Doors – "Touch Me" (1969)

Come on, come on, come on, come on now

Touch me, babe!

NOTE: “Touch Me” was one of the songs on the reel-to-reel tape that played in my high school cafeteria during lunch in 1969-70, when I was a senior.  

I’m not sure why the school administration allowed us to play “Communication Breakdown” (Led Zeppelin) and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (Rolling Stones) and “Touch Me” over the cafeteria P.A. system while we ate – especially given that my friends and I were wont to sing rude alternate lyrics for the song.  (Oliver Stone copied our idea in his 1991 movie about the Doors.)

What follows is an edited version of my original May 1, 2018 post about the newest inductee into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME:

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The Washington Post recently published a long article about professional cuddlers.  Here are some excerpts from that article, which was written by reporter Tara Bahrampour:

The 32-year-old photographer from Virginia had a busy life, but he was single, and starving for physical contact.  “I started to get to a place where if somebody started to greet me with a hug or even being in close proximity to someone, it was almost sort of a shocking feeling,” he said.

And so he turned to one of the country’s newest professions: cuddling for hire.  Once a week he paid $80 to be held, stroked and embraced for an hour in a nonsexual way.  Like most people interviewed for this story, the man, Chuck, wanted only his first name used because paying to get cuddled can feel embarrassing — especially in less touchy-feely areas like Washington.

But demand is growing.  In the past four years storefront cuddle shops have opened in Portland and Los Angeles, and one-on-one cuddle providers are proliferating across the nation.

While paying for touch may sound awkward or unnatural to those who get plenty of it from partners or other close connections, for some people it is an antidote to a culture where casual physical contact seems elusive.  The percentage of U.S. adults living without a spouse or partner has risen from 39 to 42 percent in the past 10 years, according to a recent Pew Research Center study, and the rise in on-screen interactions means more socializing takes place without even the possibility of touch.

The Post article focuses on the certified professional cuddlists who are listed on the Cuddlist.com website, which contains profiles of hundreds of certified professional cuddlists who charge $80 an hour to cuddle:

The Cuddlist site has logged over 10,000 requests and lists dozens of providers.  The West Coast and New York City are home to many, but the practice appears to be catching on more slowly in the D.C. area. . . .

Jasmine Siemon, 37, a cuddler in Germantown, Maryland who trained in Los Angeles and was recently certified by Cuddlist, said there is a robust market in this area, from stressed-out college students to lonely empty-nesters. . . .

While massage therapy might seem to be the perfect way to fulfill the need for touch, nonsexual cuddling addresses a deeper, more emotional need, professional cuddlers say.

“Massage therapy ethics are all about one-way touch,” said Annie Hopson, a Cuddlist provider in Ellicott City, Md., who is also a massage therapist.

Some cuddlers also host cuddle parties where strangers come together for a communal hug.  These have an eager clientele in the Washington area, said Edie Weinstein, a licensed social worker who has hosted over 300 of them here since 2004.

Dan, 43, who works in finance, said cuddling sessions took the place of an intimate relationship for about a year when he didn’t have one.

“I was aware that I needed contact with people,” he said. “I had been to massage parlors that were not on the up-and-up. I’d leave there with feelings of shame or feeling dirty, and this was different.” 

Click here to read the entire Post article.

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A lot of the comments that readers of the article posted on the newspaper’s website were more than a bit weird.

From henryfpotter:

I've seen, in various books, the claim that physical touch is a necessity of life.

1. All these books were written by women; if a man were to say such a thing out loud, it would immediately peg the creep-o-meter.

2. I haven't been touched since before 9/11 and I'm doing just fine.

From nancykmiller:

speak to people, don't touch them in this time.

we have a big problem with contagion.

you don't really want their germs, they don't want yours.

Here’s what fried003 had to say:

If I casually or accidently touch a female, it might be grounds for accusation of sexual harassment.  If I touch a male beyond a handshake or fistbump – it's something that I learned in primary school not to do.  Moral of the story – it's best not to touch anyone who isn't a close relative.

Another commenter who wanted no part of cuddling was asgoodasitgets:

I live alone and haven't been in a relationship in eight years, but I'm not this desperate.

