The Quest for Silver with Chris Tuffer Episode 48

Don't let me be misunderstood by Eric Burdon and the Animals and we are underway on our Quest for Silver, songs that missed the centre of the target but live on in our memory.  Aretha Franklin Chain of fools after an interview by me Chris Tuffer.  Freddie and the Dreamers are next with I'm Telling you now.  Next is Count me in by Gary Lewis and the Playboys.  Stay tuned to hear more secondary sentimental songs.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Quest for Silver with Chris Tuffler on Lifestyles 55 Podcasts Baby Do you understand me now?

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Sometimes I feel a little mad. Don't you know that no one alive can always be dangerous? When things go wrong, I see we bad.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

I just the soul who's the judges of those. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Baby, sometimes I'm so hairy For the joy that's hard to hide. And sometimes it seems that all I have to do is worry. And then you're found to see my other side. Life has a problem, and I get my shit. And that's one thing I never mean to do. Cause I love you all baby, don't you love you? Have a thoughts like any other one Sometimes I find myself low regret. So foolish things, so simple thing I've done.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

I just so please don't let me be misunderstood. Oh lace don't let me be misunderstood, Mr. Stow, whose intentions are good. Oh law, please don't let me be misunderstood.

unknown 2:28

Oh la stone.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Hi folks, you are tuned to LifeStyles 55 and the quest for silver with me, Chris Tuffer. But you can call me Mr. T. We play the songs that were not quite top of the chart material. Yet we most certainly remember them, and want to hear them to revive some old memories from back in the day. We kicked off the show today with Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood by the Animals. And now, just ahead of listening to the Queen of Soul, you know, the late Aretha Franklin, I had the honor and pleasure to interview her about a decade ago just prior to the release of her diva collection, and the eventual release of a movie called Rispect, played by Jennifer Hudson just a few years ago. After the interview, it will be Aretha Franklin singing a fool. Hi Volks Christopher here with the Queen of Soul. And you know who I mean. So let me first welcome you, Aretha, and thank you for this opportunity to have a chat with you.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Today we notice that you have a brand new album called Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics. And it has a very high rating already on the Billboard chart.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

I heard that. Absolutely wonderful. Whoa!

SPEAKER_00 3:57

What are your thoughts about people going out to buy this collection?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Well, I don't know. Um we've got some great titles uh of things that Mr. Davis presented to me and gave me a list of um of the singers and the songs, and uh I'm doing People, Trison, I'm doing Midnight Train to Georgia, Gladys, I'm doing I'm Every Woman, Shaka Khan, uh No One, Alicia Keys, I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor, I'm a Survivor, Destiny's Child.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Tell us how this project came about.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

It was Mr. Davis, the chairman, uh the chairman's idea. Uh the COO of RCA. As I said, he brought the list to me and the list of singers and so on. But it was great because I had already bought some of these records and enjoyed them. So it was a natural, it was super.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

You have said that uh you like the songs uh you have covered in this album. What comment can you share about Adele and Rolling in the Deep?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Well, see, Rolling in the Deep. I liked it when I first heard it. I liked it. I saw some of Adele's promo, and a lot of young kids were on the bus. They were singing it, and they were having a really, really wild good time. Rolling in the dead, you know, because they couldn't really sing, but they were just having a such a good time. I said, You know, I like that melody and I like that song. So when uh Clive presented it to me, I said, Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Have you heard back from any of these artists like Adele? Are giving you reaction to your version of their hit song?

SPEAKER_01 5:35

I don't know Adele, and we haven't had the occasion or pleasure to meet yet. So I've not heard back. I haven't heard from them to begin with.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Can you tell us about your attempt to uh to do someone's big hit? And by doing so, uh are you trying to top their achievement?

