TOO GOOD (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Little Tony and his Brothers (1959) (UK 19)
In 1959 it was unusual to find an Italian based in the UK, but Little Tony made a name for himself on “Boy Meets Girls”. Doc and Mort gave him a pleasant rockaballad and I’m surprised that they didn’t pass this over to Frankie Avalon or Bobby Rydell. Little Tony’s diction is not too good and the phrase “another one” is almost cockney. Had he been talking to Joe Brown?
FOXY LITTLE MAMA (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Little Tony and his Brothers (1959)
A pleasant rocker on the B-side of “Too Good”.
MISS IN-BETWEEN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Cuddy Dudley (1960)
IT’S BEEN NICE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Marty Wilde (1959)
• Gene Vincent (1961)
• Les Pirates (1962) (As “Je Te Dis Merci”)
• Everly Brothers (1963)
• Freddy Cannon (1963)
• Dick Rivers (1972)
• Marty Wilde (new version, 1996)
Mort brought this song to Europe with the vague hope of going to Germany and giving it direct to Elvis. Indeed, he met Elvis’ buddy, Lamar Fike, in Manchester but he changed his mind and gave it to his new best friend, Marty Wilde. Marty invited him to play piano, but someone shopped them to the Musicians Union and, just before the tapes could roll, an official stepped in and read the Riot Act. They’d all be expelled if this continued. Marty Wilde and the Wildcats recorded a fine version of this dynamic song without him and it goes to show that these rockers were very docile when confronted by authority. (Presumably by the same token, Mort shouldn’t have made that Decca single.) “It’s Been Nice” was the B-side of Marty’s Top 10 hit, “Bad Boy”, and it has been so requested on his oldies concerts that it became the title song on his 1996 CD.
A few months later Gene Vincent came to Britain and befriended Marty Wilde. I would guess that he heard Marty’s 45 and decided to do it himself, recording it in 1961 and releasing it on the 1963 LP, “The Crazy Beat Of Gene Vincent”. He loses the song’s drive and the song has too many words for him. Freddy Cannon performed the song in the 1963 film, “Just For Fun”, but his diction can’t have been too good as Fred Dellar, writing in “The NME Guide To Rock Cinema”, calls it “I Gotta Get Up Early In The Ocean”. The Everly Brothers have sublime vocals but some terrible female vocalists who turn the song into a conversation, and then curiously the songs changes tempo for the ending. Most odd.
“It’s Been Nice” apart, some decidedly dodgy songs were given to the British artists (and you’ll read about some more next month). A comparison can be made with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who, once they started having hits, were very particular about what was released and hence, the standard of their work is consistent. I suspect that Bacharch has lots of substandard songs that have never seen the light of day. Doc and Mort, though, were workaday songwriters, bespoke songwriters who would write a great song one day and rubbish the next. They didn’t have a quality control and they would still pass on songs that they can’t have been happy with. If they hadn’t been inspired that day, then, what the hell, somebody might still record it.
Doc was impressed with what he saw: “When I was in England, we had a joint interview with Lionel Bart and I said the English singers are always imitating someone American, like Presley. The English writers and performers should be able to come up with something for themselves. A couple of years later our friend the actress Anna Quayle wrote to me and said that there is an English group that could do your material, the Beatles. The Beatles weren’t such a shock to me. I’d been waiting for it to happen and it should have happened before.”
PART 3 – SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME
“We would know when we had written a good song but after that we didn’t know. We didn’t know how it would come out of the studio or what kind of singer is going to do it: there are so many intangibles involved.”
(Doc Pomus, 1987)
Drifting Up The Charts
Doc Pomus’ wife, Wilma Burke, was having success as an actress at the same time he was making hit records. She appeared in a Broadway musical, “Fiorello!”, written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock about Fiorello La Guardia, a politician who became Mayor of New York. She also appeared in a touring version of the new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, “The Sound Of Music”. Doc and Mort enjoyed their visit to England because they had been appreciated. It was different back home. Doc Pomus: “I had a house, a swimming pool, all that shit, and we had nothing but these Broadway characters hanging around. None of them paid any attention to me and if they asked what kind of song I wrote, I felt embarrassed. If I had written a fifth-rate Broadway song, my God, they would have been proud.”
Strangely, Doc never had any inkling to write a Broadway show himself: “My kids said it was our music that was going to stay around. I wrote it the same way I would write a symphony but I have no reason for thinking it would last. I don’t think that Leiber and Stoller got it in perspective, they got scarred by the old-time songwriters and they wanted to do Broadway shows.
YOU’LL NEVER TAME ME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Rydell (1959)
• Fabian (1960)
The B-side of Bobby Rydell’s first hit and probably intended for Fabian anyway.
I DIG GIRLS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Rydell (1959)
• Vernons Girls (1960 as “We Like Boys”)
The B-side of Rydell’s second hit, “We Got Love”, and clearly a title that Boy George or Elton John couldn’t cover. When Pomus and Shuman came to the UK, they revised the lyric for the Vernons Girls including references to London and Liverpool: “Boys from Devon send us to heaven.”
MIGHTY COLD (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Fabian (1959)
BETTY BLUE EYES (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Pedrick Jr (1959)
STAMPEDE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman – Norman Allen)
• Danny Valentino (1959)
A-side of an MGM single.
YOU GOTTA BE A MUSIC MAN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Danny Valentino (1959)
And the B-side
I’LL FORGIVE YOU BUT I WON’T FORGET (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Tommy Leonetti (1959)
MY PRIVATE JOY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Pedrick Jr (1959)
• Dion and the Belmonts (1960)
One of the few Pomus and Shuman songs that I really hate. The lyric is a nothing and the horns are so irritating. It is surrounded by some of the best standards ever written in the “Wish Upon A Star” album. Brickbats to all concerned.
SUMMER NIGHTS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Pedrick Jr (1959, produced by Pomus and Shuman)
• Quinto Sisters (1964)
(IF YOU CRY) TRUE LOVE, TRUE LOVE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1959) (US Pop 33, R&B 5)
Changing their name from the Crowns to the Drifters, Ben E. King’s group had hit the US Top 10 with “There Goes My Baby”. Ben E. King took the lead vocal on the next A-side, “Dance With Me”, but Johnny Lee Williams’ high tenor was used on the B-side, “(If You Cry) True Love, True Love”, which was produced by Leiber and Stoller and has a dramatic arrangement along the lines of “There Goes My Baby”. “Dance With Me” was a Top 20 record, but the B-side was on the chart in its own right. It’s not a bad song and you can hear “This Magic Moment” waiting to get out.
