A Clyde McPhatter Lover's Question: Why Is There No Thread?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iToeC28nWvs
I'd like to know

"A Lover's Question" is one of my favourite '50s songs. Also "Treasure of Love," "Deep Sea Blues" and "Don't Leave Me This Way" with the Dominoes, and "The Bell's of St. Mary's" with the Drifters (which I came to via Goodfellas)--they're all great. He was in the second group of inductees into the HOF.

If nobody responded for a while I was going to reply myself with "Lover Please." I know Jonathan Richman was a fan.

Trying to remember the outline of his career without peeking. Did he start out in Gospel, before going secular in Billy Ward's Dominos? Is he on "Sixty Minute Man"? Then was the original lead singer of the original Drifters, sang on "Ruby Baby," "Drip Drop" and the mighty "Money Honey." There was also an interim Drifters after Clyde left before the whole group was replaced and Ben E. King became lead vocalist. Was "Adorable" from this period with the guy doing a convincing imitation, ina Doug Yule style?

Feel like there is something in the Million Dollar Quartet about Elvis talking about seeing him with the Dominos. I know Elvis did a good version of "Money Honey."

Anyway seems like he bridged the gap between singing lead vocalist ladies man stuff and doing Coasters style barbed comedy. Trying to remember what Greil Marcus said about him in or on Treasure Island.

Dominoes-Drifters-solo, I think. I like the Brill-Building Drifters better than McPhatter's group. Marcus is quite effusive in Stranded (which I've got sitting right here as I work my way through a Grooveshark playlist): "no rock singer's touch has been more delicate, or more doomstruck)."

Dominoes spelt with an 'e' as I suspected.

Can't remember if I still have a copy of Stranded. Look at my latest, ebook copy of officially David Bowie approved The Sound of The City where it is confirmed that Clyde does not sing the lead vocal on "Sixty Minute Man" but he certainly is on if.

Don't seem to have Stranded anymore, although I did hold onto Mystery Train. Next to it is something called I Wanna Be Sedated which I dimly remember being vaguely amusing.

A little too jokey: set-up, set-up, punchline. Some good ones, though.

:)

The second incarnation of the Drifters had better material and records were more consistent, yes. First Drifters you have to cherry pick. "Fools Fall In Love" for instance, is a great Leiber and Stoller number, although that was after Clyde had left.

A surprising thing for me with Youtube has been how few video clips there are of some of these guys. Like, are there really only, what, TWO video clips of Buddy Holly? The Ed Sullivan one and the Arthur Murray one? There seem to be two video clips of McPhatter (one from an Allan Freed movie and one from a TV appearance with Bobby Darin).

Yeah, really. I was going to mention youtube in a different context. Sometimes when I listen to some of these tunes on Spotify, if I suspect it may be a rerecord I go to youtube to check, since more often than not they will have the original. Kind of pathetic I know but..

There are four Dominoes compilations on King. I've got two of them--the McPhatter one (#2), and Vol. 4 with Billy Ward. I definitely looked at one or two copies of the Jackie Wilson volume (#3) way back when, and stupidly passed it up. (I seem to spend a lot time lately thinking about albums I once stupidly passed up.) Vol. 1 has their hits--not sure if I ever came across a copy of that one, and if I did, why I didn't buy it either.

The Dominoes were on King? Or was that the result of some later consolidation? Speaking of King, I recently learned that this was were Seymour Stein got his start in the record business. Check this out- a picture of Seymour Stein, Syd Nathan AND George Goldner and his wife, presumably his dance partner when he went to the Palladium to see Machito or one of the two Titos. http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/cincinnatihistory/Story.aspx?ID=1702441

Anyway, somehow ended up listening to The Olympics as a result of this discussion.

Ah, okay, Dominoes were on Federal: http://www.goldminemag.com/article/king-records-syd-nathan-was-decades-ahead-of-the-competition

Hm. Never registered that "Mine Exclusively" was by The Olympics.

The albums I'm talking about all came out in the late '70s--they were kicking around for the next few years pretty cheap.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/vol1_zps88eb5daf.jpg http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/vol2_zps83cbb532.jpg http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/vol3_zps2420b13d.jpg http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/vol4_zpsd4ffb7e6.jpg

I hope that comes out neat and tidy.

Sweet and dandy.

Say what you like about ebooks, but I just searched "McPhatter" on my Kindle and found a few interesting things. First, that in 1961 in Miami he, Lloyd Price and Little Willie John formed a $300 betting pool on the Ingemar Johansen vs. Floyd Patterson fight, which I learned from Fever: Little Willie John, A Fast Life, Mysterious Death and the Birth of Soul, the authorized biography by Susan Whitall with Kevin John. Then I learned about his involvement in the Civil RIghts movement in Dreamtime: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, by Peter Guralnick. Finally I found a ton of stuff about him in All Hopped Up And Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-1977, by Tony Fletcher, of which more later, I'll just say right now that two of his fellows in The Mount Lebanon Singers quartet were brothers of James Baldwin.

Hm. According to Tony Fletcher, George Goldner's second wife, was a Latina named Mona and his daughter was Linda. Guess Susan was the first wife.

Man, I gotta find the time to read this book properly one day. I mean what better blurb could you get than the one below which, surprisingly enough, is on the publisher's website but not the actual book. Also I had luck reading one book before with a Ramones lyric as a title.
http://books.wwnorton.com/books/All-Hopped-Up-and-Ready-to-Go/

“In All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77, Tony Fletcher has demonstrated extraordinary depth in his research and vibrancy in his writing. Not only was I fascinated by his stories of times and styles about which I knew little, but, in those areas in which I knew a lot, he has connected all the dots for me…oh, yeah, and it’s a damned good read.” — Mike Stoller