ASK FRED
Costello, meat balls, Doobies!
Did Elvis Costello fall out with Linda Ronstadt when she covered Alison? Karen Jackson, via e-mail
Fred says: Elvis was dismissive of Linda Ronstadt’s Alison cover when she sang it on her Living In The USA album, though he was probably glad of the royalties which enabled him to move to an up-market part of Surrey. For her part, Ronstadt was an early Elvis admirer who was in the audience when he performed at Los Angeles’ Hollywood High in June 1978. When she recorded Alison she claimed that she had one of her friends in mind: “a sweet girl but kind of a party-girl type. I felt that she
needed somebody to talk to her in a stern voice because she was getting married and she would have to change.” Despite everything, Ronstadt remained a true believer. That year, she told Playboy that Elvis was one of her favourite performers and claimed: “I’ve never communicated with him directly but I heard that someone asked him what he thought [about her version of Alison] and he said that he’d never heard it but was glad to get the money. So I sent him a message: ‘Send me some more songs, just keep thinking about the money.’ And he sent me Talking In The Dark, and I love it. I also recorded Party Girl and Girls Talk.” Ronstadt included all three songs on her 1980 platinum LP, Mad Love.
DID JOSH WHITE GET THE BREAD WITH ONE MEAT BALL?
At various times, I have seen bluesman Josh White’s recording of One Meat Ball listed as a million-seller. But though I’ve tried, I can’t find the record listed on any R&B charts of the ’40s or ’50s. Did it really sell a million or was this some hype fashioned by a record company? CL Thompson, via e-mail
Got a niggling doubt, beef or need to know? Hang on tight for Dellar’s film, LP and meatball revelations!
Fred says: I doubt if the record ever sold that amount. It was released in 1944 by Asch, a minor company that lacked the facilities for producing records in any large quantity. But there’s little doubt that Josh White’s song about the little man who only had 15 cents and could only order one meat ball (without the bread) was hugely popular, gaining more than its fill of air and jukebox play. White was even signed to perform One Meat Ball in the 1945 film The Crimson Canary, a production that also featured an astounding array of jazz names in its cast list. However, the record proved to be an early example of the ‘white cover version’ syndrome, and it was The Andrews Sisters’ rendition of the song, released on Decca, that made its way into the US Top 20. It also became a hit in the UK, in the pre-chart period, via a Brunswick release. Ry Cooder, Dave Van Ronk, Lonnie Donegan, Shinehead and Tom Paxton are among the many others who’ve recorded One Meat Ball. Tasty!
DID THE KILLER DUB FOR DENNIS QUAID?
Did Jerry Lee Lewis perform all the songs for the Great Balls Of Fire! biopic or did Dennis Quaid contribute some of the vocals?
C Fox, via e-mail
Fred says: Though Quaid wanted to perform all the songs, The Killer
nixed the idea at the very beginning. “He even threatened my life,” the actor told a reporter. However, Quaid persevered
and cut a version of the film’s title track that impressed Jerry Lee. He agreed that he and Quaid should each cut half of the songs, but director Jim McBride put the kibosh on that compromise and Jerry Lee headed back into the studio to re-record eight of his Sun classics for Quaid to lip-sync, though Quaid was permitted to muscle in on Crazy Arms. Quaid also played some piano. But it was all in vain. Jerry Lee hated the Great Balls Of Fire! film, the critics were divided and it disappointed at the box office. Meanwhile, the T Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack album failed to crack the US Top 50.
WHEN WERE THE FIRST CD BEATLES FOR SALE?
Is it true that EMI waited several years before releasing Beatles albums on CD? Jean Tweed, Halifax
Fred says: Though CDs were marketed in the UK during October 1982, it wasn’t until February 1987 that EMI made the first Beatles albums available in the format, issuing Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles For Sale. It wasn’t the first time that the company lagged behind. Though Decca had released vinyl albums in Britain for the first time in 1949, EMI wasn’t convinced that long-players were a viable product and didn’t enter the vinyl LP market until 1952!
HOW MANY LEAD SINGERS DID IT TAKE?
RE: the note from David Pfenninger in MOJO 277 on lead singers… Eight singers performing lead vocals seemed a bit much, even for The Beach Boys. But there is certainly a bunch of groups who hit the charts with three singers, among them: The Doobie Brothers (Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Michael McDonald); Van Halen (David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone); Genesis (Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Ray Wilson). There are others who did it with four, namely Toto (Steve Lukather, Bobby Kimball, David Paich, Joe Williams) and the Eagles (Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Randy Meisner, Timothy B Schmit). And these did it with six: Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Rick Vito, Billy Burnette) and Chicago (Robert Lamm, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Donnie Dacus, Jason Scheff, Bill Champlin).
Ed Toth, via e-mail Fred says: I’ll think we’ll wrap this one now. I always hated maths.