Another negative comment came from vanative:

Our culture is getting lamer and needier by the day. Paying for cuddles is sad and creepy.

But amytales thought vanative had it backwards:

Or here's a thought: we might be getting lamer and needier in part due to lack of physical contact with other humans.

I’m not sure if zlwonder’s comment was serious:

I don't mind cuddling in a nonsexual way, as long as it leads to sex.

Here’s active999’s take on the article:

Cuddling is a start.  Prostitution (male and female) should be legal.  If the hubby or wife goes cold you can still get some lovin.’  Everybody needs a booty call every now and then.

From globalperspective:

My friend's marriage broke up after her husband began using a cuddler.  Call it what you'd like, but I wouldn't feel real great if my spouse suddenly started seeing a cuddler.

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My original plan was to poke fun at people who pay $80 an hour to spoon with “professional cuddlists,” which strikes me as more than a little ridiculous.

But being deprived of physical contact with others is no laughing matter.  It’s a very, very, VERY sad state of affairs in which to find yourself.  

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“Touch Me” reached #3 on the Billboard “Hot 100” chart in early 1969.  It was released on the Doors’ fourth studio album, The Soft Parade, which I played pretty much to death.   

Click here to listen to “Touch Me,” which famously closes with Morrison singing “Stronger than dirt” – that was the well-known slogan for Colgate-Palmolive’s Ajax household cleaner.

Click below to buy the record from Amazon:

Brooklyn Bridge – "Worst That Could Happen" (1968)

I’ll never get married

You know that’s not my scene

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I learned that "Worst That Could Happen" was written by the very talented Jimmy Webb – who also penned "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Up, Up and Away," "Wichita Lineman," "Galveston," and the truly fabulous "MacArthur Park."

"Worst That Could Happen," which was originally recorded by the Fifth Dimension, became a big hit in 1968 for The Brooklyn Bridge.  The group's lead singer, Johnny Maestro (who died of cancer in 2010), had been the lead singer of the Crests, a doo-wop group whose "16 Candles" had reached #2 on the Billboard charts almost ten years earlier.

By the way, you may have thought the title of our featured song was "The Worst That Could Happen," but BMI says it's "Worst That Could Happen."

Jimmy Webb: everyone agrees
that he's one of the all-time greats

"Worst That Could Happen" is one of the several songs by Webb that were inspired by his love affair with Linda Ronstadt's cousin, Susan Ronstadt.  Just like the girl in "Worst That Could Happen," Susan decided to break Webb's heart and marry some other guy.

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Veteran songwriter and record producer Wes Farrell – he co-wrote "Come a Little Bit Closer" and "Hang On Sloopy," among other hits, and produced the music for The Partridge Family TV show – pulled out all the stops when he produced "Worst That Could Happen."  Which is exactly what he should have done, because Jimmy Webb certainly held nothing back when he wrote the song.

The first two verses (and their accompanying choruses) of "Worst That Could Happen" are fairly straightforward – they lay the foundation for the shenanigans in the second half of the song.

At 1:42 – following the second chorus – Webb gives us a classic pop-song bridge (in a different key, which accentuates the contrast between the previous part of the song and the bridge).  

At 2:06, when the bridge is over and we move to the third and final verse, Webb changes keys again, modulating upward to increase the dramatic tension created by the song.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

At 2:28, producer Farrell whacks us in the face with a musical 2 x 4.  To wit, he abruptly steps on the brakes before singer Maestro completes the final line of the chorus, and inserts an organ flourish that leads into a trumpet fanfare based on Mendelssohn's famous "Wedding March."  

Everyone – Maestro, his backup singers, the trumpeters, and the rest of the band – then join in for a somewhat frenzied outro that turns the volume and intensity up to an 11 on a 10 scale.  

After that, I need to lie down and put a cool washcloth on my forehead. 

