As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Thursday, February 18, 2016

#103 Rainy Day Bells – The Globetrotters (1970)


 
While just about everyone is familiar with the legendary Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, fewer people are aware that an animated version of the team starred in a TV cartoon series of the same name in the early 1970s. As it happens, music producer and manager Don Kirshner was the music supervisor on the show. Since he and songwriter Jeff Barry had converted the Archies cartoon characters into musical gold – they had a #1 single with “Sugar Sugar” and their first two albums spent a combined 57 weeks on Billboard’s sales chart – they thought they might have similar success with the Globetrotters, so they released a soundtrack album from the show in 1970.
 
Their earlier commercial success did not repeat; the album and its two singles missed the charts entirely. The album, however, did produce one gem, which was a doo-wop song that sounded as though it should have come out ten years earlier. “Rainy Day Bells” was written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, who were best known for co-writing Sedaka’s early 1960s hits as a singer (“Breaking Up Is Hard To Do” being the biggest), although they also wrote some hits for other performers (including this gem). The actual singing on “Rainy Day Bells” was done by R&B veterans, although Meadowlark Lemon contributed some of the background vocals.
 
Despite the odd story, the song has justifiably stood the test of time despite its obscurity. It’s been featured on numerous Carolina Beach Music compilations and is considered one of the top songs of all time in that genre.
 

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