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Sniff’n’ the Tears, Sugarloaf, and K-tel: Finding some cool one-hit wonders — 86, 85, 84

ALBUMS: ‘Fickle Heart’ (Snif’n’1979); ‘Don’t Call Us — We’ll Call You’ (Sugarloaf 1975); 20 Power Hits (K-tel 1972)

MVC Rating: Fickle – 3.0/$$$; MVC Rating – Snif’n’3.0/$$; K-tel – 4.0/$$$

A package deal here. I like doing this just to shake the format a little. Sometimes there are themes; other times the only similarity is the records are made of vinyl and have a hole in the center. I have three albums here and if you stretch, there’s a theme (or two).

Snif’n’ the Tears was a one-hit wonder with their catchy ‘Driver’s Seat.’ a car song if ever there was one even if the lyrics are gibberish ‘..Driver’s seat …oh, oh, oh, there is no elite.’ But the tune was an ear worm and well produced with driving drums and bass and synthesizer flourishes. Another problem they may have had is there other songs were softer rock, which may be unexpected coming off of ‘Driver’s Seat.’

Sugarloaf was a 2-hit wonder, rolling out ‘Green-Eyed Lady’ and ‘Don’t Call Us (We’ll Call You). The album I have doesn’t have Green-Eyed Lady on it.

The song opens: ‘Long distance, directory assistance, area code 212.’

Fun fact about Don’t Call Us: The sound of someone dialing a telephone of the push-button variety– the next big thing since rotary dial — is a key part of the song. And that sound is reportedly the private number of the record executive who rejected the group.

Now that’s edgy.

Now K-tel, if you grew up in the 1970s, was ubiquitous to late night television commercials, advertising 20 top hits for $3.99. On my album cover it says: ‘As seen advertised on television.’

The K-tel records were usually fluffier tunes that had that here-today-gone-tomorrow feel on them. Although they could surprise you. On my record, for example, there’s a Partidge Family song “Doesn’t Somebody Want You to Want Me.” sharing vinyl with Ray Charles’ “A Sweet Little Thing Like You.’ The K-tel record also had Green Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf. Ding ding ding ding. There’s a connection. It was Sugarloaf’s entry into two-hit wonderdom.

Of these three albums, I’ve played the K-tel record much more than the other two. That’s because the records by Sugarloaf and Snif’n’the-Tears didn’t really have any other good songs on them. Sugarloaf had some mediocre rock and roll and Snif’n’the-Tears ditto, only more mellow.

I was lucky in that I had a nearly mint K-tel record as they usually are played to death and then used as frisbees.

It is also one of the permutations (in 1972) of this company that used nonedited official song tracks. However cramming the grooves closer with 10 songs per side certainly didn’t help K-tel become a model of sound fidelity. My K-tel had one serious one-hit wonder called ‘Sweet Mary by Wadsworth Mansion — another impossible ear worm.

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10cc — 90,89,88,87

ALBUMS: 100cc 10cc (1975); Original Soundtrack (1975); How Dare You (1976); Bloody Tourists (1978)

MVC Rating: 100cc 4.5/$$$$; Original 4.0/$$$; How 4.0/$$$$/ Bloody 4.0/$$$

I’ve got 10cc in a previous post as one of my top underrated bands. I’ve had conversations with ‘friends’ that think 10cc is not underrated –but shouldn’t be rated at all because they are so bad!

This attitude comes from several things, namely two Top 40 hits. One, ‘I’m Not in Love” was a song off of the Original Soundtrack album that was a big radio hit that people either loved or hated. It has syrupy strings and slow tempo. But as I’ve pointed out in my arguments, it is satire, like a lot of 10cc. They are clever and very good musicians and songwriters:

In that song: ‘I keep your picture on the wall/it hides a nasty stain that’s lying there … I’m not in love.’

The song ends in a whisper spoken refrain: Be quiet, big boys don’t cry, big boys don’t cry.

So, if you are entering the 10cc universe with that one song on the radio, you would miss out on some interesting music.

The other ‘success’ that I think hurt them a little was a song several years later that was a sappy, big radio pop song, ‘The Things we Do for Love’ — their most successful song but I think it hurt their credibility a bit.

‘The things we do for love, like walking in the rain and the snow and there’s nowhere to go ...’

No satire to save this one as it did for ‘I’m Not in Love.”

Fortunately I entered in through their 1975 compilation album of early British hits. Or, another way to describe that would be early U.S. flops.

This really is an album of near misses. ‘Rubber Bullets,’ ‘Wall Street Shuffle,’ The Worst Band in the World,’ and ‘Silly Love,’ (Not to be confused with Paul McCartney’s sappy ‘Silly Love Songs.’ Or their own ‘Things We Do For Love.) 10cc’s ‘Silly Love’ opens with riffing power chords. .’

‘Rubber Bullets’ satirizes a couple of jailhouse songs that were popular on the 1950s including ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and Riot on Cell Block No. 9. In the song, the warden is calling guards to ‘Load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets.’

