Lost Hit: Soul Inc - I Belong to Nobody

I first heard this wonderful song on Joe Donovan's overnight show on WHAS out of Louisville at around 3 o'clock in the morning. He played this during a segment highlighting local hits.

I Belong to Nobody was a top 10 record in Louisville and other Midwest cities in the spring of 1968. For some reason it failed to catch on nationwide.

The band reformed some years ago and continues to perform in the Louisville area.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit in DelMarVa

I will join my friend Jared Morris on his show at 10 am EST this morning. You can listen live here: www.wgmd.com

Jake Holmes (Finally) Sues Led Zeppelin

Singer and songwriter Jake Holmes has filed a copyright infringement case against Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin for stealing his 1967 song Dazed and Confused.

It's puzzling that it took him this long given the striking musical and lyrical similarities between Zeppelin's classic and Holmes original. Page credited himself as sole author of Dazed and Confused when the song was included on Zeppelin's first album in 1969.

As I documented in an earlier post, Holmes shared a bill with Page's Yardbirds in New York City during the summer of 1967, and Dazed and Confused quickly became a part of the Yardbird's live set.

Needless to say, there's a lot of money at stake here. The Led Zeppelin album has sold over 8 million copies in the U.S. to date. Add that worldwide sales plus the song's inclusion of various Zeppelin live albums and compilations and Holmes is looking a substantial payday.

Holmes has stated that he attempted to contact Zeppelin's representatives at various times through the years, but to no avail.

It's good to see justice served after so many years.

Here's a link to the New York Times story.

Here's how the song evolved starting with the version on Holmes' 1967 album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes:




The Yardbird's version from French TV in early 1968:




And the version Page and the newly formed Zeppelin recorded in the fall of 1968 for release on their debut album:

The Lenny Welch - Beatles Connection

I recently noticed a newspaper article wherein singer Lenny Welch recounted being told that Paul McCartney had based the Beatles' version of A Taste of Honey on Welch's 1962 recording of the song.

Welch is best remembered for his hit Since I Fell For You, but I had never heard his version of A Taste of Honey.

A Taste of Honey served as the instrumental theme of the 1961 film and the 1960 Broadway production of the same name. The Welch version was the first to have lyrics. Along with Look Back in Anger and Room at the Top, A Taste of Honey was one of the realistic "kitchen sink" style of British films from the late '50s and early 60s. It tells the story of a working class girl from the north of England who refuses to conform to societal expectations. Tony Richardson directed both A Taste of Honey and Look Back in Anger.

Fun Fact: A photo of A Taste of Honey playwright Shelagh Delaney was used for the cover of the Smiths' Louder Than Bombs compilation and their 1987 single Girlfriend in a Coma. NOt coindidentally, the Smiths and Delaney both hail from Manchester.

Take a listen and see if you agree that the Fabs' arrangement of the song is closely based on Welch's record:

For Your Listening Pleasure: Los Bravos - Going Nowhere

This song is from an obscure 1967 Spanish movie and was issued on Rhino's Nuggets II box set. Here's Los Bravos with one of the great lost hits of the '60s:

R.I.P., Captain Lou

We lost one of the greats yesterday, Captain Lou Albano.

If you followed wrestling in the 1970s or 80s, you'll remember his outrageous ringside antics. "The Guiding Light' managed no less than 15 WWF tag team champions including The Valiant Bros. ("Handsome" Jimmy and "Luscious" John), the Moondogs (Spot and Rex) and the Wild Samoans (Afa and Seka). He also managed Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and George "The Animal" Steele among many others.

He may be best know for playing Cyndi Lauper's father in the video for Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

These were among his more famous insults:
"If you put his brain inside a parakeet it would fly backwards!"
"He's often constipated, rarely imitated."

In retrospect, Albano and his contemporary wrestling managers The Grand Wizard of Wrestling and "Classy" Freddie Blassie were performance artists by another name. This was something Andy Kaufman picked up on as he enjoyed antagonizing audiences in the mid-South back in the early '80s. The Captain could make you laugh more than 100 comedians.

Thanks for the laughs, Captain Lou.

Here's NRBQ's tribute to Albano featuring the vocal stylings of the man himself:

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Michael Jackson's New Song is an Old Song

Paul Anka has been award 50 of the publishing of the just-released Michael Jackson song, the much hyped "This Is It." It seems Anka was working with Michael back in 1983 but this song never saw the light of day until Safire recorded it in 1991 under the title "I Never Heard."

Read the full story here.

This is probably a case of lack of competance among the folks trolling thru Michael's archive unreleased material. It reminds me of the time one of Paul McCartney's PR people announced prior to the release of the Yellow Submarine Songtrack that an unreleased Fabs track had been unearthed - "a real rocker." Turns out he was referring to "Hey Bulldog," a song that had been on the original album released over thirty years earlier!

Here's the You Tube mash-up of "This Is It" and "I Never Heard":