I bought Alice Cooper's "Billion Dollar Babies" at a record store on Sheepshead Bay Road in Brooklyn called Sugar Mountain. It was one of two very significant purchases for me. The other being Bowie's "Aladdin Sane." I am sure I bought other records at Sugar Mountain, but I only have vivid memories of these two. I see them on the racks, two very striking covers. I see myself walking the few blocks to my cousin's house on East 19th Street where we'd binge listen back when your weekly allowance gave you no choice. "School's Out" was already a favorite, as was "Love It To Death" and "Killer," but "Billion Dollar Babies" sent me off the rails, especially that opening track, "Hello Hooray."
"God. I. Feel. So. STROOOOONNNNNNNG!"
Imagine my surprise, when I found out that there was an original version, recorded about five years earlier. I realized in 1973 that Alice Cooper hadn't written the song. Credit was given to Rolf Kempf. But this was long before the internet. You couldn't just type a few words on your Smith-Corona and magically discover that this guy Kempf was a Canadian songwriter, who was in a band called Colonel Popcorn's Butter Band, and only recorded one solo single, which was not "Hello Hooray." You just assumed Rolf Kempf wrote the song for Alice Cooper...or at least that's what I did.
What's more surprising, at least to me, is that it wasn't just a few weeks or a few months after "Billion Dollar Babies' was released when I found out about the original version. It was years. Many years. On a Judy Collins record. Not being an ardent Judy supporter, I of course never owned anything she recorded, but I did love her version of Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" which I first heard in the 1999 film, "A Walk On The Moon." I found that album for a buck somewhere, and there it was, first song, first side. Rolf Kempf's "Hello Hooray." Apparently, Kempf had decided to give up the music business, but Collins heard him strumming this song at some event and loved it.
It's not bad at all. Different, of course. Almost like heavy metal, for Judy.
Are there any songs you had been listening to for years that you assumed were original recordings, only to find out they were not?
I remember thinking Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" was their own. I knew nothing of Gloria Jones, other than she being married to Marc Bolan.
18 comments:
Collins' "Who Knows..." album is one of those that has such a killer first side I rarely play the second side. It's also the odd duck in her albums, being heavily influenced by Stephen Stills-isms.
I don't have a songwriter revelation, but a good friend never knew for a long time that Nazareth's "This Flight Tonight" was a Joni Mitchell song.
That Judy Collins record is amazing! It's definitely a template for Stills' future group that went on, if I'm not mistaken, to have a pretty distinct sound along with a couple of minor hits.
I just learned, from watching "Little Voice" that the song, "Valerie" was not written by a favorite Bay Area Americana band, The Brothers Comatose. I was rather bummed.
paulinca
I'd like to second and third the praise for this Judy record. It really is an anomaly...with all due respect to Miss Collins and her long respected career.
I always wondered who was the one to pick such an obscure tune for an Alice Coooper record - was it Ezrin or Alice? I've always been amazed how a producer or an artist can hear a song that is not in their normal wheelhouse and turn it into something special. Plant/Krauss doing Please Read The Letter comes to mind in that respect.
Anyway, in regards to your question, here's a few with the artist I heard if first by in parentheses:
Collage - The Three Degrees (James Gang)
Hanky Panky - The Raindrops (Tommy James & The Shondells)
Underground - Chunky, Novi & Ernie (Montrose)
Say It Ain't So, Joe - Murray Head (Roger Daltrey)
One - Nilsson (Three Dog Night)
Sun Arise - Rolf Harris (Alice Cooper)
My Friend The Sun - Family (Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey)
Great idea for a thread!
Randy
P.S., your picture of Trump is freaky.
Hard to figure why a act named Colonel Popcorn's Butter Band didn't make it big...
Randy,
That Three Degrees version of Collage is a killer.
Wow - I remember Sugar Mountain.
I did not know that Rick Springfield's I've Done Everything for You was first done by Sammy Hagar.
Going back to Alice -- I had now idea "Escape" from Welcome to My Nightmare was a cover version, either. It was only in the last decade or so that I heard the original "Hollywood Stars" version. (Same goes for "King of the Night Time World" by the same band covered by KISS on Destroyer.). I had always assumed these were Bob Ezrin creations that he worked with Alice/KISS on.
That Judy Collins version is a mind blower (coming from a huge AC fan!). Never heard of it before.
Shriner,
Talk about mind blown--this is news to me about "Escape" and "King Of the Night Time World." Had no idea. But aside from a 2017 single by Hollywood Stars, I don't see their versions anywhere. Could M. Anthony have written these tracks specifically for Alice and Kiss?
It was years before I knew 'Good Lovin'' wasn't a Rascals original, 'Superstar' wasn't originally done by the Carpenters (and was a Leon Russell song, to boot!), and that David Gilmour didn't do the original of 'There's No Way Out Of Here'. On the latter, I saw on the album credits DG didn't write it, but it was such a good fit I assumed it was written for him.
And I was blown away that Hendrix didn't write 'All Along The Watchtower'. Apparently some cat named Zimmerman wrote it, but I've yet to find Zimmerman's version of it on YouTube, so I'm kinda wondering if 'Zimmerman' is some kinda pseudonym :)
C in California
"Escape" and "KOTNTW" were on the "lost" Hollywood Stars album from 1974 released relatively recently
Shine Like A Radio: The Great Lost
There a CD release of "Sound City" a couple of years ago that just has "Escape" on it. I forget the actually timeline of the reissues of this stuff.
The "lost" albums is pretty good. Kim Fowley was behind it. Glam/Dolls/Cheap Trick sound.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/shine-like-a-radio-the-great-lost-1974-album-mw0002586270
I had no idea I knew about some obscurity you didn't for once. Hah!
Love the Judy Collins version. Perversely I went off in another tangentially orientated direction: was the Sugar Mountain store named after the Neil Young tune? Or more geographically, after the resort of that ilk? Probably not the Rock Follies song with the same title? Oh well. Cheers!
Just happened recently, when I watched the Blaze Foley episode of Mike Judge's "Tales From the Tourbus" and heard him singing "Clay Pigeons" - a song on John Prine's "Fair and Square" record.
I'm goin' down to the Greyhound station
Gonna get a ticket to ride
Gonna find that lady with two or three kids
And sit down by her side…
...yeah, that song. Foley wrote it.
Also, Blaze Foley's story is something to behold.
What a pleasant diversion. This is up there with David Bowie's cover of Biff Roses' "Fill Your Heart". Find and check out one or both of Biff Roses' albums. A true genius.
I did NOT know "I've Done Everything For You" by Rick Springfield was written by Sammy Hagar of all people. A man barely mentioned amidst all the praise of Eddie Van Halen, I noticed. I'm sure there are MANY other examples if only they were pointed out to me.
PS I believe Zimmerman was a pseudonym of Prince.
I was familiar with Judy Collins version and not sure if I had ever heard Alice's version. I am sure I heard some of the album but don't remember this cut.
When Warren Zevon's Preludes record came out I was enthralled by a song I'd never heard before called "Rosarita Beach Cafe". It was pure Warren...every turn of phrase and idea. "I got a million dollar bill and they can't change it. They won't let me leave until my tab is paid..." When I found out it was written by Bill Martin, I couldn't believe it. It was so Zevon. Well, I guess that's why he covered it.
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