AccuRadio Song Of The Day-The Jarmels

Artist:The Jarmels

Song:A Little Bit of Soap

Album:The Golden Age of American Rock 'n' Roll Vol. 1

In the last days of doo wop, the 1961 single A Little Bit of Soap was a top twenty hit. It was the only chart single for The Jarmels. As you will see, a version of the group is still around today. The Jarmels were from Richmond, VA. and they all grew up singing in church. At first they were called The Cherokees. Group members were Nathaniel Ruff, Ray Smith, Paul Burnett, Earl Christian and Tom Eldridge. They met Ben E. King when he appeared in Richmond and he invited them to come to New York and meet with record companies. They were the first black group to sign with Laurie Records. The Mystics were on Laurie. The Mystics' manager Jim Gribble became The Cherokees' manager and the group name was changed to The Jarmels possibly to make listeners think they were from New York. A Little Bit of Soap was the second single and it reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by Bert Russell which was an alias for producer Bert Berns. Of course he went on to own Bang Records and produce Van Morrison and Neil Diamond. But A Little Bit of Soap was Berns' very first hit. The record was arranged by Laurie house arranger Glen Stuart. The Jarmels recorded five singles and then Laurie dropped them. There are a couple of comps available but they are too short. I also think most listeners will only be interested in A Little Bit of Soap so I recommend this Ace Records various artists comp which is available on CD. The Jarmels continued to perform until they split up in 1969. A version of The Jarmels reformed to work the nostalgia circuit. Ray Smith is the only surviving member and a version of the group still performs today. It's amazing the longevity an act can get from one hit single. Here's The Jarmels performing A Little Bit of Soap on a doo wop TV show.

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Jamie Owens-Collins

Artist:Jamie Owens-Collins

Song:The Victor

Album:The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Jamie Owens-Collins is a Contemporary Christian (CCM) singer songwriter who had success in the 70s when CCM was called Jesus Music. The Victor seems to be one of her more popular songs. She was born Sept. 27, 1955 in Oakland, CA. Her parents Jimmy and Carol Owens wrote and staged Christian musicals mostly for children. They won a 1981 Best Children's Album Grammy for Ants'hillvania. After Jamie sang on some of their albums, Light Records signed her to a record deal. Light was owned by Ralph Carmichael and they were at the forefront of the creation of CCM and Contemporary Gospel. Andrae Crouch and Sweet Comfort Band were on Light. The Victor is from Jamie's second album Growing Pains which was released in 1975. Her 1973 album Laughter in Your Eyes was produced by her dad Jimmy Owens. For Growing Pains, Jamie went in a more contemporary direction and used Los Angeles studio musicians. Her dad was involved on a supervisory level. Jamie wrote most of the songs including The Victor. The producer was Al Perkins of The Flying Burrito Brothers who also played guitar. Michael Omartian arranged and played organ and synthesizer. He's a CCM recording artist and a top producer. Keith Green played piano. He went on to be a CCM singer songwriter. Other musicians were John Talbot and Rick Vito on guitar, David Hungate and Leland Sklar on bass and David Diggs and Mike Baird on drums. Jamie married Dan Collins in 1976 and he took over management of her career. Collins is a record executive who was a big part of The Maranatha Singers. After one more album for Light, Jamie switched to the other big CCM label Sparrow. Since the 80s, they have owned their masters and this comp was released in 2008. It's available as a digital download. Jamie Owens-Collins still tours and she hosts her own podcast. Here's Jamie Owens-Collins performing The Victor on the 2004 documentary First Love: A Historic Gathering of Jesus Music Pioneers. Dan Collins was one of the producers and you can watch the entire film on YouTube. 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Stars on 54

