Merrilee Rush and The Turnabouts

“Angel Of The Morning”, sold in excess of a million copies and was Merrilee Rush and The Turnabouts’ only major hit. Merrilee, who was born in January of 1944, in Seattle, Washington, was nominated for a Grammy Award, that of Female Vocalist of the Year, in 1968, as a result of her performance on this recording.

The actual recording of “Angel Of The Morning” took place in Memphis, Tennessee. The song had been written by Chip Taylor, the brother of actor, Jon Voight, and the uncle of actress, Angelina Jolie. Chip had already achieved major success, in 1966, when the British group, The Troggs, had taken another song of his, “Wild Thing”, to N0.1.

Despite the progressive advancement in technology, I still much prefer this original version of “Angel Of The Morning” to the revival by Juice Newton, in 1981, although, granted, this single, too, sold more than a million records.

http://youtu.be/cbUNVm1k3nU

Apparently I stand corrected, Evie Sands recorded the original version, in 1967.

The names of my favourite recordings can be found in the suggested playlists. I shall be adding to this list from time to time.

The Gun

I have selected “Race With The Devil” by The Gun because it is an example of early heavy metal. Written by Adrian Gurvitz, and recorded by this trio from London, in 1968, it reached a peak of No.8 on the British singles’ chart, and No.15 in Australia. The Gun included Adrian and his brother, Paul.

“Race With The Devil” was revived by Girlschool, in 1980. However, its version did not enjoy the success on the charts, as had The Gun’s.

Adrian Gurvitz, some fourteen years later, wrote and recorded the far more sedate, “Classic”, which reached its zenith in Britain at No.8, and, in Australia, at No.1, in 1982.

The names of more of my favourite recordings can be found in the suggested playlists. I shall be adding to it from time to time.

New Year’s Day, 1977

Sydney has experienced a maximum temperature of thirty-seven degrees Celsius. Caringbah experienced sequential short heavy thunderstorms shortly before 4.00p.m.

At stumps in the Second Test, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia is 4-332. Half an hour was lost, this morning, due to the wet state of the ground.

At 7.30p.m., there is a telecast of the lavish presentation, “Follies In Revue”, from Perth. The show features Jill Perryman and Chelsea Brown. The latter was born in America.

The ‘Open’ Classroom; Sunday, 2nd January, 1977

Today has been a perfect summer’s day. Just before 2.00 p.m. I went downstairs to listen for the score, in the Second Test, and learned that the right-handed batsman Gary Cosier had just been dismissed for 168 and that Australia had declared at 8-517 (Greg Chappell, 121). Pakistan is 1-186, at stumps.

This afternoon, we spoke to our neighbours and they confided in us of how they hope that their daughter will be placed in a conventional class at her primary school this year. It seems that last year she was placed in one of the new ‘open’ classes, where the partition between two traditional classrooms remained open far more often than not. This meant that there were something like sixty pupils in the one class, often being taught by the one teacher while the other was out of the room, presumably working on preparation.

The couple strongly disapproved of how the pupils in this open classroom were encouraged to bring their pillows and radios to school and be allowed to use them during their time in class. Another thing they did not see eye to eye with was the fact that while each child was ‘contracted’ to complete a specified amount of work each fortnight, it was entirely left up to that child as to where and when this set work was to be done. The neighbours alleged that this had led to pillow fights breaking out within the classroom and/or those who wished to complete their work at school being distracted or irritated by others’ radios.

This evening’s viewing on television includes a repetition of “This Is Your Life”, compered by Mike Willesee and featuring that of singer, June Bronhill, whose surname is composed from the letters within the name of Broken Hill, her home town and a mining city located in the far west of New South Wales. At eight o’clock, we viewed a mediocre episode of the American comedy, “Fay”, which stars Lee Grant in the title role.