Category: Music

Brit bitch on Mitch

We turn our attention yet again to Mitch Miller, this time for a British perspective on the late musician/talent scout/record producer. As the English news outlet The Independent said in its obituary of Mitch…

Miller loved coming to London. One of his slogans was “Thank God for the British” because he always felt that a record that had failed in America might get a second chance when it was released here. “Cool Water” (Laine), “Christopher Columbus” (Mitchell) and “Where Will the Dimple Be” (Clooney) had been overlooked in the US, but became successful in the UK. “I like the British,” he told the New Musical Express in 1955. “They are not in as much a hurry as we Americans are. They take time out to really listen.”

Russell Davies on BBC Radio 2 (who isn’t BBC TV’s Russell T. Davies) spent fifteen minutes of his Sunday programme talking about Mitch, and he played Rosemary Clooney singing a very odd novelty song, “Where Will the Dimple Be?” which was a #7 hit in England.

[Audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/AUG/RussellDavies.mp3]

Davies points out that Thurl “Tony the Tiger” Ravenscroft (“You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch”) is credited for singing bass, and thanks to 78s4FR on YouTube we can see the original record label as it appeared in England in 1955.

The Compleatles

Denro and I have various catch-phrases we like to use, and at least a couple of them are Beatles-related quotes. One of them is, “I can say no more,” from HELP! Another is “Touring became intolerable,” from an 80’s documentary, now out-of-print, called The Compleat Beatles. Here’s the complete Compleat. The quote is at 1h 12m into the video.

http://youtu.be/DrvhyL0cIm4?t=1h12m10s

It was 50 years ago today…

Denro pointed out that Tuesday was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles starting work in Hamburg, Germany. On August 17, 1960, a contract was signed by their agent at the time, Allan Williams, committing the boys to play until October 16. A fire-singed fragment of the contract survives. In the picture above, John Lennon watches the Beatles’ van being loaded onto a ferry in Liverpool, bound for the Netherlands, August 16, 1960.

Recordings about Recording the Beatles

Not too long ago, I posted an item about the fascinating work in electronic music by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The Bob Moog Foundation has an excellent article called MoogHistory Unveiled: Brian Kehew Explores 1965 R.A. Moog Co. Electronic Music Workshop.

Brian Kehew is the co-author with Kevin Ryan of the book RTB: Recording the Beatles. Interviews with Kehew and Ryan about the book can be heard on Musicians Radio…

[audio:http://www.musiciansradio.com/podcasts/mrshow_55.mp3 |titles=Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan on Musicians Radio]

… and seen on Electronic Musician.

[flv:http://emusician.com/videos/interviews/Rec_the_Beatles_Interview.flv http://www.dograt.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/RTBeatles.jpg 480 360]