ESSAY 16
"COVERING" THE U.S. ALBUM
by Jeffrey C. Branch
It seems to me that every time I had gotten it into my head that I knew all there was to know about Pink Lady minutia, something like this comes along to slap me down and put my ego in it's proper place, like down the nearest sewer. Back in late November of last year, fellow PL fan Mitch Osawa who lives in Japan emailed me with something highly interesting that he had found on YouTube----that "Love Countdown", one of the songs on Pink Lady's 1979 U.S. album had previously been released by another artist a good two years earlier! When I watched the video by Luan Peters, a British artist and actress who had been popular in the 70's in Hammer Studios films, I was, to say the very least, floored! You see, I had been labroing under the assumption that with three noticable exceptions, all the songs on that album were new, not covers. Turns out I was not just wrong, but VERY wrong as I would learn other little secrets which I've decided to share in this essay. Click on the image below to see the video of Luan performing "Love Countdown". The tight silver overalls Luann wore was a highlight in itself.
And then there's the version Mie and Kei did from the Christmas 1978 Live At Budokan concert which was plenty good in itself. Again, it never occured to me that the bulk of the songs on the U.S. album were covers. Now, I was aware that Left Banke first released "Walk Away Renee" back in 1966, followed by The Four Tops while Tom Jones made "Love Me Tonight" a hit in 1969 (click on the sleeve below), I thought that was all. However, it turns out that wasn't at all the case as Mitch would turn up more gems. Next up is "Give Me Your Love", Micth's favorite song from the album, but it had been done first by Leslie, Kelly & John Ford Coley in 1977 (click on the sleeve above) which I have to admit was pretty darn good. Like with Mitch, "Give Me Your Love" had been a favorite of mine after "Kiss in the Dark", hardly a Disco tune, this ballad had given me chills as Mie and Kei handled it very well and had its own power and panache.
That's right, boys and girls, it was from an episode of freakin' Happy Days! HAPPY DAYS!! And yeah, that was Potsie (Anson Williams) crooning the tune back in 1977! Oh, my sweet Lord! It turns out Williams promoted the single by singing it on the show, but the label he was with folded after the single was released. As ballads go, it was okay, but Mitch pointed out that he thought Mie and Kei did it better, and, allowing my bias to come to the fore, I must say that I agreed with him. This got me to thinking about just how unusual an compilation of songs had comprised PL's one and only English language album, while Disco was the primary genre, it seemed like there was little rhyme or reason behind the main theme of the album, leading credence to my opinion of how the whole strategy of Pink Lady's U.S. "invasion" had been ill-conceived, releasing such an album at a time when Disco was pretty much dying out. Of course, I gave the CD a listen after I gathered together the information on this piece and smiled from the pop music magic and energy Mie and Kei put into the record while feeling rueful over it's less than stellar timing that could've earned it more recognition had it come out a year sooner than it had.
In the end, it was a crying shame Mie and Kei never took a second crack at the U.S. market. Had they done so, but with a strategy that would've featured music more appropriate for the era in question, I'm sure they might have succeeded and became that household word, or at best, earned that coveted fifteen minutes of fame, something an album consisting mainly of covers wouldn't have acheived.
Next up, "I Want to Give You My Everything" by Newby & Johnson, a Motown duo in 1970, then "Dancing in the Halls of Love" (click on above) from 1978 by Alessi, a pretty boy pop duo, as classic, and as cheesy an example of late 70's Disco as PL's version had been. I have to admit that listening to both versions made me chuckle when you take into consideration that they have been released only a year apart from one another, they were practically identical, I mean, when a singer covers someone else's song, they like to add their only unique touches, but not here with "Dancing". Now, I save what I see as the best for last. The song "Deeply" was listed on the ablbum as being from a movie called "Happy", however, no matter where I looked, most notably the Internet Movie Database, I couldn't find any mention of that film anywhere, but then, Mitch, like that legendary fedora wearing archaeologist, dug up a video of the song being performed, and my jaw dropped when I watched it. ready? Here's where it's from:
