Here’s the thing. You’re searching through the used record pile at the local vinyl record show, and you’re thinking … I’ll find a rare record mixed in with these penny pressings of Barry Manilow and Sheena Easton, I know I will.
And then you see it. You recognize the group name – but you don’t recognize the record label. Heck, you think, this must be a rare pressing from this singer’s earliest days. Of course. I gotta check this out.
You buy the record – you bring it home – you put it on the turntable – and immediately you go … well, that doesn’t sound right. Could this have been a misprint? Someone goofed on the label? Record A with Record B’s label? Maybe it’s rare in that manner, like a mis-struck coin.
Nope. By sheer coincidence, artist A and artist B share the same name. But while artist B got the hits, artist A is just a musical footnote.
And here’s a few of those musical footnotes. And they include …
DAWN
Can’t Get Him Off My Mind
Trust me, Tony Orlando is NOWHERE near this record. The “Dawn” on this 45 is actually a 16-year-old girl from Philadelphia with a cute little 1960’s pop track. I like this song a lot, it really should have been a national hit, but apparently it only knocked twice … well … if she knocked three times, it would have been a different group entirely, wouldn’t it?
THE TEMPTATIONS
Barbara
Oh man, if you’re thinking this is the Temptations of David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, you really need to check your eardrums. These “Temptations” were a New York City doo-wop group with about as much soul as beige wallpaper. And I even noticed that one of the co-writers on this piece of pop pabulum was Artie Ripp – the man who signed Billy Joel to one of the most rapacious record contracts of the 1970’s. Probably how he earned his nickname Artie Ripp-off.
SYLVIA
Nobody
Now this can get confusing. There was a Sylvia Robinson, who had a major hit in the 1970’s with the breathy track “Pillow Talk.” This is not THAT Sylvia. This was a country singer who had a minor hit with the song “Nobody,” which is okay as a typical country-politan 1980’s track. But it would NEVER get mixed up with the other Sylvia.
JUMPIN’ GENE SIMMONS
Haunted House
There is a difference between the Gene Simmons that dressed up like a Halloween demon, and this Gene Simmons who sang about the demons that lived in an old haunted house.
And finally … just because it fits the pattern …
CHUCK MILLER
The House of Blue Lights
I swear, I did not record a Top 10 hit five years before my parents copulated. This must be some other Chuck Miller. Ha.
I’m sure there are other groups or artists with similar names – there’s a Mick Jones that was part of the Clash, who is NOT the Mick Jones who was part of Foreigner. There was a Paul Hewson that was part of the band Dragon, who was NOT the same Paul Hewson who is better known as U2’s Bono. And saying “That band OMD that was on A&M Records back in the day” would either get you Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, pick your choice.
Fun stuff here on K-Chuck Radio these days. π
Chuck The Writer 