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Click here to listen to "Worst That Could Happen," which today is being inducted into the 2 OR 3 LINES "GOLDEN DECADE" HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

Click below to buy the record from Amazon:

Cream – "White Room" (1968)

In the bathroom

With pay toilets

At the station

[Cream is more of an album tracks band than a hit singles band.  Their albums are chock full of great songs, but “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room” were their only real hit singles.  Both are worthy of being in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME, but I think “White Room” is a much better song.  What follows is an edited version of the February 1, 2015 2 or 3 lines post that featured “White Room.”]

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I know, I know – the lyrics quoted above aren't the actual lyrics to "White Room."  Those are the made-up lyrics my really cool friends and I sang when "White Room" came on the tape that played during lunch period in my high-school cafeteria.

I'm not sure which is more amazing – that our student government was able to persuade the administration at good ol' Parkwood High School to install a soda dispenser in our cafeteria, or that our student government persuaded the administration at good ol' Parkwood High School to allow us to use the proceeds from the sales of Coca-Cola and Sprite and Dr. Pepper to buy a big-ass reel-to-reel tape recorder and make a tape with songs of our own choosing to play on it.  

Parkwood High School (Joplin, Missouri)

Like "Touch Me," by the Doors . . . "Venus," by the Shocking Blue . . . Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" . . . "You Can't Always Get What You Want," by the Rolling Stones . . . and Cream's "White Room."

Anyway . . . here are the actual opening lyrics to our featured song: 

In the white room 

With black curtains

Near the station

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Holy moly, "White Room" is a MONSTER song.  Everything about it is fabulous – especially Ginger Baker's relentless drumming and Jack Bruce's surreal lyrics.

Ginger Baker

You'll probably find this hard to believe, but "White Room" was covered by Joel Grey of Cabaret fame.  Click here to listen to Grey's cover (which is terrible).

It was also covered by Waylon Jennings, of all people.  Click here to listen to Waylon's cover (which is terrible, but in an entirely different way).

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I can't explain why power trios started coming out of the woodwork in the late sixties, but there's no denying the greatness of three-man aggregations like Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the James Gang, and Grand Funk Railroad.

"White Room" was released on
Cream's Wheels of Fire album

Click here to listen to the album version of "White Room," which includes a third verse that was omitted from the single version of the song (which was all I ever heard played on the radio):

At the party

She was kindness

In the hard crowd

Consolation

For the old wound

Now forgotten

Click below to buy the record from Amazon:

Friend and Lover – "Reach Out of the Darkness" (1968)

I think it's wonderful and how

That people are finally getting together

[NOTE: Did you know that Ray Stevens – best known for his comedy/novelty records, which included “Gitarzan,” “Ahab the Arab,” and “The Streak” – started out as a studio musician and arranger?  In fact, that’s him playing keyboards on today’s featured song, which is the newest member of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  He also arranged the strings for that recording, which was produced by Joe South of “Games People Play” fame.  I wasn’t aware of any that on June 2, 2015, when I originally featured “Reach Out of the Darkness” on 2 or 3 lines.  What appears below is a  slightly edited version of that post.]  

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Usually, the phrase "and how" is used to express one's emphatic agreement with a statement made by someone else – not to emphasize the speaker's own sentiments, which is how it is used in the lines quoted above.

Here's something else odd about this song.  The title of the song (and the title of the album it was subsequently released on) is "Reach Out of the Darkness," as this photo of my rental car's SiriusXM display plainly shows:

But the song's lyrics never say "Reach out of the darkness."  Instead, the lyrics say "Reach out in the darkness."  In fact, that line is repeated no fewer than nine times.  (I'm guessing the discrepancy may have been accidental – a mistake.)

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I heard "Reach Out of the Darkness" on a recent visit to Cape Cod.  I was on my way to rent a bike to ride on the Cape Cod Rail Trail when the song popped up on my satellite radio.

My route to the bike rental place took me past the Brewster home of someone who sells tie-dyed T-shirts and other garments:

The tie-dyer trusts his or her customers to be honorable people and drop the appropriate amount of cash for their purchases through a slot in a wooden box:

Surely karma would severely punish anyone who purloined a tie-dyed shirt without paying for it.

