40 Year Itch : It Hides a Nasty Stain

10cc: Good News

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        5 Fun Facts About 10cc's "I'm Not In Love"

1. The Eric Stewart/Graham Gouldman song was originally recorded with a Bossa Nova beat, but the other two members dismissed the tune as "crap". Otherwise we might be discussing a song that sounds a little something like this :




2. It was drummer and singer Kevin Godley who suggested the sad song needed a "wall of voices". And Lol Creme, the other Bossa Nova dissenter, who suggested using tape loops. Gouldman, Godley and Creme sang all of those "Ahhh"s.

Each "Ah" was a note which had to be duplicated 16 times by three singers for the choral effect multiplied by the 12 notes on the chromatic scale ( the distance from a D note on your piano to the next D note).




  By moving the switches on the faders up and down for each note, whoever operated the mixing board could form chords. It would take three weeks to build the song

3. Kathy Redfern, the secretary at the 10cc-owned Strawberry Studios, recorded the spoken word lines "Big boys don't cry".



4. The single, released in May of 1975 with the now hard to find "Good News" as the B side, was #1 in the UK but never topped the US Hot 100. It peaked at #2 for three straight weeks as three different artists leapfrogged over 10cc for the #1 spot: Van McCoy's "The Hustle", The Eagles "One of These Nights", and the Bee Gees' "Jive Talkin'"



5. Long before Guardians of the Galaxy renewed interest in the song, "I'm Not in Love" was covered by multiple artists including Richie Havens who I think did the best cover version, The Pretenders, Will to Power, Peggy Lee  and Diana Krall.

40 Year Itch : What Richie's Been Up To

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On Mixed Bag II, the hard strumming Richie Havens covers The Five Stairstep's classic "Ooh Child", Bob Dylan's "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and Paul McCartney's "Band on the Run", the last of which is barely a curiosity. Much more fascinating is the concert the BBC shot in 1974.

40 Year Itch: This and That...

 

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Bits of Music news from the early Summer of 1973:

Richie Havens begins an 8 city tour to promote Portfolio, an album containing eight lithographs Havens himself drew.

Why is John Dean's picture in a music blog? Because the Time Magazine cover story was promised to Paul Simon.

  Buck Owens was spotted in San Diego for farewell ceremonies to two US Navy Destroyers sold to Brazil:
 The USS Buck and the USS Owens.

Gemini announced that their Watergate poster was outselling posters of Donny Osmond, David Cassidy and The Jackson 5.
                                 

Billy Paul bough his wife a Mercedes with the money he earned from "Me and Mrs Jones."