Sixties Music Secrets

Month: December 2016

Do you want to know a secret: “Love Me Don’t”

Didja know that Ringo is not playing drums on The Beatlesimage classic debut single “Love Me Do” Nope, and it isn’t Pete Best ( the bands original drummer ) either. It is actually a Scottish session player named Andrew White (the handsome dude pictured above “rockin’ his skins”)This is all George Martins doing. The Beatles actually recorded “Love Me Do” three times. Initially with Pete Best, Gearge Martin didn’t like what Pete was doing, so they tried one with Ringo….Nope, so then George Martin insisted they bring in session player Andy White, with Ringo being relegated to tambourine. A very bad day for Ringo Starr! Today, there are two different versions of “Love Me Do” available, one featuring Ringo on drums, one with Andy White on drums. You can identify who’s playing drums quite simply. If you hear a tambourine playing in the background then your listening to Andrew White on drums! (Ringo on tambourine…Yikes!)
Meanwhile, here’s Ringo, Doin’ the job…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrkrOHn46qk

December 16, 2016     4 Comments   , , , ,

A Day In The Life: Otis Redding…

It was on this day Dec 7, 1967, Otis Redding went into a Memphis studio and began recording his classic “Sitting on the dock of the bay” Otis never finished that recording. In fact his whistling toward the end was just filler until he could complete the lyric. He died three days later in a tragic plane crash, on his way up to Wisconsin for a live date and T.V. Performance. The incomplete “Dock Of The Bay” was rush released just a few weeks later and immediately became history’s first posthumous number one record! Otis was living on a houseboat in Sausalito Calirornia when he wrote the song…
…..Here’s the legendary recording…(Listen for the whistle)

December 7, 2016     2 Comments   , , ,