(Shirley Johnson [Earl King])
Australia
#4 Sydney
Double-sided hit in Sydney with The Same Old Song.
Lead singer of The Whispers, one of the most popular Australian bands of the British Invasion era.
Writers: You will see this credited to Dave Clark & Mike Smith (for example at APRA and on some reissues), but that’s a mix-up: see below under THE DAVE CLARK FIVE.
Further reading: Ray Brown history at Milesago.
Disambiguation: 1. This is not Ray Brown, the American jazz bassist (1926-2002). 2. The Whispers were not the American R&B vocal group formed in 1964.
(Shirley Johnson [Earl King])
USA
Single on Tribe by Barbara Lynn Ozen (b. 1942), highly regarded soul-blues guitarist-singer-songwriter from Texas. Her big hit was You’ll
Lose A Good Thing (1962, #8 USA). She was also known for (Oh Baby) We Got A Good Thing Goin’ (1964), covered by the Rolling Stones on
Out Of Our Heads (1965).
Further reading: 1. Mick Patrick’s definitive account of Barbara Lynn at Cha Cha Charming. 2. Red Kelly’s post on Barbara Lynn at The B Side. 3. Wikipedia article. 4. My brief appreciation of Barbara Lynn.
Image of Barbara Lynn 2008 (slightly cropped) by Masahiro Sumori (Creative Commons license)
(Shirley Johnson [Earl King])
USA
Original version
Single on Joe Banashak’s New Orleans label Alon, produced by Allen Toussaint and written by New Orleans singer Earl King.
Although Allen Toussaint was associated with the label, Alon is a backwards initialisation of New Orleans, LA.4
References, further reading: 1. Detailed notes on the background to this record at Home of the Groove. 2. More on Willie Harper at Funky16Corners. 3. Alon label: see John Broven, Rhythm and Blues in New Orleans, p.201 (Google Books).
(Dave Clark - Mike Smith)
UK
Red herring
Same title but not the same song as ‘New Kind Of Love’ by Ray Brown.
Track on the soundtrack album to Having A Wild Weekend, the Dave Clark Five’s answer to The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night.
A big thank you to Alan Baratta for spotting the red herring.
Even APRA credits Ray Brown’s ‘New Kind Of Love’ to Clark & Smith, but this is definitely a different song. See Glad All Over for a genuine Clark-Smith original version.
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