{"id":18495,"date":"2020-04-08T05:30:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T09:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=18495"},"modified":"2020-04-09T07:39:15","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T11:39:15","slug":"new-yorkers-in-sheeps-clothing-the-strangeloves-story-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/04\/08\/new-yorkers-in-sheeps-clothing-the-strangeloves-story-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"New Yorkers in Sheep’s Clothing: The Strangeloves Story (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this feature appeared previously in<\/em> Record Collector.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"One evening in late November 2018, Lenny Kaye’s phone rang. The music journalist and (since 1971) guitarist for Patti Smith answered, and on the other end of the line was Todd-o-phonic, the disc jockey at WFMU. Todd told him, \u201cYou have to come to the Bowery Ballroom on December 4. Yo La Tengo is having a stand, and it’s a surprise.\u201d Kaye was intrigued both as a fan of the Hoboken, New Jersey group and their habit of introducing unexpected musical guests. \u201cI really didn’t know what to expect,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI thought maybe Ronnie Spector might show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaye showed up at the ballroom, and was soon approached by his disc jockey friend. \u201cHe whispered to me and pulled me aside into the anteroom,\u201d Kaye says. \u201cHe looked at me and said, ‘Voil\u00e0: the Strangeloves!’ And I cracked up; I thought it was the greatest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reunion of the ’60s group that scored a 1965 hit with \u201cI Want Candy\u201d was a fairly unlikely event, and it was one that held special resonance for Kaye. Though the group \u2013 described as three sheep-herding brothers from Australia \u2013 had ceased to exist by 1968, their music was brought to a new generation a few years later, thanks to Kaye. The Strangeloves’ catchy, hard-driving \u201cNight Time\u201d (a minor hit at #30 on the U.S. single charts) was featured on Nuggets<\/i>, the 1972 double LP curated by the journalist-musician.<\/p>\n

A decade later, Bow Wow Wow released a cover of the Strangeloves most well-known song. Their remake of \u201cI Want Candy\u201d hit the Top 40 charts in seven countries, including a #9 showing in the U.K. And at least three more<\/i> remakes \u2013 by Candy Girls, Aaron Carter and Melanie C \u2013 all did nearly as well around the world. That enduring appeal of the song built around a Bo Diddley beat is a testament to the appeal of the songwriting team of Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer (plus Bang Records head Bert Berns).<\/p>\n

The Australian origin of the Strangeloves was a total ruse: in fact, they were three Jewish guys from New York City, Brill Building songwriters who had come together in 1962 as a production team.<\/p>\n

Bob Feldman recalls how they started working together. \u201cJerry and I already worked as a publishing firm, Bob and Jerry Music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Back in 1959, when the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. \u201cThe Big Bopper\u201d Richardson crashed,\u201d Goldstein and Feldman penned and recorded \u201cA Letter to Donna,\u201d released as the Kittens. \u201cWe called a session on a Saturday, pressed the records on Sunday, and the record was released on Monday,\u201d Feldman says. \u201cIt hit the charts the following week, and two weeks later it was off the charts.\u201d They knew how to capitalize on events and trends.<\/p>\n

In 1962, the duo got the opportunity to pitch some songs to Nat King Cole’s publishing company. \u201cWe had a 12 o’clock appointment, and we got there ten minutes early,\u201d Feldman says. Also in the waiting room was a songwriter they didn’t know, Richard Gottehrer. \u201cAnd he had an 11 o’clock<\/i> appointment!\u201d<\/p>\n

By 12:30, \u201cwe still hadn’t got called in,\u201d Feldman says. \u201cOne of us kept asking, ‘What time is it?’\u201d There was a piano in the room, so the three decided to make good use of their time. They wrote a song together. \u201cWhat Time Is It?\u201d would be a pop hit (#62, U.S.) for the Jive Five.<\/p>\n

As the clock stuck 1 p.m., the three songwriters were still awaiting their audience with the great man. \u201cBobby Lewis had had a hit already with ‘Tossin’ and Turnin,’\u201d Feldman says with a laugh. \u201cSo we wrote ‘I’m Tossin’ and Turnin’ Again’ for him.\u201d With two new songs to their credit, the three men decided to forget about their meeting with Cole. \u201cWe walked out the door, shook hands, and we changed Bob and Jerry Music to Grand Canyon Music,\u201d he says. \u201cWe became partners that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

They walked over to nearby Beltone Records \u2013 home to Bobby Lewis \u2013 and immediately sold the freshly-written sequel tune. \u201cThe first two songs we ever wrote, both got cut,\u201d Feldman says. They were given a desk at Beltone. \u201cWe became friends, and we became a writing team,\u201d says Richard Gottehrer. \u201cWe stopped writing with other people; we just wrote with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Two weeks later, Feldman was approached by \u201ca very slick gentleman in a sharkskin suit\u201d named Wes Farrell. Farrell was in the midst of a years-long hot streak; he eventually penned over 500 songs, many of them hits for the likes of the Animals, the Shirelles and Jay and the Americans. \u201cI hear you\u2019re the hot writers in town,\u201d Farrell said to the trio. \u201cHow would you like to have the followup to \u2018Palisades Park\u2019?\u201d Feldman and his partners were a bit wary; they weren’t sure Farrell could deliver on giving them the opportunity to write Freddy Cannon’s next tune.<\/p>\n

Feldman vividly recalls his reply. \u201cIf you can get us the follow up to \u2018Palisades Park,’ We\u2019ll sign with you.\u201d Farrell had a ready response. \u201cI\u2019m glad you said that, because we\u2019re leaving for Philadelphia tomorrow morning to play them the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team now calling itself FGG Productions responded in unison. \u201cWhat<\/i> song?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one you\u2019re writing tonight,\u201d Farrell coolly replied. So Feldman and his partners wrote the tune on the train from New York to Philly.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An edited version of this feature appeared previously in Record Collector. One evening in late November 2018, Lenny Kaye’s phone rang. The music journalist and (since 1971) guitarist for Patti […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,41,51,62],"tags":[1305,4155,4154],"class_list":["post-18495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garage","category-interview","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-lenny-kaye","tag-richard-gottehrer","tag-the-strangeloves","cat-33-id","cat-41-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18495"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18605,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18495\/revisions\/18605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}