Artist:Stars on 54

Song:If You Could Read My Mind

Album:54: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture Volume 2

This dance cover of the Gordon Lightfoot classic If You Could Read My Mind is from the 1998 film 54. The record was a worldwide club hit and was the best thing from this film. Because it bombed following major disagreements between writer director Mark Christopher and Miramax Films head Harvey Weinstein. After Christopher had made a couple of short films, Weinstein convinced him to write and direct a film about the New York City club Studio 54. The stars were Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell and Mike Myers. Christopher wanted make a film to capture Studio 54's notoriety as the epicenter of the gay culture explosion in New York City. Weinstein wanted a commercial film similar to Saturday Night Fever with all the gay references removed. I know that makes no sense. After Christopher's cut was previewed, Weinstein had his own cut done. Not surprisingly, the Miramax cut of Studio 54 was a critical and commercial flop. Christopher restored his cut for a 2014 DVD release and the response was positive to that. And that brings me back to the soundtrack. Marco Beltrami's score for the film has never been released. The two soundtrack albums have mostly previously released songs that were used as background music. So that tells me that Weinstein wanted to replicate the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album too. The exceptions were the Studio 54 Medley which was a medley of song snippets and If You Could Read My Mind. The singers were Ultra Nate, Jocelyn Enriquez and Amber. Ultra Nate sings most of the lead parts. Those three are pros. They knew what to do. The record was produced by veteran German producers Christian and Frank Beerman aka The Berman Brothers. They won a Grammy for Who Let the Dogs Out by Baha Men. The single was an international hit especially on the dance charts. Volume 2 of the Studio 54 soundtrack is available as a budget CD. It's all previously released songs by various artists. The song is available on other various artists CDs. Here's the video for If You Could Read My Mind by Stars on 54. 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-The 2 Live Crew

Artist:The 2 Live Crew

Song:Banned in the U.S.A.

Album:Banned in the U.S.A.

2 Live Crew Was an early rap group that became successful after a federal court ruled that one of their albums was obscene. The 1990 single Banned in the U.S.A. was their reaction to that ruling. It turned out to be their biggest hit. This dumb ruling was overturned upon appeal in 1992. All it did was give free publicity to 2 Live Crew and they became a symbol of free speech. 2 Live Crew was formed in 1984. But they started to get noticed after DJ and Miami promoter Luther Campbell became their manager and joined the group. The other members were David "DJ Mr. Mixx" Hobbs and Chris "Fresh Kid Ice" Wong Won. After Mark "Brother Marquis" Ross joined in 1986, Campbell started his own record company and became the spokesman for the group. The 1986 album The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are had sexually explicit lyrics. I don't have a problem with that except radio stations can't play their records as they could have their license taken away by the FCC. The album was still certified Gold based on word of mouth. With their 1988 Move Somethin', Campbell decided to release explicit and clean versions so they could get radio play. This album was also certified Gold. Then they released the 1998 album As Nasty as They Wanna Be. The single Me So Horny reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Christian fundamentalist organization American Family Association (AFA) went to Florida Governor Bob Martinez to have obscenity charges filed. This progressed to a point where a judge ruled that the album was obscene. Campbell sued the sheriff in Florida. The police response to that was to arrest a record retailer for selling the album to an undercover cop and they arrested members of 2 Live Crew while they performed in a local club. Free speech advocates were outraged and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. handled the case. Charges were dropped and the appeals court reversed this ridiculous ruling. Meanwhile, As Nasty As They Wanna Be sold over two million copies without the benefit of a hit single. Then they released the 1990 album Banned in the U.S.A. and the title song reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bruce Springsteen let Campbell use his song Born in the U.S.A. This album is available on CD. After two more albums, this version of 2 Live Crew split up. Campbell left and the other three continued to record until 1998. They would reunite occasionally and release singles. Wong Won died in 2017 and Ross died in 2024. The one thing I can say about 2 Live Crew is they helped popularize rap music. Here's the video for Banned in the U.S.A. by 2 Live Crew. 

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Marvelous 3

Artist:Marvelous 3

Song:Freak of the Week

Album:Hey! Album

Marvelous 3 was a short lived band that had success when their videos were played on MTV. The 1999 single Freak of the Week is their best known song. They sound too much like other bands of that era like Blink-182. In fact, they toured with Blink-182. Band leader Butch Walker has gone on to have a very successful production career, most notably Avril Lavigne. Walker is currently a member of Train and records solo. So I guess he still wants that big hit record. Walker was born Nov. 14, 1969 in Rome, GA and he grew up in Cartersville, GA. He was in several 80s bands including Byte the Bullet. They moved to Los Angeles in 1988. They changed their name to SouthGang and released two albums on Virgin Records. Then they split up. Walker formed a new band with bassist Jayce Fincher and drummer Mitch "Slug" McLee called Floyd's Funk Revival and then The Floyds. They released two albums that went nowhere. So in 1997 Walker formed a new band Marvelous 3 with the same musicians and released an album independently. It did well enough that they signed with Elektra Records. Instead of releasing this album, Elektra wanted Walker to rerecord most of the songs and replace a couple of them. That reworked album was titled Hey! Album and was released in 1999. I guess it was no big deal as Walker writes and produces everything. Freak of the Week was the lead single and MTV played the video in heavy rotation. It reached #5 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. It probably would have done better if Elektra spent some money to promote Marvelous 3. And that was Walker's main problem with Elektra. He asked to be released in 2001. Then they split up. This album is available as a budget CD. Since then Walker has recorded solo. But he has had great success as a songwriter producer for Avril Lavigne, Taylor Swift, Pink, Katy Perry and plenty more. He is currently working on Courtney Love's upcoming album. Marvelous 3 has reunited a couple of times and released a 2023 album. Walker joined Train as guitarist last year. They are currently on tour with plans to record new music. Here's the video for Freak of the Week by Marvelous 3. 

