SOMEPLACE ELSE NOW
Lesley Gore
Mowest MW117L, 1972
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After six years and eleven Top 40 hits at Mercury Records, Lesley Gore found herself in 1969 without a record contract. Bob Crewe, who had produced some of her last Mercury singles, signed her to his own label, but nothing clicked, not even the remake of the Fleetwoods' "Come Softly to Me", credited to "Billy and Sue". Billy was William Oliver Swofford, better known as Oliver, who had had a 1969 hit with "Good Morning Starshine" from Hair. Exit Lesley Gore, hitmaker.
Someplace Else Now was half a lifetime and 180 degrees away from "It's My Party". The songs scarcely resemble Lesley's classic girl-group items. "Out of Love" would have fit nicely into an early (pre-Richard Perry) Carly Simon album. "She Said That", the single, is what's left when you drain all the smarm out of something like Charlene's "I've Never Been to Me". Not quite Sixties pop, yet not really a standard Seventies singer-songwriter effort, the album baffled the few that heard it and went ignored by the rest. It was also apparent that Motown Records, still based in Detroit but trying to build a West Coast operation (hence "Mowest"), was still not a factor in any market other than the one it had created in the Sixties; they were unable to sell Lesley Gore the way they had sold Diana Ross, or even Rare Earth. Once again, Lesley Gore disappeared from the music scene. But she wouldn't stay gone forever. Extra! Two copies of this LP showed up almost simultaneously on eBay in late 1999; they both sold for prices over $20 US. The fans are definitely still out there. |
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Track listing:
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Produced by Joe Porter for Joe Porter Productions |
Posted 13 January 1997; cover art added 6 November 1997
Updated 3 January 2000

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Copyright © 1997-2000 by Charles G. Hill
Cover art © 1972 by Motown Records