[.ca] Hey Little Cobra

From Amazon.com:
The Rip Chords were essentially a false front behind which lurked future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and Byrds/Paul Revere & The Raiders producer Terry Melcher. "Hey Little Cobra," a wimpier-than-usual hotrod record that benefits from Johnston and Melcher's full-bodied vocals, was their first big hit, generating a first album filled with unnecessary Beach Boys/Jan & Dean covers (four of 'em, plus an instrumental that basically rips off "Little Deuce Coupe") and a pretty good Melcher/Johnston, Spector-in-drag car tune, "Trophy Machine." Much more intriguing is their guitar-heavy non-automotive material. "Here I Stand," their first single, updates Wade Flemons's 1959 Chicago R & B cha-cha with piercing, fruity falsetto and some vicious, loud guitar. "The Queen," which sadly isn't about a hotrodding RuPaul--she's a stuck-up Sting Ray driver--is vintage Dion goosed by queasy heights of falsetto. "Gone" sounds like the Isley Brothers' "Shout" with more tuff guitar, while "Ding Dong" is a doo-wop anticipation of "I Fought the Law." Post-album single/bonus track "Don't Be Scared" combines the Beach Boys' "Little Honda" and "Dance Dance Dance" with heavy fuzz. "She Thinks I Still Care," the Dickey Lee/George Jones country classic, is sped up Four Seasons-style with shredding guitar. And "Karen" (featuring the fabulous pun "I'm a fool for Karen") spices a mild Buddy Holly tune with killer destructo guitar from some anonymous L.A. Wrecking Crew stalwart. Fascinating genre-bending experiments, sadly never followed up. --Ken Barnes

You HAVE To Buy Both To Get All Five Of Their Hits:
Sundazed Music put out both this compilation and the one entitled Three Window Coupe, presenting 30 tracks for a group that had all of five hits in 1963/64 and, to get all five, you have to purchase both volumes. Where's Eric Records, Varese-Sarabande, Ace, or Rhino when you need them? This California group was Columbia's attempt to counter their Capitol rivals' Beach Boys, even featuring a member who would one day become a Beach Boy \oBruce Johnston, who joined that group in April 1965\c. Other members included Terry Melcher, son of one of Columbia's biggest stars, Doris Day, along with Richard Rotkin, Arnie Marcus, Ernie Bringas, and Phil Stewart. For their first two charters in 1963 they covered two older hits, the first being Here I Stand, a # 80 early in 1959 for Wade Flemmons & The Newcomers, which they took to # 51 in April b/w Karen, and the second being Gone, a # 4 for Ferlin Husky in 1957 and which for them reached # 88 in August b/w She Thinks I Still Care, a big 1962 Country hit for George Jones. Then, in December, they had their best hit when Hey Little Cobra went to # 4 early in January 1964 b/w The Queen. All those sides are in this volume, but not their last two hits which are to be found only in the other volume \owhich, in turn, does not contain any of the above\c. Three Window Coupe, written by Jan Berry of Jan & Dean fame, finished at a respectable # 28 in May 1965 b/w Hot Rod, U.S.A., while their last hit, One Piece Topless Bathing Suit, lost a strap and topped out at # 96 that August b/w Wah-Wahini. And that was it. In roughly that same span, meanwhile, the Beach Boys had 15 hits, including 11 Top 40 and the # 1 I Get Around. Johnston and Melcher did, however, team up for Columbia as Bruce And Terry in 1964 for a couple of minor hits, Custom Machine \o# 85\c and Summer Means Fun \o# 72\c, and again in the late 1960s, along with Glen Campbell, Gary Usher, and Kurt Boettcher, to form Sagittarius. In 1967 for Columbia they had a # 70 with My World Fell Down, and returned in 1969 on the Together label to take the old Beach Boys hit, In My Room, to # 86. Melcher also had some considerable success producing hits for the likes of The Byrds and Paul Revere & The Raiders. There is a third Rip Chords album available, but right now Amazon does not list the contents so it's impossible to know if THAT volume offers all five hits in one package. Until that can be confirmed one way or the other, I would recommend waiting until one of the labels mentioned above - or another like them - releases a proper Rip Chords compilation with all five hits and some truly informative liner notes and better sound quality \othis is adequate but could be better\c.

• Hey Little Cobra
• Here I Stand
• Queen
• 409
• Trophy Machine
• Gone
• Little Deuce Coupe
• '40 Ford Time
• She Thinks I Still Care
• Shut Down
• Drag City
• Ding Dong
• Karen \o*\c
• Bunny Hill \o*\c
• Don't Be Scared \o*\c