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eric_a
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| Posted: 22 April 2018 at 8:53pm | IP Logged
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First, Happy Record Store Day to all my friends observing.
With temps in the 90s here today, it's an appropriate time to ask if anyone knows the
story of the mid-70s mono/stereo promo issue of "Summertime, Summertime". It's on the
orange Epic label, so I'd peg it around 1973-77. I don't see any evidence of a
commercial reissue at the time. Maybe something connected to the '50s nostalgia boom
around "American Graffiti"?
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Paul Haney
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 3:52am | IP Logged
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Eric, that record was a reissue from 1974. While not tied to American Graffiti specifically, it didn't hurt that the retro-sound was hot that summer. Here's the review that Cash Box printed:
THE JAMIES (Epic 5-11129) Summertime, Summertime (2:00) (Templeton, ASCAP-T. Jameson, S. Feller) Originally a smash back in 1958, and then again in 1962, this perfect summer song gets another shot in '74 and should have yet another smash run. The vocal harmonies still remain classic in all music history and naturally, the entertainment value here is very high. Stations setting their Summertime programming schedules have always turned to this disk and there'll be no movement from that norm this year. Anyway, there's a whole new generation of kids out there who'll have the opportunity to pick up this disk and stop listening to older brother or sister's worn copy. Flip: no info. available.
I recall hearing the song a few times on the radio in 1974. It also shows up on a couple of ARSA charts that summer too. There was a commercial copy (with the same B-side: "Searching For You") and it charted at #106 in Record World in June 1974.
Edited by Paul Haney on 23 April 2018 at 4:03am
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Hykker
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 4:37am | IP Logged
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Paul Haney wrote:
Here's the review that Cash Box
printed:
THE JAMIES (Epic 5-11129) Summertime, Summertime
(2:00) (Templeton, ASCAP-T. Jameson, S. Feller)
Originally a smash back in 1958, and then again in 1962,
this perfect summer song gets another shot in '74 and
should have yet another smash run. |
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Clearly Cashbox's idea of a "smash" is a bit different
than mine...it peaked at #26 the first time around and
#38 the second (Billboard rankings). It may have been a
bigger hit in New England, since the group was from
Boston. Not many old surveys from either WBZ or WMEX
from that era on ARSA so it's hard to tell, though the
song did make the top 10 on 'BZ in Sept. '58.
Deserved to have been a bigger hit than it was.
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Yah Shure
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 1:01pm | IP Logged
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It was no slouch in the upper Midwest, either. I'd heard it enough over the years to pick up an Epic Memory Lane reissue in 1966 (where it was always stocked in the oldies 45 section of my local Musicland store), and it was in regular rotation at the first local oldies station, when it debuted in 1968.
"Summertime, Summertime" also appeared, in stereo, on the 1975 Columbia double-LP, Rock On: The Musical Encyclopedia Of Rock N' Roll The Solid Gold Years, which was issued in conjunction with the Norm N. Nite book.
The stereo mix of this song is bone dry, unlike the reverb-happy Epic mono 45 and Memory Lane reissue. The mono side of the 1974 DJ 45 is a fold of the stereo mix, and is consequently missing the reverb.
I agree that the '74 reissue followed on the heels of the American Graffiti nostalgia wave. I didn't program it at the time, because the promo 45 didn't arrive in the mail at my college station until well after the books had been shut and thrown away and the station mothballed for the summer.
Edited by Yah Shure on 23 April 2018 at 1:04pm
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MMathews
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| Posted: 23 April 2018 at 3:48pm | IP Logged
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Yah Shure wrote:
It was no slouch in the upper Midwest, either. I'd heard it enough over the years to pick up an Epic Memory Lane reissue in 1966 (where it was always stocked in the oldies 45 section of my local Musicland store), and it was in regular rotation at the first local oldies station, when it debuted in 1968.
"Summertime, Summertime" also appeared, in stereo, on the 1975 Columbia double-LP, Rock On: The Musical Encyclopedia Of Rock N' Roll The Solid Gold Years, which was issued in conjunction with the Norm N. Nite book.
The stereo mix of this song is bone dry, unlike the reverb-happy Epic mono 45 and Memory Lane reissue. The mono side of the 1974 DJ 45 is a fold of the stereo mix, and is consequently missing the reverb. |
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Hey Yah,I noticed that "bone dry" mix when I compared the 45 so some years back I matched the missing reverb and added it to the stereo mix on this CD:
Hit Parade Records 12308 "Hard To Find Jukebox Classics 1958: Rhythm & Rock"
This record did well in NY too. It was always a regular in the oldies rotation - more often in the summer of course.
MM
Edited by MMathews on 23 April 2018 at 3:49pm
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Topic: The Jamies - Summertime, Summertime
