Sad news for fans of The Outsiders...Tom King has died at age 68

[abq e streeter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOJNTgWwpNs&feature=related

[Amerigo Vespucci]

1. Outsiders fan checking in...

...I have this song by way of the "Nuggets" box set, and The Smithereens did a killer version as a "bonus track" on their "Blown To Smithereens: The Best Of The Smithereens" album.

I always considered it to be one of the few "perfect" singles from that era...a little bit of the "garage rock" sound, a little bit of Beatlemania (although not as blatant as The Knickerbockers' "Lies")...

R.I.P. Mr. King.

[david13]

2. As usual, the original is still the greatest, or the realist, or something.

They were sort of one hit wonders anyway, but that is one good song; still holds up today, basically, tho' I don't really know what that means.
There were quite a few so good ones in those days. Arthur Lee, Little Red Book,
and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJR_KGZO4U0

dc

[abq e streeter]

3. Though not as big as Time Won't Let Me... Girl in Love, Respectable and Help Me Girl were also hits

and great songs, all of em

But yes, that era was loaded with classic one hit wonders.

[david13]

4. I never much went with the "big hits" or such. I was usually more

interested in something that I really liked, but was not much of a "hit".
My standard was, it had to be a hit with me, not Billboard.
I was just reading I think Little Red Book only went to 62 on the charts. But it was my number one, for one, maybe two weeks.
I never measured anything by how popular it was. Only by, did I like it or not.
dc

[abq e streeter]

5. agree with you 100%... Some of my favorite songs of that era dented the lower echelons of the charts

and were minor hits at best. LOVE My Little Red Book also...

and in fact still have both the Manfred Mann and Arthur Lee versions on vinyl. (And heard Manfred's Come Tomorrow on the radio for the first time in ages just yesterday)

[david13]

6. Some of the No 1 stuff did get me. Brian Hyland. I think his stuff

was all Top Ten at least. His first one, 1961? He was sixteen himself. That was a classic, kind of a silly song, but it really is a song for the whole family.
Bee Gees, Stayin Alive.
All of Abba, but I could never listen to them. Their music is too hypnotic, and I couldn't listen, I guess out of fear of being mesmerized; into what I don't know, I liked it, particularly the blonde, but I couldn't listen.
Another later one Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'm sure I heard that one on the radio 18,000 times.
But I still like it. It's stirring? Or moving?
People sometimes ask, what is your favorite song. I say none. 100 favorite, or 1000 favorite, yes. But not one.
dc

10 or 20 years ago I happened to hear one I hadn't heard in ages, maybe had never heard on the radio. But yet, bang, there it was on the radio. Jay Hawkins; I Put A Spell on You. Original 1956 or whatever version. Wild.