HOUND DOG MAN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
Fabian (1959) (US 9, UK 46)
Just as Doc and Mort regarded Fabian’s tuneless vocalising as a challenge, the film director, Don Siegel, decided that Fabian wouldn’t complete any of his songs in “Hound Dog Man”, the very title being a jokey nod to Elvis Presley. “Hound Dog Man”, for all that, wasn’t a bad song but Fabian, as always, lets the side down. Doc Pomus: “Fabian did learn to sing a little but by then his career was gone.”
GO JIMMY GO (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jimmy Clanton (1959) (US 5)
Taking the line, “Go, Johnny, Go!”, from “Johnny B.Goode”, Alan Freed put together a rock’n’roll film starring Jimmy Clanton with Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Ritchie Valens and the Flamingos. Altering the film’s title to “Go, Bobby, Go”, Doc and Mort wrote a new song and offered it to Bobby Rydell. He wasn’t keen on something with his name in the lyric and his version was never released. Doc changed it to “Go, Jimmy, Go” and gave it to Jimmy Clanton, who came from Baton Rouge to New York for the session. It was worth his while as it became a US Top 10 hit, but the alternate take on the Westside’s “Jimmy’s Tunes” is livelier than the issued single. Clanton’s subsequent hits, “Another Sleepless Night” and “Venus In Blue Jeans”, also came from the Brill Building. As Doc said, “We wrote songs that a lot of people could sing so if they turned it down, we could easily find somebody else.”
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY BLUES (Doc Pomus – Wally Gold – David Hill)
• Tommy Steele (1960) (US 16)
The follow-up to Steele’s Top 10 hit, ‘What A Mouth’, but it didn’t chart. Very similar to Paul Evans’ ‘Happy-Go-Lucky Me’.
THIS MAGIC MOMENT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1960) (US 16)
• Jay and the Americans (1968) (US 6)
• Richie Furay (1978)
• Lou Reed (1995)
Ben E. King had decided to leave the Drifters but he agreed to this session, two days before Christmas in 1959, because they hadn’t found a replacement vocalist. This magical Pomus and Shuman song was given a swirling string arrangement by Stan Applebaum. Curiously, Ben E. King, instead of being deliriously happy, sounds like he’s crying at times. The record made the US Top 20 but it deserved to do better, eventually making the Top 10 when Jay and the Americans revived it in 1968. “I was always very unhappy about ‘This Magic Moment’,” said Jay Black in 1990, “because I like the Drifters’ version better. Ours sold twice as many as theirs. I still can’t understand it.” The song has never made the British charts so there’s an opportunity for someone. I love Lou Reed’s half-spoken version from 1995 which includes references to “Dance With Me” and “Save The Last Dance For Me”.
LONELY WINDS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1960) (US Pop 54, R&B 9)
• Walker Brothers (1965)
Rather more forceful than other Drifters’ records of the period with a strong vocal from Ben E. King. A long instrumental break showcases Stan Applebaum’s string arrangement. The arrangement is so forceful for the Walker Brothers that they sound like guests on their own record.
Mort Shuman, always a musical maverick, had discovered the Palladium, a Latin-American ballroom in New York and he would listen to Tito Puente and Machito. In March 1960 he went to South America and he was captivated by the Latin-American rhythms that he heard. He was writing for black R&B acts but he didn’t let that bother him.
STROLLIN’ IN THE SPRINGTIME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Fabian (1960)
BUTTERCUP (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The Twins (1960)
• Mickey and Kitty (1960)
HEART OF GOLD (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The Twins (1960)
TEENAGE HEARTACHE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ray Peterson (1960)
Typical teen ballad of the day: “Such tears on my pillow, I drowned in my bed.”
HAPPY TIME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The Skyliners (1960)
SENOR BIG AND FINE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• LaVern Baker (1960)
Mort gives a tango to LaVern Baker. Great fun, but Mort hasn’t quite worked out how to adapt his new enthusiasm to the commercial market. Doc’s lyric could be taken as a message to Mort:
“Senor Big And Fine,
Please take your time,
Don’t rush me.”
SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1960) (US 1, UK 2)
• Dion (1960)
• Damita Jo (1960) (Answer version, “I’ll Save The Last Dance For You”) (US 22)
• Billy Fury (1961) (Answer version: “You’re Having The Last Dance With Me”)
• Jerry Lee Lewis (1961)
• Buck Owens (1962)
• Jimmy Justice (1962)
• Lou Christie (1966)
• Ike and Tina Turner (1969)
• The Beatles (“Let It Be” sessions, 1969)
• DeFranco Family (1974) (US 18)
• Nilsson (1974)
• Mort Shuman (1976)
• Jerry Lee Lewis and Friend (1978)
• Emmylou Harris (1979)
• Ralph McTell (1979)
• Herbie Armstrong (1983)
• Dolly Parton and the Jordanaires (1984) (US Country 3)
• Ben E. King (1987) (UK 69)
• Neil Diamond (1993)
• General Saint (1994) (UK 74)
• Aaron Neville (1995)
• Manhattan Transfer with Ben E. King (1995)
Doc Pomus would take his wife to ballrooms but he was incapable of walking, let alone dancing. As he didn’t want to deprive her, he let her dance with various partners. At the end of the evening, he would stagger to his feet and she would take him onto the floor. Hence, “Save The Last Dance For Me”. All through my youth, I thought this a wonderful teenage song and now, knowing the story, I realise that the lyric is brilliant as it also describes Doc’s feelings. There is a voyeuristic element in the lyric as the singer is enjoying watching his girl dancing with other men. Doc claimed to have written the lyric quickly, but if so, it reminds me of a conversation I once had with Charles Aznavour. I asked him how long a lyric had taken and he said, “20 minutes of writing and 20 years of living.”
