My best buddy Dennis Rogers, the master of all things Pop Culture, has pointed out that this song was co-written by the father of our state’s governor.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/YehYeh.mp3]Laurdine “Pat” Patrick was a saxophonist who played for many years with jazz impresario Sun Ra. He also happened to be the father of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.
Pat Patrick co-wrote “Yeh Yeh”, a 1965 #1 hit in England for British performer Clive Powell, who was given the stage name Georgie Fame by his manager Larry Parnes, who had managed the Beatles for a short time early in their career. In America, “Yeh Yeh” peaked at #21 in Billboard magazine.
The Boston Globe has the whole story about Patrick, and the troubled relationship he had with his father, at this link. Patrick is a smart guy, but he was a bit full of himself when he took office and he got off to a rather shaky start as governor. Once he gets his act together he should do all right.
Wow! I haven’t heard this gem since, well, 1965! It didn’t sound like anything else on the charts at the time, Beatles included. You can certainly hear the jazz influence. Catchy! I assume this was “Georgie Fame’s” 15 minutes of fame? Our governor, Ed Rendell, is pretty boring by comparison. His only vice is that he likes his limo driver to crank the speed up on the turnpike to say, oh, 90 or so. He knows nobody will give HIM a ticket!