky piano with some of those syllabic male backing vocals that were so popular at the time. And then Roy starts singing. I ask you, is there a singer out there who is as immediately compelling as Roy Orbison? Once he opens his voice to sing, “Only the lonely know the way I feel tonight,” I sit up at rapt attention. I mean, we’ve had good, even great, singers on Second Hand Goods, but Roy just has this magical combination of tone, phrasing, range, precision and emotional connection that has me saying, “I want to hear where he’s going with this.”

Heartbreak must have been the flavor of the month. Right after “Greenfields” we immediately get another, “I’m blue because my woman left me” song. But the way this was constructed, all around Roy’s silver-plated vocal cords, makes it a monument of pop mastery. Bob Moore’s orchestration deserves a bit of credit here, the way the strings add pounding accents in the “There goes my baby...” verse is nice touch. And when he returns to that verse a second time, and hits those high notes in the line “That’s the chance you’ve got to take,” it’s one of those “icy chills up and down my spine” moments that’s all too rare in popular music.

Well, only two reviews after “Puppy Love,” and I think I’ve broken the scale in the other direction. I don’t know if there’s a rating high enough for this. Stunning beauty; it demands to be heard.

Rating: 5

SHG: The Brothers Four: "Greenfields"

The Brothers Four: “Greenfields”
Entered the chart on: 3/21/1960
Peaked on: 4/18/1960
Weeks at #2: 4
Songs at #1: “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith and “Stuck on You” by Elvis Presley

I usually only do two of these, three tops, at a time, but I kind of want to keep doing these until the songs start getting good again. I couldn’t let Paul Anka’s “Puppy Love,” which is unquestionably the worst song I have covered so far on this feature, be the last of these I listened to today. I know the light is at the end of the tunnel (wait till you see which song I’ll be covering after this one), in the meantime, here’s another song I’ve never heard before, the first since Della Reese’s “Don’t You Know”

The Brothers Four aren’t brothers by blood, they’re fraternity brothers, formed at the University of Washington. The idea of a frat-boy group isn’t exactly lighting my fire, I must say. Actually, this seems to be part of the nascent folk boom, proof that this was in fact the 60s and not the 70s. I’m not exactly expecting Bob Dylan here, though. So, let the references to A Mighty Wind commence!



Well, I can appreciate the fingerstyle guitar arpeggios that open this, being a former classical guitar student myself. And you have to say, their vocal harmonies are pretty damn sweet.

For a second, I thought the green fields of the title were literal. The fields were green, now they’re brown. I wondered, could this be a very prescient protest of the mounting fears of pollution and its effects on nature? Well, no. The green fields of the title are a metaphor. The song’s protagonist is heart-broken that his love has left him, and now he’s left feeling barren and dried out like dead grass.

This was...unexpected. I mean, “He’ll Have to Go” wasn’t exactly sunny and cheery, but this one is absolutely melancholic. But it captures a mood and does so well. After the last four or five songs, I’m trying to figure out how this one fits in, and I’m drawing a blank. But it actually come as a breath of fresh air.

But then, after “Puppy Love,” what wouldn’t?

Rating: 4

SHG: Paul Anka: "Puppy Love"

Paul Anka: “Puppy Love”
Entered the chart on: 3/7/1960
Peaked on: 4/4/1960
Weeks at #2: 2
Song at #1: “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith

I have been dreading this one.

Actually, I do have a funny story about this one. But not about the original, about the cover by Donny Osmond (Demons in Hell, why would anyone want to cover this monstrosity? Oh, right, it’s the Osmonds. Mike Curb was in charge of them in the 70s, and the man had execrable taste!). I don’t know which of us did it, and I don’t remember how we came across it, but either friend-of-the-show David Perkins or I came across a Real Media/Quicktime snippet of bootleg audio of an audience recording from an Osmond brothers show from circa 1973. Donny’s rendition of “Puppy Love” went a little something like this:

“And they called it...”

[the rest of the song is drowned out by the fortissimo, rodent-like screeching of hundreds of adolescent girls]

I have to wonder if girls reacted to Paul Anka’s original in that manner. And how hormones could possibly suppress the “good taste” indicator so strongly.



[bangs head against desk repeatedly]

We’re back to this then? “They tell us we’re too young to know what real love is...blah blah blah.” At least Bobby Rydell’s song, lame as it was, tried. This is just saccharine, swathed in treacly strings and those hideous “angels in Heaven” choral vocals.

Let’s not even get started on Anka’s vocal performance here, which borders on the comical before spilling over straight into tragedy. He’s so histrionic in his delivery—sobbing, stuttering, whimpering pitifully in a ludicrously exaggerated fashion—I have a hard time believing this isn’t some kind of put-on. Who thought any of this was a good idea?

So quintessentially appalling, I think I might have broken my own rating scale.

Rating: 0 [obviously]

SHG: Bobby Rydell: "Wild One"

Bobby Rydell: “Wild One”
Entered the chart on: 2/8/1960
Peaked on: 3/28/1960
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith

And so, we’re back to the phony rock teen-idols of the so-called Philadelphia Scene. To be fair to Bobby, he was definitely preferable to the likes of Frankie “I’m plugging my nose to sound more like a teenager with adenoids” Avalon or [shudder] Fabian. Bobby had some actual singing ability, which probably explains why the top brass at Cameo-Parkway paired him up with songs like Domenico Modugno’s classic “Volare.” They wanted you to be sure you knew he could really sing!