SPEAKER_01 5:52

No, with singers. It's a thing sometimes where you hear a great song and you said, Oh man, I wish I'd have got that song first, you know. So after it's been out a while, you have the opportunity to re-record it after a while, you know, after so many years. And then we don't own these songs. You know, we anybody can sing a song. We don't own that.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Can you tell us, Aretha, what your process is when you sit down to make this song your own?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Well, I just like to live with a song. You just sit with a song, you know. You you take your time and you listen to it. That's about it. But I'm not gonna tell you my great secrets, Chris. You might go into singing, Chris. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Since it is an album of a great hit, do you think that there might be a follow-up album?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. It depends on what Mr. Davis would like to do, and we'll talk about it. Um I'll approve half and he'll approve half, or we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

It was noted on your Twitter account that you could very well have not been a singer because you had actually attempted ballet and nursing. Uh would you like to elaborate?

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Listen, I went to the Academy of Ballet over on the east side. And um when I left um New York going to Los Angeles when the industry moved west, I went to a few classes at Stephen Winter's out there, and uh Arthur Mitchell and I uh are very good friends. There was one ballet step that I that it just really took me a hard time to learn that step, and it was so simple. He just showed it to me another way, and like within seconds I was doing it, and it was like glisside, glisside, out of re assemble, okay? So simple, you know. Arthur is a master. And um, I did a ballet for Mr. Davis once. Um I got it.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

This album is out there and doing very well. What's next on your plate?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Well, let's see. We are talking about the biopic. Very, very close to signature. Very close on all three. There are three deals on the table.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Aretha, if and when this actor comes to the studio, who might be the right person to play you?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Well, there are several people that we're considering. Um that I'm considering. Audrey McDonald is one. You know, Audrey's got a great voice, and she's she's Broadway oriented, but she is an actress. The question where Audrey is concerned is whether or not she could she could deal with a soul as I think. But she is an actress, and so it would be her job, you know, it would be her job to uh meet that challenge. And um there she just won what an uh Tony for Lady Day. So it's possible, it's very possible. It depends on how she feels about it. And then there is the possibility of Jennifer Hudson, and uh there is the director's book uh names and faces that I'm not aware of and don't know about. And then there is the possibility of someone from the church, maybe an unknown.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Jennifer Hudson is good. And you and her without a sense of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Jennifer Hudson is a very good singer.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Um what is the holdup with getting this movie into production like what is the holdup?

SPEAKER_01 9:38

There is no holdup, but if you know anything about negotiations, you know they can go on forever. Yeah, there's no holdup.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Good to hear, Aretha. Aretha Franklin, you have been the most gracious and candid. And for all of us, we thank you for your talent and your voice. Thanks for talking with us today.

SPEAKER_17 9:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Aretha Franklin, I'm Chris Tuffer. Freddy and the Dreamers were a band that I first saw on the Ed Sullivan show back in the day. And prior to hearing them sing more credible songs like I'm telling you now, and You Were Made for Me, I saw him and his band perform the novelty dance song The Freddie. Well, let's give a spin to his number two accomplishment, entitled I'm Telling You Now on L55 DR and the Q for S with me, Mr. T.

SPEAKER_11 13:15

I'm telling you now, I'm telling you right away. I'll be staying for many a day. I'm in love with you now. I'm telling you now. I'll tell you what you want to hear. I'll be telling you for many a year. I'm in love with you now. Do you think I'm fooling when I say I love you? Maybe you believe me when I believe you I'm telling you now I know it's been said before. Say you love me and I will be sure. I'm in love with you now I'm telling you now, I'm telling you how the way I'll be saying for many a day. I'm in love with you now. Do you think I'm poop and I say I love you? Maybe you'll believe me when I'll be true I'm telling you now I know it's been sad before Say you love me and I will be sure. I'm in love with you now. I'm in love with you now. I'm telling you now.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Gary Lewis and the Playboys had many songs hit the charts in the sixties, but none better than this one called Count Me Instagram.

