SHG: Dee Clark: "Raindrops"

Dee Clark: “Raindrops”
Entered the chart on: 5/22/1961
Peaked on: 6/26/1961
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “Quarter to Three” by U. S. Bonds

I’m at a loss on how to start this review. Clark is another one of those artists like Lloyd Price who’d been kicking around in some form or other since the early 50s who just had to bide his time until popular tastes caught up with him. This was his biggest hit...and his last top 40 entry. It’s also the first song here at Second Hand Goods on the legendary Vee Jay label. I know I’ve heard this before, but I’m not remembering it clearly except as an excerpt of the hook in one of those K-Tel or Sessions ads.

Might as well get on with the review, since I’m running out of stuff to talk about.



CRASH! Rain and thunder sound effects...are these the first sound effects since...when was that that we last had sound effects on SHG? Could someone click on the “sound effects” tag and tell me?

“It must be raindrops, because men ain’t supposed to cry.” Oh, Dee, did you learn nothing from Rosey Greer? Right, it’s 1961, a decade too soon for Free to Be, You and Me. This is another song of heartbreak, along the lines of “Greenfields” or “Only the Lonely.” But for whatever reason, this isn’t doing it for me. The production is fine, there’s certainly a lot of money lavished into the lush string arrangement here. And I like how Dee lets the soul overtake him during the emotional chorus (even if I take exception to its dated sentiment). But in general, his voice is a little too clinical for my tastes. We’re not quite in Johnny Tillotson territory, but we’re edging awfully close.

For period R&B, you can do a lot better. Meh.

Rating: 2

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 Chordettes: "Lollipop"

The Chordettes: “Lollipop”
Entered the chart on: 3/10/58
Peaked on: 3/31/58
Weeks at #2: 2 weeks
Songs at #1: “Tequila” by the Champs and “Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como

Does it count as “whitewashing” if only half of the original artists were black?

Ronald and Ruby, a duo of a black man and a white woman, were the original performers of “Lollipop.” Ruby was actually the song’s co-writer, Beverly Ross, who at the urging of her mother didn’t use her real name for the recording. They also didn’t do any promotion on TV for the song, which is why it stalled at #20, while the Chordettes’ rendition sailed to #2.

Anyway, if you’d told me Ronald and Ruby were two women, I’d be hard-pressed to negate that claim, as Ronald has a pretty high voice on the original recording. Out of sheer curiosity, I also checked out the cover by the English family group the Mudlarks, and it is an odd duck indeed*, being rather gender-confused, as the two Mudlark brothers give the “I call him” line to their sister to deliver solo.

As for the Chordettes, could there be a more quintessentially “fifties” female vocal group? Possibly the McGuire Sisters, but “Mister Sandman” is used to evoke the era of poodle skirts and malt shops way, way more often with “Sincerely,” and they weren’t whitewashing an R&B act’s hit, so I’m sticking with the Chordettes.



Well, it’s obvious why this version was the big hit. They have the “pop” effect after the refrain! And the wordless guest spot by the nameless bass singer. I tend to be more forgiving of this squeaky-clean vocal harmony pop when delivered by female groups. Does that make me sexist? Reverse sexist? Anyway, I’m enjoying this. Maybe because I’m picturing Jasper from The Simpsons delivering it while wearing a Little Lord Fauntleroy outfit and having his teeth fall out when he tries to do the “pop.”

The song is, of course, extremely inane, but I forgive it because it’s fun. I can forgive inanity if it’s fun and not annoying. And if there was effort put into it. It’s obvious that effort was put into every aspect of this, from the songwriting on down to the vocal arrangement and the harmonies, etc. And it shows.

Rating: 4

*No idea if he was actually involved, but Joe Meek is very much in evidence on the Mudlarks’ version, at least at the start of the recording, where it sounds like a spaceship landing!