by Robert Wilkinson
If you listened to the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, Duane Eddy, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Darin, the Ramones, Dylan in the late 70s, or any of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" productions, you're heard Steve's work. Today we send up a happy birthday to one of the truly great sax players of the 20th century. It's also the birthday of a guy who is almost unknown, but considered one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century, Carl Sigman, UK singer and actor Mike Berry, and one of the greatest hitmakers of the Merseybeat era, Gerry Marsden.
We begin today's tribute to one of the greatest sax men of all time! Steven Douglas Kreisman, aka Steve Douglas, (September 24, 1938 - April 19, 1993), along with Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, James Burton, Carol Kaye, Barney Kessel, Tommy Tedesco, and a bunch of other top LA musicians were called "The Wrecking Crew," aka "The Clique," and played on hundreds of top hits during the 60s. Steve was one of the go-to guys during a time when some really great music was being created, and today I've assembled a few of his better known works.
Where appropriate, I gave you the studio versions, so that you could hear Steve as the world first heard his work. However, I found a few great live performance clips with Dylan and Ry Cooder which are downstream and you should not miss!!
Before we go to the studio clips, I found a great video from the late 50s where Steve's front and center with Duane Eddy! First, straight atcha from the Summer of 1958, here’s the tune that introduced Duane and Steve to the world. Live on Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beech Nut Show, here’s Duane Eddy and the Rebel Rousers with Steve on sax cranking out his Top 10 1958 mega-hit ”Rebel Rouser."
(Last year I gave you a couple of 1959 video clips of Duane Eddy and the Rebel Rousers doing "Forty Miles of Bad Road" and a different clip of "Rebel Rouser," but it's been confirmed they are not videos of Steve, and the sax man's a prop, even if the music features the original SD sax work. So this seems to be the only confirmed video of Duane Eddy with Steve Douglas.)
Now for his amazing studio work! Again featuring Duane Eddy's twangy guitar, here's Steve's wailin’ lead sax on "The Peter Gunn Theme." As you already know, he gives us the sax strut on 40 Miles of Bad Road," and check out the work on Duane's first hit, "Rebel Rouser".
He was with the King doing the smash hit "Viva Las Vegas"
He's going strong on the following Phil Spector productions!
Here are the Ronettes doing their classic "Be My Baby"
Here are three Steve did with the Crystals!
The sax drives this song! Here the Crystals lip-synch to the studio version on Shivaree! "Da do Ron Ron"
This looks like it was also a Shivaree episode! "He's A Rebel"
This year I found the entire Phil Spector Christmas album in one clip! I suppose I should say this probably "announces" the Christmas season for all my readers, so enjoy the gifts to come the next 90 days!
A Christmas Gift for You - A Phil Spector Christmas
If you choose not to listen to the entire album, here's one of the most powerful Christmas tunes ever written! Sung by Darlene Love, with Steve on the sax and Leon doing a jaw dropping piano line at the crescendo, here's the awesome "Baby Please Come Home."
Steve playing with Ike and Tina Turner on the studio version of their smash hit "River Deep - Mountain High"
With the Righteous Brothers on "You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling"
Steve was one of the main saxmen during the surf music craze! He was in the thick of the mid-60s music, backing Jan and Dean in their huge surfing hit "Surf City" and their last hit, the prescient "Dead Man's Curve," as Jan Berry became crippled in a car crash around the time this hit big.
Steve was with the Beach Boys from "Surfin' USA" through "Pet Sounds," and so any time you hear the great tunes Brian and his brothers were cranking out during that time, if there was a sax, Steve was da man!
Steve did the clarinets, flutes, and saxes on the entire "Pet Sounds" album. For your enjoyment, Steve and the angelic voice of Carl Wilson on "God Only Knows" followed by two more "Pet Sounds" hits, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "Here Today"
He worked with America's bard, Bob Dylan, on his "Street Legal" and "Knocked Out Loaded" albums and was the sax on the 1978 "Alimony" tour. Here are a few you're gonna love!