Then it got out of hand as the music do-wops along:

Well we don’t understand
Why you called in the National Guard (national guard, national guard)
When Uncle Sam is the one
Who belongs in the exercise yard (exercise yard, exersise yard

We all got balls and brains
But some’s got balls and chains
At the local dance at the local county jail

100cc is a great place to start although there pleasures and treasures to be found in the others, including ‘Art for Art’s Sake,’ off of the ‘How Dare You,’ album, ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ (I don’t like cricket, I love it).’

If I had to describe their music, it would be Frank Zappa (without the overt weirdness) and Queen with its emphasis on sound production and structure.

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Tom Tom Club — 91

ALBUM: Tom Tom Club (1981)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

This album has a great album cover by artist James Rizzi. The Tom Tom Club, which was the Talking Heads without leader David Byrne, sounds like the cover looks.

Funny, crazy, colorful and noisy. Cartoon figures of the band and others are crammed onto the cover amid dozens of little drawings — hearts, dollar signs, squiggles and wiggles. Giraffes, military fighter jets and microphones.

Whew! It’s enough to spin the head of the Rev. Howard Finster.

The music mostly fits the cover. There are hints of the advent of Electronic Dance Music, although it sounds more organic than dialed in — which is a good thing.

But one has to remember this was cutting edge about four decades ago. Now, not so much. Funny how that works: How art competes for immortality yet often is yesterday’s news. Sometimes it takes a long time to decide which is which.

Talking Heads’ married couple Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, were the main creators of TTC.

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Richard and Linda Thompson — 92

ALBUMS: R&L ‘Shoot Out the Lights (1982); Richard Thompson ‘Hand of Kindness’ (Solo album 1983)

MVC Rating: R&L 5.0 $$$$$; Richard 4.0/$$$$$

Oh man, this is a good one, I had going in this was a 4.5. In other words a high quality, almost perfect album. But then I dropped the needle after about 25 years of not hearing this album — at least all the way through.

It’s a ‘5.’

And the Richard solo album is excellent especially if you are a fan of his unusual guitar style.

‘Shoot’ was reportedly a break-up album kind of like Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.

Richard and Linda, veterans of the English folk rock scene (Fairport Convention), broke up after about 10 years of marriage at the time this record was being made in early 1980s.

It is dark, full of pain, fraught with emotion. And wonderful because Linda has a beautiful voice. And Richard propels by guitar the mess of hurt through a carnival of dark shadows and broken dreams.

“I’m walking on a wire and I’m falling,” Linda sings.

More amusement ride imagery with both singing in a bouncy way that belies the words: “Won’t you ride on the Wall of Death one more time.”

The title song says the darkness makes it real — ‘real as a gun’ —shoot out the lights. Still another song plumbs the depths of human love and hate, and the confusion of the motives behind one’s actions.

‘Did she jump or was she pushed.’ A theme explored in depth by John A. Knowles in the novel. A Separate Peace.

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The Three O’Clock — 93

ALBUM: Arrive Without Travelling (1985)

MVC Rating: 3.0/$$$

Spun Gold is about the only song on here that I truly enjoy. It’s the last song on the album. Other decent songs are here but others are just irritating.

Singer Michael Quercio needs to learn exactly what to do with that high voice. I’m a fan of odd voices and even higher than usual ones (Freddy Mercury, Prince, Geddy Lee even). Quercio sounds great in Spun Gold, a swirling round of a song, but too often the voice is a distraction.

Guitarist Louis Gutierrez is a solid player. He just needs better songs to wrap around. The Three O’Clock was part of the so-called Paisley Underground, an LA based tag that plagued some of the artists in it. The Bangles were so labeled. I see the all female Bangles as less Paisley and more retro 60’s style. Green on Red is another so called Paisley Underground badge wearer but GOR was much more raw, rocking and funny to be Paisley anything.

The Three O’Clock were the Herman Hermits through a 1980s prism and Quercio is Davy Jones in a higher octave.

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Stanley Turrentine with the Three Sounds — 94

ALBUM: Blue Hour (1985 RE of 1960 release)

MVC Rating (4.5/$$$$$)

This is another of my Blue Note jazz albums, and as I’ve come to expect with the label, it is high quality, high fidelity jazz.

My ‘Blue Hour’ is a 1985 re-issue from the original tape of the 1960 classic.

In about 20 seconds after dropping the needle, Turrentine’s tenor sax slides in like butter. The sound on my re-issue is fabulous. I haven’t heard the 2000 re-master but it would be hard to beat the warm tones of this one. I give it an extra bump in the ratings for sound quality.

It’s late night, last call music. The Three Sounds know when to step up and when to step back. Bill Dowdy on drums, Andrew Simpkins on bass, and Gene Harris on piano.

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San Francisco Medicine Ball — 95

ALBUM: ‘On a Slow Boat to China’ (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$$

And now for something completely different as Mr. Python used to say. A banjo record.

Sure enough all 11 songs on the Real Turkey Records label in San Francisco feature banjo and more banjo. By the cover it appears our six band members include an upright bass, a drummer, a singer, and three banjo players. There’s also piano on some tracks. Several try vocals occasionally but banjo is the theme.

