Tune Tag #113 with Tamara Casey of Rare Groove Productions: Culture Club, Looking Glass, Josie Cotton, Richard Orange, Jimmy Buffett, Lumineers, Zac Brown

From all over the musical map we drive our Tune Tag-mobile today with a singer/songwriter/producer at the wheel! We're happy to have Tamara here for her first Tune Tag foray!

I sent a memo to World HQ….Tune Tag, Incorporated, asking for a graphic of some sort, illustrating the fun one can have playing Tune Tag! I guess this’ll work!

Welcome, Tamara!…….LET’S GOOOOOOOOO!!!✨

Meet

Tamara Casey

of

Rare Groove Productions

!

“Singer, songwriter, producer that hates to perform. What else do you need to know? Lifelong career in technology. Lifelong dabbling in music and dance. Former pilot and current sailor. My Substack is for the stories behind the songs.”

“Keepers of the Time”: A few years ago, Tamara co-wrote this song with New York singer/songwriter, Jay Nash. This may be our most beautiful intro to Tamara:

Last week, we were pleased to have

Jorge Garcia

of

Geekatune

over for dinner, drinks, and a little Tune Tag:

Tune Tag #112 with Jorge Garcia of Geekatune: Judas Priest, The Who, Rush, Doobie Brothers, Billy Newton-Davis, Nirvana, Tom Petty, Keith Moon

Next week, tune in for the Tune Tag adventures of one

Michael K. Fell

of

Home Is Where The Music Is

!

Tamara’s song #1 sent to Brad: Looking Glass, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” 1972

Elliot Lurie is our hero for this one: He wrote and sings lead on Looking Glass’s 1972 #1 smash, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl”), produced by Looking Glass, Bob Liftin, and Mike Gershman.

Tamara’s rationale: Since I was a little girl, I have been fascinated by songs about the sea. Maybe because I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. This song has captivated me my entire life. There is something about the raw honesty of the lyrics that I love. And say what you will, but it’s a damn catchy tune and unexpectedly soulful.

The Professor of Rock interviews Elliot Lurie:

Brad’s response: Oft overlooked (as is often the case for smash-hit follow-ups) is Lurie’s post-“Brandy” encore, released by Looking Glass in summer ‘73 (like “Brandy,” on Epic/CBS Records). In a fascinating shift (perhaps encouraged by still-CBS-prez, Clive Davis) of producers, Arif Mardin arranged the horns and strings, as well as produced this one that was released in July 1973.

Mardin’s influence can be heard in several places, but chiefly in the horn charts that take the brief punctuating horn punches used in “Brandy,” and gives them a far more up-front and melodic role throughout, beginning with the first chorus.

Davis was fired from CBS two months before, but, with “Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne” being recorded in ‘72, it’s possible, if not likely, that Clive gave Mardin a jingle, simply to raise the band’s studio sound to a level befitting a newly-minted gold-record band!

In fact, this one’s so dang catchy, I’m flipping the

Earworms and Song Loops

Earworm Alarm! Calling

Steve Goldberg

! Listen at your own giddily delirious peril!🤪

The addition of the veteran Mardin to these proceedings yielded a more seamlessly smooth and customarily melodic pop sound to Lurie’s composition, a trait Josie Cotton exploited to typically jittery new wave quirkiness a decade later for the MTV generation…and, here it is!

Brad’s song #1 sent to Tamara: Josie Cotton, “Jimmy Loves Maryann,” 1984

Tamara’s response: Touche. Looking Glass’s only other hit song: They were a two-hit wonder, as “Jimmy Loves Maryann” got into the Top 40. I am guessing this version by Josie Cotton might have popped in your head since what kicked off this whole discussion was a post about “Copacabana” and Barry Manilow’s foray into Disco. That was a gem of a post by you and Pe (of

The Twelve Inch (Disco/80s)

), by the way:

🌴 From Ballads to the Copa: Barry Manilow’s Unlikely Disco Moment

This cover by Josie Cotton of “Jimmy Loves Maryann” also represents that whole genre-bending thing of the ‘80s. Is it disco, pop….wait, is it a little punk thing?? You’re probably baiting me into choosing Josie’s “Johnny Are You Queer” next from Valley Girl, but I am not that obvious. So, I am going with this gem from the same era.

Brad’s rationale: Elliot Lurie is our link here. He wrote “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” for his Looking Glass, and he also wrote its follow-up, “Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne” (sans hyphen and “e”) recorded by Josie Cotton in 1984.

This triggers a Tune Tag Interactive Experience for Paid (& Comped) Subscribers!

