Song:The Beat Goes On
Album:Big Swing Face
Of course Buddy Rich was a big name in jazz mostly in the 60s when jazz was in a post bop lull. On The Beat Goes On, he features his teen daughter Cathy who he was attempting to launch into a singing career that ultimately didn't pan out. She now runs Rich's estate. For most of the 50s and into the 60s, Rich recorded albums for various labels and worked mostly for Harry James. In 1966, he formed his own big band and signed with Pacific Jazz Records. The first album of this new deal was the 1966 album Swingin' New Big Band featuring a West Side Story arranged by Bill Reddie who was previously leader of French singer Line Renaud's band. The album was so successful that Rich got a summer replacement variety show Away We Go on CBS in 1967 replacing The Jackie Gleason Show. It featured Buddy Greco and George Carlin and ran for ten episodes. At the same time, Rich released a new album Big Swing Face recorded live at the Chez Club in Los Angeles. The album is standard hard driving big band jazz except for this cover of the Sonny and Cher hit The Beat Goes On featuring Rich's teen daughter Cathy Rich. And he had her on his TV show too. The Beat Goes on was arranged by Shorty Rogers and the sax solo is by Jay Corre who was in the Harry James band with Rich. Again the album was very successful. Blue Note released Big Swing Face on CD in 1996 with several bonus tracks that were recorded at the same Chez Club shows but not used on the original album. It's available as a budget CD. So what about Cathy Rich's singing career? She released a cover of Wild Thing in 1969 produced by Kim Fowley. And she appeared on her dad's 1971 album Rich In London. She became his manager and she now runs his estate. The Buddy Rich version of The Beat Goes On lives on in samples on the 2010 Duffy hit Girl and the 1997 cover by The All Seeing I. Here's The Buddy Rich Big Band featuring Cathy Rich performing The Beat Goes On on Away We Go 1967.
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