There may not be many more Berties left in Bertie the dog's record collection, but I couldn't let this series close without paying tribute to the first British guitarist to have a hit record in the UK singles chart...
Bert Weedon was born in That London in 1920. He started learning the guitar at age 12 and formed his own groups (Bert Weedon and His Harlem Hotshots & the Blue Cumberland Rhythm Boys) soon after. He went on to become a session musician for a number of big British stars (Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Adam Faith et al.), and the odd American who was slumming it (Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole).
Then he wrote a million-selling book about how to play the guitar... a book which was devoured by everyone from The Beatles, The Stones and The Who to Eric Clapton, Brian May, Mark Knopfler, Jimmy Page, Robert Smith... even Sting. It could therefore be argued that without Bert, none of those guys would have learned to play their guitars the way they did, and the world would be a much poorer place.
He also recorded the first version of this, so Hank Marvin owed him a pint too...
Back to leafing through Bertie the dog's record collection. Last time, we looked at Free Electric Band frontman and amateur meteorologist, Albert Hammond. It was obvious then that we should do a follow-up post about his son...
Junior has been releasing solo records for getting on for twenty years now, although he's slightly more famous for being the guitarist in The Strokes. Although he's not the lead singer or primary songwriter (that job goes to Julian Casabalancas... whom I suspect is adored by our very first Bertie, Mr. Higgins)... he is the one strumming away at probably the most recognisable Strokes riff below...
Next time, another guitar player... in fact, the first British guitarist to have a hit record in the UK singles chart. Who dat?
We're back to flipping through Bertie The Dog's record collection. He only buys discs by people with Bert in their name...
My father is a doctor, he's a family man
My mother works for charity whenever she can
And they're both good clean Americans who abide by the law
And they both stick up for liberty and they both support the war
My happiness was paid for when they laid their money down
For summers in a summer camp and winters in the town
My future in the system was talked about and planned
But I gave it up for music and The Free Electric Band
Despite the lyrics of his only UK hit, Albert Hammond was born in London in 1944, shortly after his parents had been evacuated from Gibraltar.
Albert began his musical career aged just 16 with Gibraltarian band The Diamond Boys, but his first chart success came 6 years later, in 1966, with a Top Ten hit as part of...
He went on to enjoy a successful career as a solo musician, but I'm guessing he made most of his money as a songwriter. He's the writer or co-writer of a surprising range of hits from across the decades...
Quite a list. A great songwriter... though I'd argue he's not much cop as a weather man...
This Bertie's got an OBE, an Emmy, an Ivor Novello award and he's been inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. Though surely his greatest claim to fame is being mentioned in a Half Man Half Biscuit song...
Dragging my guitar round maternity ward
I was in search of the umbilical chord
But it was all in vain so I jumped on a train
And when I reached my home the kids were on the patio
Looking quite upset, so I asked them what was wrong
And they said: “Beware, there’s an Albert Hammond bootleg in the house in there
An Albert Hammond bootleg in the house
Some man who introduced himself as Stanley Rous came in
And left this Albert Hammond bootleg in the house”
No clues as to next week's Bertie. Those of you who are paying attention should be able to guess him.
Another of Bertie the dog's favourite Burties this week... we like nothing better than to chill out and watch Smokey & The Bandit together...
James Dean in a Mercury '49 Junior Johnson's runnin' in the woods of Caroline Even Burt Reynolds in a black Trans Am I'm gonna meet 'em down at the Cadillac ranch
Time for Bertie the dog to pick another of his favourite music Berts... or Burts in the case of this week's star.
I'm sure I can't tell you anything about Burt Bacharach that you don't already know, although I can confirm that he's NOT related to one of my favourite actors of recent years, Ebon Moss-Bacharach of The Bear (soon to play The Thing in the new Fantastic Four movie).
I think we'll just let the music speak for itself today...
The majority of those were written with lyricist Hal David, of course. But he's not a Bertie. Or even a Burty.
