Category: <span>Music – Album</span>

Bound To Happen – Cashman, Pistilli & West

I have become a big fan of the three men who combined to write all but one song here, and produce this 1967 LP release – “Bound To Happen”. Terry Cashman, Gene Pistilli and Tommy West met while working for ABC Records. Cashman and Pistilli combined to write “Sunday Will Never Be The Same” that appears on this album, as well as being a successful single for Spanky and Our Gang, reaching #9 on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1967.

The three worked together and wrote 10 songs for the album and included one song written by Jerry Reed “Up ‘N’ Down (Baby What You Want Me To Do)” .

A little introduction to each man:

Terry Cashman is probably best known for his “Talkin’ Baseball” single from 1981 that turned into a series of songs highlighting the baseball history and famous names of each club. he was once in the Detroit Tiger minor leagues and made his first appearance on American Bandstand as a member of the do-wop group, The Cheverons, in 1960.

Gene Pistilli would move on to the original formation of The Manhattan Transfer and co-write 5 of the 10 songs on their first LP – Jukin’. The album was not a commercial sucess and Gene moved on. Pistilli reappeared as a solo act, singing in a fluid baritone and playing guitar, he blended western swing with a mid-swing era singing style. Billed as ‘the Hoboken Saddletramp’, he built a dedicated if localized following. He also wrote Randy Travis’ #1 song “Too Gone Too Long”. Gene passed away December 26th, 2017.

Tommy West was born Thomas Picardo Jr., he was part of The Criterions that charted with”I Remain Truly Yours” in 1963. While at Villanova, he became friends with Jim Croce, and would layer be instrumental, along with Terry Cashman, in getting Jim’s career off the ground. They produced all of Jim’s music until his untimely death. West also sang back-up vocals for Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Sammy Davis Jr. Tommy and Terry also wrote 8 songs for The Partridge Family. After his successful songwriting time with Terry, Tommy moved to country music and produced 3 country #1 songs including Holly Dunn’s “Love Somebody Like Me”

“But For Love” is probably my favorite song on this album. It would surface twice on the charts. Jerry Naylor reached #69 on the Hot 100 and Eddy Arnold would reach #19 on the country charts in 1969.

Song List:

1 – bound to happen
2 – spring has a tear in her eye
3 – red is red
4 – i`d stumble & all
5 – a song that never comes
6 – sunday will never be the same
7 – port authority terminal
8 – but for love
9 – up n` down [ baby what you want me to do ]
10 – you can write a song
11 – the awakening
12 – bound to happen – reprise

Credits

All in all, a pleasing to the ear album that never got it’s due. I’ll close with one more cut – “A Song That Never Comes”. If you are interested in more Cashman, Pistilli & West, check out my podcast available here:

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/rearview/episodes/2016-02-11T08_31_24-08_00


String Along With The Kingston Trio

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I decided that to treat this post well, I needed to tackle the whole album, I will feature 4 cuts from “String Along With The Kingston Trio” and comment on them. My Dad was a major influence on my musical tastes growing up, the country music of the 50s and early 60s, and the folk music of the times as well. He owned a copy of Capitol Records ST-1407 that I loved to play, over and over and over.My first favorite was composed by songwriter Harland Howard, who also wrote “Heartaches By The Number” and “I Fall To Pieces” among others. The Trio changed the final verse of “Everglades” – “running through the leaves from The Everly’s” as a playful jab at one of their rival singing groups.

 

The second cut I’d like to comment on is the opening song on the LP – “Bad Man’s Blunder”, written by the Weaver’s Lee Hayes and Cisco Houston, who appeared regularly with Woody Guthrie. I loved the delivery and the light hearted approach to a serious subject – “bang, you’re dead”:



The second cut on side 1 is “The Escape Of Old John Webb”, a highly spirited number telling the story of a jailbreak attributed to Tom Drake, originally an old English folk song. This one features the banjo mastery of Dave Guard:




The entire list of the songs with writer’s credits on the LP are here;

 

Side one
“Bad Man’s Blunder” (Lee Hays, Cisco Houston)
“The Escape of Old John Webb” (Tom Drake)
“When I Was Young” (Jane Bowers, Dave Guard)
“Leave My Woman Alone” (Ray Charles)
“This Mornin’, This Evenin’, So Soon” (Carl Sandburg)
“Everglades” (Harlan Howard)

 

Side two
“Buddy Better Get on Down the Line” (Bowers, Guard)
“South Wind” (Travis Edmonson)
“Who’s Gonna Hold Her Hand” (Tom Drake, Bob Shane)
“To Morrow” (Bob Gibson)
“Colorado Trail” (Lee Hays, Carl Sandburg)
“The Tattooed Lady” (Traditional, Guard, Reynolds, Shane)

 

“The Tattooed Lady”, “Buddy Better Get On Down The Line” and Carl Sandburg”s “This Mornin’, This Evenin’, So Soon” deserve a listen or two as well.

 

And that brings me to the last “favorite” on this album – “To Morrow” is a wonderful tongue-in-cheek story of a traveler trying to reach Morrow, a town in Ohio. Back then I had no idea who Bob Gibson, the songwriter was, but I suspected that he wasn’t the St. Louis Cardinal pitcher I was a big fan of. Bob was a folk songwriter who worked with Hamilton Camp (see my post on “Here’s To You”). He also wrote the country classic “Abilene”, among many other songs. Gibson & Camp combined to write “You Can Tell The Wild” a gospel song recorded by both Simon & Garfunkel and Peter, Paul, & Mary.