Tune Tag #87 with Mark Edward Randall, Pt. 2: Stephen Michael Schwartz, ABBA, Grace Jones, Brenda Russell, Bourgeois Tagg, Dusty Springfield, Rita Jean Bodine
Mark drops by unannounced, but brings a coffee cake and a sack full of bangin' tunes, and we certainly know what to do with both! Pull up a wing chair, and settle in. This is gonna be good!
Welcome to Tub Tag! No? OK….TAG, You’re IT, Mark!
Tune Tag is proud to welcome back of Musings of a Broken Record for his 2nd go-’round!
Mark: I graduated from a Print Journalism/Communication Arts course at Lethbridge Polytechnic (then Lethbridge College) in 2007. During my time in college, I worked as one of two entertainment editors on the college paper. It was definitely an eye-opener.
I’ve since been working in retail for nearly two decades. Last year, with the dread of my 40th birthday approaching, I decided to start writing again. It’s been a challenge; the stuff I write is fairly niche. Despite being a lifelong music fan, I’ve only ever been to a handful of concerts. Unlike most #MusicStackers, I came out of nowhere. My following is fairly small, but I love interacting with my subscribers and getting to know them.
I’ve been collecting vinyl since the late 1990’s. As mentioned in the past, it was a cheap way for me to acquire the older music I loved at the time. I also enjoy reading about popular culture and am a sponge with absorbing useless music information. Though my favourite time period for music is the late 1960’s through to the 1990’s, I also do like some newer music. Chappell Roan is slowly becoming a favourite of mine.
I’ve worked on a number of collaborations with Brad and was really excited when he asked me to take part in another Tune Tag. It’s definitely an honor if you’re part of #MusicStack!
‘Twas last July when Mark made his first trip to Tag-land:
Last week, we were graced by the presence of of Best Music of All Time:
Next week, join us for the first Tune Tag appearance by singer/songwriter/musician, !
Mark’s song #1 sent to Brad: ABBA, “The Name of the Game,” 1977
Mark’s rationale: I told myself ages ago that if Brad ever asked me to do another Tune Tag, I’d pick an ABBA song. I’ve been a huge fan of theirs since I was a child. Several readers have heard my oft-told story about my parents randomly sticking an 8-track player in my room as a kid. It’s how I discovered Olivia Newton-John, Tanya Tucker, and ABBA. I moved on from Tanya Tucker not long after, but ONJ and ABBA have remained a constant.
“The Name Of The Game” is my favourite ABBA song. The lyrics resonate with me, the song structure is perfect, and the harmonizing in the middle seals the deal. It’s easily one of the best things ABBA has recorded, and they have recorded a lot of really amazing stuff.
Brad’s response: I was stunned to find this cover in this week’s Tune Tag travels! A band I discovered when they initially dropped (on a major label, anyway), and one I hope I’m introducing to Mark!
Wiki, take it away! “Any Trouble are a British rock band, originating from Crewe, England, best known for their early 1980s recordings. In 1980, UK’s rock tabloid, Melody Maker, stated that Any Trouble were ‘the most exciting new rock‘n’roll group since The Pretenders.’
“Any Trouble’s founding members, Clive Gregson (guitar), Tom Jackson (vocals) and Chris Parks (guitar), met at Crewe and Alsager Teacher Training College in 1974. Soon after, Mel Harley (drums) and Phil Barnes (bass) completed the line up.
“Initially, Any Trouble were a covers band, playing anything they liked [which would explain their ability and affinity to tackle ABBA, and do a credible and respectful take on it, as well], including songs by Bob Dylan, The Band and a selection of American rock and roll numbers.
“With the advent of punk rock and then new wave, Clive Gregson realised they needed a change of material and started taking songwriting seriously. He explained in a 1999 interview, ‘We were like a human jukebox, and it was obvious to me, then [that] if we wanted to get anywhere, we needed original songs. I started to take it a bit more seriously then.”
After some major-label wooing by the likes of British WEA, Chrysalis, and EMI, Stiff Records came calling, after they heard the band’s debut indie single, “Yesterday’s Love” (their Stiff re-record). Turning down the bigs, the band elected to sign with Stiff, “because they were our kind of people.” Any Trouble with their ABBA cover:
Mark covers ABBA, also, in this “Bubbling Under” from October (click here).
Brad’s song #1 sent to Mark: Bourgeois Tagg, “Best of All Possible Worlds,” 1987
Mark’s response: I had two possible routes lined up depending on where Brad took things. He went somewhere completely unexpected, which I liked.
For some reason I always mistake Bourgeois Tagg for a Canadian band and assumed that’s why Brad picked them. I’m not sure why I always think that. This one stumped me. I’d never heard of any connection between Bourgeois Tagg/ABBA. Googling that turned up nothing, of course.
I’m not sure why Brad picked this. It has a similar opening riff, so perhaps it’s that. I noticed Todd Rundgren produced this, but I wanted to go down a different road with my next pick.
