They wrote one song that floundered, so they re-purposed one of its hooks, and re-cast their musical net into the high Cs (and B-sharps) & came up with a supreme rouser that looked to one-up Motown!
Really interesting, Brad, as usual. The radio video was cool -- took me right back to what it was like.
It's a really good song, and I have to think (as you allude) that it might have been a bigger hit in the first half of the decade when songs about young love and heartache were all the rage. The second half of the decade seemed to have a lot more focus on things happening in the culture or more grown-up relationship concerns (like love children). The girl groups for the most part seemed to have disappeared except the Supremes (am I wrong about that? just relying on memory) and the Supremes with Diana would not last much longer. But then they were writing in the UK, which I personally found living there has a very strong market for pop music and often make hits out of things that don't take off in the US. (They have Eurovision, a pop lollapalooza to end all pop lollapaloozas.)
I did find it interesting that they repurposed elements from an earlier song. The whole songwriting process is quite fascinating.
Thanks, Ellen! You're spot on about the early- to mid-'60s girl group proliferation giving way to late-'60s folkies, polit-rock, a little heavy metal, sunshine pop, and more! You're right about The Supremes, who kept going, even as Diana went solo around '69 or '70.
Somebody commented on Reddit (I dare to post there.....IKR?) that "Heartache" is a great song. Can't argue, of course, but I think this is one where the production is the star here, and that's what I said to the Redditor this morning! Once I found what I considered to be the "breadcrumb tracks" of productions leading up to '68 (and with Bickerton's position in the UK record biz....he was hearing and tracking everything!), I surmised that these were the elements that led him to put it all together for "Heartache"!
As for songwriting, I gotta think their process is similar to soloists (of any instrument). Guitarists (to pick one instrument at random), however much they improv solos, always have a "go-to" riff in whatever key during a certain part of the solo. At times, they may stumble on a new riff built on the previous one, and I think songwriters do the same thing (or similar) from one song to the next. "Romeo & Juliet" (as a little-heard B-side for a record that didn't really sell), suddenly became a song worth plundering to see if any part of it could be "re-purposed"....voila!
As a Statesider, the Eurovision has always been fascinating to observe, and see what new song trends and artists emerge. After 50 years, "Waterloo" is still my favorite ABBA song!
Eurovision is an absolute trip. It is remarkably political, which is why the UK rarely wins as they never fully joined the EU, keeping their own currency and often refusing to go along with EU policies, and now voting to leave (!!!). But then a song can come along from any country that just grabs everyone and wins. The host countries can put on bizarre displays sometimes around their country to showcase themselves, and Graham Norton in the UK makes wisecracks throughout the show. It truly is a bizarrely fun show that I can't see happening here. The Brits are just great at appreciating the absurd in life and taking the piss out of everything. It's one thing I absolutely loved about living there (and miss!).
I think it'd be awfully interesting to see an article series on all the Eurovision winners and artists over the decades, and see which songs'n'artists moved the needle, at all, on song or sound trends! We statesiders only ever hear that word occasionally, and usually wonder what it's all about, and who we've been missing!
Maybe suggest it to Chris Dalla Riva! Would need a statistician to do it justice, I would think. Given that there are dozens of countries, it would be too hard otherwise, and they'd need to get the database.
But there are also several books on the history of the contest available on amazon. (Don't want to clutter this with links.) So perhaps one of them gives some insight.
It would require someone with an interest in pop, not much rock in Eurovision, occasionally there's a metal band from Finland or Estonia or someplace like that!
Thanks for that, Ellen! It makes sense there'd be a lot of info already out on Eurovision. Every once in a while, there'll be a mention of the contest when there's a hit here or there. That Joe Bennett chart is a great tool....thanks again!
Such a great audio autopsy: fun, entertaining, thorough and, above all, educational! Thanks for including my comments, and it was very interesting to read what other writers had to say!
I love how you shed light on forgotten (in many cases, unknown, or unknown-to-most-readers) gems, and give them a new lease of life!
I particularly liked the mention of you in your mum's car in the late 60s. For younger readers like me, this is pure gold. Thank you!
Thanks, Andy! This turned out to be more of an octopus than I realized it even COULD be! One arm led over here, one over there.....but, cut one off, and I felt we'd lose some of what led B&W to produce what and how they did! One new find for me that I really love was The Supremes' "Some Things You Never Get Used To".....the release-timing and its style I loved imagining was the final push for The Flirtations' turn in the studio!