One of my all time personal favorites! Classic Dylan, Classic Douglas! I finally found the studio version of this autobiographical tale, but first, an awesome live video performance in Nashville from the 1978 tour by Zimmie with Steve cranking it up in "Changing of the Guards." Here's the haunting original! "Changing Of the Guards."
From that same tour, this time in LA, “Like A Rolling Stone”
The video of his amazing 1978 performances on June 15, 19, and 20 at Earl’s Court, London have disappeared. However, I found this 2 hour and 48 masterpiece! Steve’s sax is front and center from the first song, “My Back Pages!” Bob Dylan 1978 European Tour - Blackbushe Aerodrome, Camberley, England 15 July 1978
These are some audio-only live performances from that tour. First Charlotte, with “Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat)” and "Changing of the Guard."
A treat! I found the entire 2 hour and 21 show! Bob Dylan Live in Charlottesville – 1978
From NC, we go back to Blackbushe for "Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)"
(Last year I had a great performance of “Brownsville Girl,” but this year it’s nowhere to be found. I also had quite a few cuts from the 1978 Budokan show, with Steve's saxes or flutes doing some great Dylan tunes, which also keep disappearing. But I did find this amazing 1 hour and 50 minute show in Paris from that legendary 1978 tour!
For your enjoyment, Bob Dylan at the Pavillon de Paris, July 1978
This year I found this 2 hour 27 audio only concert from Osaka! Bob Dylan Live in Osaka - 1978
Here’s another major score from that fateful 1978 tour! I got lucky and found another entire audio-only concert, so for your enjoyment, here's all 2 hours 21 minutes of Bob Dylan Live at Seattle in 1978
We’ll close that huge, sprawling epic tour with an equally huge clip! Here’s an hour and 19 clip of a compilation of some of the songs he played on that tour, taken from different performances around the world! It’s audio only, so if you have the time, here’s Bob Dylan – The Road is Long - The 1978 World Tour
We'll begin closing today's birthday tribute to Steve Douglas by replaying a tune I think is one of his greatest works. As I said earlier, I believe this is one of the most powerful Christmas tunes ever written! It was certainly Letterman’s favorite tune, since he had Darlene sing it every Christmas during his long run. Sung by Darlene Love, with Steve on the sax and Leon doing one of the best piano lines ever recorded, here's the awesome "Baby Please Come Home."
For our encore, here are 4 studio tunes Steve was in on during the historic "SMiLE" sessions when the Beach Boys were on top. For your enjoyment, "Heroes and Villains," followed by the very Mercurial "Do You Like Worms." We now segue into the equally beautiful "Surf's Up," and close this set with "Good Vibrations"
For our second encore, we scored big with the man playing live in "Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces: Let's Have A Ball", a film by Les Blank taped at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA on March 25 1987! Here are three great live performances from that show of “Jesus on the Mainline,” which we follow with “How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times & Live?” and then close with “Goodnight Irene”
Last year I had the entire 1 hour 30 minute film, featuring some of the greatest musicians in the world, on one clip, but this year it’s gone. However, I did find this clip which supposedly autoloads 13 different clips of the movie in order! And yes, Steve’s all over this one! Ry Cooder Live at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz 1987
Here’s Steve’s bio on the website of Steve Douglas – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Sax Sideman
Thanks for all the great music across the years. For those of us groovin' in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, you and King Curtis were the most exciting sax players going! It's too bad you died so young of heart failure. RIP (Rock in Perpetuity) Mister Steve. Your musical legacy will last forever.
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It’s also the birthday of an obscure musician whose songs are known to tens of millions. Carl Sigman (September 24, 1909 – September 26, 2000) is considered to be one of the most successful songwriters in American history, having worked with Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, and many more, so prepare to enjoy a great ride!
