Thursday, September 02, 2010

An Early Clue to the New Direction: Previously Unheard Stereo Mixes of the Gods Edition

From 1958, via the 2000 box set King of the New York Streets, here's the imcomparable Dion DiMucci, doing business with The Belmonts, and a wonderful two-channel version of perhaps the greatest of the great doo-wop hits "I Wonder Why."




Actually, the above is a minute or so of session chatter. "I've got phlegm!"

Here's the actual song.



God, I love this record; Greil Marcus called the opening bit "teenage glossolalia," which pretty much nails it, and then it just keeps getting better.

In any case, as always, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded to the first reader who gleans its relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.
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14 comments:

  1. Wendy9/02/2010 3:43 PM

    I love Dion. Always have.

    Pop stars you've had a crush on since, like, forever? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Edward9/02/2010 4:07 PM

    Songs about confusion?

    Songs by one-named performers?

    Singers with gender ambiguous names?

    Rockers who became folkies who became rockers?

    Singers who covered Tom Waits?

    FWIW: My first rock n roll concert was Frank Zappa with Dion opening. Cosmic Karma, baby.

    Word Verification: Hootpron. Sounds like dirty comedy;>

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gummo9/02/2010 4:09 PM

    Rare/odd mixes of well-known songs?

    (since that seems to be your obsession lately)

    ReplyDelete
  4. TMink9/02/2010 4:17 PM

    Question songs.

    Trey

    ReplyDelete
  5. FD13NYC9/02/2010 4:20 PM

    Should I dare say it? Great Doo-Wop songs? Maybe? Done by cool white guys from the Bronx, or any other?

    If you need any, I've got a ton.

    A new idea, Steve's Doo-Wop Corner. I love Doo-Wop.

    ReplyDelete
  6. steve simels9/02/2010 4:23 PM

    No, no, no, no and no.

    Although somebody's close; too early for me to say just yet, though.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Faze9/02/2010 4:40 PM

    Nonsense syllables.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous9/02/2010 4:41 PM

    Tracks with studio comments or wackiness.

    ROTP(lumber)

    ReplyDelete
  9. J. Loslo9/02/2010 7:22 PM

    Songs with "why" in the title?

    ReplyDelete
  10. steve simels9/02/2010 7:28 PM

    Still no....


    I'm trying to think of a clue that wouldn't totally give it away in an instant....

    ReplyDelete
  11. steve simels9/02/2010 8:58 PM

    Okay -- somebody guessed it, wrongly, last week.

    So I ran with it...
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  12. J. Loslo9/02/2010 9:20 PM

    Okay, so, unless I'm missing something, it's got to be songs by Italian-Americans.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous9/02/2010 9:28 PM

    What "AP" said last week:

    um, songs about being truthful (that is, Frank)?

    ReplyDelete
  14. steve simels9/02/2010 10:36 PM

    DING! DING! DING!

    Close enough.

    J.Loslo, your coveted PowerPop No-Prize is coming at you by planaria caravan as we speak.

    ReplyDelete