As for the KILT aircheck, I can't tell you how much I was hoping to hear "Heartache" represented, but, because you're the first to comment, I'll share a little tidbit just for you! See the two DJs pictured on the far left? That's "Hudson & Harrigan," a DJ duo that lasted on KILT for many years, but, often had different guys, entirely, "playing the parts"....that duo name had become such a well-known commodity, they just cycled different guys through whenever needed!
The guy on the bottom of the two in the Hudson & Harrigan pic was really named Bob Wright. When I was on-air (with a daily 3-6pm soft rock/MOR shift, and was Music Director), in 1975 (at 20), on the U. of Houston campus radio station, KUHF-FM, Bob Wright was Music Director of CBS-owned (at the time) KLOL-FM101, where my dad was an ad sales exec! In fact, when Wright moved from KILT and went to 101, he was also part of the popular Stevens & Pruett DJ team on KLOL for a time (I forget if Wright was Stevens or Pruett!). Here's 101's Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLOL
One day, Daddy had Bob and KLOL Program Director, Jim Hilty, tune me in whilst I was on-air, and give me a listen! They liked what they heard (but, of course!), and offered me a gig....for about a year, I was a full-time "substitute DJ," on-call for whenever a jock called in sick, or was on vacation, etc! Houston listeners will remember names like Ed Beauchamp, Jackie McCauley, Crash, Emil For Real, and Chapman Mott as some of the jocks I filled in for!
Along with my fill-in jock work, I also worked 6am-noon every Sunday, producing a call-in talk show for Chapman Mott. He was the host, listeners would call in, and I'd run the dials in the studio, including setting up the reel-to-reel machines to affect the delay necessary for live broadcast. I wrote about that process here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/behind-the-mic-a-personal-peek-into-9a2?utm_source=publication-search
So, there ya have it! More info than you bargained for, little buddy! Glad you enjoyed this!
Thank you so much, Brad, for sharing all of this! Your life is packed with so many interesting stories, so rich with music biz exposure… no wonder you know so much, because you’ve seen so much! You know, it’s very helpful for us younger readers (and this ties into what I was saying in my earlier comment) to understand how you got to where you are. It helps us (me, at least!) break it down and make sense of what led to what, how X Y Z came about, and crucially, what was it that you did differently in order to gain that kind of exposure. In a world where so much is attributed to luck, and where no one even dares talk to someone else, it is important to talk about our experience, and the connections we managed to forge along the way… so thank you for sharing your (incredibly valuable) experience!
Really interesting, Brad, as usual. The radio video was cool -- took me right back to what it was like.
It's a really good song, and I have to think (as you allude) that it might have been a bigger hit in the first half of the decade when songs about young love and heartache were all the rage. The second half of the decade seemed to have a lot more focus on things happening in the culture or more grown-up relationship concerns (like love children). The girl groups for the most part seemed to have disappeared except the Supremes (am I wrong about that? just relying on memory) and the Supremes with Diana would not last much longer. But then they were writing in the UK, which I personally found living there has a very strong market for pop music and often make hits out of things that don't take off in the US. (They have Eurovision, a pop lollapalooza to end all pop lollapaloozas.)
I did find it interesting that they repurposed elements from an earlier song. The whole songwriting process is quite fascinating.
Thanks, Ellen! You're spot on about the early- to mid-'60s girl group proliferation giving way to late-'60s folkies, polit-rock, a little heavy metal, sunshine pop, and more! You're right about The Supremes, who kept going, even as Diana went solo around '69 or '70.
Somebody commented on Reddit (I dare to post there.....IKR?) that "Heartache" is a great song. Can't argue, of course, but I think this is one where the production is the star here, and that's what I said to the Redditor this morning! Once I found what I considered to be the "breadcrumb tracks" of productions leading up to '68 (and with Bickerton's position in the UK record biz....he was hearing and tracking everything!), I surmised that these were the elements that led him to put it all together for "Heartache"!
As for songwriting, I gotta think their process is similar to soloists (of any instrument). Guitarists (to pick one instrument at random), however much they improv solos, always have a "go-to" riff in whatever key during a certain part of the solo. At times, they may stumble on a new riff built on the previous one, and I think songwriters do the same thing (or similar) from one song to the next. "Romeo & Juliet" (as a little-heard B-side for a record that didn't really sell), suddenly became a song worth plundering to see if any part of it could be "re-purposed"....voila!
As a Statesider, the Eurovision has always been fascinating to observe, and see what new song trends and artists emerge. After 50 years, "Waterloo" is still my favorite ABBA song!