We’ll begin with Glenn Miller’s gigantic hit “Pennsylvania 6-5000”
Here’s one Carl wrote with The Duke! “All Too Soon”
Carl and Percy Faith adapted this European hit done by dozens of major league vocalists. Here’s the Ray Charles version! “My Heart Cries for You”
The Righteous Brothers gave us this version of Carl’s hit in 1965! “Ebb Tide”
Others had made it a hit before the Brothers, and here are three of the biggest! First, from 1954, Roy Hamilton’s version of “Ebb Tide,” which we’ll follow with the 1960 version by Tony Williams and the Platters version of “Ebb Tide,” and finish with a great video of Lenny Welch giving us a great performance of “Ebb Tide,” which he originally recorded in 1964.
From another more innocent era, Tommy Edwards took this one to #1 for 6 weeks in 1958! “It’s All In The Game”
Two years earlier in 1956, Nat King Cole did a lush version of “It’s All In The Game,” and in 1970, the Four Tops in a live performance of the tune they took to #6 on the soul charts, “It’s All In The Game”
Chairman of the Board Yo Frankie giving it up in a live performance of Carl’s translation of “What Now My Love,” though I prefer this 1973 sufficiently dramatic performance of the tune by the King! “What Now My Love”
Here’s Andy Williams doing his hit version of the theme from “Love Story,” “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story”
We’ll close this brief tribute with the Vogues’ version of “Till”
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It’s also the birthday of Mike Berry (24 September 1942), British actor and singer who gave us one memorable hit, deemed too morbid by the BBC for airplay! Part of Joe Meek’s stable of artists in the early 60s, here are the few he’s known for. And yes, as could be expected, they all sound like Buddy’s rock and roll style done by a guy in pre-Beatles England ….
From 1961, “Tribute to Buddy Holly” Here’s a live version by the man! “Tribute to Buddy Holly”
From 2012, a live performance of his 1962 hit “Don’t You Think It’s Time”
Also from 1962, “It’s Just A Matter of Time”
From 1963, “My Little Baby”
We’ll close this brief set with a live performance on the UK version of “The Voice,” a beautiful offering of one of Buddy’s last hits, “True Love Ways”
Our encore is a live performance of his 1980 hit “The Sunshine of Your Smile”
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Last but not least, we now send up a happy and merry to Merseybeat pioneer and hitmaker Gerry Marsden (24 September 1942). Gerry and the Pacemakers weren’t around long, but they gave us some great hits between 1963-1966. Of course, they were part of the Brian Epstein/George Martin production effort, played the same European circuit as the Beatles, and regularly competed for the top of the charts with them. In fact, they equaled the Beatles in 1963 England, no small feat! Gerry’s still doing a solo gig these days, and still loves his hometown!
Their first hit in 1963 which went to #1, “How Do You Do It” (Yes, this is what the Tom Hanks movie “That Thing You Do” was based on!)
Their next big one in 1963 which also went to #1, “I Like It”
From late 1963, their third #1 hit from that year, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (THREE Number 1 hits in one year? Wow.)
From early 1964, a lip synched live performance of their #2 hit “I’m The One.” Here’s the flip side of that single! “You’ve Got What I Like”
The screams are real! Remember this was the era of Beatlemania. From Spring 1964, their #4 hit “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying.” Here’s an earlier, more subdued performance of “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying.”
From 1965 Top of the Pops, the hit that went to #6 in late 1964 and early 1965, “Ferry Cross the Mersey”
From Hullabaloo, introduced by Brian Epstein, here's one that went to #14 in 1965, “I’ll Be There.” Also on British Hullabaloo, the rave up “It’s Gonna Be All Right”
From 1966, a television performance in color! “I’m The One”
We’ll close with another live performance of his first hit! “How Do You Do It”
Vying for the top of the charts with the Beatles for about a year, and then faded into obscurity and disbanded in 1966. That’s a ride on a rocket ship! I loved them when they were around, and it’s still classic Merseybeat! Thanks for the tunes and memories, Gerry. It was a different world back then…..
© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson
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