Handy Man

It's been a year and a half since I last posted an entry here. I've been sucked into other social networking, and also trying to focus on, y'know, life and stuff. Maybe I'll pick up the pace here at The Songs in My Head, and maybe not. I tweet at twitter/soozenextthing with a touch more frequency, so follow me there!

For now, the lilting mellowness of a tune from my youth, with Mr. James Taylor's "Handy Man." The "comma, comma, comma, comma, come, come," refrain was ubiquitous on 70s radio, a song not to be confused with Sammy Davis Jr's "The Candyman" and the weirdness that is Neil Sedaka also spelling out that useful bit of punctuation. But I actually didn't realize that the song is much older. It's easy to attribute to JT, since he was mainly known for singing songs he'd also written, but the song was originally penned by roots rock and R&B singer Jimmy Jones and songwriter Otis Blackwell (who also wrote "Don't Be Cruel," "Great Balls of Fire," and many other very influential rock tunes). It's a case of the long, vague memory thread of a song that's been part of the culture for a very long time, arriving in my head one random day in 2015, in the form I'm most familiar with. Likely you've heard a couple of these versions of the tune yourself:

The 1959 original, by Jimmy Jones:



The chart-topper, later that same year, by Dell Shannon and his distinctive clavioline:



And who knew that Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub even banged out an indie cover of the song for a John Peel session record?



Artist: James Taylor
Year: 1977
Rating: Warm

Artist: Jimmy Jones
Year: 1959
Rating: Luke Hot

Artist: Del Shannon
Year: 1959
Rating: Luke Hot

Artist: Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub
Year: 1997
Rating: Warm

You Never Can Tell

Woke up with this tune in my head after a late night out at a club, surrounded by twenty-somethings dancing to trap and bass music. It was a friend's bachelor party. I stood there in the club, sipping my Dickel rye, oldly.

It was a teenage wedding/and the old folks wished them well...
"C'est la vie", say the old folks/it goes to show you never can tell

The unconscious brain is really amazing. This is one of those songs that I didn't even realize I had stored in there. It's not like, say, Carry On Wayward Son, a song I am all too palpably aware of knowing. But somehow, my background neurons were connecting weddings, youngsters, and my growing sense of feeling over the hill.

Artist: Chuck Berry
Year: 1964
Rating: Warm

Can't Find My Way Home

This song often gets me to the point of tears.

Artist: Blind Faith
Year: 1969
Rating: Luke Hot

If I Needed Someone

Slept in fits and starts for a second night in a row. This song emerged in one of my waking moments in the wee hours of the night. It's a remarkably literal manifestation of something brewing in me. The operative word is "if."

Artist: Beatles
Year: 1965
Rating: Hot!

Note: By the way, this video amalgam of the 2009 remastered track with several live Beatles performances is totally worth watching! Hats off to YouTuber Geno Renazzle.

A Day In The Life

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1967
Rating: Luke Hot

I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)

I love you and nobody else.

Since I'm not currently in a relationship, nor would I likely profess love to a One-and-Only, since I don't buy into that sort of thing, I have to assume that my unconscious is crooning for the love of coffee.

In and out my life/You come and you go
Leaving just your picture behind/And I've kissed it a thousand times

Oh, coffee.

Artist: The Four Tops
Year: 1965
Rating: Luke Hot

Got My Mind Set On You

I actually don't mind this song, but I fully expect some hate mail for getting what is arguably one of the most pernicious earworms of our time into many of your heads today.

A super special bonus of posting the official video here: do you recognize that guy in the arcade? He's none other than a 21 year-old Alexis Denisof of Buffy/Angel fame. When I realized this a few years ago, I nearly blew a gasket.

Also, I don't know about you, but I had NO IDEA this song was a cover! With actual lyrics! And, not surprisingly, a much more interesting orchestration and vocal performance than the far more popular 80s version. The original artist was an R&B singer named James Ray, who unfortunately died of an overdose shortly after recording the song. He was in his early 20s.