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Later that day, I saw a tie-dyed ukulele at The Sparrow Store in Orleans:

That store had ukuleles of all descriptions:

It even had ukuleles that can stand up by themselves:

Ukuleles are fine as long as you hang them on the wall for decorative purposes rather than actually playing them.  Like children, ukuleles should be seen and not heard.

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The Sparrow Store had a lot of other interesting gift items for sale, including a nice selection of hip flasks:

Here's a closeup of a couple of those flasks:

The store also had this dish towel, which would be a perfect gift for any new mom:

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"Reach Out of the Darkness" first appeared on the Billboard "Hot 100" on June 1, 1968 – just a few days before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.  One of the producers or writers of Mad Men must have figured that out because they played the song during an episode of that show that depicted people watching television when news of the Kennedy assassination was breaking.

I love "Reach Out of the Darkness."  I can't make a convincing intellectual case that it's a good song, but I've always had a soft spot for it.

Friend and Lover was comprised of Jim Post (who wrote the song) and his wife Cathy.  The couple eventually split up, but at the time they recorded the song, each presumably viewed the other as a friend and a lover.

I think most people would like to have a partner who is both a friend and a lover.  But a friend and a lover are two very different things.

A friend may eventually become a lover, but there's no guarantee that will work out in the long run.  Someone who is a wonderful friend is not necessarily the right person to be your lover.  (Take my word for it, boys and girls.)

Click here to listen to "Reach Out of the Darkness."

Click below to buy the record from Amazon:

Donovan – "Hurdy-Gurdy Man" (1968)

 

Here comes the roly-poly man

He’s singing songs of love

A hurdy-gurdy is a portable musical instrument that’s been played by itinerant musicians in Europe for centuries.  

In today’s featured song, a hurry-gurdy player “comes singing songs of love” – which is exactly what you might expect a street musician who’s hoping to get tips from passers-by to do.

There’s another character in today’s featured song – the “roly-poly man” (who’s mentioned only in passing).

“Roly-poly” is a term that’s used to describe a chubby, pudgy person.  But I don’t think Donovan is singing about some rotund guy who needs to lose weight.

A jam roly-poly

A jam roly-poly is a traditional British dessert, and I’m guessing that the “roly-poly man” in Donovan’s song is a vendor who’s walking the streets of London selling roly-polys.  He’s presumably singing songs in order to attract the attention of potential customers.

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I was surprised to learn that “Hurdy Gurdy Man” made it all the way to #5 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in the summer of 1968 . . . which means that it meets the criteria for the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

Donovan Leitch wrote the song when he was in India, studying transcendental meditation with the Beatles.  The four-string tambura that Donovan plays on “Hurdy Gurdy Man” was given to him by George Harrison, who also wrote this verse for the song:

When the truth gets buried deep

Beneath the thousand years asleep

Time demands a turnaround

And once again the truth is found

Donovan often sings that verse when he performs the song live, but it’s not on the studio recording of the song.  That’s because the producer told Donovan that he needed to cut either Harrison’s verse or the guitar solo to keep the record’s length reasonably close to three minutes.  

George Harrison, Donovan, and John Lennon

Donovan chose to keep the guitar solo and throw Harrison’s verse under the bus.

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Speaking of that guitar solo, Donovan had hoped that Jimi Hendrix could play guitar on “Hurdy-Gurdy Man,” but Jimi wasn’t available when the song was being recorded.  (Donovan had originally wanted to give the song to Hendrix to record, but legendary British record producer Mickie Most – who produced “House of the Rising Sun” and many other great records – insisted that Donovan record it himself.)  

Jimmy Page, who was then in the Yardbirds, has said that he played guitar on “Hurdy Gurdy Man.”  Donovan has credited both Page and Allan Holdsworth – a very idiosyncratic guitar virtuoso – but John Paul Jones (who played bass and booked the studio musicians for the “Hurdy Gurdy Man’ recording session) said that well-known session guitarist Alan Parker was the guitarist on the record.  (Jeff Beck apparently played on one take of the song, but that take wasn’t ultimately used.)

The drummer was either John Bonham, or studio musician Clem Cattini, or both.

Donovan, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and three of the four future members of Led Zeppelin – that’s a pretty amazing list of musicians for just one record.  

