1960s, Pop

Reach Out for Me

April 15, 2019

First recorded by Lou Johnson (US #74 1963).
Other hit versions by Dionne Warwick (US #20/R&B #1 1964), Olivia Newton-John (MOR #32/AUS #153 1989).

From the wiki: “‘Reach Out for Me’, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was first recorded in 1963 by Lou Johnson.

“Johnson came from a musical family, and started singing in gospel choirs in his teens. In 1962, Johnson signed as a solo singer with Bigtop Records, run by the Hill & Range music publishing company in the famed Brill Building. There, he met the songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, who took a liking to the singer and wrote Johnson’s first single, ‘If I Never Get to Love You’. Neither that song nor his second record, ‘You Better Let Him Go’ (written by Joy Byers), were hits. But, his third single, ‘Reach Out for Me’, another Bacharach-David composition and this time produced by Bacharach, reached #74 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1963. However, as it rose up the charts, the Bigtop Records collapsed, limiting the record’s success.

Message to Michael

March 3, 2013

Originally recorded (as “Message To Martha”) by Jerry Butler (1962).
Also recorded by Marlene Dietrich (1964), Lou Johnson (as “Kentucky Bluebird” US #104 1964).
Hit versions by Adam Faith (UK #12 1964), Dionne Warwick (US #8/R&B #5/CAN #6 1966).

From the wiki: “The song was first recorded as ‘Message to Martha’ by Jerry Butler in the 1962 session in New York City which produced Butler’s hit ‘Make It Easy on Yourself’ (also written by Bacharach-David), but was not released until December 1963. Marlene Dietrich recorded a German version of the song in 1964, singing to the instrumental track of the Butler original (with augmentations); Dietrich’s version was entitled ‘Kleine Treue Nachtigall’ (‘faithful little nightingale’).

(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me

March 1, 2013

First recorded (as a demo) by Dionne Warwick (1963).
Hit versions by Lou Johnson (US #49 1964), Sandi Shaw (US #52/UK #1/CAN #1/AUS #16 1964), Dionne Warwick B-side re-recording (US #65 1968), R.B. Greaves (US #27/MOR #3 1971) and Naked Eyes (US #8/UK #59/CAN #9/AUS #7 1983).

From the wiki: “Originally recorded as a demo by Dionne Warwick in 1963, ‘(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me’ first charted for Lou Johnson whose version (with backing vocals by Doris Troy, Dee Dee Warwick, and Cissy Houston) reached #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1964. Johnson also recorded the original versions of several other Bacharach and David songs that later proved to be bigger hits for other musicians, including ‘Reach Out for Me’, and ‘Message to Michael (Kentucky Bluebird)‘.