What song would you tag to this Josie Cotton “Jimmy Loves Maryann”? Anything’s game for your research, too!…Similar lyric content? Genre? Same session player or producer on one as the other? Same record label? Be creative, and join us in the FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE Chat Room to share your Tag, and compare with others’ Tags!👇🎵

Upgrade your subscription today to join the Tune Tag Interactive Experience! See you in Chat…and, thank you!

Tamara’s song #2: Culture Club, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” 1982

Brad’s response: Curious how the song title has no question mark. I’ve checked a lot of places, and nowhere does that punctuation necessity pop up! As for links, a bit of a hard-knock life sorta thing in both? This was released two years before Josie Cotton’s.

From Genius.com: “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me’ was the third single from Culture Club’s debut album. Like most songs on it, ‘Hurt’ was written by Boy George primarily about his relationship with drummer Jon Moss. The band had come up with the melody during some spare time while recording for the Peter Powell show on BBC Radio One.

“After the band’s previous two singles made little impact, their label wanted to release ‘Hurt’ as the group’s last chance to find success. George did not want the record label to send it to radio as a single because, not only did he feel it was too personal, but ‘it wasn’t club music’ – threatening to leave the band if they did so. The label moved forward anyway, but things continued to look fruitless at first, with an early review in Smash Hits calling the song ‘weak, watered-down fourth division reggae’.”

Brad’s song #2: Sailor, “A Glass of Champagne,” 1975

Tamara’s response: OK - So Phil Pickett would seem to be the connection between Sailor and Culture Club. I don’t think I feel like venturing any further down that particular rabbit hole, though. But, since the rules are clear and we have to stick with the previous theme, here you go. Obvious, but one of my favorites…next.

Brad’s rationale: Phil Pickett provided additional keyboards and backing vocals on Culture Club’s debut Kissing to Be Clever album in 1982 (it’s unclear if he did either on “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” specifically, or not). Pickett was a member of British band, Sailor, and played on this “A Glass of Champagne” (written by Georg Kajanus) from their second album, Trouble, released in 1975 on Epic Records, worldwide, and produced by Jeffrey Lesser, with associate producer credit going to Rupert Holmes for their Widescreen Productions.

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Tamara’s song #3: Zac Brown Band & Jimmy Buffett, “Son of a Son of a Sailor” (Live, 2010, CMT Crossroads)

Brad’s response: Matching Sailor suits, we are!

Brad’s song #3: The Zac Brown Band, “Eleanor Rigby,” (Live, Lincoln, NE, 2018)

Tamara’s response: Nice call-back to Zac Brown. And I like the change to the Beatles song. Gonna go out on a limb and say that you know this was released not just on Revolver, but also as a Double-A-side with “Yellow Submarine.” Maybe I am just trying too hard to keep with the nautical theme! But in the event I guessed your motive correctly, my final song is “Submarines” by The Lumineers.

Brad’s rationale: Zac, by popular demand, this time, with a Beatles cover, “Eleanor Rigby”!

Tamara’s song #4: Lumineers, “Submarines,” 2021

YouTube, in their finite wisdom, won’t allow video play outside of YT. Click here.

Brad’s song #4: Richard Orange, “Beatlesque,” 2005

Richard was in a band called Zuider Zee in 1975. Signed to Columbia Records, they released Zuider Zee’s self-titled debut album, whose promo copy I received at Houston’s KLOL-101 FM, the commercial rock station I was behind the mic at (part-time), as a 20-year-old “rookie” DJ! I loved the album, and wrote to Richard at the time (there must’ve been an address on the album jacket). He wrote back, not just once, but we ended up corresponding fairly regularly for several months, with Richard always writing in orange ink! He’s a marvelous artist, and I am truly honored to have him with us, FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE! What’s new, Richard?😁

Tamara’s response: Wow, “Bealtesque.” Was not familiar with this song. Those opening notes feel like an homage to “Yellow Submarine.” Really, the whole song feels like it could have been on that album!

Could it be that “Submarines” by The Lumineers reminded you of “Yellow Submarine,” but you wanted to trip me up? Or expose me to something less well-known, but with the same vibe?

Regardless, I love it! Excellent choice. Knowing your uncanny ability to pull from the deep vaults, I suspect you wanted to make sure I was aware of this hidden gem!

Brad’s rationale:

Richard Orange

recorded this 2005 Big Orange Sun album, from which his remarkable and original “Beatlesque” emerges (James Lott and Richard produced).

Richard played virtually all instruments (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, backing vocals, percussion, and effects [sound]).

More about Richard, and his Zuider Zee band from ‘75:

Thank you, Tamara, for a rippin’ Tune Tag! Until we Tag again!👋😁👍