In
the entire history of pop music, every song tells a story. In the
more innocent days of rock and roll's dawn especially, the jukebox
idylls and three-minute dance-hall melodramas of coffee bar
heartbreak and last dance epiphanies reflected their era in a way
that now seems obvious material for full-length musicals such as
Dreamboats and Petticoats.
Yet,
behind the songs themselves was a legion of songwriters, producers,
singers and musicians all looking to hit the big-time with their own
particular take on teenage dreams. These were the days of the
production line song-writers, be it emanating out of Tin Pan Alley or
the Brill Building, would-be American hit factories where songwriting
teams would hawk their wares. One of the latter was Neil Sedaka's
Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, a bubblegum classic written in much the
same vein as the work of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, a canon so
perfectly observed by Todd Rundgren I Saw The Light, from his 1972
album, Something/Anything.
A
few years after the Brill Building's golden era, the Beat boom would
find groups writing their own material before the 1970s Me generation
made self-absorbed introspection the soundtrack to student bedsits.
All that was a long way off, however, from the Dreamboats and
Petticoats era, when possibilities seemed endless.
The
titles of the songs say it all. In Dreams, written and performed by
Roy Orbison, who so defined the song's era of teenage yearning and
pathos; Dream Lover, composed and recorded by Bobby Darin with a
similar mix of wide-eyed longing; Dream Baby Dream; and of course the
show's title track, Dreamboats and Petticoats.
From
Chris Montez's Let's Dance, written by Jim Lee, to At The Hop, a hit
originally for Danny and the Juniors, the evergreen nature of the
songs shines through. At The Hop, and indeed the whole era, would get
a second life after appearing on the soundtrack of Star Wars director
George Lucas' 1973 rock and roll era movie, American Graffiti.
One
of the oldest songs in Dreamboats and Petticoats is Jezebel, a hit
for Frankie Laine in 1951. Laine's career dated back to the 1940s,
and, although not a country and western singer, scored hits with his
own versions of western theme songs including High Noon and Gunfight
at the OK Corral. Jezebel was written by Wayne Shanklin, whose best
known song, Chanson D'Amour, was a hit twice over in 1958 both for
Art and Dotty Todd and The Fontane Sisters. Chanson D'Amour became
even more ubiquitous in 1976 by way of The Manhattan Transfer's smash
hit version that was a long way from the Old Testament temptress
immortalised in Jezebel.
It's
interesting to note here that archetypal Me-generation troubadour
Leonard Cohen's 1977 album, Death of a Ladies Man, features a track
called Memories, which opens with the line, 'Frankie Laine, he was
singing Jezebel. It's worth mentioning too that Death of A Ladies Man
was produced by none other than Phil Spector, who reputedly forced
Cohen at gunpoint to complete the album. It was Spector, of course,
who would go on to greater glories with his Wall of Sound, who scored
an early success in 1958 when he penned To Know Him Is To Love Him.
The song, which was a number one hit for The Teddy Bears, was
inspired by the words engraved on Spector's father's tombstone; 'To
Know Him Was To Love Him.'
After
Jezebel, there were more biblical references, as well as historical
ones, in Good Timin', a 1960 hit for R&B singer Jimmy Jones. Good
Timin' not only namechecked David and Goliath, but Christopher
Columbus and Queen Isabella 1 of Castile, who sponsored some of
Columbus' voyages. Both of these somewhat grandiose references were
used in the song to justify the simple but life-changing act of a boy
meeting a girl.
Despite
all appearances to the contrary, the guitar-based instrumental,
Wonderful Land, offers a unique perspective on the British take on
rock and roll. The track, which, as the title suggests, is a
shimmering musical hymn to some kind of teenage Shangri-la, was
penned by Jerry Lordan for The Shadows. Paddington-born Lordan was a
self-taught musician, who'd worked as a stand-up comedian and wrote
songs for Anthony Newly before being signed as a singer to the
Parlophone label.
While
on tour with The Shadows, Lordan offered them his wild west tinged
piece, Apache, after being unhappy with guitarist Bert Weedon's
recording. The Shadows version stayed at number one for five weeks in
1960, and was voted record of the year in the New Musical Express
readers poll. Wonderful Land followed, similarly shooting to the
number one slot. Lordan also wrote for Cliff Richard, a pivotal
figure in the British scene, whose recording of the Ian Samwell
penned Move It was regarded by Beatle John Lennon amongst others as
Britain's first real rock and roll record.
It's
hard to believe that the artist formerly known as Harry Webb was
originally marketed as England’s answer to Elvis Presley, but with
a band called The Drifters, who eventually morphed into The Shadows,
backing him, that's exactly how he was originally perceived. It was
Richard's fifth single, and his first backed by The Shadows, that
showed the difference between the British and American scenes. Livin'
Doll was composed by Lionel Bart, who would go on to score hit
musical, Oliver. In Britain, it seemed, rock and roll still had one
twitching toe in top light entertainment. Tommy Steele would also go
on to be a star of musical theatre, while Shane Fenton, who Lordan
also write songs for, would, as Alvin Stardust in the 1970s, become a camp parody of rock star moodiness.
If
Move It was the first British rock and roll classic, then Shakin' All
Over was the second. Johnny Kidd and The Pirates scored a UK hit in
1960 with this raw, libido-driven firecracker of a song, but it would
take Canadian band The Guess Who to introduce it to America some five
years later. As performed by Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, Shakin' All
Over was suggesting a world infinitely less innocent than the world
depicted in Dreamboats and Petticoats. Pop music, like teenagers, was
growing up very fast indeed.
Originally commissioned as programme notes for the Summer 2013 UK tour of Dreamboats and Petticoats, by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran.
ends
Comments