Convoluted connections, #762 in a series...
Being "quiz freaks", I regularly send out a link to the BBC "7 Days Quiz" (all about news headlines from the week) to "our gang", and we compete on scoring. The quizmasters add a pithy name to the various ranges of scores. Last week's was based around Motown song titles - mine was You Keep Me Hangin' On, and my sister's was Nothing but Heartaches.
Me, being me, immediately got the Freemasons' 90s dance classic of a slightly different name stuck in my head as an earworm:
Knowing that that was merely a cover version of a much older Northern Soul song, I went a-hunting - and not only found the original but, to my surprise, it had a video...
...filmed in the magnificent ruins of Tintern Abbey in Wales, not far from where I was born, and just around the corner from where our friend Baby Steve grew up!
Quite why a band from South Carolina ended up there was a bit of a mystery, until I looked up The Flirtations and found that they left the USA and became much more successful over here, and that this very "Detroit/Philly" sounding choon was actually written by a record producer from Rhyl...
There's luvverley, innit?
I can't believe it but I remember the original by the Flirtations. I usually don't recognize anything Northern Soul related. I even remember the ooh la las...
ReplyDeleteIt was relatively late to the party - unlike many of the "Northern Soul classics" that were much older "forgotten" discoveries, it was written and released in 1969. That might be the reason it made it onto mainstream radio playlists... Jx
DeleteLocal Boy Makes Good, and all that. I remember both the original and this cover, which is very unusual for me, and like both of them very much.
ReplyDeleteIt's a remarkable song, whichever version. I love it! Jx
DeleteWell who'd a thought it. The sound of Philadelphia via Rhyl.
ReplyDeleteTheres lovely.
Far better than the sound of Rhyl via Philadelphia. Jx
Delete