From 1962, please enjoy -- if that is the precise word -- Miss Vicki Carr and the original non-hit version of Gene Pitney's classic ode to non-comformity "He's a Rebel."
Apparently, Phil Spector heard this in pre-release, decided (wisely) that a less whitebread version produced by himself had genuine commercial potential, and thus rushed his more famous Wall of Sound version of the tune by The Crystals out on his own Phillies label. And the rest, as they say, is history.
For what it's worth, however, I rather enjoy The Singing Strings of Ernie Freeman that underscore Miss Carr's plaid stylings here. Actually, I think I mostly enjoy the fact that they're actually billed as The Singing Strings of Ernie Freeman on the 45 label.
h/t Todd Everett
11 comments:
Wow! That is pretty bad. I had to play the Crystals version to revive myself.
Miss Carr requests that you refrain from smoking in the presence of this record.
I think she gives the term whitebread a bad name.
Trey
I've always thought that Gene Pitney could have done a killer version of this, himself. Back then, maybe "She's a Rebel" wouldn't fly.
Hey Dave, believe it or not, he did do a version of the song. It's not killer, it's ok. Not from back then though, somewhat later.
Oh, that's cool, FD. Thanks for telling me about it -- I'll track it down. Pitney is an unjustly neglected figure. He's certainly a fine songwriter, and one of the few artists capable of straddling both the Spector and Bacharach worlds.
I wholly agree. Wrote many good songs, had a unique voice too. Backstage is one of my faves.
The whole arrangement is so "patriotic" it sounds like it should be performed by the Marines
I'll have to Google to see who he was.
Celebrating rebellion through a march?
Irony lives!
if I recall from the Spector bio quashing this version was done with an effort usually afforded the military. Lots of planes, fifty dollar handshakes etc
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