THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,755) The Bobby Fuller Four — “Let Her Dance”
Bobby Fuller (see #995) gave us an “ear-wormy, hook-rich masterpiece . . . . contain[ing] a brilliant juxtaposition of musical tensions that pull between the beat, lead guitar line, vocal melody, and some inspired background- vocal counterpoint” (Dennis Pilon, https://poprockrecord.com/2019/03/26/cover-me-the-bobby-fuller-fours-let-her-dance/), “an exuberant rocker, containing elements of practically every dance-floor classic to date, from Valens’ ‘La Bamba’ to Bobby Freeman’s ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ and the Beach Boys’ ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’.” (Classicbands.com, https://www.classicbands.com/fullerfour.html)
“Dance” “promptly topped the L.A. charts, making the group stars in the land of stars” (Classicbands.com again), but it only reached #133 nationwide.
Rob Jones writes:
[It] just shimmers with aural optimism, with an irregular beat and a simple, yet totally effective guitar riff that serves as an engine to the whole thing. It seems to incorporate a number of musical ingredients, from latin music, to country, to surf music. And the echo-drenched call and response vocals from Fuller and his bandmates seem to evoke the innocence that marked the times. This is a song about youthful heartbreak, and youthful resilience, maybe with a bit of hormonal confusion thrown in. What’s more rock ‘n’ roll than that?
https://thedeletebin.com/2013/03/18/the-bobby-fuller-four-play-let-her-dance/
But, Michael Hann points out that:
[F]or all the sweet harmonies, lovelorn lyrics, and bouncing chords, there was a toughness to it. It sounded like a teenage hoodlum trying to look respectable for his girlfriend’s folks. It’s power-pop before the fact, in other words.
And LeOpard13 adds:
Listen to the song’s lyrics and you’ll spot its proud defiance. Announcing the singer’s not bothered by his girlfriend’s rejection. The exuberant tone of the singing in direct contrast to the burden of the words flowing out. The hints of regret and hurt still emerge. . . . Catchy to groove to, but poignant when you pay heed to what it’s saying.
https://le0pard13.com/2013/11/29/reprise-friday-forgotten-song-bobby-fuller-fours-let-her-dance/
Richie Unterberger:
“Let Her Dance” was the first Bobby Fuller track to receive wide commercial attention . . . . Although [it] is one of the most well known Bobby Fuller songs, it’s arguably not among his very most interesting or ambitious, based as it is around a simple Buddy Hollyesque melody and a lyric about letting a girl who’s broken up with the singer dance with her new flame. It was in fact a rewritten remake of a song with the same melody and different lyrics, “Keep on Dancing,” that Fuller had released on a 1964 single. What made the song different from “Keep on Dancing,” and indeed different from what Fuller had done previously as a recording artist, was the more sophisticated production. Perhaps reflecting Phil Spector’s influence, there was a mini-Wall of Sound built up with the twangy reverbed guitar riff, stomping beat, tinkling percussion, and almost choral-sounding backup vocals. Those backup vocals were particularly effective at the end of the verses, where an almost round-like overlapping quality was achieved. Bobby Fuller’s lead vocal, as usual, made something more of the material than many would have. The lyric on the surface is one of proud defiance, announcing that he’s not bothered by his girlfriend’s rejection. The tone of the vocal and construction of the words infers something a little different, though, with hints of regret and hurt peeping through. And if he was really so unconcerned about who the girl was dancing with, would he keep repeating the message over and over for two-and-a-half minutes?
