Showing posts with label Giorgio Moroder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Giorgio Moroder. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2024

Giorgio Moroder - Moody Trudy (1972)

Giovanni Giorgio Moroder was born to Ladin parents on 26 April 1940 in Ortisei in Italy, and is one of three brothers, one of them being artist Ulrich Moroder. He grew up in a mixed Ladin/German/Italian-speaking environment in South Tyrol, and he began teaching himself to play the guitar at age 15, inspired by Paul Anka's 'Diana'. At 18 he was touring Europe as a professional musician, performing at night, and during the day making recordings with two Revox recorders. By 25 he'd moved in with his aunt in Berlin, and was working as a sound engineer, with Ricky Shayne's single 'Ich Sprenge Alle Ketten' ('I Break All The Chains'), composed by then-unknowns Moroder and Michael Holm, becoming a German hit. The second hit was Moroder's and Holm's cover of Sir Douglas Quintet's single 'Mendocino', and after two years in Berlin he moved to Munich. He made his first steps there in music in the Scotch Club in Aachen, and then released a few singles under the name Giorgio, beginning in 1965 with the self-composed 'Cerca (Di Scordare)' coming out on the Fontana Label in Holland, and then he followed that in 1966 and 1967 with a series of Schlager-influenced single such as 'Bla Bla Diddly', 'Yummy, Yummy, Yummy', 'Looky, Looky', and 'Reesy Beesy', which in the UK/US would be called 'bubblegum pop'. In fact, his first album, which was released on Hansa Records in 1969, was called 'That's Bubble Gum - That's Giorgio'. In 1968, he moved to Munich and came to prominence when 'Looky Looky' was awarded a gold disc in 1970, and with that success behind him he founded the Musicland Studios in the early 1970's. Moroder was an early fan of the Moog synthesizer, and began to implement the instrument into his work during the making of his album 'Son Of My Father' in 1972. 
Often collaborating with lyricist Pete Bellotte, Moroder had a number of hits in his own name, including 'Son Of My Father', although the more famous version is the UK No. 1 hit by Chicory Tip. Around 1973 he was pitching demos to American groups like Three Dog Night, and they hired vocalist Donna Summer, then completely unknown, as the singer. Moroder got along well with Summer, who had lived in Germany for several years and spoke German fluently, and he began to record her as a solo artist in addition to using her on demos and recordings for other artists. Summer's first solo album with Moroder, 1974's 'Lady Of The Night', went nowhere, but the following year she suggested building a song around the phrase "love to love you baby", and Moroder and Bellotte took the idea and ran with it. Adding elements from a steamy French duet by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, 'Je t'aime … moi non plus', the single that resulted, 'Love To Love You Baby', became a hit in Europe, and was released in the United States by the fast-rising Casablanca label. With its quasi-orgasmic moans from Summer, slinky beat, and lush orchestral textures, 'Love to Love You Baby' was as good a candidate as any other release of that time for the distinction of being the first disco record, and when Casablanca decided to release an album including the song, Moroder notched another first by creating a new version of 'Love To Love You Baby' that rearranged its basic musical elements and extended it to a length of more than 17 minutes, filling one entire side of the 'Love To Love You' LP. From this point he became more known as a producer than as a recording artist, although he did still release albums, but they were more electronic, such as the synthesizer-driven 'From Here to Eternity', a chart hit in 1977. To find how he got to that point in his career, here is a collection of his mid-60's/early 70's singles, mostly released on Hansa Records in Germany between 1966 and 1972. 



Track listing

01 Cerca (Di Scordare) (single 1965)
02 Full Stop (single 1966)
03 Believe In Me (b-side of 'Full Stop')
04 Bla Bla Diddly (single 1967)
05 How Much Longer Must I Wait, Wait... (b-side of 'Bla Bla Diddly') 
06 Lilly Belle (single 1968)
07 Love's Morning Land (b-side of 'Lilly Belle')
08 Cinnamon (single 1968)
09 Reesy Beesy (b-side of 'Reesy Beesy')
10 Looky Looky (single 1969)
11 Happy Birthday (b-side of 'Looky Looky')
12 Moody Trudy (single 1970)
13 Stop (b-side of 'Moody Trudy')
14 Underdog (single 1971)
15 Watch Your Step (b-side of 'Underdog')
16 Son Of My Father (single 1972)
17 I'm Free Now (b-side of 'Son Of My Father')
18 Today's A Tomorrow (You Worried 'Bout Yesterday) (single 1972)
19 Pauline (b-side of 'Today's A Tomorrow (You Worried 'Bout Yesterday)')

Friday, October 4, 2024

Linda Laine And The Sinners - Low Grades And High Fever (1966)

The Sinners were an English beat group consisting of Del Hidden on lead guitar, Len Crawley on drums, Pete Bellotte on rhythm guitar and Russ Maxwell on bass, who signed to Columbia Records in the early 60's, and released a couple of singles in 1963 and 1964. They were joined on these records by Veronica Lind, under the name of Linda Laine, and by their third release, 'Low Grades And High Fevers', they'd become Linda Laine And The Sinners. The newly-named band made a few records without overly troubling the charts, but would regularly travel to Germany for month-long residencies, and in Hamburg they encountered another English band, Bluesology, and Bellotte became friends with their keyboard player, Reg Dwight, later to be known as Elton John. Linda Laine and the Sinners released several singles in the UK on the International Polydor label, all recorded at Abbey Road Studios in the early and mid-1960's, including 'I Can't Stand It', and its b-side, 'If You Leave Me Now', which was written by Bellotte. While in Germany, Bellotte had become fluent in German, and wanted to become involved in record production, so he moved to Munich and became an assistant to Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, who was also performing in Germany as a pop singer. In 1971, Bellotte wrote the lyrics for Moroder's song, 'Son Of My Father', which became a number 1 hit in the UK for Chicory Tip, and Moroder and Bellotte later began to work with American singer Donna Summer, writing and producing several hits for her, including her 1975 international breakthrough song, 'Love To Love You Baby'. This post includes all of the singles released by Linda Laine And The Sinners, plus those two early discs under the name of The Sinners, and to end is a rare acetate of an unreleased track titled 'Yesterday'. The acetate is only 54 seconds long, so I've edited it to a more satisfactory 1'38", and it was well worth doing, as it's a really great song which could have been the hit they were trying for. 



Track listing

01 I Can't Stand It (single by The Sinners with Linda Laine 1963)
02 If You Leave Me Now (b-side of 'I Can't Stand It')
03 It's So Exciting (single by The Sinners with Linda Laine 1964)
04 Leave Him (b-side of 'I'm So Excited')
05 Low Grades And High Fever (single 1964)
06 After Today (b-side of 'Low Grades And High Fever')
07 Doncha Know, Doncha Know, Doncha Know (single 1964)
08 Ain't That Fun (b-side of 'Doncha Know, Doncha Know, Doncha Know')
09 Don't Do It Baby (single 1965)
10 All I Want To Do Is Run (b-side of 'Don't Say It Baby')
11 Get A Job (single 1965)
12 Reasons (b-side of 'Get A Job')
13 There He Goes (single 1966)
14 VW (b-side of 'There He Goes')
15 Jinx On You (single 1966)
16 Gone (b-side of 'Jinx On You')
17 Baby Don't Hurt Me (single 1966)
18 Running Around (b-side of 'Baby Don't Hurt Me')
19 Yesterday (unreleased acetate 1966)