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-John Rubinstein

Artist:John Rubinstein

Song:Corner of the Sky

Album:Pippin: Original Cast Recording

As the son of a world famous musician, John Rubinstein has had a lot to live up to. For most of his career, he has had success on Broadway. The 1972 musical Pippin was his first big hit. He has also appeared on TV and films and even composed film scores. But he's best known for his work on Broadway. He was born Dec. 8, 1946 in Los Angeles. His father was famed classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein. So I suppose Rubinstein was always going to be a musician. After studying theater and music at UCLA, he studied composition at Juilliard in New York. The first time I heard of Rubinstein was in the 1970 film Zachariah as the title character. This film was a psychedelic western that had rock musicians in it. That's why I knew about it. The film wasn't a hit at the time. But now it's a cult film. Rubinstein sang one song in the film but it wasn't on the soundtrack album. Then he got the title role in the Broadway musical Pippin. Stephen Schwartz had just had success with Godspell. Like that show, Pippin started out as a school project at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Schwartz took over the project and developed it himself. It was a vehicle for Ben Vereen as Leading Player. He won a Tony. Rubinstein and the rest of the cast were support players. The show did OK. Motown released the original cast album. Rubinstein sang several songs in the show. Corner of the Sky was in Act 1. The Jackson 5 scored a hit single with the song. The cast album was remastered in 2000 and released with three bonus tracks including The Jackson Five's recording of Corner of the Sky. Rubinstein composed the scores for the 1972 Robert Redford films Jeremiah Johnson and The Candidate. He composed music for a lot of TV movies in the 80s. For the rest of the 70s, he did lots of TV guest shots. Rubinstein was a regular on the 80s TV series Crazy Like a Fox. I don't think Rubinstein has ever had a starring role in a film. He returned to Broadway for the 1980 show Children of a Lesser God. Other shows include M. Butterfly (1989), a late 90s revival of Ragtime, Wicked when it played Los Angeles in 2007 and a 2014 revival of Pippin as King Charlemagne. He has also done 150 audio books. Currently Rubinstein is touring with the one man show Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground and he teaches musical theater at USC. So he's done pretty well. Here's John Rubinstein performing Corner of the Sky on an Easter Seals Telethon in the 70s. 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Natalie La Rose

Artist:Natalie La Rose f/Jeremih

Song:Somebody

Album:NOW That's What I Call Music! 54

Dutch singer Natalie La Rose scored a top ten hit with her 2015 debut single Somebody. It's her only hit to date. In fact, Natalie has not released an album. She currently records for her own label. She was born July 11, 1988 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her parents are from Surinam. As a child, Natalie and her sister sang and danced together. She graduated from the Lucia Marthas Dance Academy in 2008. Natalie moved to Los Angeles in 2010. She signed with Blackground Records. They are best known as the late Aaliyah's label owned by her uncle Barry Hankerson. They were distributed by Interscope. Hankerson put Natalie in a duo with Sigourney Korper called Amsterdam. They appeared in the J. Lewis and Flo Rida video Dancing for Me. When things didn't work out, Natalie appeared as lead dancer in Lloyd's 2011 video Dedication to My Ex (Miss That). At an ESPY Awards after party, she ran into Flo Rida and told him that she would work with him one day. Flo Rida was so impressed that she toured with him for the next two years. She signed with his IMG label with Republic distribution. The 2015 single Somebody reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was an international hit. The record is based on the Whitney Houston hit I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The record was produced by The Futuristics (Alex Schwartz, Joe Khajadourian) and William Lobban-Bean aka Cook Classics. The remix featured singer Jeremih. When the follow up single Around the World didn't do nearly as well, Republic dropped her like a bad habit. Natalie never even got to record an album. That's how labels like Republic treat young black women. She's OK in the video. There's nothing wrong with her. But she comes across like Republic's Hot Girl of the Month. They think she's disposable. Since 2022, Natalie has recorded for her own label. I don't see that going anywhere. As we have seen in the past, an artist needs more than one hit record to get a big push from Universal labels. It's too bad but that's how they work. Here's the video for Somebody by Natalie La Rose.