As to the Bobby Fuller Four, Michael Hann writes that “[t]hey were . . . a band out of time, indebted to Buddy Holly and the first wave of rock’n’roll heroes just at the point when rock music was entering that period of light-speed acceleration that rendered everything that came before irrelevant overnight”. (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/feb/14/bobby-fuller-four-let-her-dance)
Richie Unterberger tells us:
With his blatant reverence for Buddy Holly, fellow Texan Bobby Fuller was a bit of an anomaly in the mid-’60s. With his Stratocaster guitar and brash, full sound, at his best Fuller sounded like Holly might have had he survived into the ’60s. Cracking the Top 30 in 1966 with a cover of Holly’s “Love’s Made a Fool of You” and the Top Ten with “I Fought the Law” . . . Fuller had just become a star when he died in mysterious circumstances in a parked car in Hollywood (the police thought it was a suicide, just about everyone who knew him disagreed). Fuller’s relatively short period of national stardom actually crowned a good half-dozen years of recording, during which he released many outstanding tracks. After a few local singles in his hometown of El Paso in the early ’60s, he moved to California with his combo in 1964 . . . . In the short time he recorded for Mustang in 1965 and 1966, he waxed quite a few tracks (most self-penned) in addition to his hits . . . . Rocking, tuneful, and infectiously joyous, they showed Fuller to be a worthy inheritor of early rock & roll and rockabilly traditions without sounding self-consciously revivalist. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-bobby-fuller-four-mn0000061534#biography
ClassicBands.com:
Bobby Fuller . . . . formed a band in El Paso with his brother Randy and two friends, drummer Larry Thompson and guitarist Billy Webb. They were known as The Fanatics. After Thompson and Webb left, they were replaced by Jim Reese on guitar and Dewayne Quirico on drums. LThe group played locally for three years before packing up and moving to Los Angeles. It was there, in 1964, that the bright-eyed Texan and his group signed with Del-Fi Records, the label that had brought forth Ritchie Valens. The record company took a special interest in Bobby and changed the band’s name to The Bobby Fuller Four, much to the regret of the rest of the group. The boys hit the club circuit and by 1965 they had become the darlings of the discotheque set, performing their high-powered Rock ‘n’ Roll night after night before packed audiences. . . . When the British Invasion hit, England’s rockers re-educated Americans who had long neglected their musical heritage. But while most American bands were happy to learn about Carl Perkins, The Crickets and other home-grown heroes via the Beatles, Fuller went straight to the source. He was playing plain and simple Rock ‘n’ Roll while fellow Texan Buddy Holly was alive, and stuck with it even after the music died. By the time the Brits brought back the beat, Fuller and his band were ready to show America that a group didn’t need pointy boots to play kick-ass Rock ‘n’ Roll. . . . The Bobby Fuller Four’s first few Del-Fi singles failed. Although Fuller would later prove himself an excellent songwriter, at that point the group had yet to find its own sound . . . . [After “Let Her Dance”, t]he band followed with the superb “Never to Be Forgotten” . . . . But it was their next release that would put them over the top. “I Fought the Law” originally appeared on a post-Holly Crickets album and was penned by the group’s guitarist, Sonny Curtis . . . . Released in October 1965, the Bobby Fuller Four’s version . . . took their fame far beyond the West Coast. . . . Although the Bobby Fuller Four managed a minor follow-up hit with another cover, Holly’s “Love’s Made a Fool of You” (#26), most of the American public remained unaware of Fuller’s own songwriting talent. By then, his compositions had evolved from emulations of his ’50s idols to more sophisticated tunes. However, Del-Fi did not believe in Fuller’s originals, so the group’s next single was a bona fide Brill Building tune, “The Magic Touch”. When it missed the charts entirely, things began to fall apart. In July 1966, Fuller returned home to L.A. after a long and stressful tour. His band was on the verge of mutiny . . . . The West Coast music scene was changing rapidly, with stirrings of psychedelia. Fuller was uncertain of his next move. No one foresaw the tragedy that would come next. . . . Bobby’s lifeless body was found on the front seat of his mother’s Oldsmobile . . . . He had been badly beaten and a gasoline can was found on the floor of the car. . . . The Los Angeles Police ruled Fuller’s death a suicide . . . . His brother Randy claimed that the police never even checked the car for fingerprints. Those closest to Bobby suspected that he had been murdered. Fuller had been dating a young woman named Melanie, whose reportedly jealous, club-owner ex-boyfriend was rumored to be tied to organized crime. After Fuller’s death, she disappeared and was not heard from for many years. When she finally surfaced, she denied any knowledge of Fuller’s death. A private investigator hired by Fuller’s parents and the group’s manager, Bob Keane, was shot at and quit the case after a few days.
Here’s a cool video:
Performing on Where the Action Is!:
Here’s “Keep on Dancing”:
Dennis Pilon writes that “[n]o wonder it’s been covered by countless bands, each choosing to balance the competing elements in somewhat different and intriguing ways.” He gives an exhaustive list of covers at: https://poprockrecord.com/2019/03/26/cover-me-the-bobby-fuller-fours-let-her-dance/.
Here’s Marshall Crenshaw:
Here’s Phil Seymour:
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