LADIES FIRST: "Needles and Pins" - Jackie DeShannon > The Searchers

LADIES FIRST hips you to classics that 'she did first'.

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"Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk Into the Room" were first done by Jackie DeShannon.

This Kentucky singer-songwriter-guitarist is much beloved in many hip circles for her crack tunes and cool range; her rockabilly barnburner "Trouble", her pop smash with Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now", her Beat music classic "Dream Boy" (with boyfriend Jimmy Page), her counterculture anthem "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", and for writing the classic "Bette Davis Eyes".

("Needles and Pins" was written by Sony Bono with Jack Nitzsche, the great arranger and producer. "When You Walk In the Room" is by Jackie DeShannon.)


JACKIE DeSHANNON -"Needles and Pins" (1963)



THE SEARCHERS are hardly slouches either. They made their fame interpreting Jackie's two songs, but have a wealth of great ones of their own, spanning from Beat into Psychedelia. You can always count on this band for catchy guitars and shining harmonies.

THE SEARCHERS -"Needles and Pins" (1964)

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Jackie's sound here was heavily influence by the guitar jangle of The Beatles, whom she was touring with.

JACKIE DeSHANNON -"When You Walk In the Room" (1963)



THE SEARCHERS -"When You Walk In the Room" (1964)



"I can hear guitars playing lovely tunes
Every time that you walk in the room
Trumpets sound, I hear thunder boom
Every time that you walk in the room"


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

-WOMEN OF ROCK: The 1960s, with 2 Music Players

• THE BRITISH INVASION!, with Music Player!


• LADIES FIRST: "I Can't Let Go" - Evie Sands > The Hollies

• LADIES FIRST: "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat?" - Goldie And The Gingerbreads > Herman's Hermits

• LADIES FIRST: "I Go To Sleep" - (The Kinks) > Peggy Lee > Cher > The Pretenders


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "Whole Lotta Love" - Muddy Waters > Led Zeppelin > Funkadelic > Tina Turner

ROCK Sex is an inclusive club where no one is denied.

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In life, there's not just one angle, and there's not just two in opposition.

That limitation is simply that... a limit of imagination. The big picture is only subjective and best seen from many angles. Every perspective is valuable because it opens up new possibility, which 'only' and 'either/or' are blind to.

Upshot: there is no Either/Or... there is only "And Also".

Here's a sterling example of each creator enriching creativity by bringing something more to the previous.

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Blues was response music. It responded to life with common feelings, and it was responded to by other folks bringing their own feel. Since culture is creativity and commonality, every voice is valid and every face is irrelevant. It doesn't matter how you look, it's in how you feel. If you feel it, you are it. Blues is simply human feeling felt by other humans.

Essentially, you vamp, others amp. You put it out there, another takes it farther.

Muddy Waters started this particular cultural relay with his recording of Willie Dixon's song.

MUDDY WATERS -"You Need Love" (1962)



The Small Faces, led by Blues wailer Steve Marriott, expanded it texturally in their cover:

SMALL FACES -"You Need Loving" (1966)



Jimmie Page in turn wedded a crucially memorable original riff with Robert Plant's loose interpolation of those previous recordings to create their band's breakthrough hit. Like a childbirth, the combination of two things creates a new third thing of its own.

LED ZEPPELIN -"Whole Lotta Love" (1969)


If someone's impulse is to separate people's validity by how they look instead of how they sound, well, that prejudgement names itself.

Funkadelic aimed to eliminate all barriers of outlook and sound, and guitarist Eddie Hazel re-amped Zeppelin's new chord vamp into further territories with the intro song for their debut:

FUNKADELIC -"Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?" (1970)



Going her own way from Ike, Tina Turner deepened her Rock'n'Soul repertoire with this sexy grind on Zeppelin's song:

TINA TURNER -"Whole Lotta Love" (1975) *

* (I made this video. YouTube hecklers censor it, not because of its PG-rated sensuality, but for its diversity of human love.
Censors always miss the point.)


Lawyers will sue, separatists will divide, but those limits aside what is always missed is the real point: culture is a creative hand-off without boundaries. Give credit to individual creators? Of course. But limit creators from responding to life and each other? Never.

That doesn't protect creators, it kills creativity itself. True culture is about live and let live. And a whole lotta love.



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "I'm A Man" - Bo Diddley > Muddy Waters > Spencer Davis > Chicago > Devo

• "When the Levee Breaks!" - Memphis Minnie > Led Zeppelin

• "For What It's Worth": - Buffalo Springfield > Led Zeppelin > Public Enemy

• "PHYSICAL GRAFFITI" - Led Zeppelin > Branford Marsalis > Rolling Stones


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "TRAIN KEPT A-ROLLIN" - Tiny Bradshaw > Johnny Burnette Trio > The Yardbirds > T.Rex > Aerosmith

I'm going to throw in a new feature to the Blog today: ROCK Sex, about how everything intersects together in great and surprising ways.

Culture isn't a fixed tradition owned by a few. It's actually an intersection of ideas from everyone that is constantly fluid and opening up more possibilities. Someone tries something, someone else is inspired to add something, some third party adds both together into something else.

This relay race is actually how true creativity runs and always will.

Here's an example...

Rhythm'n'Blues band leader Tiny Bradshaw first did "The Train Kept A-Rollin" as a jump jive number in 1951:

TINY BRADSHAW -"The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1951)



The Johnny Burnette Trio, fueled by the busted amp of guitarist Paul Burlison, redefined it entirely as a Rockabilly blaster in 1956...

THE JOHNNY BURNETTE TRIO -"The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1956)



With the benefit of the British Invasion's popularity, The Yardbirds (featuring Jeff Beck on guitar) crystallized it into the Garage Rock anthem covered by everyone else...

THE YARDBIRDS -'The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1966)


They then retooled as it as "Stroll On" performing in Antonioni's classic film BLOW UP (1966), with Jimmy Page and Jeff Page duelling on guitars.




Here's Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn rollin' on a similar track.

T.REX -"Jewel" (1971)




From there it "trucked on down that old fairlane" as a standard, covered by everyone from Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Motorhead, Guns'n'Roses, and Metallica, to the "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" video games.

AEROSMITH -"The Train Kept A-Rollin'" (1974)


© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• THE BRITISH INVASION!, with Music Player!

• DON'T TREAD ON ME: The Original Punk of 1960s Garage Rock, with Music Player!

• "Last Child" - The Meters > Aerosmith > Rufus Thomas > Wu-Tang

• "Evil Hearted You" - The Yardbirds > Pixies


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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