Brad’s rationale: That ABBA song title again? The name of the game? Tune Tag! And, for those who love it, it’s the best of all possible (musical) worlds! Seedless to nay, I’m hoping Mark follows with the (obligatory) Todd song!
As for Brent Bourgeois and Larry Tagg, they formed the band in Sacramento, CA, in 1984, with guitarist Lyle Workman, drummer Michael Urbano, and keyboardist Scott Moon. Bourgeois played keyboards, Tagg played bass (and wrote this song), and both shared lead vocal duties.
Yoyo (with “Best of All Possible Worlds” its lead-off track) was produced by Todd Rundgren. The album’s first single, “I Don’t Mind at All,” peaked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #35 in the UK Chart. Here’s the duo, from 1987, performing “I Don’t Mind at All” on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson:
Mark’s song #2: Grace Jones, “Slave to the Rhythm,” 1985
Brad’s response: Anxious to see what Mark’s tagging here…I’m not finding similar session players, or really anything! I’ve got plenty, here, from which to send him my next song, but I’m stumped as to why he chose this Jones track! Whatcha got, Mark?
Mark’s rationale: I could easily have picked a Todd Rundgren track, but I saw that Bourgeois Tagg was on Island Records, and decided instead to pick a track by another artist who was signed to the same label:
Grace Jones. I’ve been a fan since watching A View To A Kill on TV as a kid, but I didn’t become acquainted with her musical output until a bit later. Most of Jones’s best-known recordings were on Island, going back to her days as a disco diva. There was a lot to pick from, but I ultimately went with “Slave to the Rhythm.” It fits with Brad’s ‘80s-themed pick, and it’s also one of two albums I own by her on vinyl!
I’m interested to see what Brad follows up with. Because he knows so much about record labels, I know he’ll get the Island Records connection.
Brad’s song #2: Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” 1979
Mark’s response: I figured this one out right away: Trevor Horn. Horn also produced (assisted by S. J. Lipson) Grace Jones’s Slave To The Rhythm album.
This one is right in my wheelhouse for two reasons: First, it was on a compilation album I bought as a teenager. 15-year-old me was disappointed upon hearing it. The rest of the compilation was solid, though, and it’s where I first heard The Only Ones.
I sought out another bargain compilation that had The Buggles’ version on it, which led to my fascination with slightly obscure, forgotten 1970s British pop music. There’s nothing wrong with Bruce Woolley’s take; it’s just totally different from the Buggles’ version everyone knows and loves.
Brad’s rationale: Bruce Woolley provided keyboards, guitar, and backing vocals on the Grace Jones Slave to the Rhythm album. Six years before, he co-wrote (with Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn—who co-produced the Jones album) “Video Killed the Radio Star.”
There’s been some confusion about this song for decades…who wrote it, who recorded it first, etc. So, with that….
The Wiki info: “‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ is a song written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley in 1979. It was recorded concurrently by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards) for their album, English Garden, and by British new wave/synth-pop group The Buggles, which consisted of Horn and Downes (and initially, Woolley).
“The Buggles’ version of the track was recorded and mixed in 1979, released as their debut single on September 7, 1979 by Island Records, and included on their first album, The Age of Plastic.”
Bruce, in a recent interview, gives his version of how it all came about:
Hey, look who dropped by! It’s our good friend,
of our favorite The Vinyl Room! “We’ve got just enough coffee cake, m’friend! Grab a chair, and allow me to top off your snazzy new Tune Tag coffee mug!”
Mark’s song #3: Dusty Springfield, “Baby Blue,” 1979
Brad’s response: When I first saw this, my first thought was….“Oh, no, I’m not about to send back Badfinger’s same-titled 1972 song! Too obvious!” Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. My second thought was that Dusty maybe covered Badfinger’s, which I’d never known!
But, as it happens, this “Baby Blue” was indeed written by our same Woolley/Downes/Horn trio who composed “Video Killed the Radio Star,” and produced by Australian David Mackay, in a non-album 1979 single released only in the UK and Australia.
With all that brilliant song-findery by Mark, now what do I send?
A little U.S. point of reference: By ‘79, when “Baby Blue” was released in a couple countries, but not America, Dusty Springfield had already made a significant “comeback” in the States (I know, because I had the albums)….United Artists Records had signed Dusty, and released two new albums in 1978, alone:
The aptly-titled It Begins Again (produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who had just logged his fifth year famously producing Queen) and Living Without Your Love, produced by David Wolfert, who also arranged the rhythm sections and horns (with Philly Sound legend, Gene Page, co-arranging and co-conducting strings with veteran Nick DeCaro).
The list of session players for each album not only reads like a Who’s-Who in session musicians, but clearly, a group of folks who have been Dusty fans for well over a decade! So, my challenge now goes from just “who?” to a more pleasurable “which of these many talented players?”
