Remembering Helen

SHADY DELL OWNER

HELEN ETTLINE

DIED FEBRUARY 25, 1984,

39 YEARS AGO TODAY.

Whenever I hear this song, it reminds me

of a very special person, the first lady

of the Shady Dell... Helen Ettline.

Unforgettable, Helen...

That's what you are!

We love you and miss you.

Ask Abigail: Enquiring Minds Want To Know...

...about "This Empty Place"

 (Between Shady's Ears!)

I'm Abigail Ambrosia.

Classical mythology defines ambrosia as the food of the gods,

and I am here to satisfy your craving for good music and trivial

tidbits. Ambrosia also refers to something especially delicious.

Well boys... delish-is what this vintage dish-is.  As Shady's Place advice

columnist and music trivia expert, I publish a weekly newspaper column

that features music related questions submitted by readers along with

my answers. My feature is so popular, it inspired a radio show that

is coming your way soon exclusively here at Shady's Place.

My friendly, all-female office staff fields

questions that come in on our toll free hotline.

 Operators are on duty 24-hours a day and

standing by to take your call... so why hesitate?

I am more than happy to answer your trivia questions

and solve your musical mysteries, so let me hear from you!

The women on my staff enjoy getting all gussied up.

That's because, truth be told, most of the calls and letters we receive

turn out to be marriage proposals from men.  That said... every

once in a while, someone asks a legitimate music question.

 

Without further delay, I now bring you this

sneak preview of my new Shady's Place series

 Ask Abigail... 

...a radio show that picks up where my

newspaper column leaves off.

Sally G. writes:

Dear Abigail, I'm a big

fan of your column and

 curious about your last

name "Ambrosia." Isn't

there a band by that

name and, if so, did

they record any hits? 

Hi, Sally! Thanks for writing.

Yes indeed there is a pop rock

band named Ambrosia. Formed

in LA in 1970, the band had 5

top 40 hits from 1975 to 1980.

They broke up in '82, reunited

in '89 and are still together in

2023. Ambrosia's first big hit

came in the fall of '78 when

they reached the top 3 with

"How Much I Feel."

"How Much I Feel" - Ambrosia

(Oct./Nov. 1978, highest chart pos. #2 Cash Box/#3 Hot 100)

Manuel G. writes:

Dear Abigail. Ritchie Valens

died decades before I was born.

My grandfather introduced me

to his music. Can you tell me

which Ritchie Valens record

was the last to be released

before his death and which

record was the first to be

released after his death?

No problem, Manuel! On February 3,

1959, now known as "The Day the 

Music Died," a plane crash in Iowa

claimed the lives of three rock and

roll pioneers - Buddy Holly, J. P.

Richardson aka "The Big Bopper"

and Ritchie Valens, forefather

of the Chicano rock movement.

 The last single released before

Valens' death was the rockabilly

instrumental "Fast Freight"

which hit the street in January,

1959. The record is credited to

Arvee Allens. (Valens' name did

not appear on original pressings.)

"Fast Freight" - Arvee Allens

(Jan. 1959 single) 

BOOTH ANNOUNCER:

 IT'S AN

 Abigail Ambrosia... 

(ECHO CHAMBER)

TWO-FER-OOOFER-OOOFER-OOOFER-OOOFER-OOOFER!

Right you are, Don Pardo.

A "two-fer" is an occasion

when I answer a question

with not one, but two songs,

usually by the same artist. 

Released a month after

his death, Ritchie Valens'

single "That's My Little

Suzie," a song inspired

by Little Richard's hit

"Tutti Frutti," made it

roughly halfway up

the Billboard chart

and came close to

the top 40 on the

Cash Box survey. 

"That's My Little Susie" - Ritchie Valens

(Apr./May 1959, highest chart pos. #43 Cash Box, #55 Hot 100)

If you're just tuning in, this is a sneak peek at  

 Ask Abigail... 

...an advice column, information hotline and radio show rolled into one.

Make a note to check your listings because it starts soon

 right here at Shady's Place on S-P-M-M Retrosonic Radio.

 

I'm your hostess with the mostest...

Abigail Ambrosia

answering questions from you, the listener, about popular songs

of the past. There are two ways for you to submit a question. 

One way is to mail your question to our offices here in

Shady Towers West. I'll give you the snail mail

address at the end of the show.

 As you can see, we get a ton of male mail every day, and we love our work.

The other way to get your question to me is simply

pick-up the phone and call our toll free question-line.

It is also very much a "party line"... because, as you can tell

by now, I always play a song or songs that correspond to

your question and my answer. Dancing is encouraged! 

What are you waiting for? Go to the phone and dial

1-800-555-2-ASK. CALL NOW! 

 Virginia B. is on the line with the following question:

Hello, Abigail! I hope you can settle a friendly argument I've been

having with my husband. He says Dusty Springfield is the

only diva that recorded "Wishin' And Hopin'"...

...but I seem to recall years ago hearing Dionne Warwick sing

a version of the song. Hubby thinks I'm crazy. Who's right?

Hi, Virginia! Thanks for calling.

Tell your husband that you are

correct and Abigail Ambrosia

says so. While it's true that

Dusty Springfield sang the

best known version of

"Wishin' And Hopin'"...

the English blue-eyed

soul singer was not the

only one to wax the

girl pop gem, nor

was she the first. 

In February, 1963, Dionne Warwick
released her original version of the
Bacharach-David composition
"This Empty Place." A great
recording, Dionne's single
nevertheless stalled at #84
on the pop chart. The record
is noteworthy for its B side,
the original waxing of another

Bacharach-David song, "Wishin'
and Hopin'," which was covered
by Dusty Springfield and became
a top 10 U.S. hit for the English
songstress in the summer of '64.
Here now is sultry soul sister
Dionne singing "This Empty

Place (between Shady's ears)."

 "This Empty Place" - Dionne Warwick 

 (Feb. 1963, highest chart pos. #84 Hot 100/#26 R&B) 

BOOTH ANNOUNCER:

 IT'S ANOTHER

 Abigail Ambrosia... 

(ECHO CHAMBER)

TWO-FER-OOOFER-OOOFER-OOOFER-OOOFER-OOOFER!

Now, here's the version of

"Wishin' And Hopin'" that

you remember, Virginia,

Dionne Warwick's great

but overlooked original

recording of the song.

It went to waste on

the B side of that

low-charting 45.

Let's Listen!

"Wishin' And Hopin'"

- Dionne Warwick

(Feb. 1963, B side of

"This Empty Place")

Larry K. called

with this question:

Dear Abigail, I know Chubby Checker

for "The Twist" and other dance craze

songs, and I also vaguely recall him

singing a folk type song that asks

the question: "Does your mama

chaw tobacca?" What's the

name of that song?

Hi, Larry! Thanks for calling. The ditty you have in mind is "Hooka Tooka,"

a folk song associated with Chubby Checker and with folk/pop singer

Judy Henske. "Hooka Tooka (My Soda Cracker)" is based on a

children's jump rope rhyme. As the story goes, children in

days of old sang the song outside brothels where

their mothers were working to warn them

that police were on the way.

Released by Chubby Checker

on the B side of "Loddy Lo,"

another folk song cover,

"Hooka Tooka" made a

run at the top 15 on the

pop charts at Christmas,

1963, and the early

weeks of 1964. 

"Hooka Tooka" -

Chubby Checker

(Dec. 1963/Jan. 1964,

highest chart pos.

#16 Cash Box, #17

Hot 100/#20 R&B) 

That's all for now.  I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek at my new Q & A

style series coming soon to Shady's Place. Stick around. Coming up

on the flip side of Gary Owens' news, it's the next exciting

edition of Shady's epic 36-part series

 

 SAVED BY THE BELL  DELL  

Now this is advice columnist Abigail Ambrosia saying

so long and inviting you to join me next time for more

Q's & A's and more great sounds of the past on

 

 Ask Abigail.  

And remember, there's nothing trivial

about your love of music. See you soon!

If you have a musical question for Abigail Ambrosia...

call our 24-hour toll free question-line at

1-800-555-2-ASK...

...or mail your question to: 

 Ask Abigail  

Shady Towers West, 24221 Hollywood Blvd,

Suite 5, Dept. 3-C, Los Angeles, CA 90901.

Who knows, Abigail might answer your question on her show!

This Valentine's Day... Austin Powers Urges Pickettywitch Polly to "Pucker Up Buttercup!"

COLD OPEN:

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

"That Same Old Feeling" - Pickettywitch

(June/July 1970, highest chart pos. #5 UK/#40 Cash Box/#67 Hot 100)

Kicking off the show, that was blonde Brit beauty Polly Brown

aka Polly Browne and her English pop band Pickettywitch

doing their breakthrough hit "That Same Old Feeling."

The single went top 5 at home in the UK and

brushed the top 40 stateside in the

summer of 1970. 

The video you watched was brilliantly restored through the

use of A.I. Enhancement software, making it seem like the

performance was filmed only yesterday instead of 53 years ago. 

 Allow myself to introduce..... myself. 

 I'm Austin Powers, super secret spy, 

 international man of mystery, 

 bon vivant, swinging playboy 

 and irresistible babe magnet. 

 London is my home, shag is my bag, 

 planet earth is my playground and 

 danger is my middle name, baby. 

Your regular host, Shady, couldn't be here today. Seems the chap's competing

against Vanessa Kensington, Felicity Shagwell and Foxxy Cleopatra in a

"Strip Parcheesi" tournament at Madison Square Garden. Sir Shady

asked me to sub for him again this year as host of the Valentine's

dance and to entertain you by playing "stacks o' wax."

I'm going to play devil's advocate and suggest that

phonograph records might sound a bit better.

 That's a gag, dove. Oh come on now. 

 I saw you crack a smile just then, 

 pussycat, admit it -  YEAH! 

Alright then. The place is packed with blokes and birds,

and it's time to get the Valentine party started. 

As you will hear in this special edition V-Week tribute, Polly Brown

is a witchy woman whose singing style could be described as

sunshine pop laced with a little bit o' soul. 

In the fall of 1971, Polly and Pickettywitch appeared on The Grand Prix

R.T.L. International, a music competition that was organized annually

from 1969 to 1972 and held at a theater in Luxembourg. At the show

the group performed their third hit "Baby I Won't Let You Down."  

"Baby I Won't Let You Down" - Pickettywitch

(Nov. 1970, highest chart pos. #27 UK, Oct. 22, 1971,

perf. at Grand Prix R.T.L. International 71 in Luxembourg) 

Cracking the UK top 30 in the fall of 1970, that was "Baby I Won't Let You Down"

by Pickettywitch, and you just saw them performing the song live the following year.

As you listened to Polly Brown sing, it might have occurred to you that she sounds

like two other singers, both of them American divas of soul. I'll name one of them

right now. Some people say Polly has a voice and style like that of Jean Terrell,

the singer who replaced Diana Ross as leader of The Supremes and helped

reinvent the famous Motown girl group at the start of the 70s. Listen now

to Jean's Supremes as they do their hit "Stoned Love" on Soul Train

and maybe you'll agree that Polly Brown sounds a lot like her. 

"Stoned Love" - The Supremes

  (Dec. 1970/Jan. 1971, highest chart pos. #1 R&B,

#5 Cash Box/#7 Hot 100, perf. on May 12, 1973, ep. of Soul Train) 

Now I will reveal which U.S. singer Polly Brown sounds like most of the time.

Polly usually sounds like she is singing with a head cold, but that distinctive

nasal quality sets her apart, endears listeners and invites comparisons

to America's sultry soul siren Dionne Warwick. Listen! 

"Days I Remember" - Pickettywitch

(from 1970 album Pickettywitch) 

If you're just tuning in, I'm Austin Powers... International Man of Mystery

(and Music History) hosting the Shady's Place Valentine's Week Dance

and entertaining you with a salute to pretty posy Polly and

her peerless posse Pickettywitch. (Say that 5 times fast!)

Songwriter/producer Gerry Shury described Polly Brown as "a cross between

Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick." I hear Diana in some of Polly's recordings,

but my favorite songs by Pickettywitch are the ones in which Polly channels

Dionne Warwick. The song you just heard, "Days I Remember," is one

example, and here's another, the Picketty-ditty-- "There He Goes." 

"There He Goes" - Pickettywitch (from 1970 album Pickettywitch,

released Feb. 1971 as B side of "Waldo P. Emerson Jones")

Now for the sake of comparison, here's one of Dionne Warwick's notable

recordings, the theme song from the hit movie Valley Of The Dolls.

"(Theme From) Valley Of The Dolls" - Dionne Warwick

(Jan./Feb./Mar. 1968, highest chart pos. #2 Hot 100/#3 Cash Box,

#13 R&B, from December 1967 film Valley Of The Dolls)

Now listen to the uncanny similarity in vocal quality and style as we switch from Dionne

Warwick to Polly Brown and listen to the second hit single by Pickettywitch, a record

that brushed the top 15 in the summer of 1970-- "(It's Like A) Sad Old Kinda' Movie!"

"(It's Like a) Sad Old Kinda' Movie" - Pickettywitch

(June/July 1970, highest chart pos. #16 UK, perf. on Top Of The Pops)

  The proof's in these delightful performances.

      You're a very good witch indeed, Polly Brown! 

It's last call for alcohol and the last dance of my 2023 Valentine party.

To close the show, here again is our featured act, Pickettywitch,

with an encore performance of a hit you saw them do earlier.

Once again, I am pleased to offer a video that has been

dramatically restored with A.I. Enhancement technology.

Watch 52 years vanish in a split second as Polly Brown

and Pickettywitch perform "Baby I Won't Let You Down!"

"Baby I Won't Let You Down" - Pickettywitch

(Nov. 1970, highest chart pos. #27 UK)

 I hope these super sounds put you in 

 a shagadelic mood, baby. Oh behave! 

 This is your old chum Austin Powers 

 International Man of Mystery 

 (and Music History)... 

 saying ciao for now. 

 Let's do it again real soon, baby... 

 You know you want to... YEAH!