1970s, Pop

Never My Love

September 4, 2023

First released by Robert Knight (released February 1967).
Hit versions by The Association (released June 1967 US #2/MOR #1/CAN #1/NZ #6), The 5th Dimension (US #12/MOR #1/R&B #45/CAN #9 1972), Blue Swede (US #7/CAN #7 1974), The Addrisi Brothers (US #80 1977).

From the wiki: “”Never My Love” was a pop standard written by siblings Don and Dick Addrisi. Growing up, both Don and Dick played parts in their family’s acrobatic group, The Flying Addrisis. In the 1950s, they got in touch with Lenny Bruce about starting a singing career and moved to California. They auditioned for parts on the Mickey Mouse Club, but were rejected. Soon after, however, they signed to Del-Fi Records and recorded several singles which produced a modest chart hit for them in 1959, ‘Cherrystone’. The brothers enjoyed greater success as a songwriting duo.

Babe I’m Gonna Leave You

May 7, 2015

Written and first performed by Anne Bredon (1959).
First commercial recording by Joan Baez (1961).
Also recorded by The Plebs (1964), The Association (1965).
Album hit version by Led Zeppelin (1969).

https://youtu.be/rvZm8B5xhuw

From the wiki: “‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ was written by Anne Bredon née Johannsen in the late 1950s. Bredon appeared on the live Folk music radio show, The Midnight Special, on Pacifica radio’s KPFA singing ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’. A fellow Folk singer guesting on the program, Janet Smith, took up the song and developed it further, playing it live at hootenanny events at Oberlin College, one performance of which was attended by Joan Baez. Baez requested of Smith to send her a recording of her songs, including ‘Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You’, which Baez subsequently began performing herself.

“Vanguard Records, Baez’s label, later sent Smith a letter asking if she had written ‘Babe’. In the meantime, Baez had recorded the song and included it on her In Concert album. Initial pressings listed no writer’s credit for ‘Babe’. The 1964 recording by the Surrey, England, band The Plebs credits ‘Trad arr. Dennis’ but, later the same year, the Joan Baez Songbook rightfully lists Anne Bredon as the author as does the 1965 recording of the song by The Association. (It was the group’s first single release, but had no chart impact.)

Windy

May 19, 2014

Written and first recorded by Ruthann Friedman (1967).
Hit versions by The Association (US #1/CAN #1/UK #34/AUS #53/NZ #6 1967), Wes Montgomery (US #44/MOR #10 1967).

From the wiki: “‘Windy’ was written by Ruthann Friedman, a transplanted New Yorker who moved to Venice, California, where she hung out with the cream of L.A. Pop royalty – a 16-year-old sneaking into the Troubadour in the early ’60s and, then, an 18-year old starting to write and play her songs on the guitar, making friends with David Crosby, Van Dyke Parks, and Tandyn Almer, author of ‘Along Comes Mary’, another big hit for The Association.

Tagged: The Association