ROCK Sex: Love and Let Love! -Bessie Smith, Rita Chao, Nancy Sit, Tina Turner

The ROCK Sex Blog says Love and Let Love!

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"All You Need Is Love" meant empathy, intimacy, support, selflessness, and spiritual solidarity.

These are the tonics to alienation, segregation, hostility, selfishness, and existential emptiness.

(Note: Two of the videos are censored on YouTube because of prude hecklers. They're fine, I should know because I made all three of them.)

BESSIE SMITH -"You've Got To Give Me Some" (1928)



The expression of love is a sacred act and a spiritual pact.

It may be fleeting, may be only a cherished moment, or perhaps as deep as life is long. But the selfless act of giving of ourselves for another's benefit lifts us into the better angels of our nature. Hate only degrades and destroys. Love nourishes the individual soul and the human species. Without it, we will not survive.

RITA CHAO & The Quests/ NANCY SIT -"Hanky Panky" (1967)



Love is love and Hate ain't; it can't be legislated, leveled, or lynched. Let no one put it asunder.

These are my tributes to love; its stirrings, its courtship, its consumation, its playful dynamics and trusts, its gameplaying, its limitless range.

TINA TURNER -"Whole Lotta Love" (1975)



Love is the antidote to all harm; it is the pulsebeat of the human race.




-all videos created by Funk'n'Roll
© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• "Walk On the Wild Side" - Genderblenders/ Enders/ Transcenders!

• "Whole Lotta Love" - Muddy Waters > Led Zeppelin > Funkadelic > Tina Turner


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

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LADIES FIRST: "Hanky Panky!" - The Raindrops > Tommy James > Rita Chao

ROCK Sex is debuting a new feature that will rotate regularly in the future: LADIES FIRST.

Today's spotlight could also be called "She Did It First". Rock'n'Roll was always made by men and women from all genres and backgrounds. But at the end of the day, sexist marketers and lazy journalism reduced it to a cock fight; male male white man yadda yadda yeah. This blog is one long reality check in general, and here very specifically.

Many of the songs we grew up on assuming were originated by tough men were in fact trailblazed by cool women. Here's our first example...

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Famed hitmakers Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich wrote scores of classic songs that we all love. For one of their girl groups they had to come up with a throwaway B-side in twenty minutes. So THE RAINDROPS recorded this song...

THE RAINDROPS -"Hanky Panky" (1963)



Soon after, another girl group did their take on it, with more Rockin' swing.

THE SUMMITS -"Hanky Panky" (1963)



Tommy James heard a local Indiana garage band cover it. He was unsure of the lyrics, from that quick impression, so in true "Louie Louie" fashion he kind of fudged and improvised them. It became a leftfield hit that ignited his career.

TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS -"Hanky Panky" (recorded 1963, hit in 1965)



In Singapore women again took up the call. But this time Rita Chao sang James' version phonetically (making an unintentionally delightful lesbian anthem), while Nancy Sit sang it in her own language.

RITA CHAO & THE QUESTS/ NANCY SIT -"Hanky Panky" (1967)




"Hanky Panky" was meant as filler, but it lasted because it was so brazenly about sex and being proud to love having sex. What's cool is that despite all the changes in its handoff, that core randiness never gets lost.

Now that's Rock'n'Roll...the very name of which came from slang for rockin' and rollin' in bed.



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Love and Let Love! -Bessie Smith, Rita Chao, Nancy Sit, Tina Turner

• "I Want You!" - The Troggs, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello +

• LADIES FIRST: "What A Man" - Linda Lyndell > Laura Lee> Salt-N-Pepa

• LADIES FIRST: "Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" - Kim Weston > The Doobie Brothers


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

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