Weekend Listomania (Special The Kids in the Office Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental Bop on Your Schmeckel Specialist ethical consultant Fah Lo Suee and I are off to an undisclosed location to plead for veterinary care for my snake Reggie at one of those Obama Death Panel thingies.

So posting by moi will more than likely be sporadic for a little while.

But in the meantime, here's another little project for us all:

Most Memorable Song or Record That Wouldn't Have Existed Without the Brill Building Writers Factory of the Sixties!!!!

No arbitrary rules this time, you're welcome very much. Just make sure that the song or record was written by somebody who actually toiled at 1619 Broadway, either literally or spiritually. Which is to say, if you want to nominate a cool song that was written in the Brill Building style but, say, on the West Coast, or even decades later as a tribute -- go for it!

And my totally top of my heard Top Seven is:

7. Jay and the Americans -- Come a Little Bit Closer (Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart)



It needs to be said -- the entire esthetic of Bruce Springsteen's "Rosalita" ultimately derives from this record.

6. Roseanne Cash -- I Count the Tears (Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman)





Originally a 1960 hit for The Drifters with Ben E. King; P.F. Sloan later ripped it off for the The Grass Roots "Let's Live For Today." This version, by the sublime Roseanne Cash (from a great 90s Pomus tribute album) is my fave, however. It doesn't get any more haunting...

5. Evie Sands -- I Can't Let Go (Al Gorgoni/Chip Taylor)





That's Chip Taylor as in brother of Jon Voight and uncle to some movie star with great lips. As for Evie, she's one of the great unsung heroes of rock and soul and I've had a mad crush on her since Shindig. Talk about a white chick (in Nick Tosches ' immortal phrase) really getting down to the heart of hep; if there's anybody in pop I'd like to meet and have a drink with someday, it's her.

4. Manfred Mann -- Pretty Flamingo (Mark Barkan)



One of the most sublime street corner blue collar romantic anthems of the 60s, and written, if you can believe it, by the same genius who also wrote the Banana Splits "Tra-La-La" song.

3. The Move -- Don't Make My Baby Blue (Barry Mann/Cynthia Weill)





Originally a hit in England by Cliff Richard and the Shadows and redone in 1967 by (gasp!)Frankie Laine. The Move's 1970 Zeppelin-esque version, from their great Shazam album, with some of the most monster guitar riffage yet heard by sentient mammalian ears, remains the champion mind-boggler, however. Although you might want to check out the Laine cover if you happen to be tripping any time soon.

2. Lothar and the Hand People -- Machines (Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman)





A 1965 Manfred Mann track redone by these Village folk-rockers in 1968 as a sinister slice of proto-New Wave synth pop. Seriously -- it's Devo ten years ahead of its time.

And the numero uno coolest song to have emanated from this place --


-- quite obviously is....

1. The Chiffons -- One Fine Day (Gerry Goffin/Carole King)





I've said it before, but this is an absolutely perfect record, from the instantly memorable opening piano riff -- you may recall it in slightly altered form from the Raspberries "I Want to Be With You" -- to the yakety sax solo to the glorious romantic innocence of the lyric to the catch in the lead singers voice whenever she hits the title line. Honestly, I don't think I've ever listened to this without swooning.

Alrighty then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel cinema Listomania -- theme: Most Memorable Big Screen Killer(s) -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and leaving a snarky comment, it would get in me really good with management. Bless you.]