SPEAKER_20 15:41

Someone you can do.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

And this one was one of them, I Know a Place. It was her follow-up song to her number one hit, Downtown, and of course was not a number one, but occupied a spot on the charts for many weeks. In fact, it was heard on radio stations for over three months on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_12 18:25

Just get away where your worries won't find you. If you like, well, I'll tell you more. Don't let the day get the better of you when the evening comes, there's so much to do your better. Just come up with the feature. I'm sure you'll be tapping your feet because the beauty is swinging.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

However, I remember watching the Soupy Sales show on TV back in the day, and when he came out with this idea of a new dance craze, it actually caught on. Sort of. Soupy was quite the character and not afraid of acting silly. And this song, in quotation marks, is definitely a qualifier of silly. But you cannot argue with the charts. Here is Soupy Sales and the Mouse.

SPEAKER_06 21:34

Hey, do the mouse, yeah. Hey, you can do it in your house, yeah. On the road, around the wall. If you folks give up, do it in the hall. Let's do the mouth. Come on and do the mouse. Hey do the mouse, yeah. Hey, do it all around your house, yeah. Don't be afraid that you can't do it.

unknown 22:20

There we are enough to do it. Shake with your hands, do it.

SPEAKER_06 22:24

Oh yo, you are Make it like a mouse, put your teeth on and spear Hey Do the mouse, yeah. Hey, you can do it in your house, yeah.

unknown 22:45

Be the first wanna hold your block.

SPEAKER_06 22:53

Yeah, let's do the mouse. Come on and do the mouse with me, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Just fall on the chuckle, how such you can all around your house Ferry Cross the Mersey by Jerry and the pacemakers was a soundtrack single in nineteen sixty-four, and Mersey refers to the River Mersey in Northwest England, which flows into the Irish Sea at Liverpool, and the Mersey Ferry runs between Liverpool and Birkenhead and Seacombe.

SPEAKER_07 24:44

Hopstone in every way. So bear me quest and mercy cause this land's the place I love, and here I'll stay. So fairy cross the mercy, and always take me there, the place I love people around every corner, they seem to smile and say, We don't care what your name is, boy, we'll never turn you away. So I'll continue to say I always will stay so fairly cross the mercy cause this lands the place I love, and here I'll stay, and here I'll stay here I'll stay.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

became a big hit reportedly thanks to exposure on private radio stations, most notably Wonderful Radio London. Unit Four is a reference to the fourth and final segment of the BBC radio show, which featured the top ten songs each week. And of course, when they expanded their group to include two new members of their band, the name had to be updated and unit four plus two, are sweet as roses in the morning, shoot to me, are soft as silvery don't in a motion, that's all walking the street, the concrete, and the flavor in me might be too bumble.

unknown 27:48

My love will never die.

SPEAKER_13 27:51

I'm out of stumble, before we take by the wheel, eternally that's the way that's the way to be all around. I took the purple beat All around Shadow and the Stop Walking Street, the body and the play Bob Feet Big Rumble. I love an eye ball to be the ball I got to be my feet, they get to bubble.

unknown 29:02

But never die.

SPEAKER_13 29:14

That's the way. That's the way it's meant to be. That's the way it's to be.

unknown 29:25

That's the way it's everything.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Jay and the Americans were a band that was rather diverse in their song selections. Such titles as Tonight, She Cried, Come a Little Bit Closer, Let's Lock the Door, and then this one, which was Academia, translated from Italian, it means my beloved, which preceded this magic moment a few years later. Hit number one in the UK and in Canada, but not in the US. We are L55 DR in the Q for S with me, Mr. T.

SPEAKER_09 30:16

Must we say goodbye? It's time we pay one to die. I think you might be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Featuring their characteristic female lead vocals with male doo-wop backing. Their 1964 single, The Boy from New York City, was their only major Billboard Hot 100 hit. Cover versions of The Boy from New York City brought the song back to the charts in the UK for the darts in 1978. And then in the US for the Manhattan Transfer in 1981. The song has been used in a commercial for Everybody Hates Chris on the Paramount Comedy Channel in the UK.