Doc’s lyric was combined with a wonderful melody, largely from Mort Shuman that tapped into his Latin-American experiences. Because of the Cuban baion feel, Doc wanted to write a lyric that “sounded like it was translated.” He quoted “And in whose arms you’re going to be” and said, “That’s not the way people talk, it sounds like a translation, but people don’t even realise it. Those are some of the tricks that I think are responsible for a lot of these songs lasting so long.” The song was written in their Brill Building cubicle. Doc: “Mort played the song on piano or guitar for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They had sharp ears and they knew what could be done with it. They got a magnificent rhythmical sound on ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’.”
But, amazingly Leiber and Stoller were not sure about what they’d got. Doc Pomus: “‘Save The Last Dance’ was written especially for the Drifters but the record company wasn’t that enthusiastic about the song and so I started doing it with Jimmy Clanton. It was going to be his next record, and then we got a call from Jerry Wexler to say that it was going to be the Drifters’ next record, so I had to tell Clanton that there was a mix-up and he couldn’t record the song. We gave him ‘Go Jimmy Go’ which was originally ‘Go Bobby Go’ for Bobby Rydell, so Jimmy ended up with a hit anyway. ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ was released with ‘Nobody But Me’, another of our songs, on the A-side. It was Dick Clark who told Atlantic to turn it over. You see why it’s so hard for me to take this business seriously.”
Ben E. King, according to Doc, “always thought he was one of the best singers in the world” and he proved it on “Save The Last Dance For Me”. It was the biggest hit the Drifters ever had and it is among the greatest pop records of all-time. Leiber and Stoller, when speaking at the National Film Theatre in 2001, said that they had changed some of “Save The Last Dance For Me” but not enough to merit a co-writing credit.
Dion has a lovely plaintive vocal but the vocal accompaniment and arrangement is so clichéd that it is a waste of a good song. Damita Jo made minimal lyrical changes and Billy Fury altered just a couple of lines in their answer versions. After Elvis’ death, Jerry Lee Lewis’ version had an added vocal in a feeble attempt to pass it off as a lost Elvis track. It fooled no one – except Doc Pomus, who endorsed the record on its sleeve, but I suspect his tongue was firmly in his cheek.
I enjoyed Nilsson’s ultra-slow scorcher that was produced by John Lennon: so did Mort Shuman as he copied it but sang the lyric in French. Emmylou Harris recorded it as a beautiful country ballad in 1979 (with a lovely piano solo from Glen D.Hardin) and Ralph McTell’s arrangement is in a similar vein. Mort Shuman suggested to Herbie Armstrong that the song could be taken in a minor mode. Ben E. King’s dance version in 1987 was not the brightest of ideas, but Aaron Neville was an inspired choice on the Doc Pomus tribute album, Till The Night Is Gone, its very title being taken from the song.
The Beatles, who sang “Save The Last Dance For Me”, “Nobody But Me” and “I Count The Tears” at the Cavern, twice performed snatches of the song during their sessions for the “Let It Be” film and album. When Doc Pomus went to a BMI dinner and John and Yoko were there, John told him that they had pinched a bit of “Save The Last Dance For Me” for “Hey Jude”.
NOBODY BUT ME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1960)
• Honeycombs (1965)
This is a good song but it is incredulous that Atlantic thought it should be the A-side to “Save The Last Dance For Me”. It did gain radioplay in its own right and although it is a decent song, it is let down by cheesy backing vocals from the Drifters. The lads only had 20 seconds work and they blew it.
I COUNT THE TEARS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1960) (UK 28, US 17)#
• Searchers (1964)
• Rosanne Cash (1995)
Three Pomus and Shuman songs, “Save The Last Dance For Me”, “Nobody But Me”, “I Count The Tears”, and one of Ben E. King’s own songs, “Sometimes I Wonder” were recorded at the same three hour session for the Drifters at the Bell Sound Studios in New York. Unusually for the Pomus/Shuman partnership, the melody is largely Doc’s. The record deserved to be a bigger hit but this sometimes happens when you are following up a monster. Listen to the last couple of seconds of the Drifters’ version and ask yourself, What is that strange sound? The Searchers give the song a “Sweets” arrangement but it is a little disjointed and I can see why it was never a single. I like Rosanne Cash’s more intimate arrangement: you can imagine a housewife crying silently while her husband’s gone away.
WAIT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jimmy Clanton (1960)
Interesting failure. I would guess that Doc and Mort were trying to write a teen ballad that was also true to Clanton’s Louisiana roots.
IT TEARS ME ALL TO PIECES (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman – Donna Fair)
• Ruth Brown (1960)
• Jess Conrad (1961)
A rewrite of “Lonely Avenue”, right down to the arrangement and vocal group. Ruth Brown’s version is excellent, but Jess Conrad is very, very flat.
DO THAT LITTLE THING (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Comstock (1960)
Riding With The King
A MESS OF BLUES (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1960) (UK 32, UK 2)
• Led Zeppelin (1971 BBC concert version issued in 1997)
• Delbert McClinton (1979)
• Status Quo (1983) (UK 15)
• John Hiatt (1995)
• Restless (2000)
• Cliff Bennett (2001)
Elvis says Yes at last and makes one of his best records. Mort says that the phrase “a mess of blues” was just the way Doc talked: “I really like ‘A Mess Of Blues’. I thought it was a really down home, raunchy good blues song. Doc had this knack of finding weird titles like ‘A Mess Of Blues’, you don’t really say that, you do say ‘a mess of something’ but it would not be used to describe the blues.” Whilst Doc and Mort were in England, they hung out with Lamar Fike, who was staying with Elvis while he was serving in Germany. They recorded a hurried demo of ‘A Mess Of Blues’ and gave it to Lamar for Elvis. In the US, it was the B-side to “It’s Now Or Never” but here it was combined with “Girl Of My Best Friend”. The John Hiatt revival ain’t bad, but it ain’t Elvis. Restless take it too fast. Very good bluesy version by Cliff Bennnett on his “Soul Blast!” CD, but why do both Bennett and Restless sing “A mess of the blues”? They ruin the poetry of the song.
SORROW TOMORROW (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Darin (1960)
A pleasant enough rocker from Bobby Darin and a song that Shuman particularly liked.
ONCE UPON A TIME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ricky Valance (1960)
This lightweight pop song was the B-side of Ricky’s controversial No.l, “Tell Laura I Love Her”, so Doc and Mort got a free ride to some considerable royalties. Quite catchy, but the song’s payoff can be seen a mile off – “that boy was me”.
