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.)

Friday, February 19, 2016

#105 I’m On The Outside (Looking In) – Little Anthony & The Imperials (1964)


 
Little Anthony & The Imperials do a wonderful job on this aching soul ballad, but plenty of credit should go to the unjustifiably obscure Teddy Randazzo, who co-wrote and produced a string of hit singles for the group in 1964-65. This one was the first (and, for me, the best), although “Goin’ Out Of My Head” and “Hurt So Bad” were even more successful for the group, and subsequently for other artists as well. Randazzo also produced and wrote for the Baltimore girl group The Royalettes, including their great 1965 track “It’s Gonna Take A Miracle” (a must-hear in its own right), which a few years later became the title song of a classic Laura Nyro album, and finally became a hit in 1982 for Deniece Williams.

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