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Here are a few random facts about “Hurdy Gurdy Man”:

– The Beastie Boys sampled the record on “Car Thief,” one of the tracks on their 1989 album, Paul’s Boutique.  Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz later married Donovan’s daughter, actress Ione Skye – who’s most famous role was as John Cusack’s love interest in Say Anything:

John Cusack and Ione Skye

– The soundtrack of the very creepy 2007 David Fincher mystery film, Zodiac, opens and closes with “Hurdy Gurdy Man.”  (Ione Skye had a small role in that movie.)

– The soundtrack of the very stupid 1994 “comedy” Dumb and Dumber includes a cover version of the song by the Butthole Surfers, whose frontman Gibby Haynes played college basketball at Trinity University in San Antonio at the same time my sister was playing for Trinity’s women’s team.  Click here to listen to that Butthole Surfers’ cover.

 

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Click here to listen to “Hurdy Gurdy Man.”

Click below to buy the record from Amazon:

John Fred & His Playboy Band – "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)" (1967)

 

Cross your heart

With your livin’ bra

Apparently this line – which refers to the famous (and heavily advertised) line of Playtex bras – raised eyebrows at certain radio stations.

I could wax poetic at length about the Playtex “Living Bra” advertisements in the women’s magazines that my mother and grandmother subscribed to when I was just a lad:

But this month’s 2 or 3 lines posts are supposed to be about the newest group of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  So I’m going to save my fond memories of those ads for another day.

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I used to own the 1967 John Fred & His Playboy Band album, Agnes English – which included the band’s #1 hit single, “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses).”

I found it in the three-albums-for-a-dollar cutout bin at Grandpa’s, a discount store in my hometown.  (Grandpa’s was a really low-budget store.  It made the typical Dollar General look like .)

I sold Agnes English and most of other LPs a few years ago.  THAT WAS A HUGE MISTAKE!  Just because my albums took up a lot of space and I hadn’t listened to them since the last millennium – I don’t even own a working turntable – was no reason to get rid of them.

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John Fred Gourrier, Jr. – who was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 8, 1941 – formed John Fred and the Playboys when he was only 15.  

Several months before he turned 18, they recorded a single titled “Shirley,” which reached #82 on the Billboard “Hot 100.”  The band performed the song on Alan Freed’s ABC-TV show, The Big Beat, and was subsequently invited to appear on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.

But his Catholic High School basketball team was hoping to win the state championship that year, and Gourrier chose to turn down American Bandstand rather than miss one of their games.

The Playboys’ next few singles failed to chart, so the group’s record company cancelled their contract.  The band broke up after that.

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After graduating from college in 1963, Gourrier reformed the group.  They released singles on several different labels over the next few years, but all of them were flops.

John Fred & His Playboy Band – the group had modified its name in order to avoid being confused with Gary Lewis and the Playboys – had two regional hits in 1967, but neither one got much airplay outside of Louisiana.

Gourrier’s group finally hit it big with “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses),”  The record’s title is a play on the title of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.”  It’s also a mondegreen of sorts – John Fred supposedly thought John Lennon was singing “Lucy in disguise with diamonds.”

“Judy in Disguise” knocked “Hello Goodbye” out of the top spot on the U.S. pop charts in January 1968, and it stayed at #1 for two weeks.  The record also was a #1 hit in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, South Africa, and Switzerland, and made it to #3 in the UK, Canada, and several other countries.

John Fred Gourrier and finally got to appear on American Bandstand – nine years after he turned down the original invitation.

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John Fred & His Playboy Band never came close to replicating the success of “Judy in Disguise.”  Their next single peaked at #57, and the four other singles they released in 1968 failed to chart at all.

The band kept trying, but their subsequent releases – including one titled “Silly Sarah Carter (Eating on a Moonpie)” – went nowhere.  The group finally threw in the towel in 1970.

Elvis and John Fred Gourrier

Click here to listen to “Silly Sarah Carter,” which sounds almost exactly like “Judy In Disguise.”  

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John Fred Gourrier spent most the seventies on the road, then became a record producer and an advertising jingle writer.