But...yeah. That’s damning with faint praise. It’s like saying that getting a poison-oak rash on your arm isn’t as bad as getting one on your eyes. And he still has about as much to do with rock & roll as an accordion.



Sorry, you can doll this up with as much chunky electric guitar and twist-club saxophone, but you can’t fool me. Bobby’s Vegas lounge performer ethos completely swamps any attempt at me taking this seriously as “rock & roll.” Well, that and the shrill female backing chorus, no member of which sounds to be over the age of fifteen.

The “Wild One” of the title is his intended lady love, who he wishes to “be wild about me!” Eh...I’m running out of things to say about this. It doesn’t sound like a “real” song, rather like a song that would appear on a TV show performed by some second-string run-of-the-mill session singer play-acting at being somebody famous and beloved. Somewhat apropos for the future star of Bye Bye Birdie. You could picture Mary Stone on The Donna Reed Show or Linda Williams on Make Room for Daddy twisting to this but real people?

I think they’d prefer Ricky Nelson. Oh, the irony.

Rating: 1

SHG: Jim Reeves: "He'll Have to Go"

Jim Reeves: “He’ll Have to Go”
Entered the chart on: 1/11/1960
Peaked on: 3/7/1960
Weeks at #2: 3
Song at #1: “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith

“Put your sweet lips a little closer to the foam...”

Is this the first honest, real, unadulterated country song we’ve reviewed here at Second Hand Goods? I wouldn’t count “A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation,” as that was transparently Marty Robbins trying very hard to appeal to a mainstream pop audience, i.e.: “See? Not everyone from Arizona is a gun-toting reprobate!” “The All-American Boy” I also wouldn’t call a country song, despite being performed by a country singer. And “Just Walking in the Rain” may have started life as a country song, but it was anything but by the time Johnnie Ray got to it. Dammit, Ray Conniff!

So, yes, Jim Reeves gives us our first full, uncut taste of Country & Western here at Second Hand Goods. This was a record I know from my grandparents’ collection, they were way into classic country (being Oklahoma natives), though I recall it being rather crooner-ish for country. I also know the cover by English sophisti-poppers Prefab Sprout, it appears as a bonus track on the CD release of their 1985 opus Two Wheels Good*.

But I digress. It’s the original which concerns us here.



I think you could call this “countrypolitan.” How can I guess? Chet Atkins arranging and producing it probably has something to do with that. How many country records do you know that feature a vibraphone? Wait, is this the first instance of vibes on Second Hand Goods? I think it just might be!

The arrangement here is actually really very soft and delicate. Brushed drums, backing chorus is almost at a whisper, gently strummed guitar, it’s all there and it’s all pushed in the background, rather fitting for a song meant to evoke an intimate telephone conversation about a man asking his beloved to choose between him and the other man she’s currently spending the evening with.

As previously implied, the arrangement is kept secondary to Reeves’ honeyed baritone voice, which fairly oozes out of the speakers like molasses. He’s a very precise singer, rolling over each syllable with an intense deliberation. I prefer a little more expression from my singers, but I have to admit the man had some serious vocal chops.

While this is not my preferred style, I have to admire the craftsmanship that went into this. It’s very well-done. Kind of like a museum piece; look at it, appreciate it and move on.

Rating: 3

*the US title of Steve McQueen. Apparently, the actor’s estate threatened a lawsuit unless Kitchenware/Epic changed the title of the album. They also abbreviated the bouncy album-opener “Faron Young” to just “Faron” to be on the safe side (and speaking of classic country, the tune’s lyrics reference Young’s “It’s Four in the Morning”).

SHG: Jimmy Jones: "Handy Man"

Jimmy Jones: “Handy Man”
Entered the chart on: 1/18/1960
Peaked on: 2/29/1960
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “Theme From A Summer Place” by Percy Faith

And so, we make a clean break from the 50s. The first song to peak at #2 also entered the chart that year (It was not, however, the first #2 hit to enter the chart in 1960. For that, wait for the next entry).

Jimmy Jones, who might just have the most generic name in pop music history, is one of those rare beasts: the two-hit wonder. This song and its #3 follow-up “Good Timin’” (You know, “TOCK-a TOCK-a TOCK-a TOCK-a!”?) comprise the entirety of his pop chart legacy. And he shares something in common with the Impalas, as he was likewise on the Cub label. Let’s check out Cub’s other #2 hit artist:



Well, there’s a falsetto that could peel paint off the walls! And how did I never notice the background whistling before? Very unusual, certainly not something you hear often. Actually, back on the subject of his voice, he’s actually really in control of that falsetto. It’s not shrill, the register change doesn’t seem jarring, it’s all really smooth. I’m actually impressed! And there’s a nice guitar solo in the middle eight to boot.

After years of being subjected to James Taylor’s bland, lobotomized version it’s a bit of a revelation just how superior the original is. There’s quite a lot of spark and excitement to this. I really like it!

Rating: 4