GROW BIGGER EARS #22: "Lady Love"💖Same Title, 4 Different Songs!🎶Lou Rawls, Robin Trower, Jon Lucien, Dino, Desi & Billy (and Brian Wilson)
Doling out accurate royalty payments can be a logistical nightmare even in the best of circumstances! Toss in popular song titles that are identical, and...well, let's just watch the fun!🎵
💐Premise Her Anything….
Over the pop decades, it’s inevitable that a song or two will end up having identical titles, but written by different people. Sometimes, efforts are taken to alleviate confusion, as in the case of Atlantic Records, who added the dreaded parentheses to The Spinners’ “Games People Play,” and wrenched awkward parens to make the infernal “They Just Can’t Stop It” the (Games People Play).
All this to simply avoid a turntable mix-up with Joe South’s 1968 single hit, “Games People Play.” See photos above.
Lou’s “Lady Love”
Recently, a video of a pre-adolescent trio playing a song called “Lady Love” crept into my YouTube algo. I recognized the group in this mid-’60s video (we’ll reveal it a little later), but that song’s title didn’t become at all familiar to me until nearly a dozen years later…in a “Lady Love” by Lou Rawls, who died in 2006 at 72:
This “Lady Love” was written by Yvonne Gray alias Vonghn Gray. The sheet music reportedly lists Von Gray as the sole writer, while the credits under the record’s title includes the name Sherman Marshall (who co-produced with Gray and arranger, Jack Faith). The single and its parent album were recorded at Philly’s Sigma Sound.
We, here at FR&B, are rather enamored of the Philly sound; here’s one example:
This became a hit single from Rawls’ 1977 album, When You Hear Lou, You’ve Heard It All, on CBS affiliate, Philadelphia International Records. The single was serviced to radio in January 1978, and peaked at #13 in Canada, #21 in Australia, #24 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #20 in fellow trade mag, Cash Box, and it got to #21 on the R&B chart.
All Along the Watch, Trower
In 1975, two years before Lou’s “Lady Love,” Robin Trower released “Lady Love” (written by Trower and bassist, James Dewar) on his Robin Trower Live! album, oddly enough, a single live album (Chrysalis Records, worldwide)!
‘Twas the same year Kiss Alive! dropped (rather heavily, as I recall), a massive double-live! With Frampton Comes Alive released just a few short months later, the live album had unwittingly whelped a brand new sales-proven template! “Live albums will forever have a gatefold!” seemed to be the industry-wide proclamation by 1976!
But, that lucrative and stretchy rubber-band was bound to snap back at some point! Ouch!👇
Trower’s live “Lady Love”:
Jon Lucien: Never Turn Down Karaoke at a Party
In 1973 (two years before Trower’s, whose was two years before Lou’s), Jon Lucien released his Rashida album, his second of three for RCA Records, whereupon his “Lady Love” rested:
He was born Lucien Leopold Harrigan in 1942, and passed away in 2007 at 65. Known professionally as Jon Lucien (loo-see-en’), he was born in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, but was raised in St. Thomas. Jon’s father was a musician whose main instrument was a three-coursed Latin guitar-like chordophone known as a Tres:
As a teen, Jon played bass in his father’s band. During the 1960s, he moved to New York City. While performing at a party, Jon was discovered by an RCA Records exec. That label released his debut album of jazz and pop standards, I Am Now, in 1970. Lucien said the label attempted to market him as a “black Sinatra.”
Jon Lucien: The man with the golden throat.—Herbie Hancock
His second album, Rashida, contained only songs written by Lucien, with “Lady Love” receiving radio airplay. Dave Grusin received a Grammy nomination for his arrangements. Jon recorded two albums for Columbia (1975 and ‘76) before making guest appearances on Yesterday’s Dreams by Alphonso Johnson and Mr. Gone by Weather Report, both fellow Columbia artists.
Dino, Desi & Billy: Children of the Croon
“Lady Love,” written by Brian Wilson and Billy Hinsche:
And, this is the pre-adolescent trio mentioned at the top of this article: The pop progeny of Martin, Arnaz & Hinsche! Dino (13 when they formed), Desi (12) & Billy (13) were a singing trio that existed between 1964 and 1970.
As Dad, Dino, was an original “Rat Pack”-er with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford, and was signed to Frank’s Reprise Records (along with Sammy, and of course, The Chairman, himself), father Dean, natch, got the boys signed to the label (which was distributed by Warner Bros).
The group featured school buds, Dean “Dino” Martin (Dean Paul Martin, the son of singer/actor, Dean Martin), Desi Arnaz Jr. (Desiderio Arnaz IV, the son of TV stars and studio moguls, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball), and their friend, Billy Hinsche.
From Sam Tweedle’s Canadian Vinyl Stories site: “As the story goes, in 1964, Frank Sinatra was frustrated: Having formed his own label, Reprise Records, he realized that rock n’ roll was the sound of the day, and he felt pressure to sign a pop act. However, the Chairman of the Board, never being a fan of rock music, didn’t know anything about it.
“Heading over to Dean Martin’s place [in nearby Brentwood, above] for a drink, he heard the sound of rock n’ roll being played in an upstairs bedroom (some sources site a garage) and going to investigate, he found Martin’s son Dino Martin, his best friend, Billy Hinsche, and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s son, Desi Arnaz Jr. had formed their own group.
“Without knowing anything about the music, he offered them a record deal on the spot and the trio of Dino, Desi and Billy was born! Teaming them up with some of the best producers and musicians in Los Angeles, the boys – still barely teenagers – were appearing on national TV shows, playing at venues across America, on the covers of teen publication, 16 Magazine, and had a hit, “I’m a Fool”, on the Billboard charts. Dino, Desi and Billy were pop idols….or, so the story goes.”
In a 2021 interview with Billy, Sam Tweedle recounts the late Hinsche’s origin story on the trio: “According to Billy, Dean Martin’s wife, Jeanne, had phoned up Sinatra and told him to come to the house and listen to the group play.
“Dino, Desi and Billy hauled all their gear from a rehearsal space that was in an upstairs bedroom (because they got kicked out of Lucille Ball’s garage) and set up in Dean Martin’s bar, and had an actual audition for Sinatra. Of course, Sinatra offered them a full contract after four songs.
“But Dino, Desi and Billy were not the first rock/pop band signed to Reprise: They were the second, after The Kinks. But, according to Billy Hinsche, he believed that they owed their career to Jeanne Martin for having faith in them, and had enough pull to get Sinatra to come and listen to them.”
Just a few months later, in November 2021, Billy passed away after a short battle with cancer. He was 70.
“Lady Love” was written by The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and Billy in 1970. Here, the boys play the song on Dino’s daddy’s The Dean Martin Show, noticeably older:
GROW Even More BIGGER EARS!👂👇
I think you know I love this GBE take on Inside Tracks! It brings me back to my Monkey Man variation on it so many moons ago! I am working on another one myself right now — all songs titled “3 Legged Dog”; don’t tell anyone! I am excited to listen to all these variations on my vacation (leaving shortly for the flight). I am not familiar with any of them other than Lou Rawls and Robin Trower. And as always, I appreciate the gluttony of puns! Keep it comin’ Lady Love!
Top-notch research skills, as always! I loooove Lou Rawls, so his "Lady Love" is my favourite from this selection. However, the "Lady Love" by Dino, Desi & Billy is not bad, particularly the live version. I enjoyed the harmonies, with shalalas and ooos galore.