THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,813) Cinnamon — “You Won’t See Me Leaving”
This “excellent” (http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/642) and “infectious” (Kieron Tyler, liner notes to the CD comp Dreambabes Vol. Six: Sassy and Stonefree) UK blue-eyed “bubblegum soul” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/lets-copp-a-groove-lost-uk-soul-1968-1972-mw0000432434) was written by the great Barbara Ruskin (see #1,078, 1,139). How was this not a hit?! Sweet as a Cinnabon!
23 Daves writes of Ruskin:
Her range throughout the sixties was certainly incredible, seeing her attempting stomping Motown styles, Carnaby Street pop, popsike, and delicate folksy material. Born in East London . . . she became a determined and eager performer, hustling deals along Denmark Street. She was one of the very few female singer-songwriters on the circuit at one point in the sixties, and between 1965-72 managed to issue a whopping seventeen singles as a result of her tenacity, none of which charted. In 1969 she even penned the track “Gentlemen Please” for the Eurovision Song Contest, but the evening’s vote was not on her side, and Lulu [see #960] ended up performing the rather more simplistic “Boom Bang A Bang” instead.
Her songwriting activity also saw two singles placed with fellow female solo artist Cinnamon. The first, “You Won’t See Me Leaving”, was issued by Beacon Records in 1968, and the second and final effort “So Long Sam” fell into record shops in July the following year. Neither sold well, and both are fairly difficult to track down these days.https://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2018/03/cinnamon-so-long-sam-broken-hearted-me.html?m=1
Geoff laments that:
There seemed no obvious reasons why some [British female singers in the 60’s] were successful and others weren’t and every so often you come across a track and wonder why on earth it was never a hit. . . . Barbara Ruskin falls into this group of little-known 60’s women singers . . . reminiscent of Jackie DeShannon [see #1,202]. As a woman singer-songwriter she was also a relative rarity in the pop market at that time – artists such as Jackie DeShannon herself or Barbara Acklin [see #1,419] notwithstanding. The difficulties artists like her faced seemed obvious with her first release, when her own stronger composition, “I Can’t Believe in Miracles’, was relegated to the ‘b’ side in favour of a rather pointless cover of the Billy Fury hit, “Halfway to Paradise”. . . .
https://songsaboutplaces.blogspot.com/2012/03/euston-station.html
Nostalgia Central adds:
[Her] father died when she was still young and her mother – who worked for music publisher Lawrence Wright in Denmark Street – encouraged her young daughter to pursue her love of music, buying her first guitar. Barbara taught herself to play it, began composing her own songs and, before long, was spending her spare time performing at weddings and youth clubs. In 1964, she was offered a contract with Piccadilly Records and released her first single, a version of Billy Fury’s “Halfway To Paradise”, in February 1965. Barbara’s second single was one of her own compositions, “You Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying” (1965) – which she had written with Sandie Shaw [see #324, 1,259] in mind – while her third single – “Well, How Does It Feel?” (1965) – was recorded in the style of Sonny and Cher [see #283]. In 1966, Barbara released the stomping single “Song Without End” but once again, the single failed to chart. “Light of Love” (1966) was her final single for Piccadilly before Barbara moved to Parlophone. “Sun Showers” (February 1967) became her first 45 for the new label, followed by “Euston Station” just two months later. . . . She followed it up with one of her finest singles, “Come Into My Arms Again” (1967), a song she wrote on the bus on the way to the studio. Barbara was then offered a role co-hosting the radio programme, Cool Britannia, on the BBC’s World Service. “Pawnbroker, Pawnbroker” [see #1,078] was released in October 1968 . . . . Barbara continued releasing singles throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s . . . .
https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-b/barbara-ruskin/
Here are the Triplets:
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