I’M ON FIRE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Tommy Bruce (1960)
Where did this come from? Gravel-voiced Tommy Bruce had a UK hit with “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in May 1960 and he followed it with another Top 40 hit, “Broken Doll”. On the other side was this Pomus and Shuman rocker. They should have stuck with Fabian.
No, I take that back.
DOING THE BEST I CAN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1960)
Tacky or what? Elvis Presley decided that his first post-army film would be a light-headed, sorry, light-hearted romp about his days in Germany, “G.I. Blues”. Doc and Mort were asked to submit songs and wrote the sensitive ballad, “Doing The Best I Can”. Mort: “Doc and I were into Don Robertson who was a great country and western writer, his songs were just spot-on, like ‘I Really Don’t Want To Know’. We were in that Don Robertson easy country ballady mood, and that is how it came out. I always felt that Elvis was very much influenced by the Ink Spots when he recorded it.” “Doing The Best I Can’ is one of their best songs, a song that could easily be revived by a New Country artist or a Pop Idol today.
DESDEMONA’S LAMENT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Joya Sherrill (soundtrack, 1960)
Doc and Mort wrote this song for Joya Sherrill to sing in the sci-fi comedy, “Visit To A Small Planet”, which was written by Gore Vidal and starred Jerry Lewis.
IF YOU NEED ME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Dave Sampson (1960)
Dave Sampson had a UK hit with his own “Sweet Dreams” and, rather than encouraging his writing, EMI gave him American songs. “If You Need Me” was the A-side of his second single and he also recorded “Wide Wide World”.
HAVIN’ FUN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Dion (1960)
Dion’s solo career had got off to a good start with “Lonely Teenager”, but “Havin’ Fun” didn’t sound right at all. It was more suited to a MOR balladeer and the trombone a few seconds in is appalling.
Doc and Mort got to know Phil Spector. Doc took him to the Spindletop restuarant and while they were there, a hoodlum came in and shot someone dead. A few weeks later, they were going out again and Doc said, “Let’s go to the Spindletop.” “Let’s not,” said Spector, “I’m not going there again. We might get killed.” “You gotta look on the up side,” said Doc, “The salads are incredible.”
YOUR OTHER LOVE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Flamingos (1960) (US 54)
A typical example of the Drifters’ Latin-scented pop, but it’s by the Flamingos who were hot with “I Only Have Eyes For You” in 1958. Did the Drifters turn it down and so Hill and Range passed it to the Flamingos? Everything about the record is a crib. Okay though.
LOVERS GOTTA CRY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Flamingos (1960)
The B-side of “Your Other Love”.
WHAT WENT WRONG (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Johnny Oliver (1960)
Produced by Clyde Otis and Belford Hendricks and maybe it was intended for their main artist, Brook Benton.
FIRST TASTE OF LOVE (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• Ben E. King (1960) (UK 27)
• Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (1964)
On 27 October 1960 Ben E. King had a remarkable three hour session at the Bell Sound Studios in New York. He recorded the utterly brilliant “Stand By Me”, which was largely written by himself, and not content with that, he also cut “Spanish Harlem” (Jerry Leiber, Phil Spector), “First Taste Of Love” and “Young Boy Blues” (both Doc Pomus and Phil Spector). The first single, “Spanish Harlem”, was a US Top 10 hit, but it was the B-side, “First Taste Of Love”, which was promoted in the UK. It retains the Latin flavour that he had with the Drifters and would have been a fine follow-up to “Save The Last Dance For Me”. Wayne Fontana’s hurried version is the B-side of his Top 10 hit, “Um Um Um Um Um Um”.
Doc Pomus: “Phil Spector and I wrote a lot of songs in the Forest Hotel. I would stay there during the week and go out to Long Island at the weekend. Ben E. King left the Drifters and we wrote ‘First Taste Of Love’. Atlantic went with that song first, which again shows you what they know.”
YOUNG BOY BLUES (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• Ben E. King (1961)
• Conway Twitty (unissued, 1964)
• Wilson Pickett (1974)
• Honeydrippers (1984)
As the dramatic arrangement was so experimental (stop-starts, jazz piano, movie strings, soulful vocal and verses that form one long sentence), it is surprising to find this tucked into a four-song session. Ben E. King coped with the unusual setting very well and the song was put on the B-side of “Here Comes The Night”. Robert Plant was the vocalist with the Honeydrippers on their very creditable revival.
DON’T YOU DARE LET ME DOWN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Conway Twitty (1961)
Nice title but perfunctory songwriting from Doc and Mort. Conway Twitty cut this in Nashville – his performance is fine but whoever thought up that novelty instrumental break? The song did okay as the B-side of his hit single, “C’est Si Bon”.
SAY WHEN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Grant Tracy & the Sunsets (1961)
PLEASE BABY PLEASE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Grant Tracy & the Sunsets (1961)
DON’T FLY AWAY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jan and Dean (1961)
EVERYBODY KNEW (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The La-Rells (1961)
WAY BEYOND THE HILLS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman – Wilma Burke)
• Gloria Lynne (1961)
SURRENDER (G.D.De Curtis – Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1961) (UK 1, US 1)
• Stacy Dean Campbell (1992) (Soundtrack, “Honeymoon In Vegas”)
• Lesley Garrett (2001)
I regard Elvis Presley as the man who wanted to be Mario Lanza. They were both on RCA, they both ate to excess, they both recorded operatic arias and they both took drugs excessively and died at a young age. Elvis was so pleased with his performance on “O Sole Mio” (“It’s Now Or Never”) that he asked his publisher, Freddy Bienstock, to commission a new lyric for “Torna A Sorrento”. Mort Shuman was not impressed and told Doc, “Why should I want to write for some redneck idiot who has so far forgotten his roots that he thinks it’s a good career move to sound like Mario Lanza? You write it, Doc, you’ve already got the music.” And the title as Doc immediately saw that “Sorrento” could become “Surrender”. Pomus and Shuman won through, but Elvis’ record is only 90 seconds long. Long enough in my view as this return to Sorrento is on a second-class ticket. The TV diva from Yorkshire, Lesley Garrett, puts Doc’s words in an operatic setting and it sounds fine. Not sure though that she should have merged with “The Wonder Of You”.
