Comments on: This is not what they meant by “diminished”

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:27:24 +0000

Harrison may not have heard the whole thing; it didn’t appear on Ray’s album on the Caprice label, since it was recorded for a competitor after Ray left Caprice, and I don’t think it came out of the vault at all until Collectables put out a James Ray compilation CD in 1994. Interestingly, on that CD it’s listed as “Parts 1 and 2.”

And in Britain, Freddie and the Dreamers (!) got the hit on “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody”; it was 1963, so no one bothered to pick it up for Stateside release. Paul McCartney once claimed that the Dreamers snagged the arrangement from a Beatles live show.

Besides, “This song is just six words long” is what Weird Al is actually singing.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:03:32 +0000

Cool. I had heard that it was a cover of a James Ray song (when the Harrison version was first out), but of course that was in the era before YouTube so it wasn’t possible to order up (so to speak) the original to hear it.

Interesting that there are more lyrics in the Ray version.

And yeah, I seem to forget that contractions exist sometimes. I blame too many years of scientific writing, where they tend to be frowned upon for some reason.

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:25:48 +0000

It wasn’t that often in his solo career that George Harrison sounded like he was having fun, but “Got My Mind Set On You,” a cover of an obscure James Ray track from 25 years before, was decidedly non-mournful, something you’d never say about, oh, “Isn’t It a Pity.”

Speaking of James Ray, who’s better known for “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” this is what his version of “Got My Mind…” sounds like. (This runs 3:20 or so; for the 45, it was edited to less than two minutes.)

Both those songs were written by Rudy Clark, who also gave us (via Betty Everett) the immortal “Shoop Shoop Song,” usually known as “It’s In His Kiss.”

And you’ll note that Weird Al was careful to title his version “This Song’s Just Six Words Long,” with the contraction, because otherwise it would be seven words long. A wise man, Mr. Yankovic.

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:40:45 +0000

That’s as good as Weird Al’s “This Song Is Just Six Words Long.”

(Disclaimer: I actually liked the song that Weird Al was parodying there.)