Topic Bernadette, Pop Princess from the General Chit-Chat forum.
Post a reply or begin a new topic.
View other threads or jump to a different forum.
| Author | Topic: Bernadette, Pop Princess |
|---|
Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 12/21/2006 at 7:11:03 AM ET
A friend has loaned me a CD of "Northern Soul" hits which includes an interesting little write- up on Bernadette and one of her songs from the 1960s which is still regularly played in the Northern Soul clubs in the North of England (and other N.S. Clubs across the UK) I don't know if you are aware that Bernadette is well-known and revered on that circuit as a Northern Soul Pop Princess. Her biggest N.S. "hit" is We'll Start The Party Again".
from Wikipedia ... Northern soul is a style of music with associated dance styles and fashions that developed in the north of England in the late 1960s. In the beginning the dancing was athletic, featuring spins, flips, and drops. The music originally consisted of obscure American soul recordings with an uptempo beat, very similar to and including Tamla Motown, plus more obscure labels (e.g. Okeh) from cities like Detroit and Chicago
Some of you may be interested to read the Bernadette notes from the N.S. CD...(Where The Girls Are 5 ... A decade of Columbia femme pop)
... The release of Academy Award on United Artists in 1962 proved a portentous vinyl debut for 18 (sic) year old Bernadette Peters. While she has yet to be bestowed with an actual Oscar, the former Bernadette Lazzara can count amongst her many accolades a Star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and two Tony Awards. From her first TV appearance on Name That Tune at age 3, a career in show business was her destiny. Fifty years later she is a movie star and Broadway diva of the highest order, but it is for the quartet of 45s she recorded during time spent as a 1960s pop princess that she is revered by the girl group aficionados of today. 1967's "Will You Care What's Hap'nin' To Me, Baby", the last of those singles, was written for her by the enigmatic Brute Force of The Tokens, the author of such genre treasures as the Chiffons' "Nobody Knows What's Going On". ... Thirty odd years later the songwriter recalls working with Bernadette, "I remember her sitting right next to me as I auditioned songs for her. I was at once taken by her voice, to me it was a Betty Boop voice. She was so pretty. Five or six years ago I was working as a waiter at a private function, Bernadette was a guest at the party. So, there I was, bringing her plates of this and that, taking her dishes away, pouring her wine,. I looked into her eyes once. You know, I wanted to say something to her, but I didn't." .... Bernadette Peters may have failed to recognise her colleague from the 1960s but her latter-day recordings of songs like "Dedicated To The One I Love", "Gee Whiz" and "Chico's Girl" are evidence that the youngest ever inductee of the Theatre Halll Of Fame has not forgotten those girl group days.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 12/21/2006 at 7:19:02 AM ET
What a coincidence!
ebay
Thanks for the write-up, I always enjoy those...
| Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 12/21/2006 at 7:21:10 AM ET
And another coincidence:
chit chat
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 12/21/2006 at 7:29:29 AM ET
Jean, you are amazing! You have a mind like the Encyclopedia Britannica (in an American kind of way, of course!)
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 12/21/2006 at 9:04:14 AM ET
Ah, so that's what "Northern Soul" means. Until a few years ago I had never heard the term and had made the guess that "Northern" was some sort of euphemism for "white." 
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 12/21/2006 at 9:34:51 AM ET
There is a whole "fashion scene" that goes along with Northern Soul too, it's actually a way of life for lots of the N.S. followers. Though the movement has newer and younger fans I do rather wonder how the original 1960 Northern Soulers manage to execute their athletic "spins, flips and drops" these days? 
Here is a mention of Bernadette from a similar CD "The Girls's Scene" - sadly, this CD only has a British cover version of the Bernadette song from the 1960s" but this description of Bernadette's vocal technique is interesting .... "And The Trouble With Me Is You" is a Kenny Young/Artie Resnick song originally done Statside by Bernadette Peters who affected a Bob Dylan-esque drawl in an attempt to do a female 'counterpart' to Mr Zimmerman ..."
The amusing thing is that the British cover version on this CD is by a very young Scots girl call Linda Flavell who (presumably) tries to emulate BP by adopting the Bob Dylan "drawl" while never really losing her Scots accent. Think Sean Connery trying to sound like Dylan and you've got the picture.
Has anyone ever heard the Bernadette version? Does she do a Dylan?
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 12/21/2006 at 11:00:56 AM ET
I've been looking for that 45 record for ages. It doesn't seem as though very many copies were pressed, as it never shows up on ebay . I think I remember reading somewhere that it was an attempt to cash in on the sixties folk music craze. Needless to say, it didn't work.
|  leebee
Registered User
Registered:
1/19/2004
Fav. BP Song: Being Alive
Fav. BP Show: Sunday In The Park With George
| posted: 12/21/2006 at 2:59:48 PM ET
Is Glenda Collins part of the Northern Soul scene? She recorded with producer Joe Meek, one of those mad English geniuses of the period. She made some great pop records.
I love all of those Bernadette singles from the 60's. Each one is like a little pastiche of the year's music trends. "Trouble With Me" fits right along with the sounds of Beatles and Stones records that were on the radio in that era, it has a great fuzzed out guitar riff and heavy drums. BP's singing style on it is totally unlike anything else she ever recorded - it would be amusing to play it for her today and gauge a reaction!
My favorite of the batch I think is "Do You Care What's Happenin'". It has a sort of faux-Phil Spector production style with a wonderful French Horn theme and an impossibly catchy chorus that I promise will stick in your head forever (in a good way of course).
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 12/21/2006 at 3:49:24 PM ET
Yeah, "Will You Care.." is great. I love the way certain moments in the song are punctuated with a sound like cannons going off.
| Scottie
Registered User
Registered:
3/6/2006
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland | posted: 12/21/2006 at 5:31:40 PM ET
"Canons going off" just about sums it up and there is that little military march thing going on as well. It's certainly a toe-tapper!
"We'll Start The Party Again" is a great track by anyone's standards - it would definitely get me out of my seat and on to the dance floor. I also love the weird and wonderful way Bernadette sings "Academy Award" ... "aah-caa-demm-eee award".
Glenda Collins is just one of many great British female singers of that decade who just didn't make it. But she must have been good since Joe Meek wasn't exactly known for his interest in girl performers. He spent much of his time and considerable talent in producing great sounding records for boy singers and groups who were, very often, rather talent-challenged - but pretty. .... Another great producer of that era was Andrew Loog Oldham who did take more of an interest in female talent - often to great effect.
as Bernadette says....just keep moving on.....
|  Jennifer
Registered User
Registered:
7/12/2010
From:
CA | posted: 9/4/2010 at 12:56:01 PM ET
Most of you probably know about this or have heard it, but I'm a new fan.
http://philxmilstein.com/probe/index.htm
check out sessions 305 and session 194
| | Other threads: « Next | Previous » |
Do you think this topic is inappropriate? Vote it down. After a thread receives a certain amount of negative votes it will be automatically locked.
Please contact us with any concerns you might have.
|