SWEETS FOR MY SWEET (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1961) (US 16)
• Searchers (1963) (UK 1)
• C.J. Lewis (1994)
• Brian Wilson (1995)
Another mambo night in New York and Mort Shuman played piano on this very cheerful and commercial song for the Drifters. Doc Pomus: “I used to hate to go to sessions. When I finish a song, I like to say, ‘That’s it’. I don’t want to see some act going over and over the song. Mort, on the other hand, liked to do that, so he went ahead.”
Charlie Thomas took the lead vocal for the Drifters and I’m surprised that it didn’t fare better on the charts. The Searchers were quick to spot its potential, taking it faster and featuring Tony Jackson with a very nasal lead vocal. Mort Shuman: “There’s a saying in France that you are walking round with a banana in your mouth, upwards smiling shape, so even if perhaps the Searchers wasn’t the best technically or musically, it was so infectious.” Brian Wilson’s lead vocal shows that whatever he had, he hadn’t got it anymore. Queasy listening.
The Drifters, incidentally, sing “Your tasty kiss” and the Searchers’ mishearing the record sing “Your fair sweet kiss”. I told Mort that I had first heard it as “Your thirsty kiss”, which sounded like someone was really desperate for the kiss. In a very proud moment for me, Mort said, “Spencer, you’ve improved the song.” Can the same be said of Peckham’s C.J.Lewis with his rap version from 1994?
I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jimmy Clanton (1961)
This sounds like a Drifters’ song that didn’t work out and was given to Jimmy Clanton. The song has a full orchestration and the instrumental break goes off in all directions. Not bad, but no song called “I Just Wanna Make Love” could have been a hit for a teen idol in 1961.
DEVIL IN DISGUISE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Stan Mitchell (1961)
Not the same song as Elvis Presley’s hit, “(You’re The) Devil In Disguise”.
A YOUNG BOY’S HEART (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Johnny Power (1961)
KISSIN’ JUST TO BE KISSIN’ (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The Richard Sisters (1961)
SO CLOSE TO HEAVEN (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ral Donner (1961)
When Ral Donner was recording in the 1960s, my friends and I thought he was a joke, a character who deliberately modelled himself on Elvis. Looking back, his work takes on a new perspective. We know all the Elvis tracks and this is like new or lesser-known Elvis material. “So Close To Heaven” was the B-side of his hit single, “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got”. An excellent song and I can’t believe it’s not Elvis.
Doc Pomus asked the owner of Roulette Records, George Goldner, what he would do if a record company was swindling him out of royalties. George Goldner said, “I would sue them.” “Okay,” said, Doc, “I’m going to sue you.”
SCHOOL OF HEARTBREAK (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ral Donner (1961)
The first Elvis tribute act with a good song that could have been an Elvis album track. If people had taken him seriously, we might have had a host of tribute acts long before the 1990s.
ROOM FULL OF TEARS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1961)
A typical Drifters song about wallowing in self-pity but only just good enough for an A-side. Charlie Thomas was asked to sound as much like Ben E. King as he could and he makes a good stab of it.
JUST THE TWO OF US (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jess Conrad (1961)
A US release, London 1967, for a UK singer.
HERE COMES THE NIGHT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ben E. King (1961)
• Walker Brothers (1965)
Did Doc and Mort put two separate songs together and then Leiber and Stoller added some arresting sound effects to paper over the cracks: “Do that uummmm again, Benny”, “Oh, that’s nice on the trumpets” and so on. The Walker Brothers’ version is much better as it sounds much more like a complete song.
COULD SOMEBODY TAKE MY PLACE TONIGHT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Dion (1961)
The B-side of “Somebody Nobody Wants”, this is a nice teen ballad but not distinctive enough.
IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Dion (1961)
Tearful beat-ballad, but Dion’s heart isn’t in it.
IT’S NOT TRUE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ricky Valance (1961)
Ideally, a song should tell a short story and the middle eight should tell us something that we haven’t known before. As such, the construction of “It’s Not True” is very good and although Ricky Valance doesn’t do it badly, I would have preferred a plaintive rendition from Dion or Billy Fury.
LITTLE SHIP (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The Delicates (1961)
• Arlene Martell (1961)
• Jess Conrad (1961)
• The Blue Diamonds (1961) (Holland, No.10)
The demo record was by Jeff Barry and the song was passed to the Delicates on Roulette. The lead singer was Peggy Santiglia, later of the Angels.
RAG DOLL (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jess Conrad (1961)
Typical anodyne Brill Building pop of the period: jaunty and fun. The backing vocals are too prominent, but perhaps Jack Good was trying to disguise that Jess was there.
WOULD YOU STAND BY ME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Billy Fury (1961)
Good bluesy ballad with a plaintive vocal and plenty of sax. At times it sounds as if Billy was about to yodel and then thought better of it.
SOUVENIR OF MEXICO (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Ben E. King (1961)
Although Mort Shuman only contributed one song to Ben E. King’s LP, “Spanish Harlem”, I am sure that much of it was his idea and that he introduced Ben to many of the songs. ‘Souvenir Of Mexico’ could be a synonym for VD, but it is hardly a Latin song at all and it sounds as though everyone was fed up as it fades out abruptly. Disappointing as Doc and Mort could have come up with songs to rival “Besame Mucho” and “Sway”. Indeed, everybody was jumping on the Latin-American bandwagon as Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the excellent “Mexican Divorce” for the Drifters.
Doc Pomus: “Mort would come back with these complicated Mexican rhythms and I would translate them into something that sounded like it came from Spanish Harlem. Then we would fool around with them. Mort did the sessions because the session men couldn’t do it. We did ‘Souvenir Of Mexico’ for Ben E King and there were two versions. One is a swing version and one is the Mexican version. I couldn’t over-simplify it and no one could play it.” A good quote, but why didn’t Atlantic hire the musicians from the Cuban nights at the Palladium?”
