Amy Winehouse, eat your heart out

The first time I heard Amy Winehouse, I was immediately reminded of this 45 I had of a female duo called “Barbara and Brenda”. Her voice, singing style and even her songs were all similar to (and not as good as) this record.

Barbara and Brenda were a niece & aunt duo consisting of Barbara and Brenda Gaskins (although they are also sometimes referred to as cousins). They recorded a string of singles on Heidi and Dynamo Records, and this one, according to Mr. Google, was their first release (on Avanti). And what a song! This record has followed me to every DJ night I’ve played at in the last 15 years and has always consistently been a hit on the dance floor, even though it’s most certainly not in mint condition. And I am not lying when I say that I’ve been asked now and again by some confused young’uns which Amy Winehouse single this was.

Brenda quit the music biz early on but Barbara later married, changed her name to Barbara Roy and became the singer and songwriter for Roulette label’s soul band Ecstasy, Passion and Pain.

In 1986, the lovely lady had a dance hit called “Gotta See you Tonight“.

And of course, this was the single’s cover photo:

Enjoy!

Barbara and Brenda – Let’s Get Together (1963, Avanti)

Sylvie-Anne

I’ve noticed these last few months that popular search items for my blog were “60′s French pop” and “Girls in the Garage”. Well, I thought I would make everyone’s life easier.

Here is an artist that appeared on volume 10 of the GITG series, volume 10 being an all French volume. If you have this particular volume, perhaps you noticed the amazing cover artwork featuring two girls cat fighting over a Jacques Dutronc LP? It was drawn by the same talented woman who did the caricature that you see at the top of the page on this blog. Her name is Sophie Cossette, she lives in Toronto, and she’s amazingly talented. When I was doing the Zoï Zoï French pop DJ nights in Toronto (hence the name of this website) in 2005-2007, Sophie generously drew all the posters for us, and featured a different French pop icon every month.

The Sylvie-Anne track on GITG 10 was taken from the same 45 single I’m offering you today. I apologize in advance, as my record is very scratched. In fact, this track almost didn’t make the cut, because of its condition.

The “Retro Jeunesse” website (follow the link to see a photo of her!) says this about her: Sylvie-Anne was born Sylvie-Anne Trudeau, in 1951. She was given the nickname of “Mademoiselle Dynamite”, because her voice and style was similar to another energetic Quebec singing star: Jenny Rock.

This was her first of two singles, and she was accompanied by legendary Quebec musician, Georges Tremblay.

Interestingly enough, the two songs on this single are blatant copies of the Hazlewood produced and Billy Strange arranged Nancy Sinatra covers of “Day Tripper” and “Lies”. In a nutshell, they are covers of covers. And they are great!

If you listen closely (and I mean *very* closely!) to the first seconds of “Un tour dehors”, you can (faintly) hear her clear her throat.

One wonders where she is today and what became of her.

So here’s Mademoiselle Dynamite doing the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” in French (check out GITG 10 for a clearer copy though, oops!) and its B-side, her cover of “Lies”, both done à la Sinatra/Hazelwood.

Sylvie-Anne – Un tour dehors (Day Tripper)
Sylvie-Anne – Reste (Lies)

Bebe Suong

Bébé Suong is – to my knowledge – a severely underrated female singer/songwriters of the 50s and 60s.

Her voice reminds me of Shirley Bassey and Eartha Kitt: beautiful, powerful, sexy and very unique. And, much like Bassey, she was first and foremost a jazz vocalist who recorded pop songs.

This beautiful woman was born to a French father and Asian mother. She moved to Belgium at the age of 7, and already at 16 was singing in Jazz clubs and touring. In the 1950′s, she was writing and recording her own jazz material (including the Belgian hit “Rio de Janeiro”), an unbelivably rare thing for a woman at the time.

She wrote and recorded a few pop songs in the 1960s, including “Mine de rien” in 1966 (written, arranged and produced by Suong). The song was a deliberate attempt at having a hit with the young crowd: Bébé was in her 30s by then, yet here she was singing about boys and screaming like a 15 year old at a Beatles concert.

The record unfortunately didn’t do that well. One could argue that her voice was not typical of French pop at the time, and not necessarily a crowd pleaser. Most people I know who hear this single for the first time are either put off by her voice, or consider it the song’s strongpoint.

I’m with the latter: Bébé kicks some serious derrière.

Bébé Suong – Mine de rien

The Interpreters

Little unknown girl duo from Frankfurt, Germany, circa 1965. I realised today while searching for some info on these two lovelies that their great tune “I Get the Message” was featured on Vol 1 of Girls in the Garage!

“Stop that Man”, the single that was intended as the A side, is a fun-yet-creepy plea to save The Interpreters from “that man”, ie the obvious STALKER who follows them around town and keeps making eyes at them. Not only that, but he’s as “mean as he can be”. Who knew sociopaths could be this much fun?

Not much is out there about who Sylvia and Beate were, or how this record ended up on American shores. If anyone has a clue, do tell!

The Interpreters – Stop that Man
The Interpreters – I Get the Message

C’est le Go-Go!

Here’s “The In-Crowd” in French (“C’est le Go-Go”), sung by Québécoise Nicole Lord.
I’ve had this 45 for years, and still know nothing about her. No photos, nothing. A little hard on the ears at times when Nicole tries to sustain a note (ouch!), but still a very cool record.

Or maybe I’m always too harsh on these matters?

Bonne année!

Nicole Lord – C’est le Go-Go (“The In-Crowd”)

Barbara Lory

Ok so I’m on vacation and have some spare time to post a few more tracks on this new blog of mine! Hope you will enjoy!

Here is Italian cutie Barbara Lory, who is someone I don’t have much info on. Here’s what the back of her record cover says about her:

Real Name: Barbara Vittoria Lory
Born in: PieveEmanuele, in the province of Milan
Date of birth: March 1, 1946
Zodiac Sign: Pisces
Favorite sports: Swimming and riding*
Favorite colours: shocking pink, sicilian orange
Favorite singers: Barbara Streisand, Bessie Smith
Hobbies: Collecting picture postcards and beach pebbles from around the world

Here are my two favorite tracks from her LP “Holidays in Italy”!

Barbara Lory – In guesto mondo
Barbara Lory – Male di luna

* she didn’t specify what kind of riding. Ponies, surely.

Le Mew!

I’ve noticed some info about 60′s girl group The Pussycats have started popping up on the
web here and there, which is great but it’s still amazing that so little info is
available on these girls. Of course, there are no photos of the group to be found! So here’s our pussycat heroine Babette instead to the rescue:

Here’s what I already knew, and what I could find out:

This single was their first release in 1965, on Columbia records. It’s quite possibly my favorite 45 of all my collection. Both these two songs have been comped (“The Rider” on Girls in The Garage vol 7 and “I Want Your Love” on Where The Girls Are vol 5 – their 2nd single, a cover of the Shangri-La’s “Dressed in Black”, is available on GITG vol 5) but the comps are not what you’d call widespread and/or available, so here they are for your downloading pleasure. My apologies for the scratchy-scratches at the beginning (meow).

Something else of note: they were produced by Shangri-Las guru Artie Butler.

“I Want Your Love” is just mind blowing, and I’ve always been fascinated by the abrupt ending on “The Rider”. So strange. Both these songs are just so fantastic.

Have a listen!

The Pussycats – The Rider
The Pussycats – I Want Your Love