Remedies: Love Potion Number 9

The Clovers: Love Potion Number 9

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The Clovers started out before the rock and roll era, and became regulars on the rhythm and blues charts before anyone knew who Elvis Presley was. But they never had a number one song on the r & b charts, and never crossed over. Despite this, they were the original artists on a song that has endured long after most of the songs that charted in 1959 have been forgotten. Of course that song was Love Potion Number 9. Oddly, the song was their last major hit. The group had had lineup changes almost from the beginning, with a single member leaving at a time and being replaced. But right after Love Potion Number 9 charted, the group split in two, with both halves claiming the Clovers name. That would be the end of their popularity.

I can not help wondering what might have happened if they had stayed together. Love Potion Number 9 was the result of a big break for The Clovers. It was their first chance to work with the producing and songwriting team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. Lieber and Stoller are legends today, and rightly so. In the 1950s, it seemed that everything that bore their names turned to gold. Love Potion Number 9 would not become a major hit until it was covered by The Searchers in 1963, but I have always preferred the Clovers original version. Here, there is a nice New Orleans vibe to the rhythm that would be completely removed in the Searchers’ version.

The Coasters: Love Potion Number 9

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The Clovers became the original artists on Love Potion Number 9 almost by accident. Right before Lieber and Stoller were hired for the session, they had been working with the Coasters, in a session that yielded the hits Charlie Brown, Along Came Jones, and Poison Ivy. If things had gone just a little differently, The Coasters might have been the original artists on Love Potion Number 9. They finally did record the song, as heard here, in 1971. This was a completely different take on the song then what they might have done in 1959. Times and musical tastes had changed, and The Coasters were clearly trying to update their sound with this jazzy funk take. The “Serve it up and drink it down” chorus vocal is new, and the Latin feel to the opening is something Santana might have done at the time. Curiously, there is a Santana video on YouTube that is mislabeled as Love Potion Number 9; it is actually a performance of Evil Ways, but the melodies are surprisingly similar.

The Lamours: Love Potion Number 9

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I couldn’t resist including this wonderfully sassy version by the Lamours. They are clearly covering the Coasters’ version, retaining the “Serve it up and drink it down” chant and making the Latin vibe even more explicit. Male singers have always changed the year in the lyrics to keep them from being too old. So the original is “I’d been this way since 1956”, but the Coasters sang “1966”. The Lamours, however, are both shamelessly retro and female, so now we hear “I told her that I was a flop with guys/ I’d been this way since 1955”. So they are taking a 1971 version of the song, performing it now, and treating the lyric as though it was 1959 again. It’s a head scratcher for sure, but it sounds great.

Dance Moves: Bossa Nova Baby

Tippie and the Clovers: Bossa Nova Baby

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Bossa Nova Baby has been unjustly regarded by some as a bit of a displeasing novelty number from an Elvis movie (1963’s Fun In Acapulco). Even Elvis is said to have been embarrassed by it. If so, he had no cause: it may not be a bossa nova — it’s too fast for that — but it has a infectious tune and a genius keyboard riff which begs to be sampled widely. Perhaps it was the lyrics which had Elvis allegedly shamefaced, but the lines, “she said, ‘Drink, drink, drink/Oh, fiddle-de-dink/I can dance with a drink in my hand’”, are not much worse than some of the doggerel our man was forced to croon in his movie career as singing racing driver/pineapple heir/bus conductor. Or perhaps Elvis was embarrassed by the idea of including a notional bossa nova number in a movie set in Mexico. So here we won’t revisit Elvis’ version of the song, but the original.

Tippie and the Clovers, who were signed to Leiber and Stoller’s Tiger label, recorded the song first in 1962 to cash in on the bossa nova craze. Apparently the composers preferred the Clovers’ version of Elvis’. These were the same Clovers, incidentally, who had scored a #23 hit with Love Potion No. 9 (also written by Leiber & Stoller and later covered to greater chart effect by the Searchers) on Atlantic in 1959.

(photo from farbror-sid.se)

Shorties: How To Find a Shorty

In the course of finding songs for this week’s theme, and reading other people’s posts, I have developed a set of rules for finding shorties. If we ever decide to do a second week of shorties, I hope this will help.

1. Find a song by an artist or band who are known for short songs.

When They Might Be Giants first got together, they had a common problem; no one would sign them. They came up with an unusual solution. They recorded songs that were under a minute long each, and put a different song each day as an answering machine message. Then they plastered signs all over New York City to let people know about their Dial-a-Song service. It caught on, and was even reported in the New York Times where I first heard of it, and soon enough They Might Be Giants were signed to the Bar-None label. Many of the Dial-a-Song tunes found their way onto their early albums.

They Might Be Giants: Token Back to Brooklyn

[purchase]

2. Go with a TV theme or a cover of one.

Spiderman has been made into an animated TV series many times, but this Spiderman theme comes from the first series, made in the 1960s. The original Spiderman cartoon was animated by Ralph Bakshi, who went on to make the movies Fritz the Cat and Wizards.

Moxy Fruvous: Spiderman

[purchase]

3. Use a kid’s song.

From My Head comes from an episode of Sesame Street. It is a rare example of a jazz singer doing anything in less than two minutes. Kid’s songs often come in at under two minutes; there seems to be a widespread belief that no kid will pay attention for longer than that.

Betty Carter: From Your Head

[unreleased, no purchase info]

and, 4. Go with an older song.

Generally speaking, the older a pop song is, the shorter it is. That is because recording and transfer technology limited the length of a recording that would fit on a vinyl single and still sound decent. At the time that the Clovers cut their classic, the upward limit for a single was 2:30. But Love Potion #9 is even shorter.

The Clovers: Love Potion #9

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One: One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer (and One More)

Amos Milburn: One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer

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There’s been a lot of sweetness and light around here lately. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I’ve posted some of it myself. But sometimes it feels good to get down and dirty. And that often implies having a drink in there somewhere.

One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer is a classic drinking song. Most people know the George Thorogood version, but, to me, Amos Milburn’s version rings truer. Is this the original version?

That turns out to be an interesting question. One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer was written by Rudy Toombs, who was not a performer himself. Toombs wrote the song for Amos Milburn, but, before Milburn had a chance to record it, John Lee Hooker came out with a version of his own. As a result, many people think that Hooker wrote the song. For my money, this is the original, or should have been.

Milburn puts over the story of a man who has been unlucky in love, and wants drown his sorrows with alcohol. This was one of a series of drinking songs that Amos Milburn recorded and took up the R & B charts in the 1950s. It is interesting to note that Milburn wasn’t much of a drinker himself.

The Clovers: One Mint Julep

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When I decided to post One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer, I couldn’t resist pairing it with One Mint Julep. Here is a morality tale of a man who had one too many. Imagine my surprise, in researching this post, when I learned that One Mint Julep was also written by Rudy Toombs.