A TEXAN AND A GIRL FROM MEXICO (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Anita Bryant (1961) (US 85)
LITTLE SISTER (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1961) (US 5, UK 1)
• LaVern Baker (1961) (Answer version, “Hey, Memphis”)
• Ted Herold (1961) (German version, “Little Linda”) (Germany 25)
• Ry Cooder (1979)
• Robert Plant with Dave Edmunds’ Rockpile (Recorded 1979, issued 1981)
• Dwight Yoakam (1987)
• Residents (1989)
The record producer Snuff Garrett invited Doc and Mort to Los Angeles to write for Bobby Vee and the Crickets and some other Liberty acts. While there, they wrote “Little Sister” and “(Marie’s The Name) Her Latest Flame”. Although he wasn’t on Liberty, they gave the songs to Bobby Darin, who was also in Los Angeles at the time. He recorded them there but didn’t like the way the songs turned out and Doc and Mort passed them to Elvis. Mort’s voice and guitar demo for “Little Sister” shows the song to be a furious rocker, but Presley wisely slowed down the tempo. As a result, Doc and Mort wrote both sides of the grittiest single Elvis made after he came out of the army. “Little Sister” is a great rocker and I’m surprised it is not regularly revived. Indeed, Elvis himself may not have appreciated its worth as he only did it in concert as a part of medley with “Get Back”. LaVern Baker’s “Hey, Memphis” is a very sassy female version of the song, which was produced by Phil Spector. Mort couldn’t recall working on this but why should he, the only thing that changed was the title. Ted Herold was a German schlager singer who was produced by Bert Kaempfert.
Ry Cooder’s reworking with an insidious rhythm and some great backing vocals is on par with the original. I didn’t rate Dwight Yoakam’s version too highly, but both Doc and Mort independently loved it. The Residents are fun, recasting the song as a spooky Lee and Nancy duet. The “Rolling Stone” writer, Dave Marsh, has commented that “Little Sister” with its great Scotty Moore sounds like a forerunner to the Who. It could easily have been a Who record. Robert Plant performed “Little Sister” on the Concert For Kampuchea at Hammersmith Odeon.
(MARIE’S THE NAME) HIS LATEST FLAME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1961) (US 4, UK 1)
• Del Shannon (1961)
• Ted Herold (1961) (as “Sie War All Sein Glück”)
• Les Champions (1961) (as “Sa Grande Passion”)
• Russ Be Bop and the Roadrunners (2000)
Lots of great songs have been written around the “shave and a haircut, two bits” beat – “Not Fade Away”, “Willie And The Hand Jive” and half of Bo Diddley’s repertoire – now they, literally, bring it to Jerome. For this track, Elvis copied Mort Shuman’s demo. It had an unusual organ effect in the middle and Presley himself rang Doc to ask about it. Doc gave him the answer but it wasn’t until after the call that he realised it was Elvis himself. Otherwise, they had no contact with Elvis. As Mort said, “It’s said that Elvis was very generous and gave Cadillacs to his friends, but I wrote several of his hits and he ever even sent me a Christmas card.”
Del Shannon brings in the horns for the Diddley beat and the “Runaway” organ for the middle eight. Del recorded his version before Presley’s version was released. If you thought British rock’n’roll was bad, just listen to Les Champions’ hurried version. Russ Be Bop loses the powerful Bo Diddley beat and not studied the lyric sheet. This is the only song I know where Mary (or Marie) is the bad girl: it’s usually Dolores. Although of course in the 1960s, “Mary” was often short for marijuana, e.g. “Along Comes Mary”.
Seven Day Weekend
SOMEBODY NEW DANCING WITH YOU (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1961)
Everyone was involved in this session: the Drifters had Rudy Lewis on lead vocal, Dionne Warwick and Doris Troy were among the backing singers, Burt Bacharach had written the arrangement and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were producing. As opposed to “I’ll Save The Last Dance For You”, this could be taken as the true follow-on to “Save The Last Dance For Me”. Good song, but the title is awkward and it’s all very predictable.
YOU NEVER TALKED TO ME THAT WAY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Drifters (1961)
• Del Shannon (1962)
Back to voyeurism. A paranoid lover watches his girlfriend making love to another boy. Okay, but it was done far better by Del Shannon as “You Never Talked About Me”, but then he really was paranoid The trombones with pizzicato strings is odd but it works okay and it was the B-side of his 1962 No.2, “Hey! Little Girl”. Del sang it in the film, “It’s Trad, Dad”!”.
(WE GOT LOVE) MONEY CAN’T BUY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jeff Barry (1962)
CESARINA (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Pierre Le Bon (1962)
THE LONE TWISTER (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• The Lone Twister (1962)
FIRST STAR (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Frankie Love (1962)
LET US PART FOR A YEAR (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Marci and the Mates (1962)
SHALL I TELL HIM YOU’RE NOT HERE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Marci and the Mates (1962)
ECSTASY (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• Ben E. King (1962)
• Johnny Kidd and the Pirates (1963)
• Lee Curtis and the All Stars (1965)
• Eric Burton (1980)
The best of the Doc Pomus and Phil Spector collaborations, this fine song should have been a huge hit, but it may have been too explicit. The B-side of “Ecstasy” was, appropriately enough, “Yes”. The song was covered by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates and was often performed by Lee Curtis and the All Stars at the Star-Club in Hamburg. Curtis’ German single was played on Radio Caroline North, but by the time it was released in the UK, the moment had passed.
GINNY IN THE MIRROR (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Del Shannon (1962)
The B-side of “The Swiss Maid”, but the song is weak. Del disliked the song, so why did he do it?
WHAT AM I TO DO (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• The Paris Sisters (1962)
• Manfred Mann (1965)
There is a Barry Mann demo from around 1961 that might have been intended for a single. Phil Spector produced the Paris Sisters, and it was picked up by Manfred Mann, who were always looking for obscure American songs. Good choice.
I CAN’T SAY NO TO YOUR KISS (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• Helen Shapiro (1962, but not released until 1998)
KING FOR TONIGHT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Barry Darvell (1962)
• Billy Fury (1962)
The B-side of Fury’s UK Top 10 single, “Last Night Was Made For Love”.
POT LUCK (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Don and Juan (1962)
Probably written as the title song for the Elvis Presley album, but not used.
