Another 30 minute podcast, all about voodoo this time...
Tracklist:
01. Martin Denny- Voodoo Dreams 02. Screamin' Jay Hawkins- I Put A Spell On You 03. Charles Sheffield- It's Your Voodoo Workin' 04. Dr John- Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya 05. Robert Drasnin- Voodoo 06. African Pop Session- African Voodoo 07. Little Willie John- My Nerves 08. The Naughty Ones - I Dig Your Voodoo 09. Koko Taylor- Voodoo Woman 10. Tim Buckley- Mexicali Voodoo
I've been owning this record for quite some time now, picked it up at a secondhand-recordstore called "Tommy" (which unfortunately does not excist anymore) in Tilburg about 13 years ago. It's got lots of great tracks on it, and one song in particular. A nice cinametic Italian piece, that I've been playing on a regular basis ever since I bought the record, and has been a big "hit" at parties of me and my friends. The only problem was, I never knew who the artist was. As you can see, at the back of the sleeve, only the composers are mentioned, which strikes me as odd, since the album is titled "All The Hits With All The Stars". On the front cover only the titles of the songs are mentioned.
I recently found out that the singer is Nicola Arigliano, and the title of the song is "20 KM Al Giorno". It was released as a single in 1964. I love how the title is misspelled on both the front- and backcover as well as on the record itself! (Tweenty KM instead of Twenty KM)
I tried to find information about this "All The Hits With All The Stars"-compilation, but it's nowhere to be found on the internet. So I searched for information about the label on which it was released, "Schok Records" but again no information about the label anywhere on the net.
I tried to rip the LP to mp3 but for some reason my equipment let me down, but I'll have that fixed soon. Wait for the update. For now you can listen to the song, which I took from the Youtube clip that is available. (I could not find the song on any site, blog or on Soulseek or Direct Connect++ .... and ofcourse I won't buy it on cd since I already own it on vinyl).
LISTEN:
Nicola Arigliano- 20 KM Al Giorno
What I found out as well, when searching for the artist, is that one of my personal heroes, Mike Patton, did a version of the song with his project Mondo Cane! I was amazed as, to me, this was kind of an obscure track... Listen to Patton's version of the song, recorded live in Paradiso, Amsterdam in the Netherlands.... Mike Patton and the Metropole Orchestra- 20 KM Al Giorno
And watch the video here:
I will highlite some more of the songs on the album, probably rip the whole record for you guys, 'cause this compilation is a goldmine of brilliant tracks.
Oh, and if someone has any information about this Italian "Schok"-label, please let me know!
"Uptight (Everything's Alright)" is ofcourse the 1966 hitsingle recorded by Stevie Wonder for the Motown label (it was then still called Tamla Motown). One of his most popular early singles, "Uptight" was the first Stevie Wonder single to be co-written by the artist.
One year later, 1967, Bill Cosby recorded and released his single "Little Ole Man", off his musical comedy album "Bill Cosby Sings" (Warner Bros). He basically took the Wonder song and put new words to it.
In 1969 reggea-singer Delroy Wilson released a record called "Good All Over" (Coxsone/Studio 1) with a song on it called "Funky Broadway" (not to be confused with another song called Funky Broadway, by Bobby Powell, released in the same year), which is obviously a re-work of the Uptight-song by Stevie Wonder with some different words. It's hard to describe the style of the song. As someone mentioned on Youtube: "Is it reggea? Or is it Northern Soul?" Anyways, it just kicks ass if you ask me.
Give all three songs a listen!
Stevie Wonder- Uptight (Everything Is Alright) (1966)
