Most bizarre circumstances for making a hit record

[Guy Rowland]

My wife and I play Heardle every day, an intro quiz (keeping the marriage alive, folks). There are versions for decades, genres, all manner of themes. It's great.

https://heardledecades.com/

Today on (of course) 80s Heardle to our shame we both failed to guess Baby I Love You by the Ramones (1980) in the allotted 17 seconds



We both were singing along to the intro but couldn't connect with the song itself. I found myself, of course, wondering how this version had come about, not really in the Ramones oeuvre, so duly off to Wikipedia I went.

The original was by The Ronettes in 1963 and produced by Phil Spector. I was dimly aware that he had something of a reputation, but I really wasn't prepared for what I read next, at least according to Wikipedia. In 1979:

In an incident at Spector's house, the producer held the Ramones hostage at gunpoint and made them listen to him play "Baby, I Love You" until 4:30 in the morning. Spector insisted that the Ramones recorded a cover of the song and got Joey Ramone to sing it with some session musicians, as none of the other members of the Ramones would play on it. Joey has said that "it didn't sound anything like the Ramones" and he hated the song.

In the UK it got to number 8, the band's biggest hit.

Can anyone top that?

[Lawrence]

Can’t top it at all, but I can add a funny biz story:

My partner Don and I had a small jingle business for twenty years. Before that, he was in a band called The Cyrkle,. They had two hits in the 60’s, one of which (“Red Rubber Ball”) hit #2 on the Billboard charts. It was written by Psul Simon. That was a bit is ironic as you’ll see.

Both groups were signed to Columbia Records.
At some point, they were recording in adjacent studios. Paul and Artie dropped by to listen to the Cyrkle’s music and said nice things. Paul had just written a song that he thought would be appropriate for The Cyrkle, invited the group over and played the song. He said S&G was going to record the song but maybe the Cyrkle could record it first and have a hit with it .They liked the song but demurred when asked if they wanted to record it, feeling it didn’t fit their brand.

Paul subsequently gave the song to a group called Harper’s Bizarre. It went to #13 on the charts.The song was “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)”

[Guy Rowland]

Paul subsequently gave the song to a group called Harper’s Bizarre. It went to #13 on the charts.The song was “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)”

Ha - and to tie two threads together, I see none other than Carol Kaye played on the Harper's Bizarre version.

[Lawrence]

Cool, I didn’t know that!

Two more factoids about Don’s group:

1. They opened for the Beatles on the first American tour.
2. The groovy spelling “Cyrkle” was John Lennon’s idea.

[Geoff Grace]

Wow, hanging with The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel! It would have been fitting for Don’s group to remake The Beach Boys' "I Get Around." Of course, I remember “Red Rubber Ball” and “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy).”

I wasn't aware of The Ramones' coerced version of "Baby I Love You." I don't think it charted in the US. I was well aware of Phil Spector's reputation and murder conviction, however. The trials created a steady stream of press here in LA.

Best,

Geoff