TWO FOOLS ARE WE (Doc Pomus – Claude Johnson)
• Don and Juan (1962)
BE EVERYTHING TO THE ONE YOU LOVE (Doc Pomus – Alan Jeffreys)
• Paul Petersen (1962)
IN THE MIDDLE OF A LONELY LONELY NIGHT (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Johnny Southern (1962)
SEVEN SINS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Barrett Strong (1962)
WHAT WENT WRONG (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Barrett Strong (1962)
WIDE WIDE WORLD (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
Dave Sampson (1962)
Mark Wynter (1962) From his Decca LP,”The Warmth Of Wynter”.
QUEEN OF THE TWISTERS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bill Haley and his Comets (1962)
Bill Haley, in a bizarre career move, started recording twist songs for Latin America in 1961. Roulette Records thought it would be a good idea for him to make a twist album for the US, hence “Twisting Knights At The Round Table”. Doc and Mort’s song relies on the much-repeated phrase, “She’s the queen of the twisters, don’t you know.” If she’s broken her backbone though, she can hardly be the queen of the twisters.
SHE’S NOT YOU (Doc Pomus – Jerry Leiber – Mike Stoller)
• Elvis Presley (1962) (US 5, UK 1)
The first and only time that Doc knowingly collaborated with Leiber and Stoller on a song. A very good teen ballad. Started as a Fats Domino sound and changed to a shuffle.
KISS ME QUICK (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1962) (US 34, UK 14)
Mort Shuman said that “the Flamingos had the good sense not to do it, but someone submitted it to Elvis and maybe he liked it because it reminded him of ‘Wooden Heart’.” This was the opening track on Elvis’ “Pot Luck” LP. Mort Shuman: “That was the first album I bought. I had to buy that album. See, we never got the records, we had to go and buy them. In those days, they didn’t give the writers records. We were next in line to the lady who swept up after everybody had gone home.”
“Kiss Me Quick” was released as a single in December 1963 when the Beatles were on “Juke Box Jury”. They criticised Elvis for releasing old material as singles. Quite right too. It was a good track but he was insulting his fans.
NIGHT RIDER (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1962)
Mort says that this song was inspired by “Black Denim Trousers”, a Leiber and Stoller song for the Cheers. It starts like a Coasters record and settles into a cheerful rocker. Also included on the “Pot Luck” LP but then used in the 1965 film, “Tickle Me”. Though I have never heard it, Mort Shuman’s demo was produced by Phil Spector who gave it the Wall of Sound treatment.
I FEEL THAT I’VE KNOWN YOU FOREVER (Doc Pomus – Alan Jeffreys)
• Elvis Presley (1962)
Pleasant country ballad that appeared on the “Pot Luck” album, but why was it so short? It was also used on the soundtrack of “Tickle Me” (1965). Mort Shuman: “Alan was a great buddy of Doc’s, who became a buddy of mine. He was a freaked-out jazz trumpet player who liked to write the odd pop song once in a while.”
GONNA GET BACK HOME SOMEHOW (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1962)
Another song from “Pot Luck” and the contrast in the middle eight is identical to “His Latest Flame”. Mort: “There is something about trains that captures the imagination. The influence is a Hank Williams song, ‘Ramblin’ Man’.” Doc and Mort also wrote a song called “Pot Luck” for the project, but it has never been recorded.
SUSPICION (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1962) (UK 9 in 1976)
• Terry Stafford (1964) (US 3, UK 31)
• Billy Fury (unissued, 1964)
• Millicent Martin (1964)
• Dickie Rock and the Miama Showband (1966)
• Jimmy London (1973)
• Robert Gordon (1998)
• Steve Forbert (recorded 1981, released 2001)
Easily the best of the five songs that Doc Pomus wrote for “Pot Luck”. Elvis didn’t release it as a single, but if he had, would he have still received “Suspicious Minds”? Terry Stafford spotted its potential and had a Top 10 single at a time when Elvis wasn’t selling well. An unreleased version by Billy Fury for Decca was recorded in 1964. Mort Shuman: “When I was living in France, I stole from myself because one of the first hits I had as a recording artist was ‘Shami-Sha’ which starts off with the same bass and harmonic structure.” Despite the title and the song’s market, “Shami-Sha” is in English. Sample line: “Even Little Egypt couldn’t do me like you do.” Jimmy London gave the song a reggae treatment. Mort said, “I was losing some of my innocence with that song. I was always pretty neurotic.” Steve Forbert’s recent release, held in the vaults for 20 years, is superb, almost as good as Elvis’s.
RUNAROUND (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• Gene McDaniels (recorded 1962, released 1992)
Good performance from Gene McDaniels on a disjointed song. Not released at the time and wouldn’t have made any impression if it had been. Unusual metaphor: “I’m going to sit right down and cry just like a water hose.”
SEVEN DAY WEEKEND (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)#
• Gary U.S. Bonds (1962) (US 27)
Gary U.S. Bonds was an anachronism: he made old-style raucous rock’n’roll and the records sound as they were made in a sweaty club with cheap equipment. Doc and Mort knew what he wanted and “Seven Day Weekend” is a good rocker that he performed in “It’s Trad, Dad!”. Mort’s life was a seven day weekend at the time. Mort Shuman: “At the time, I couldn’t care less. All I could care about was getting high or renting another convertible to match my red bloodshot eyes or the blue eyes of my new girlfriend.”
Doc Pomus: “I have written songs that don’t have extraordinarily unique titles, but that wasn’t one of them. I was surprised that Elvis Costello should write his own song called ‘Seven Day Weekend’.”
SPANISH LACE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Gene McDaniels (1962) (US 31)
• Drifters (1964)
Everyone was getting into Latin pop. This fine song is a companion to “Spanish Harlem” but is not as distinctive. It became a US hit and was also the title track of Gene’s 1963 LP of Latin standards. Not sure why the Johnny Mann Singers suddenly make an appearance at the end. It was also the B-side of the Drifters’ hit, “Saturday Night At The Movies”.
WOMAN OR CHILD (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Jimmy Miller (1962)
IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Michael Holliday (1962)
Doc and Mort were writing a follow-up for Brook Benton and Dinah Washington’s “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes), but somehow it didn’t get to them, but to Michael Holliday. Neat line about Moses took his time in crossing the Red Sea but it only took a minute to fall in love with you. Considering their friendship with Joe Brown, would they have known his UK hit, “It Only Takes A Minute”, which has the same title and the same theme and was an American song written only a few doors away by Hal David and Mort Garson?
