My favorite record in the whole world

[Steve Schell]

In 1967 I was attending a Catholic elementary boarding school in Berkeley, CA. It was quite a time to be in the bay area, what with the Haight, People's Park etc. in full flower.

Sometimes I'd spend the weekend at home with a local kid when the Brothers made all the long distance boarders scram. This one weekend I went home with Kenny Harris to Oakland. On Saturday we were out bumming around and wandered into a thrift shop. I spotted a huge pile of new 45 RPM records, most of them having the same title: "You're Driving Me Crazy" by Dorothy Berry. Since the asking price was three cents I took a chance and bought one. When we got home we gave it a spin, looked at each other and grinned... it was good!

I still have that 45, plus a second copy I picked up in the '80s for $6. It had become a rare record, presumably because most of them wound up in that thrift shop in Oakland. Anyway, it still gets me going like no other single record I can think of. Now it is probably not as good a record as I think it is, because my perceptions are colored by all the pleasant memories of that period. Or maybe it is!

Dorothy Berry was the wife of the late Richard Berry, who is most famous for having written "Louie Louie." Why Dorothy remained obscure I'll never understand, because IMO she could sing as well as anyone, definitely up in Etta James territory.

I just happened onto a web site with an audio file of "You're Driving Me Crazy." Give it a spin!

http://www.last.fm/music/Dorothy+Ber...iving+Me+Crazy

[mikebake]

Nice!

[spkrman57]

I enjoyed listening to that Steve!

Thanks, Ron

[johnaec]

??

Due to issues beyond our control, we have lost all power to our datacenter. Unfortunately Last.fm will be offline until further notice.

John

[johnaec]

I guess the U.S. could have used all that money blown in Iraq to rebuild our power grid.

Yeah - it's not so much that I mind paying taxes - I just think we should be allowed to determine *where* they're spent. Like on the tax forms, have a list of about 20 areas, (roads, education, security, etc.), where we could enter the percentage of our taxes we wanted applied. Of course that makes too much sense and would never fly - we'd be taking politicians' piggy bank away...

John

[mikebake]

Meanwhile, back to Steves favorite record in the whole world...............

[hjames]

Gee guys ... Sometimes, its not about us, err US, err U.S. ....

see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last.fm

Last.fm is a UK-based internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It claims over 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries.


Also see - http://blog.last.fm/

Just another sign of our crumbling infrastructure. I guess the U.S. could have used all that money blown in Iraq to rebuild our power grid.

Oops!

Yeah - it's not so much that I mind paying taxes - I just think we should be allowed to determine *where* they're spent. Like on the tax forms, have a list of about 20 areas, (roads, education, security, etc.), where we could enter the percentage of our taxes we wanted applied. Of course that makes too much sense and would never fly - we'd be taking politicians' piggy bank away...

John

[Mr. Widget]

Thanks for sharing, Steve... when I listened to it this morning, it had been played a whopping 168 times. That is obscure! How did you find it?


Widget

[hjames]

The track is back up!!
Cool tune, thanks for the link, Steve!

http://www.last.fm/music/Dorothy+Ber...iving+Me+Crazy

[Steve Schell]

Widget, I just ran a Google search on Dorothy Berry for the heck of it and the site turned up. Most of what I know about her (which ain't much) comes from here:

http://www.louielouie.net/09-dorothy.htm

[Steve Schell]

Lansing Heritage co-founder Maui Steve wrote to point out that a 45 of YDMC is available right now on ebay, for $40.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dorothy-Berry-No...2em118Q2el1247

There are two versions of this 45. The auctioned record title is "I Say You're Driving Me Crazy" while the ones I have use the shorter title, also seen here:

http://www.poparchives.com.au/feature.php?id=1826

They both carry the designation of Little Star #117. I seem to remember reading in the past that the title was changed due to some copyright issue. Maybe that's why a pile of them ended up at the thrift shop.

H.B. Barnum wrote the song and arranged it for Berry. No wonder the arrangement kicks butt; he's worked for some notable artists:

http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/H.B.Barnum.html

[duaneage]

So that record outperformed the stock market in value, interesting.

[Steve Schell]

Duaneage, in 1967 I could have cornered the world market in Little Star #117 for about five bucks. Who knew?

[richluvsound]

thanks awfully Heather- LAST FM- right under my nose

Rich

[cooky1257]

Cool tune-I had heard it once before-the right tune at the right time and place can change your life, amazing.
Is there something up with my browser 'cos I can see the quoted posts but not all of the originals-or is it Big Brother at work censoring anti U.S. gov stuff?