I recently attended a memorial service for Gary Gladstone, aka The Mix Doctor. At the memorial a tape played of Gary’s original songs. Although he had written a few in his lifetime, his song Paradise had about ten different versions recorded by various bands including The Tooners.
Hearing all the different versions of this song, which included a real nice piano instrumental, a hard rock power ballad, a pop version with a female vocal and even a Spanish language version, I couldn’t help but feel I was listening to a classic “hit” along the lines of The Beatles’ Yesterday. Paradise is a classic song despite it having been heard by only a chosen few.
That experience made me think of the other songs I’ve listened to throughout my life that have that same “classic hit” quality but have never been played on the radio (although The Tooners’ version of Paradise did get radio airplay in the 90s). There are not a lot but there are some others. What I’m referring to is the quality of a song, the melody and the lyric, that makes you think the first time you hear it, “why hasn’t someone written this melody and/or lyric before?” It sounds instantly familiar yet completely original.
When I was a kid I was in a supermarket when the radio over the PA system announced it was going to play the new Beatles’ record. I was a huge Beatles fan and this was the single off their new album, Abbey Road, their second to last record so I certainly would have been aware of having heard it before. I stood there listening as the radio played George Harrison’s Something.
Hearing all the different versions of this song, which included a real nice piano instrumental, a hard rock power ballad, a pop version with a female vocal and even a Spanish language version, I couldn’t help but feel I was listening to a classic “hit” along the lines of The Beatles’ Yesterday. Paradise is a classic song despite it having been heard by only a chosen few.
That experience made me think of the other songs I’ve listened to throughout my life that have that same “classic hit” quality but have never been played on the radio (although The Tooners’ version of Paradise did get radio airplay in the 90s). There are not a lot but there are some others. What I’m referring to is the quality of a song, the melody and the lyric, that makes you think the first time you hear it, “why hasn’t someone written this melody and/or lyric before?” It sounds instantly familiar yet completely original.
When I was a kid I was in a supermarket when the radio over the PA system announced it was going to play the new Beatles’ record. I was a huge Beatles fan and this was the single off their new album, Abbey Road, their second to last record so I certainly would have been aware of having heard it before. I stood there listening as the radio played George Harrison’s Something.
“I know this,” I said to myself knowing I hadn’t heard it before. It sounded instantly familiar. I even tried to “remember” how the middle part went and yelled out, “Yes, that’s it!” when I heard it for the first time. I didn’t think it sounded like another record, I just thought it was perfect, that was how it went and there was no other way this song could have been written or recorded. That’s the quality of which I am speaking.
Off the top of my head I can name two other songs with this same quality. One is Tim Piper’s Oh, Such A Night and another is Jerry Strull’s Master Of Disguise. I’d like to compile a list of these kinds of songs so please send me links to your favorites in the comments section.
Off the top of my head I can name two other songs with this same quality. One is Tim Piper’s Oh, Such A Night and another is Jerry Strull’s Master Of Disguise. I’d like to compile a list of these kinds of songs so please send me links to your favorites in the comments section.
Listen to Jerry Strull's Master Of Disguise
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