Eurovision is an absolute trip. It is remarkably political, which is why the UK rarely wins as they never fully joined the EU, keeping their own currency and often refusing to go along with EU policies, and now voting to leave (!!!). But then a song can come along from any country that just grabs everyone and wins. The host countries can put on bizarre displays sometimes around their country to showcase themselves, and Graham Norton in the UK makes wisecracks throughout the show. It truly is a bizarrely fun show that I can't see happening here. The Brits are just great at appreciating the absurd in life and taking the piss out of everything. It's one thing I absolutely loved about living there (and miss!).
I think it'd be awfully interesting to see an article series on all the Eurovision winners and artists over the decades, and see which songs'n'artists moved the needle, at all, on song or sound trends! We statesiders only ever hear that word occasionally, and usually wonder what it's all about, and who we've been missing!
Here's an analysis for 2011-2019 by an academic musicologist, which is quite interesting -- https://joebennett.net/2020/06/30/esc2020/
Maybe suggest it to Chris Dalla Riva! Would need a statistician to do it justice, I would think. Given that there are dozens of countries, it would be too hard otherwise, and they'd need to get the database.
But there are also several books on the history of the contest available on amazon. (Don't want to clutter this with links.) So perhaps one of them gives some insight.
It would require someone with an interest in pop, not much rock in Eurovision, occasionally there's a metal band from Finland or Estonia or someplace like that!
Thanks for that, Ellen! It makes sense there'd be a lot of info already out on Eurovision. Every once in a while, there'll be a mention of the contest when there's a hit here or there. That Joe Bennett chart is a great tool....thanks again!
Such a great audio autopsy: fun, entertaining, thorough and, above all, educational! Thanks for including my comments, and it was very interesting to read what other writers had to say!
I love how you shed light on forgotten (in many cases, unknown, or unknown-to-most-readers) gems, and give them a new lease of life!
I particularly liked the mention of you in your mum's car in the late 60s. For younger readers like me, this is pure gold. Thank you!
Thanks, Andy! This turned out to be more of an octopus than I realized it even COULD be! One arm led over here, one over there.....but, cut one off, and I felt we'd lose some of what led B&W to produce what and how they did! One new find for me that I really love was The Supremes' "Some Things You Never Get Used To".....the release-timing and its style I loved imagining was the final push for The Flirtations' turn in the studio!
As for the KILT aircheck, I can't tell you how much I was hoping to hear "Heartache" represented, but, because you're the first to comment, I'll share a little tidbit just for you! See the two DJs pictured on the far left? That's "Hudson & Harrigan," a DJ duo that lasted on KILT for many years, but, often had different guys, entirely, "playing the parts"....that duo name had become such a well-known commodity, they just cycled different guys through whenever needed!
The guy on the bottom of the two in the Hudson & Harrigan pic was really named Bob Wright. When I was on-air (with a daily 3-6pm soft rock/MOR shift, and was Music Director), in 1975 (at 20), on the U. of Houston campus radio station, KUHF-FM, Bob Wright was Music Director of CBS-owned (at the time) KLOL-FM101, where my dad was an ad sales exec! In fact, when Wright moved from KILT and went to 101, he was also part of the popular Stevens & Pruett DJ team on KLOL for a time (I forget if Wright was Stevens or Pruett!). Here's 101's Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLOL
One day, Daddy had Bob and KLOL Program Director, Jim Hilty, tune me in whilst I was on-air, and give me a listen! They liked what they heard (but, of course!), and offered me a gig....for about a year, I was a full-time "substitute DJ," on-call for whenever a jock called in sick, or was on vacation, etc! Houston listeners will remember names like Ed Beauchamp, Jackie McCauley, Crash, Emil For Real, and Chapman Mott as some of the jocks I filled in for!
Along with my fill-in jock work, I also worked 6am-noon every Sunday, producing a call-in talk show for Chapman Mott. He was the host, listeners would call in, and I'd run the dials in the studio, including setting up the reel-to-reel machines to affect the delay necessary for live broadcast. I wrote about that process here: https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/behind-the-mic-a-personal-peek-into-9a2?utm_source=publication-search
So, there ya have it! More info than you bargained for, little buddy! Glad you enjoyed this!
Thank you so much, Brad, for sharing all of this! Your life is packed with so many interesting stories, so rich with music biz exposure… no wonder you know so much, because you’ve seen so much! You know, it’s very helpful for us younger readers (and this ties into what I was saying in my earlier comment) to understand how you got to where you are. It helps us (me, at least!) break it down and make sense of what led to what, how X Y Z came about, and crucially, what was it that you did differently in order to gain that kind of exposure. In a world where so much is attributed to luck, and where no one even dares talk to someone else, it is important to talk about our experience, and the connections we managed to forge along the way… so thank you for sharing your (incredibly valuable) experience!