#106 How Long – Ace (1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo_GMMLULXw

 

Have voice will travel.

 

This may not be the actual motto of Paul Carrack, who’s probably my favorite English rock/blue-eyed soul singer, but it should be. Carrack has had relatively modest success as a solo act, although “Don’t Shed A Tear” did reach #9 in 1988. He’s much better known for his work in various groups, such as Squeeze (“Tempted”) and particularly Mike + The Mechanics (“Silent Running”, “The Living Years”).

 

“How Long” was Carrack’s first hit, when he was the lead singer and keyboard player for the band Ace. He also wrote the song, which according to him was actually about another band trying to “poach” Ace’s bass player. (They were unsuccessful, which may or may not have been because of the song.) Carrack’s resumé as a songwriter isn’t as extensive as his work as a performer, but he was the primary songwriter for Ace, wrote many of the songs he performed as a solo act, and co-wrote the Eagles’ “Love Will Keep Us Alive”.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xezsVMOATc

 

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.

#104 Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson f/ Bruno Mars (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0

 

Folks, this is not an imitation of classic funk. This is the real deal, with a great video to boot.

 

It’s a good thing that Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars and company won the Grammy for Record of the Year. If they hadn’t, we would have needed a full-scale investigation, perhaps led by a James Brown hologram.

#103 Rainy Day Bells – The Globetrotters (1970)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc9NVpCoRQo

 

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.