1 of 1- aflem
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When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
I'd never heard of this song before it appeared on Saturday night over SiriusXM's 60's channel. But it doesn't take much more of a listen than the opening notes to realize it's a clone of the group's previous hit.
The Outsiders only really made the charts in a big way with "Time Won't Let Me" in 1966. They never made it back to the big time, but that didn't stop them from attempting to recreate their one-hit glory by essentially remaking that song in a subsequent release. If "Lost In My World" isn't an almost note-for-note remake of their only hit, I don't know what is.
Does anyone know of any other groups that did this?
Last edited by aflem (January 28, 2024 10:06 am)
- AzMike
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
To their credit, in 1966 they followed up Time Won’t Let Me with three more top-40 hits. Girl In Love #21, Respectable #15, and Help Me Girl #37. I love the horns in their music and it contributes to their songs sounding similar.
Lost In My World is probably most similar to their first hit, and perhaps that’s why it was put on a B side (Respectable). I still like it a lot and I’m glad to hear it made a playlist! In retrospect,
The Outsiders missed out on an opportunity to have a hit with the first recording of Bend Me Shape Me which they passed on a single release (below average arrangement IMO). I mention this because The American Breed had a follow up to their hit song version titled Anyway That You Want Me (#88). It sounded similar and used some of the lyrics of the former in the title of the latter.
And here’s two songs by Archie Bell & The Dells with similar arrangements and hooks that both made the top 10 in 1968:
Tighten Up (#1)
I Can’t Stop Dancing (#9)
Last edited by AzMike (January 28, 2024 7:18 pm)
- Lorne
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
I've sometimes heard such followups as the original song being done "sideways". I've tried in the past to find an explanation of exactly what is meant by this term, but without success. However, I mentioned this to my sister a couple of years ago, and she suggested it might refer to what could be obtained by playing the original tune on a piano but shifting sideways on the keys ... I don't play piano, but that did make sense to me.
Anyway, I once heard Len Barry describe "Like A Baby" as being "1-2-3" done sideways (and that it wasn't his idea to do this). A couple of other similar-sounding followups that come to mind are The Esquires' "Get On Up" followed by "And Get Away", and The Hues Corporation's "Rock The Boat" followed by "Rockin' Soul". In all three cases, there certainly wasn't any effort made to disguise what they were doing. And in the case of The Esquires, they even titled their album Get On Up And Get Away.
- RobN
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
Thanks for bringing the Outsiders up. I recall these follow ups, really liked "Girl in Love". Was "Respectable" a cover? My memory is getting hazy. It was quite a while ago.
- Lorne
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
RobN wrote:
Thanks for bringing the Outsiders up. I recall these follow ups, really liked "Girl in Love". Was "Respectable" a cover? My memory is getting hazy. It was quite a while ago.
Yes, "Respectable" was originally done by The Isley Brothers.
- GrimsbyFan
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
The Outsiders' lead singer Sonny Geraci also had a big hit (reached #3) as the lead singer of Climax with Precious and Few.
- GrimsbyFan
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
Often times, artists would release a Christmas song that was a clone of their hit song, with only the lyrics changed.
Two examples:
Bobby "Boris" Pickett - Monsters Holiday
Bobby Vee - A Not So Merry Christmas (identical to "Run To Him")
- Lorne
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
Just thought of another example today: the Soul Survivors' followup to "Expressway To Your Heart", "Explosion In Your Soul".
- Little Rich
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
I've sometimes heard such followups as the original song being done "sideways". I've tried in the past to find an explanation of exactly what is meant by this term, but without success. However, I mentioned this to my sister a couple of years ago, and she suggested it might refer to what could be obtained by playing the original tune on a piano but shifting sideways on the keys ... I don't play piano, but that did make sense to me.
Anyway, I once heard Len Barry describe "Like A Baby" as being "1-2-3" done sideways (and that it wasn't his idea to do this). A couple of other similar-sounding followups that come to mind are The Esquires' "Get On Up" followed by "And Get Away", and The Hues Corporation's "Rock The Boat" followed by "Rockin' Soul". In all three cases, there certainly wasn't any effort made to disguise what they were doing. And in the case of The Esquires, they even titled their album Get On Up And Get Away.
Lorne - way back when, I often heard "sideways" referencing when something was going somewhere and got "sidetracked." Sidetracked was when something was meant to go forward but instead went in a different direction, not going anywhere.
I just Googled it and the response I got corroborated my above-listed comment:
"When something is supposed to be going forward and then is interrupted and flanked by unexpected issues that prevent it from doing so , it's gone sideways"
- Lorne
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
Thanks, Rich. But the use of "sideways" that I'm referring to is different: in the context of one song being another done sideways, it's always about the second song being based on the original one but not quite the same. However, what you found demonstrates the problem I've had searching for this music-related meaning; it's hard to find the meaning I'm referring to because of all the results I get using the term differently. But you just got me thinking that I should try searching on "song" and "done sideways", as I think I've just combined "sideways" with "song", "music", etc. And I got the following result at
And "Baby Don't Go" is "We'll Sing In The Sunshine" done sideways. Not to forget "Just You" in a former life was the Ronettes "Baby I Love You": that was settled out of court with the inclusion of two Spector-Greenwich-Barry cuts on the "Look At Us" LP.
Sonny was just proving the common knowledge that people respond positively to the essence of a melody that's already in their head.
I've never thought of "Baby Don't Go" and "We'll Sing In The Sunshine" as being examples of this, but that doesn't matter ... the person who posted that comment is using the term in exactly the way that I'm referring to. I actually first heard it about 40 years ago from my father, who told me that he'd been told some music that was being used in an ad for his company was a popular song done sideways. It stayed with me, but I went a long time before seeing or hearing it used that way again. However, in more recent years I'm running into it a bit more in reference to similar songs, so it's kind of a case of me knowing it when I hear it -- and figuring that it involves making some minor changes to one tune to come up with another.
- Little Rich
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Re: When Groups Essentially Re-Record Their Only Hit
Thanks for sharing that thread about sideways Lorne. I guess I've seen references to that discussion here on this site. It goes back to "How many notes are similar, pattern of the notes, what key is it in, ad nauseum" before there is truly a case of copyright, or simply copying. I suppose someone could make a case and develop a "magical algorithm/conjecture" that could be a threshold to substantiate a copyright case. Too bad...