I remember a version of Walk Away Renee by a British group or vocalist. The popular version is by the Four Tops and it's... well... not the same. Does anyone know the version I'm talking about? It's none of the ones on iTunes.

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Hey! That took about 30 secs of Googling...the band was Left Banke, and their version was purportedly the original. I am indeed old enough to remember the tune when it was released by the Brits.

The Four Tops also covered Bobby Darin's "If I were a Carpenter." I really liked the Tops' version better than Darin's.

More '60s pop drivel I was thinking about recently, if you'll forgive the thread hijack... remember the Vogues? "You're the One" and "5 O'Clock World." Great tunes, but then the band got sappy.

Russ M

I found something on it being a Left Banke original but I don't know if that's the version I've heard.

I remember 5 o'clock World. Wasn't it the theme song of the Drew Carey song for a while? Or maybe he did a skit to that song.

They did seem to fade to Cascade cover-ish obscurity.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Not to be a pooper, ya got me on the Left Banke part, I do remember the band and I think that's the version I liked; buttt...., Bobby Darin may have recorded "If I were a Carpenter," I won't deny your memory of that, but it was written by Tim Hardin, a sweet guy I'm told, before he spiraled downward with heroin to an early death in 1980 at age 39. His other hit was "Reason to Believe."

I happened to meet a friend of his, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who told me stories about him. I had this wild idea in 1981 that I was going to make my fame and fortune by taking Jack as big as Willie Nelson, and managed to persuade him to allow me to promote him in 5 concerts in 4 cities in Washington State. I lost $$ big time. Oh well. At the first show, in Pullman, home of WSU, we did a second show backwards on the stage witht the curtain closed after dismissing the geaky, distracting sound guys. Enough Idaho mountain hippies, maybe 50 or 60, had shown up to make it worthwhile and about 20 or 30 students were begging to watch it again.

I requested "..Carpenter" towards the end (it was/is one of Jack's best) and he prefaced it with, "My friend Tim Hardin lived hard and he died hard...."

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.................I remember them as well. I especially like "5 O'Clock World."
Maybe I'll find a CD.............???

The real well known version was Left Banke's, went to #5 in 1966. I kinda like the Four Tops version better, but it only went to #14 in 1968. Real distinguishing difference in how they sang "you won't see me follow you back home". LB's version went "you wont seeme follow you back home..... (see and me run together), where 4T's version is more spaced in the beginning like "You won't see-me", then faster paced towards the end of that verse. Kind of a different tempo.

Gilly

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There's no accounting for taste, Gilly. It's exactly that part of the song that makes me prefer the Left Banke version. Go figure.

Thanks,
Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

I guess sometimes I like the different versions simply because they're different. I usually could think of a few good examples, at the moment I can't, busted butt on the Sprite this afternoon.

Gilly

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