The clip below shows Helen Shapiro – with Beatle props – doing her 1963 hit “Look Who It Is” on Ready, Steady, Go, almost a year before the moptops’ plane landed in New York City. The husky-voiced Helen had a handful of big UK hits in the early sixties, and the Beatles actually first toured England as her supporting act. And this is the craziest thing to me: she was only 16 when this was filmed. (Did her moment with George Harrison in the clip inspire this 1964 album cover, I wonder?)
posted by Stanislav (Pepperland, OH)
So, thanks to Kim I have the “Day Tripper” riff ringing in my head all night and this morning. One of the funniest movies ever is Blake Edwards’ The Party, with Peter Sellers and a killer soundtrack by his regular collaborator Henry Mancini. I probably saw that movie about 50 times in my life and my chest never fails to hurt from laughing. But is it just me or am I hearing the powerful “Day Tripper” riff in the title sequence of this film?
I discovered my dad’s “I Feel Fine”/ “She’s a Woman” 45 in a basement box when I was a grade schooler. It was pretty scuffed up, so it sizzled enticingly when I put the needle down. The opening riffs on each side of the single blasted through with such abandon that I forgot all about the white noise. It turns out the white noise enhanced the music, giving that 45 an irreplacable, unique quality.
So if the experience of finding a little treasure box in our basement – which contained a single so fabulous that I can say in all honesty that I first took drugs when I was eight – makes it easy for me to say that “I Feel Fine” is one of my favorite singles, maybe what I’m really saying is that it’s my favorite material single. Is there more legitimacy to one’s experience with music and the value one assigns to it when it’s tied in with one’s tactile relationship with it, like this Beatles 45 with white noise so unique that it added something precious to the mix? Or the experience of pulling out a hidden box and finding it there in the first place? (Or what about a song’s relationship with a beloved radio? For example, I’m sure none of the Top 40 hits during the summer of 1979 would mean as much to me as they do now had I not gotten my first transistor then.) I don’t think I’m talking about fetishism when I say that the music most meaningful to me has a distinct material tie-in.
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When the Beatles CDs came out in the late 80’s, I was convinced producer George Martin had made some sort of terrible mistake, especially with “I Feel Fine,” “She’s a Woman,” “I’ll Be Back,” and “Yes it Is.” These became my four main reasons why I thought CD technology was killing something vital in music. And no one else seemed to care. Then I realized, a long time later, that only the US versions of these songs had reverb, which is what I was missing so badly. So when the “Capitol Albums” box sets came out, which featured the crucial American mixes, I was a reasonably happy consumer and put my voice-in-the-wilderness complex behind me. Still, even though I know vinyl purists can be a silly bunch, when it comes to “I Feel Fine” there’s still ultimately no other way for me than that very same 45 I first discovered. Here’s a straight dub of it compared to the Past Masters Volume One CD version (that red number ones album that everyone owns uses the same dead UK mix).
The Beatles – “I Feel Fine” (Capitol vinyl 45)
The Beatles – “I Feel Fine” (Past Masters Volume One CD)
This Scottish group became the Marmalade around 1966, at which point they recorded the proto-Hendrix single “I See the Rain.” By 1968, they were a UK hit-making machine with songs like their no big deal cover of “Ob-la-di Ob-la-da” (a UK #1) and their biggest US hit, the memorable “Reflections of My Life” (1970). But back to DF and the Gaylords – I think “That Lonely Feeling” is a masterful slice of early Beatle-ish balladry and wow, that guitar solo is a remarkably tasteful little affair.