And to put it on the turntable is to turn the beat around. Banjo is scene changer. And this one proves Steve Martin’s line: “The banjo is such a happy instrument–you can’t play a sad song on the banjo – it always comes out so cheerful.”

For that reason this might be fun throwing on when things need livening up or things are getting heavy. But I would recommend only one play (front and back) because too much banjo music has the opposite effect. In a longitudinal study, excessive banjo music (dubbed Banjomama) results in irrational fear of player pianos and suspenders.

Interestingly, I have another album that is based in banjo, but the two records couldn’t be more far apart. ‘Kaleidoscope’ is a California psychedelic album featuring future Jackson Browne guitarist and award winning banjo player David Lindley. Kaleidoscope was a jazzy progressive rock jam while Medicine Ball leans more on traditional songs and ‘happy’ playing.

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James Taylor — 96

ALBUMS: James Taylor (1967); Greatest Hits (1976)

MVC Rating: James Taylor 4.0/$$$$; Greatest 4.0/$$$$

I grew into James Taylor. Mainly through my future wife, Catherine, who was a huge fan. While I had all my rock and roll mixtapes, she consistently pined for JT, Carol King, Carly Simon — the holy triumvirate of soft folk rock in the 1970s. (The Carpenters were a favorite but were more pop than folk.) So, of course I made mixtapes with these songs for her.

I remember she talked me into buying concert tickets when they went on sale at Auburn University, which Cat and I attended (and graduated). This was was one of these all day in line things, complete with folding chairs to snag tickets before they were sold out.

We got tickets and I proceeded to have about as enjoyable a concert as I have had in my 21-year-old life. He played all the classics ‘Fire and Rain,’ You’ve got a Friend,’ Carolina on My Mind,’ ‘Shower the People,’ and How Sweet It Is.’ But he also rocked out in the encores, playing some Chuck Berry I believe and others that have slipped through the memory of time. I just remember marveling at the concerts’ quality from songs to musicianship, coupled with a laid back easy personality that is his trademark.

The Greatest Hits may be all you need if you are just coming into JT. But all of his albums I know are good. I have his self-entitled debut which had ‘Carolina on My Mind’ with Paul McCartney on bass. Many of the other songs on this first album are unfamiliar these days but show a young man with a talent for simple songs that say more than they seem.

It doesn’t surprise me that he, now in his 70s, is still filling concert venues.

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Stephen Stills –97

ALBUM: Stephen Stills (1970)

MVC Ratings: 4.0/ $$$$

How many other musical artists can say they had Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton play on their solo album?

Stephen Stills is one I can think of. In fact, the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Clapton and Hendrix played on different tracks, recorded at different times on this Stills’ album, so it wasn’t like they were physically in the same room at the same time.

But a nice score for Stills nonetheless.

Two good songs too. Hendrix plays lead guitar on ‘Old Times, Good Times.” (Hendrix fun fact: He played the guitar left-handed so he would flip a right-handed guitar and re-strung it for a lefty.)

Although known for his aerial string-bending assault on the boundaries of music, he was quite restrained here and also quite tasty.

Clapton plays lead on ‘Go Back Home,’ his Fender Stratocaster cutting through all the other instruments as he takes off on his precision runs.

And Stephen Stills is no third-stringer here, playing lead guitar throughout most of the rest of the album (and organ too).

Good solid album. The hit was ‘Love the One Your With.’

In his many iterations Stills has sold 35 million albums.

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Ten Years After — 100, 99, 98

ALBUMS: The Classic Performances of Ten Years After (1975); A Space In Time (1971); Undead (Live) 1968.

MVC Rating: Classic (4.0/$$$$;) A Space in Time (4.0/$$$$); Undead (4.5/$$$$$$)

Ten Years After was a hard rock, blues band from England that had their career launched into orbit after their performance at Woodstock.

Alvin Lee played guitar like a man possessed with picking so fast that some have called him the father of the shredding style of guitar playing which emerged a decade or more later in the 1980s.

At Woodstock the group’s ‘I’m Going Home ignited the crowd.

The group’s highest charting hit was ‘I’d Love to Change the World.” It’s a nearly perfect rock songs musically with slow picking intro, segueing into power chord riffing as the vocals kick in amid it all.

The only thing that made me uncertain about the song were the lyrics.

‘Everywhere there’s/ freaks and hairies/dykes and fairies/ Tell me where is sanity .. Tax the rich/ feed the poor till there are no rich no more

I’d love to change the world … but I don’t know what to do

It’s hard to figure what the group meant by the lyrics which insinuate by these examples the world is messed up. The question surfaces in the actual examples themselves, it sounds a bit like an old, crotchety man blaming the state of the world on those long hairs. Yet the message seems slightly odd coming from a group of four musicians with hair down past their shoulders. But, hey, the music sounds good.

The third album I have is a live one cleverly called ‘Undead” and it gives us ‘Woodchopper’s Ball,’ a Woody Herman song that Alvin Lee tore the cover off of. Lee grew up listening to his father’s record collection, heavy on jazz and was pushing the group toward jazz at every turn.