Artist (cover): George Harrison
Year: 1987
Rating: Warm

Artist (original): James Ray
Year: 1962
Rating: Warm

Sunshine Superman

Woke with a strong sense of the melody of this song, but only a very vague sense of the lyrics and no clue about the recording artist. I found it by googling the only bit of lyric I could conjure: "when you make your mind up." Now that I'm hearing it, of course it's Donovan. I thought maybe Turtles, Small Faces, but knew I couldn't quite get a bead on it. The magical internets also tell me that Jimmy Page (then of the Yardbirds) and John Paul Jones (later also of the Yardbirds; both soon after of Zep fame) play on the track. Kind of an epic song in the rock canon, it seems, and good trivia for a future pub quiz!

Artist: Donovan
Year: 1966
Rating: Warm

Louie Lime Green

Yesterday at work, I was whistling to myself all afternoon. I do this a lot (it helps that my Friday bookkeeping gig is at an awesome local music school). Working down column upon column of credit card transactions, the mind can automatically conjure up tunes and still manage accurate data entry. I thought I'd share with you the sequence of songs I was whistling. The thematic progression: roots rock, prog rock, Elizabethan minstrel music. Somehow it flowed. It helps that Rush is like, totally, Ren Faire.





Louie, Louie
Artist: Richard Berry (writer); The Kingsmen; etc.
Year: 1957; 1963; various
Rating: Warm

Limelight (Redux; last in my head on July 13, 2010.)
Artist: Rush
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm

Greensleeves
Artist: various; unconfirmed origin.
Year: c. 1580
Rating: Warm

Dear Prudence

I always loved the White Album, all 30 songs lending themselves seamlessly to the whole, but "Dear Prudence" has only recently popped out at me as a stand-alone masterpiece. The gathering momentum of the orchestration, the loving encouragement to coax us out of our shell and into the world of experience. What a life-affirming mantra. Holy shit, it's so beautiful.

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1968
Rating: Hot!

The Odd Couple, Redux

Last in my head on August 19, 2010.

This entry gives us a good excuse to rock out to one of my favorite categories of songs in my head: theme music!


Artist: Neal Hefti
Year: 1968
Rating: Warm

I'm Into Something Good, Redux

After a happy day of friends, food, and booze. Happy Xmas/Chanukah, all!

Last in my head on February 13, 2009.

Artist: Herman's Hermits
Year: 1964
Rating: Warm

Within You Without You

And to see you're really only very small and
Life flows on within you and without you.

Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1967
Rating: Warm

Sympathy for the Devil

What an eery, contageous, epic song, though I don't have a good reason for it to be in my head today. This being the eighth Stones song I've blogged about (in addition to mentions in other entries), they are a well-represented band in my head. It's probably the fact of their ubiquity alone that brought the song to mind. Or maybe it's all the political turmoil of late? (Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints)...but that would probably be a touch of revisionist history.

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Year: 1968
Rating: Luke Hot

Note: Anytime this song is played, it should be announced by a proper Englishman wearing a tie.

There Is A Mountain

Fun performance, though he's having a tough time rallying the crowd on the chorus. I have no idea why I was triggered to remember this song this morning. I can appreciate the spiritual simplicity better now than when I first heard it as a wily teen and had to mock it. It was still amusing to wake to, though.

Artist: Donovan
Year: 1967
Rating: Warm

Itchycoo Park

It's all too beautiful. I guess.

Artist: The Small Faces
Year: 1967
Rating: Warm

Summer in the City

Not a big mystery why this song is in my brain. It's September: welcome to San Francisco summer, where it's been in the 70s and 80s all week.

Artist: The Lovin' Spoonful
Year: 1966
Rating: Warm (or, what's "hot" in San Francisco is just "warm" most other places)

The Addams Family Theme

Maybe this is in my head 'cause I'm identifying with Thing at the moment. Or maybe it's random.

Artist: Written and composed by Vic Mizzy
Year:1964
Rating: Luke Hot

Note: Mizzy also wrote the theme to Green Acres. Classic!

Under the Boardwalk

Haven't a clue why this song showed up today. Maybe feeling wistful about love, but certainly not in that New Relationship Energy way. Maybe I need a trip to Santa Cruz?

Artist: The Drifters
Year: 1964
Rating: Warm

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You

This is the song that's been stuck in my head since I saw the Monkees perform a week ago in Saratoga.

Artist: The Monkees (written by Neil Diamond)
Year: 1967
Rating: Warm

Note: the teen idol in the video is Mr. Bobby Sherman.