SPEAKER_17 33:36

He's kinda tall. Today I hope to make him my mama. And also free. And how he talk. And he's no.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

It was the Seekers' first UK released single, and it was the second best-selling song of 1965 in the UK. The song was also popular in the US, reaching its peak of number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

SPEAKER_19 37:12

And I'll be there someday if you hold my hand.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

It has been covered by several famous singers, first by Daryl Glenn in 1953, Rex Allen, the Orioles, and June Valley later that same year, and Ella Fitzgerald with the Ray Charles singers also had a go with it. But it was in nineteen sixty-five that it really made an impression with fans of Elvis Presley.

SPEAKER_09 41:21

Yes, we gave you the church just to save.

SPEAKER_06 41:49

Take your troubles to the church.

SPEAKER_00 42:21

The bowl rumbles hit the airwaves with laugh, laugh, and off they went to the record stores, and did quite well. Their popularity was relatively brief, but before they were yesterday's news, they released this song just a little. And it rose quickly, but failed almost at last. By the way, the Bull Rummels took their name from the Regency era English identity. The group liked having a British founding name and the legend of the insensitive so closely followed the Beatles and the alphabet. The group also knew their records would likely be placed immediately behind those of the Beatles in the records over Valentino dismissed as an ocean in 2008 in an interview with Goldmine magazine. That's a total myth, he said. We just needed a name, and we thought it sounded good. We didn't even know how to spell it. Everybody now has a notion of what people were thinking back then. But we never thought of those kind of things. Al Hasan, who produced the band's demo recording, noted I never thought of the brummels in the terms of the Beatles. It was Ron Elliott's talent as a songwriter that caused me to want to produce them.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

You know I hate you go. And you see how I feel when I say love and real So goodbye. It's been sweet, even though incomplete. So I'm still because I love you so that you could go away. Oh your side very clean as a voice that you say.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

Peter Noon was a rather popular singer and still is on the circuit. This song hit the big time when it was first aired and has never lost its fan appeal. Silhouette is a song made famous by the Doo Walker with Rays in 1957, competing at number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. A competing version by the Diamonds was also successful. In 1965, it was a hit in the U.S. for Hermann's Hermit. And a couple of decades later, circa 1990, it was a number 10 hit in the UK for Cliff Richards.

unknown 46:54

So go walk and past your house.

SPEAKER_00 48:56

The birds and the bees. Well, it was incorporated by Jules Aikens, who earned himself a one-hit wonder status with his era record single The Birds and the Bees in 1964, which read number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The song went on to hit the top ten in several European countries in 1965, and would later be covered by many other artists, including Dean Martin and Brenda Lee.

SPEAKER_10 49:35

Let me tell you about the birds and the bees, from the flowers, and the trees, from the moon, off the bug, and a thing called. And a girl and a guy from the way with the key. On a night like me. So from eight. Let me tell you about the beast, on the flowers, on the trees, on the moon, on the bow.

SPEAKER_14 50:29

And I think he followed.

unknown 50:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 50:47

Well look into your big brown eyes. It's so everything to see that it's time to learn about the facts of life. Starting from A. Let me tell you about the first and the bees, and the flowers, and the trees, and the moon of the bug.

SPEAKER_14 51:14

And I think he called up.

SPEAKER_10 51:18

Let me tell you about the fairs, and the bees, and the flowers, and the trees, and the bears, and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, the beasts, and the bees, and the flowers.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

For all intents and purposes, we are done like dinner, but we have time for one more before our hour of questing for silver is over. And we are thrilled that you tune in and enjoy what we play like this classic cultural rocker by the Yardbird. For your love. Thank you for listening. And remember to be cool and stay warm.

SPEAKER_08 52:20

I give you everything before that's for sure. Oh, I bring you down and bring some things right to your door. I give you down the right. Some things I will excite. I'll make you do more me.