IT’S A LONELY TOWN (LONELY WITHOUT YOU) (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Gene McDaniels (1963) (US 64)
• Michel Louvain (1963) (French version, “La Ville Pleure”)
If I didn’t know the composers, I would have guessed at Mann – Weil or Goffin – King. It’s the kind of beat-ballad they wrote for Steve Lawrence. Good performance from McDaniels, but it’s predictable.
TROUBLED MIND (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Dion (1963)
Dion is seeking peace for his troubled mind, going to China and Mexico. Dion was having his own personal crises and this song reflects his changes. Much bluesier than anything else Doc had written in the 60s.
(IT’S A) LONG LONELY HIGHWAY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Elvis Presley (1963)
If Presley songs can be neglected, this is among them. Elvis recorded this travelling song in Nashville in 1963 and it was featured in the film, “Tickle Me” (1965). Was used as the opening track on “For The Asking – The Lost Album” (1990). Wonder if JXL has heard it. “I love that song, that’s Doc’s,” said Mort Shuman.
ANOTHER COUNTRY ANOTHER WORLD (Doc Pomus – Phil Spector)
• Crystals (1963)
• Bobby Day (1963)
Considering their friendship and their hits together, it’s surprising that Doc Pomus had little to do with the artists Phil Spector was recording for his Philles label. This slow ballad, like “Uptown”, is about a doomed relationship. The question of race was only touched on in “Uptown” but here it is to the fore:
“My friends all tell me that I’m wrong
To love a guy that don’t belong.”
Heady stuff for 1963. He’s probably from Spain, considering the overworked castanets. Jack Nitzsche also scored a version of the same song by Bobby Day.
JUDY JUDY JUDY (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman – Johnny Tillotson)
• Johnny Tillotson (1963)
Johnny Tillotson went to see Doc and Mort for some songs: “They were playing me demo after demo. They may have been doing it too fast because I passed on a couple of good songs. We went through all their songs and then they said, ‘Well, do you want to write something with us?’ I thought that writing with them would be something so they played me a little baroque melody and I went ‘Judy, Judy, Judy, I love you’. I told them about this girl I dated called Judy Yancey and that was it. The record went to No.l in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand, and I sang it in the film, ‘Just For Fun’, which also featured Bobby Vee and Freddy Cannon.” “Judy, Judy, Judy” was the B-side of his US Top 20 hit, “You Can Never Stop Me Loving You”.
CAN’T GET USED TO LOSING YOU (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Andy Williams (1963) (US Pop 2, Adult Contemporary 1, UK2)
• Bobby Darin (1963)
• Jimmy Justice (1963)
• Martha and the Vandellas (1963)
• The Beat (1983) (UK 3)
One of the songs that Johnny Tillotson missed at the Brill Building was “Can’t Get Used To Losing You”, but he wasn’t the only one. Doc Pomus: “‘Can’t Get Used To Losing You’ was turned down by ten other artists and Andy Williams hated the song. Bob Mersey, the A&R man, loved the song and coerced Andy Williams into doing it. Andy was singing the other side on his television show until it became a hit.” Excellent cover version by Bobby Darin on his LP, “18 Yellow Roses And 11 Other Hits”. The Beat added a Two-Tone rhythm but the lead singer did his best to sound like Andy Williams.
HOPELESS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Andy Williams (1963)
B-side of “Can’t Get Used To Losing You”.
OOPS! THERE GOES ANOTHER TEARDROP (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Marci and the Mates (1963)
SUDDENLY WE’RE STRANGERS (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Marci and the Mates (1963)
HAND CLAPPIN’ TIME (Doc Pomus – Peter Andreoli – Vin Poncia Jr)
• Pete and Vinnie (1963)
BIMBO, BIMBO, DOIN’ THE LIMBO (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Teddy and the Twilights (1963)
ALL YOU’VE GOT TO DO IS TOUCH ME (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Bobby Vee (1963)
Underrated teen ballad with a great title line that Bobby Vee sang in the film, “Just For Fun”.
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LOVE (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Freddy Cannon (1963)
Freddy Cannon works through his stocks-in-trade – yelping, stabs from the horns, singing over percussion – in this two minute song from the UK film, “Just For Fun”. All concerned were working to a formula here.
SHALL I TELL HER (Doc Pomus – Mort Shuman)
• Dionne Warwick (1963)
Burt Bacharach had been impressed with Dionne Warwick when he heard her singing background on a Drifters session. He used her as the vehicle for the sophisticated pop songs that he wrote with Hal David. Doc and Mort wrote “Shall I Tell Her” for her LP, “Anyone Who Had A Heart” and it sounds like a Bacharach song with the character in the midst of a typical Hal David dilemma.
Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman were very successful songwriters, but around the corner was the British Invasion.
PART 4 – THERE MUST BE A BETTER WORLD SOMEWHERE
“I always believed in magic and flying and that one morning I would wake up and all the bad things in my life woud be bad dreams And I would get out of the wheelchair and walk and not with braces and crutches. And I would walk down all the streets and no one would stare at me and young girls in see-through dresses would smile at me, dazzled by my appearance and glow.”
(Doc Pomus, Journals, c.1980)
Turning Day Into Night-Time
From 1959 to 1963, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman had an impressive list of hits – and some very impressive misses as well. They had not been as prolific as some of the Aldon writers but they were satisfied with their income. Mort has since complained that he left the business dealings to Doc “and he was even worse than me.” As long as Mort had enough money for his seven day weekends, he was happy. At one stage, he said to Doc, “Let’s just write a big Christmas song. If we wrote another ‘Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, we could retire on that.” Good idea and despite their considerable output, there is not a single Christmas song.
But the scene was changing. At the start of 1964, the Beatles appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and their invasion of North America had started. At first they covered their favourite American records (though nothing by Pomus – Shuman) but then they concentrated on their own material. John and Paul were highly competent songwriters, as polished as anyone in the Brill Building, but it has never been appreciated that their influence permeated to the other groups, who chose to use their own material instead of established songwriters. Often those groups were not up to the task and John and Paul had unwittingly put their favourite songwriters out of work. In addition, Bob Dylan had a fresh approach to pop songwriting, often making incisive social comments on events of the day. Will Bratton: “Doc used to say that Bob Dylan screwed everything up – there were now a thousand people who thought they were Bob Dylan.”