THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
565) The Dave Clark Five — “Just a Little Bit Now”
I need more than just a little bit of this smoking’ hot DC5 classic right now! Released as a single in the U.S. (’67) — reaching, appropriately, #67 — but not in the UK, it radically transformed and supercharged an R&B falsetto number from ‘62. The summer of Love and they still had it (see #208, 320, 411, 412)! Bruce Eder says it has “a great beat and chorus”. (https://www.allmusic.com/album/five-by-five-mw0000891115)
The song was was written by Jerry Ragovoy and performed by the Majors. Bryan Thomas explains:
The Majors scored an R&B/pop Top 30 hit in 1962 with “A Wonderful Dream.” They are remembered for their outrageous falsetto lead vocals . . . and for being one of the many acts produced by Jerry Ragovoy, an important behind-the-scenes force behind East Coast Soul music. . . . Ragovoy . . . had already begun producing doo wop acts (often distinguished by a conspicuous gospel feel) in the Philadelphia area in 1953, when he and Herb Slotkin (owner of Tregoobs appliance store) formed Grand Records. . . . Ragovoy produced the group’s lone hit, “A Wonderful Dream,” but they failed to hit with anything further. . . . [H]e went on to become quite a successful songwriter, writing or co-writing several classic New York and Philadelphia Soul records in the 1960s, including Garnet Mimms’ “Cry Baby” (which was co-written with . . . Bert Berns) which landed at number four in 1963. In the mid-’60s, Ragovoy also wrote a song for jazz trombonist Kai Winding, “Time Is on My Side,” covered by Irma Thomas, and a U.S. Top Ten hit for The Rolling Stones . . . . Ragovoy became even more prominent in his role as a mentor for Janis Joplin, who . . . cover[ed] . . . his “Piece of My Heart” and “Try (Just a Little Bit Harder),” . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-majors-mn0000048718/biography
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The Majors:
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