friday random ten, 1962 edition

1. The Contours, "Do You Love Me." An atypical Motown act, The Contours were anything but slick. With hindsight, they seem more a rock and roll band than a Berry Gordy special. It was Gordy, though, who wrote this big hit, although what sold it was Billy Gordon's crazed vocals. (They don't actually get around to the song on the video link until it's too late, but the video kicks ass anyway. Imagine any other Motown group putting on those kinds of moves.)

2. The Falcons, "I Found a Love." Wilson Pickett was only 19 when he co-wrote and sang lead on this astounding piece of gospel R&B. For sixty seconds, it's a scorcher of a gospel tune, with Pickett's raw shouts to a higher power: "I FOUND A LOVE!" And then, a minute in, he sings "I found a KISS!", and the tune moves in another direction. Displays as well as anything how gospel singers adapted to pop music.

3. Gene Chandler, "Duke of Earl." It really is fun doing the Random Tens between 1958 and 1964, because everyone thinks the music sucked then, nonsense which is easily disproven by songs like this. I was 8 years old at the time, and I swear it seemed like this song was #1 for six months and got played every five minutes. And no one ever got tired of it. Cool Wikipedia fact: the word "duke" is heard 132 times during the song.

4. Barbara Lynn, "You'll Lose a Good Thing." Lynn did it all: she not only sang this one, she wrote it, and played left-handed guitar (watch the video if you don't believe me).

5. Bob Dylan, "Pretty Peggy-O." Look who put out his first album in 1962. He somehow manages to honor his past, participate in the present, and blast out in his own direction, all at the same time. This isn't your grandfather's Peggy-O.

6. The Volumes, "I Love You." Happily, we haven't yet left the doo wop era.

7. Ketty Lester, "Love Letters." Another fun part of doing these is finding out stuff you didn't know. From Wikipedia, for instance, we learn that Lester was born in Hope, Arkansas (yes, THAT Hope, Arkansas). She went to San Francisco State, sang with Cab Calloway, and had regular parts on Days of Our Lives and Little House on the Prairie. Oh yeah, she looks HOT in that dress in the video!

8. The Rivingtons, "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow." It's not just the silly wonderfulness of the lyrics. It's the way lead singer Carl White gives the song a soulful reading. Everyone may have been kidding, but damn if White doesn't cut to the emotional bone, anyway. "Now I hear this sound everywhere I go, on the records, TV, and the radio. And now it's spreadin' all over the land, I still can't seem to understand, papa OOOOO. PAPA PAPA PAPA OOOO!" (No video.)

9. Joanie Sommers, "Johnny Get Angry." For most of my life, when Sommers sings "give me the biggest lecture I ever had," I thought she was saying "give me the biggest licking I ever had." I wondered why a song about abusing a woman was popular. (As I type this, for the first time in, what is it, 46 years, I see the other interpretation of "licking" ... man, am I slow.) I finally learned the real lyrics when k.d. lang sang them.

10. The Isley Brothers, "Twist and Shout." Bruce Springsteen used to kick this song off by saying "here's the first song I ever learned on the guitar." He wasn't alone. Look above the list to see Bruce playing this one on the immortal 1978 tour.