Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Keith's Record Collection™: The Final Countdown

Okay, this one I really, really like.

As recounted in Chapter Two of his autobiography, here's another of the "forgotten jewels" the teenaged Keith Richards purchased with his own lunch money in 1959 -- in this case, New Jersey-born Sammy Turner's Top Twenty version of Irving Berlin's 1926 classic "Always."




Produced, as you can see from the fine print, by the great team of Leiber and Stoller. Actually, I'm not quite sure why Keith thinks it's forgotten; apparently, it's one of the perennial faves on the Beach Music R&B scene that still flourishes in the vicinity of South Carolina. In any event, a great New York City proto-soul record, and I wouldn't have discovered it without the book.

Speaking of which, I'm almost finished with Keith's Life; let's just say the scene in 1984 where Charlie Watts nearly knocks Mick Jagger out of a hotel window in Amsterdam (I won't give away the perceived slight that pissed Charlie off) is absolutely hilarious and worth the price of admission all by itself.

2 comments:

Faze said...

Wins the Listomania "Best rocked-up version of a Great American Songbook" standard -- and another check went out to the Irving Berlin house on East End Avenue.

Gummo said...

That's really good, thanks.