I decided to feature some Heart stuff for February, because I like Heart, and I have a bunch of Heart records. Plus, Heart kind of fits the month of love. No? Maybe?
Nothing special about this vinyl, it's a generic Portrait label in a generic portrait sleeve, but it's one of my favorite Heart singles, "Dog and Butterfly".
Sadly, radio never grasped how great it was and it barely eked into the top 40 as noted by the "38" I wrote on the label all those years ago.
Heart - Dog and Butterfly - 45
Heart - Mistral Wind - 45
Heart - Dog and Butterfly - Vinyl Single
Ann and Nancy perform "Dog and Butterfly"
'til someone covers Dog and Butterfly, and it goes top ten
Quick, name a musical act that has been charting records on the Billboard charts for over 53 years.
Big hint. The list is short. Real short.
One of the very few with that longevity is The Chipmunks.
This ad, from 1965, hints that the Chipmunks were big business in the sixties. Little did Ross Bagdasarian and Liberty records know that 50 years later the Chipmunks would be a Billion Dollar Business.
Alvin and the Chipmunks mean big business
This year there were movies from The Muppets and The Chipmunks. I know a LOT of people seemed to be thrilled that The Muppets had a new movie, but having seen it, all I've got to say is the filmmakers were trying way too hard to make that movie something it wasn't.
What it was to me was a pretty big dissapointment.
Chipwrecked on the other hand tried to be nothing more than goofy fun and I liked it much more, but maybe that's just me. I guess I'll take Alvin every time.
I've always said that you know when you're a rock star when Weird Al and The Chipmunks both cover one of your songs.
During the craziness that was Monkeemania from 1966 through 1968 there were a lot of ideas thrown around on how to cash in on the Pre-Fab four. I think this may have been the silliest.
Monkees Soft Drink Nightclubs
Surprisingly at least a few of these opened. No idea how long they lasted, but considering how little info remains on these "clubs" I doubt it was very long. I've also never heard of any Colgems scouts discovering talent at these clubs either. I'm guessing these Colgems scouts, if they ever existed, found a bunch of star struck teenage girls who were hoping to somehow get a glimpse of heir idols while they sat drinking a cherry Coke. I can't imagine anyone showed up to sing, after all we're a few decades away from karaoke at this point.
During their two year assault on the record charts there was a massive demand for Monkees music. The truth is the folks at Screen Gems and the record label, Colgems, had no idea how to respond. Though the Monkees dominated record sales between 1966 and 1968 one has to wonder what could have been had the record company truly understood what they had.
"Valleri" was never intended as a single, but was literally forced on to the market by demand. Looking for additional Monkees songs to play, a DJ taped "Valleri" off of the Monkees television show and played it on the air. The response was as expected, but the song remined in the can.
You see, by this time Nesmith, Dolenz, Tork and Jones had taken control over their music. No longer were they forced to do the bidding of Don Kirshner, and with this new control, all future Monkees releases had to be under a "Produced by the Monkees" banner.
The earlier recording of "Valleri" had been produced in an earlier session by Boyce and Hart and didn't meet the new criteria.
Back to the studio.
This new recording became the Monkees sixth straight gold single, and the last top five hit for the Pre-Fab four.
I have always loved this recording with Louie Shelton's killer guitar solo and consider it a perfect pop single. It might be my favorite pop single of all time. That opinion is not shared by everyone. Michael Nesmith calls this a "terrible record" and there are rumors that during the 1996 Monkees tour of the UK he turned his back to the audience when the song was played.
The 1996 tour. Mike Nesmith faces the audience during Valleri.
Nesmith can't complain too much. After all he landed "Tapioca Tundra" on the flip side.
Here's the 1968 recording from the episode "Monkees Blow their Minds".
Here's the original Colgems single in a standard Colgems paper sleeve.
Friday Music has re-released the 1965 David Jones album, which was his only pre-Monkees release.
"Friday Music is proud to offer this fine album for the first time in over forty years! This first time c.d. release is now enhanced with the addition of the aforementioned Take Me To Paradise and the brilliant The Girl From Chelsea which truly shows a transition from pop crooner to future rock star. In 1967, the David Jones l.p. charted thanks to his rise to fame as a member of The Monkees and the album cover was cleverly featured in The Monkees TV show episode, Monkees At The Movies."
This is the record that started it all, again. Chipmunk Punk.
As the story goes, in 1980 a DJ played Blondie's song "Call Me" at 78 RPM and said it was the new Chipmunks record.
The Chipmunks had of course been retired since the death of Ross Bagdasarian in 1972, but listeners seeking a dose of nostalgia flooded request lines and the rest is history.
That's only part of the story.
What we do know is Ross Bagdasarian Jr had been considering reviving his father's creation with the help of his wife Janice Karman. The 1960's series "The Alvin Show" was in reruns and had been doing exceptionally well.
The news of this new Chipmunk single apparently reached the ears of Ross Jr and in no time an entire album had been recorded with Ross and Janice supplying all the voices.
The album was a huge hit, there were follow up albums, a Christmas special, a TV series, an arena tour, an animated feature film and more recently, three live action feature films.
It's almost as if Alvin, Simon and Theodore had never gone away.
Here's the record that started the revival. The Chipmunks sing "Call Me" backed by a version of Tom Petty's "Refugee".
The Chipmunks - Call Me - Picture Sleeve
The Chipmunks - Call Me - Picture Sleeve Back
The Chipmunks - Call Me - Vinyl 45
The Chipmunks - Refugee - Vinyl 45
Not just Punk - Chipmunk Punk
Chipmunks Know How to Rock!
Chipmunk Punk went on to sell over a million copies
'til Alvin, Simon and Theodore go out on another world tour