Mark’s rationale: After much deliberation, I decided to go with Dusty Springfield’s “Baby Blue” from 1979, which was written by Trevor Horn, with Woolley and Downes. It brings everything full circle and I can’t wait to see what Brad responds with. I wrote about Dusty back in September:
Brad’s song #3: Brenda Russell, “In the Thick of It,” 1979
Mark’s response: I actually wasn’t aware that Brenda Russell sang backup on Dusty Springfield’s two albums from 1978/79. “Baby Blue” was a standalone single, but before that Springfield had an unsuccessful bid for a comeback with two albums released on United Artists over here: It Begins Again and Living Without Your Love.
I was excited Brad picked something by Brenda Russell; she fits in really nicely with this particular batch of artists.
Brad’s rationale: She sang back-up on both of those 1978 Dusty albums. I didn’t know about her then, but I fell in love with her and her 1979 self-titled debut album, Brenda Russell (produced by drummer, Andre Fischer), and particularly this track…so smooth and melodic. I think the word “sublime” was invented after hearing this. A decade later, she had her biggest hit with “Piano in the Dark.” Here’s a live performance of “In the Thick of It”:
Mark’s song #4: Rita Jean Bodine, “That’s the Kind of Love I’ve Got For You,” 1974
Brad’s response: Well, this gets us back to Dusty Springfield, as this song (Rita Jean’s was the first recorded version) was covered by Dusty in 1978 on her It Begins Again album. “That’s the Kind of Love I’ve Got For You” was written by the husband and wife songwriting team of veteran session guitarist, Dean Parks and Carol Carmichael.
Dean Parks played acoustic guitar on Stephen Michael Schwartz’s self-titled debut album in 1974, particularly on Stephen’s composition, “Doctor’s Daughter” (that’s coming up next)! In the meantime, here’s where you can read about an 18-year-old Stephen auditioning this same song in front of an audience made up only of future legends, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, in 1972; see how these two superstars reacted:
Mark’s rationale: I picked this song because of the Dusty Springfield connection. Brenda Russell sang backup on It Begins Again, the album that included Dusty’s cover of “That’s The Kind Of Love I’ve Got For You.”
If memory serves me, I discovered Rita Jean Bodine through hearing the Dusty Springfield cover version of “That’s The Kind Of Love” on YouTube about fifteen years ago. Rita Jean Bodine recorded two albums for Twentieth Century Records in quick succession fifty years ago (?!), and then promptly vanished.
She finally resurfaced last year via a piece published on Record Collector Magazine’s website. Bodine long ago reverted to her given name, Rita Hertzberg, and is now a Rabbi.
Rita Jean Bodine reminds me of another underrated singer from the same time period, Australian, Noosha Fox:
Like Fox, Bodine’s image and persona was that of a silent screen star from the 1920s. Like Bodine, Fox also vanished for a number of years, though not to the extent Bodine did.
I managed to score a copy of Bodine, Rita Jean at an antique mall where I live (now shuttered) a few years ago. It’s a pretty solid album. In a better world, she would have been up there with the likes of Cher and Bette Midler.
Brad’s song #4: Stephen Michael Schwartz, “Doctor’s Daughter,” 1974
Mark’s response: I’m assuming Brad picked this because it came out the same year as the Rita Jean Bodine track. I know Brad is a huge fan of Stephen Michael Schwartz and generally will find a way to throw him into the mix. There are artists I’m like that with myself.
I hadn’t heard this one before. It’s solid ‘70s singer-songwriter rock/pop in the vein of Jackson Browne.
Brad’s rationale: Dean Parks (co-composer of the Rita Jean song, “That’s the Kind of Love I’ve Got For You”) played acoustic guitar on the 1974 RCA Records sessions for FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE’s Stephen Michael Schwartz for Stephen’s self-titled debut album. Discover all of Stephen’s 20 articles for FR&B, all in his own words, by following this link!
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One of my favourite Tune Tags. Ever. There, I said it!
Number of reasons, in no particular order. First, the tracks. All of them superbly produced. Some I knew but was glad to hear again. Some new discoveries.
Second, the tags themselves. Mark came super prepared, and I love that, but I also love the many tricks Brad has up his sleeve. The name of the game, and tagging the Tag(g)?! 😅 Come on!! Brilliant 👏🏻 Talk about thinking outside the (juke)box.
Third, I loved the variety of tags throughout: words, record labels, session players, covers, years, etc.
Nice to see me rocking the mug, as well! Thanks! By the way, dear reader, have you got yours?
Amazing work, gents!
A fantastic batch of tracks this week, thoroughly enjoyed the music and the tagging guys, thanks!
Love the ABBA track to kick things off, a true classic, one of their best.
Never heard of Bourgeois Tagg but I loved that track! They would definitely have been in my wheelhouse back in the early 80s if I’d heard of them. Will need to check out the full album.
Wow, what a track by Dusty Springfield! Never heard it before but it was fantastic!! Brenda Russell is an artist I’ve been meaning to explore for years. Never heard a track from her I didn’t enjoy.