(Chris Kenner - Dave Bartholomew)
Australia
#3 Sydney #7 Melbourne #3 Brisbane #5 Adelaide #2 Perth
Double-sided hit in Sydney and Melbourne with About Love.
Billy Thorpe (1946-2007): British-born singer, guitarist and songwriter whose family emigrated to Brisbane in the 1950s. Based in Sydney from 1963, 'Thorpy', with The Aztecs, had numerous pop hits in a variety of styles, but at the end of the 60s, then in Melbourne, he fronted a loud, rocky, blues-based formation of the Aztecs that contrasted with his earlier pop idol image. Later, his solo and business career took him to Los Angeles, and he wrote two popular autobiographical books, Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy) and Sex And Thugs And Rock'n'Roll [AbeBooks link].
Further reading: Paul Culnane's account of Billy Thorpe's career at Milesago.
(Chris Kenner - Dave Bartholomew)
UK
Influential version
On the Phillips album Live At The Star Club, recorded in Hamburg 1963, possibly released early '64.
This beat-style rearrangement of the Chris Kenner-Fats Domino hit has much in common with Billy Thorpe's version. See also Billy Thorpe's Mashed Potato and About Love, also on the Searchers' Live At The Star Club.
(Chris Kenner - Fats Domino - Dave Bartholomew)
USA
#22 USA #26 UK
Single by star New Orleans pianist and singer (b.1928) whose first single The Fat Man was released in 1949. The man behind Fats Domino's recordings of the time was the dominant New Orleans producer, arranger and A&R man Dave Bartholomew.
Billy Thorpe also recorded a version of Fats Domino's My Girl Josephine, another Domino-Bartholomew song.
(Chris Kenner - Dave Bartholomew)
USA
Original version with these lyrics
New Orleans singer and composer famous for his 1961 hit I Like It Like That and the much-recorded Land Of A Thousand Dances (1963).
Co-written and produced by Dave Bartholomew.
As the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame citation for Dave Bartholomew puts it:
He was a man of many talents: bandleader, trumpet player, songwriter, producer, arranger, talent scout, businessman, and more. Although he never
made the pop charts under his own name, Bartholomew was a key figure in the transition from jump blues and big-band swing to rhythm & blues and rock and roll.
See also: Dave Bartholomew pages at Songwriters Hall of Fame.
(Joe McCoy)
USA
Original version?
78 rpm record on Decca label.
Composer Joe McCoy, was guitarist with populist jazz band The Harlem Hamfats, although it is possible the ultimate source is traditional.
The song is clearly a source for Sick And Tired: Oh Red, what you gonna do? Oh Red, what you gonna do? I'm sick and tired of [chastizing] you. See All Music Guide's pages on the Harlem Hamfats, where you can hear an audio clip of Oh Red. See also Michael Taft's Pre-war Blues Lyrics Concordance.
Oh Red was also recorded, for example, by The State Street Swingers (1936), Casey Bill Weldon (c.1936), The Ink Spots (1938), Count Basie (1939) and Sam Price's Texas Blusicians (1940). See, for example, the Abrams Database at 78online and the Online Discographies Project.
Thanks to Kees van der Hoeven.
(Anastacia - Dallas Austin - Glen Ballard)
USA
Red herring
#4 UK #8 Perth
Same title but not the same song as ‘Sick And Tired’ by Billy Thorpe.
On self-titled album by New York singer and dancer whose
debut album Not That Kind came out in 2000.
Pop Archives
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2021. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Joop Jansen, More…