If I was forced at gunpoint to choose a favourite recording of a Bacharach composition, it would be this one, which I bought as a 7" single in 1990. I was convinced it made Number One, but clearly I needed to buy a couple more copies, because it was held off the top spot by Timmy Mallet. Oh, the inDignity*!
*I'm particularly proud of that pun. Little things please little minds.
Next week... "For the money, for the glory, and for the fun. Mostly for the money."
Herbert Jansch was Glaswegian by birth, Edinburgher / Edinbronian* by "origin", according to iffypedia.
(The internet can't agree on the correct term, although I did see “C*nts fae Edinburgh” suggested by one, presumed, Glaswegian contributor.)
"Origin", I'm guessing, means than Bert Jansch was bitten by a radioactive acoustic guitar in the Scottish capital, giving him amazing plucking skills and leading him to be cited as an influence to everyone from Jimmy Page to Mike Oldfield, Paul Simon to Nick Drake, Donovan to Johnny Marr. At times, they called him "a British Bob Dylan", though it was a comparison Jansch didn't really care for himself.
As well as being a leading light in the British folk revival of the 60s, Jansch went on to form "one of the most influential groups of the late 20th century"... No, not Showaddywaddy.
In his later years, Jansch would work with many of the artists he'd inspired in his younger days, including opening for Neil Young on the old grumpy git's 2010 US tour. Young once said, "as much of a great guitar player as Jimi was, Bert Jansch is the same thing for acoustic guitar... and my favourite." And if you can get a kind word from Neil Young, you must be doing something right.
I wonder if the first time I ever heard the name Bert Kaempfert, it was in the lyrics of the big 1999 hit by Canadian tongue-in-cheek indie band Barenaked Ladies. Here, this week's Bert shares the limelight with other notable names such as Harrison Ford, LeAnn Rimes, Akira Kurosawa and Sting. You know you've arrived...!
(By the way, that song reached Number One on the US charts. Guess how long it spent there?)
Sadly, Bert K died 19 years before the Barenaked Ladies claimed, "Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits", so he had no idea how much his name would live on. But what were the "mad hits" from this German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer?
Well, for one, here's a tune made famous by Wayne Newton in the States... though arguably made much more famous by one Ferris Bueller in 1986...
Those of you who are familiar with that movie (and if not, why not?) will recall that Ferris follows up with his take on The Beatles' version of Twist & Shout. And Bert K had his own Beatles connection, hiring the Fab Four to back Tony Sheridan in 1961 for their first commercially released recordings... which led to their discovery by Brian Epstein.
Mad hits indeed. But perhaps the maddest of them all was probably my dad's favourite song. Whenever I hear this tune, written by Bert K, I can hear my dad whistling it in his workshop.
The lyrics were added later by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder, and it became a huge hit for old blue eyes... even though he called it "a piece of shit" and "the worst fucking song that I have ever heard." The Chairman thought it was about a love affair between two men, you see. Unthinkable!
Although Bert Kaempfert is still credited as the composer, a number of other interested parties would later claim ownership of this tune, though a Parisian judge decided in 1971 that there was no case for plagiarism because many songs were based on "similar constant factors".
Perhaps the greatest legacy of Strangers In The Night is that it gave Sinatra the opportunity to scat-sing "doo-be-doo-be-doo" as the record fades out... thereby giving a name to the world's best-loved ghost-chasing Great Dane...
This is our dog, Bertie. He's put on his best outfit for you.
And now, we're going to party like it's 2017, the year this blog embraced Kenny Wednesdays and Randy Tuesdays... with a celebration of rock 'n' roll's greatest Herberts.
Starting with the one and only...
1. Bertie Higgins.
Elbert Joseph Higgins hailed from Florida where he started his working life as a ventriloquist and a sponge diver.
In 1982 he hit the US Top Ten with his debut single Key Largo, which appealed to Bogart and Baccall fans everywhere (including Terry Wogan and yours truly). The song tells the story of a young couple suffering through a long winter together, their only entertainment watching old films on the Late Late Show. Another single from the same album continued the theme...
