Monday, October 22, 2007

Speaking of Gorgeous...

...from 1984, it's the Everly Brothers and "On the Wings of a Nightingale." Written by Paul McCartney, produced by greatest living Welshman Dave Edmunds.



An all but perfect record, I think, and certainly the song fits Don and Phil like a glove. I'm not a thousand percent sure, but I seem to recall McCartney actually wrote the song when he was still a Beatle. Wonder what the song would have sounded like if the Fabs had recorded it? So did long running power pop gods The Spongetones, who provide a convincing answer with their really terrific cover version; click here and scroll down to hear an excerpt.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was it produced by Dave Edmunds? For some reason I thought it was produced by Jeff Lynne. Anyway, that album, "EB84," is pretty much perfect: fabulous songs, great singing, and super-hot playing from Albert Lee. Not a weak track on the whole thing but worth your life to find it now - is it out of print? Was it ever on CD?

Anonymous said...

I was thinking Jeff Lynne too. He did the Del Shannon disc that was pretty good too.

steve simels said...

The Everlys is definitely Dave Edmunds, and Jeff Lynne did a fantastic job with that Del Shannon album, which is another of my all-time faves.

I think they're both still in print...I think Razor and Tie did the Everlys sometime in the mid 90s.

I'll go look....

steve simels said...

Damn. The Everlys was on CD (as I suspected, from Razor and Tie in '94) but is now out of print.

Shannon's available on a brand new import disc remastered with bonus tracks.

I need both of these....

TJWood said...

I decided to do some research to see if McCartney did write "On The Wings of a Nightingale" while still a Beatle. I didn't find anything definitive, but most of what I did find seemed to indicate that it was specifically written for the the reunion disc. The best I could come up with was this interview from 1999 or so, where he indicates it was written at the request of the Everlys: http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/denberg.htm

McCartney does not specifically state when the Everlys asked him for a song, but the implication is that it was for the EB '84 album.

Listened to the Spongetones sample: excellent, sounds like a lost track from the first Nuggets collection.