He became seriously ill after undergoing a kidney transplant in 2004.  After a long hospitalization, Gourrier died at Tulane University Hospital in New Orleans on April 15, 2005.  He was 63. 

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Gourrier loved baseball as much as loved music.

His father had played 3B and OF for several Louisiana minor-league teams in the early 1930s, and Gourrier played the sport in college, helping his Southeastern Louisiana University team win Gulf Coast Conference titles in 1962 and 1963.

From his obituary:

[Gourrier] coached youth league baseball for 29 years and, beginning in 1995, became the volunteer head coach of Catholic High School's freshman baseball team.  The life lessons taught by John Fred to scores of young men through his coaching left a lasting impression. 

One of his proudest accomplishments combined his lifelong passion for music and sports when he wrote and recorded "Baseball At The Box" for the LSU baseball team, coached by his good friend, five-time national champion coach Skip Bertman. 

Bertman once said that John Fred sent him more great baseball players than anyone else.

Former LSU baseball coach Skip Bertman

Click here to listen to “Baseball at the Box,” which is based on the well-known Danny and the Juniors’ hit, “At the Hop.”  (The song’s title is a reference to Alex Box Stadium, which was the home field of the LSU Tigers from 1938 to 2008.) 

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Everything about “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)” – which was co-written and co-produced by Gourrier and his bandmate, Andrew Bernard – is terrific.  

It’s surprising to me that they never came up with another hit single.  I guess they put everything they had into “Judy in Disguise.”

I think the record is very deserving of being included in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.  It shouldn’t be punished just because it’s a one-hit wonder – after all, a goodly number of the very best records from the golden decade are one-hit wonders.

 

Click here to listen to “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses).”

Click on the link below to buy the record from Amazon:

Frankie Valli – "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (1967)

 

The sight of you leaves me weak

There are no words left to speak

The official title of today’s featured song is “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

I always thought Frankie Valli was singing “Can’t take my eyes off OF you.”  But upon further review, I’m not sure that’s correct.  

(He got the words wrong, too!)

I am sure that Lauryn Hill is singing “Can’t take my eyes off OF you” on her very popular 1997 cover of the song.  But the official title of that recording leaves the “of” out.  (Hill’s cover was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, which I find astonishing.  It’s HORRIBLE!)

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Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio aren’t responsible for all of the Four Seasons’ many hit singles, but they co-wrote most of the best ones – including “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (a #1 hit in 1962), “Walk Like a Man” (which went to #1 the next year), and “Rag Doll” (a #1 hit in 1964).

I’m not sure why it was decided that “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” would be released as a Frankie Valli record rather than as a Four Seasons record, but I suspect that it had something to do with (1) ego or (2) $$$$$ or (3) both.

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I love it when a recording artist walks right up to the edge of chaos and the loss of control.  Think “Helter Skelter,” where the usually very chill Paul McCartney lets it all hang out.  (Arthur Brown’s “Fire” is another example of this.)

On the other hand, I also love records where every note is carefully planned and executed – where skill and craft come to the forefront.  (Those two statements may seem contradictory, but I am a Gemini, after all – in fact, I’ve been one all my life.)

Artie Schroeck

“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” was arranged by a veteran musician named Artie Schroeck, who began playing piano and drums when he was three years old.  Legendary drummer Gene Krupa noticed him when he was an eight-year-old performing with his three older brothers in Atlantic City.

Schroeck worked with everyone from Lionel Hampton to Liza Minnelli to Laura Nyro to Neil Diamond to the Lovin’ Spoonful to Barry Manilow, and he won several Clio Awards for his work on TV commercials.  Listen to his arrangement of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and you’ll see why he was in demand as an arranger – it’s a three-minute, 24-second master class in how to arrange a popular song for maximum effect.

Having Phil Ramone engineer the recording didn’t hurt, and the anonymous studio musicians who backed up Valli’s inimitable singing with horns and strings and percussion don’t miss a note.  

But Schroeck’s flawless arrangement is why this record is going in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE’ HIT SINGLES HALL OF FAME.

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Click here to listen to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Click on the link below to buy the record from Amazon: