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Artist Updates
Gloria Lynne's Book Is Brilliant!! This Memior Covers Her Whole Life, Including Time Spent With Jimmy And Buddy Scott, Up To The Present Day Achievments Of Her Recordings In Hit Movies And Receiving A Pioneer Award From The Rhythm & Blues Foundation In 1997.
"I Wish You Love"
By Gloria Lynne & Karen Chilton
In terms of content, style, and language, this book ranks amongthe best. It has
all of the flavor of '60s Harlem vernacular--jazzy,sexy and cool. It places in each time
period, from the 30s to 90swith ease, and carries you on a terrific journey through the
music world. I was particularly impressed with the style of the memoir, the timeline, the
historical information, the personal stories--I heard Gloria Lynne's voice mixed with a
wonderful literary style by the book's co-author. It was so refreshing to read an
autobiography where you knew the two authors spent time together; too often these books
are written from a distance and in the literary voice of the writer, and not the voice of
the person's whose lifestory is being told. This was a great blend, a great match. Gloria
Lynne's story deserves to be told. There is much we all can share, relate to, empathize
with, love and understand.
Gloria Lynne Wins Pioneer
Award!
Excerpt From "I Wish You Love"
Page # 146-147, Gloria On Meeting Jimmy and Buddy for the first time.
"For Two Years, between 1964 and 1966, I worked double duty with Everest
and Mercury Records. While Everest was releasing my single "Don't Take Your Love From
Me," the Fontana Label (A division of Mercury that was initially developed as my own
production company) released "Be Anything (Be Mine)."
It was around this time that I met two super-talented songwriters who would
later become two of my best friends- Buddy Scott and Jimmy Radcliffe. It was around 1965,
and I was asked to share the bill with Arthur Prysock at the Apollo.
Now Buddy and Jimmy were full of fire back then. I mean, you would be in the
middle of a recording session and they'd just bust in there and asked you if you wanted to
hear one of their tunes. They didn't bother with any formalities. They came with the
talent and figured that was enough.
And they'd catch you wherever they could. If they heard a singer they liked,
they'd come into your dressing room after a show and let you hear thiers songs. That
evening at the Apollo, they said they had a song for me, "Love Child."
Well Buddy was standing there, singing a few bars for me, then suddenly, all the lights
went out in the place. We thought it was just a problem in the theater. We had no idea,
until a little later, that there was a blackout all over New York City. So Buddy went and
got some candles from somewhere, and without missing a beat he kept singing this song in
my ear. I Told Them:
" I think y'all need to come on by my house, so we can
finish this"
And they did. I really loved their music and always appreciated
their interest in my voice. When I learned "Love Child" I fell in love with it,
and I knew then that Buddy, Jimmy, and I had formed a lifelong collaboration.
If I Recall, when I finally performed "Love Child" on stage it was at the
Village Gate. None of us knew how the audience would receive the song, but we took a
chance. Well, when I began singing the room was completely quite. There wasn't a sound
coming from the audience. And when I finished the song, the same thing. A hush. Well Buddy
told me later that he was a nervous wreck the whole time I was up there, and he looked
over to Jimmy and said:
"Jimmy, we bombed. We bombed, man"
Jimmy Didn't Say Anything.
Then all of a sudden, from out of the blue, this thuderous applause came. People jumped to
their feet and screamed and shouted. That night, two grown men cried real tears. By the
time I came offstage, Jimmy and Buddy were fit to be tied. They were thrilled to death and
so was I."
excerpt from
Stephen Bishops 1996 book "Songs In The Rough" St. Martins Press page # 34
Al Kooper On Writing "This Diamond Ring"
Al Kooper, late of "Like A Roling Stone" and Blood, Sweat and Tears fame (he played Hammond Organ on the former, and founded the Latter), co-wrote Gary Lewis's mid-sixties hit.
SB- "This Diamond Ring" must have been written about 1964 or 1965?
AK- I Would Think 1962 or 1963.
SB- That Early?
AK- Yeah. It Didn't come out until later, but we wrote it in 1962 or 1963. We wrote it for The Drifters.
SB- Did You do a demo of it back then?
AK We Did. It was a black demo. My friend Jimmy Radcliffe sang the demo.
SB- When you look back at that now, how do you feel about it? Do you feel proud of it?
AK- I always hated the Gary Lewis record, because it was an R&B song and they took all the soul out of it. Later, I cut it on an album of mine "Act Like Nothing Is Wrong" (UA -Dec '76'), and cut it the way it was written.
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