Robert "Sad Eyes" John / 1968 "Anyone Who Had a Heart / What the World Needs" medley

[Jim Dixon]

I just stumbled across this rather over-the-top slice of Bacharachiana, notable for a few of things.

1.) Who is Robert John? His 1979 hit "Sad Eyes" will probably be familiar to anyone who was alive and visiting shopping malls and drugstores in the early 1980s, but his showbiz career is an interesting story. As 12-year old "Bobby Pedrick, Jr." in 1958, he had a minor hit ("White Bucks and Saddle Shoes") written by Brill Building immortals Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman, released on the Bigtop label. Bigtop recorded Lou Johnson, Del Shannon, and lots of teen pop of the "American Graffiti" era.

Robert John (he dropped the "Pedrick" sometime in the mid-1960s) took his first shot as an adult-market artist with Columbia on the 1968 album "If You Don't Want My Love", which featured an album cover that can only be described as marketing malpractice. (This is the album with the Bacharach medley.) His "grass beard" on the album cover is something to behold, as is the image of the tiny version of himself superimposed over a giant shot of his head, as if he is haunting himself day and night.

After the 1968 album tanked, he didn't give up, and in the post-Saturday Night Fever era, he realized his talents singing falsetto were ripe for exploiting as the Bee Gees dominated the charts. "Sad Eyes" in 1979 capitalized on that soft rock falsetto craze, but it seems to be his final stand as a national artist.

2.) Speaking of that falsetto, it's the first thing you hear on "Anyone Who Had a Heart / What the World Needs Now Is Love", and if you don't know who Robert John is, you would naturally assume you are hearing either a black woman working as a session vocalist, or that you've found a pre-"I Want You Back" recording of the young Michael Jackson.

3.) Only in 1968. The arrangement mixes boogaloo rhythms, Andy Williams-level armies of strings, "Hair"-style sensitive-hippie ballad singing on the "World Needs Now" section, bizarre reharmonization on the "take me in her arms" sections of "Anyone Who Ever Had a Heart, and a vocal that is, for most of the song, just flat out wailing falsetto. It's like some kind of fever dream.



By comparison, the same album's cover of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" is pretty straight. I don't know what got into them for the Bacharach medley, but they were really going for...something there.

[pljms]

As I was listening to this and not quite making it through to the bitter end I found myself starting to mentally compile a list of what I consider to be the worst cover versions of Bacharach songs. One that immediately sprang to mind was Eydie Gorme's 1970 recording of 'Knowing When To Leave'. Go and check it out on YouTube if you want but I warn you it's not for those with delicate sensibilities.

[Jim Dixon]

Eydie's "Knowing When to Leave" is new to me. She sounds like she popped a Valium just before the session, and that note she lands on and sticks with at 2:05 is definitely worthy of "let get another take, Eydie".

I recently got the London "Promises Promises" soundtrack, and Betty Buckley really has the pipes for that role. I know some people don't like big Ethel Merman/theatrical vocals, but but if you do, Betty delivers. I also like Jill O'Hara's raspier and shakier delivery. O'Hara sometimes digs in hard and distorts her voice in a charming way.

[pljms]

Eydie's "Knowing When to Leave" is new to me. She sounds like she popped a Valium just before the session, and that note she lands on and sticks with at 2:05 is definitely worthy of "let get another take, Eydie".

It makes me wonder if she and her producer even bothered to listen to the playback, so off was that note.

As has been discussed before on this forum, one of the reasons 'Knowing When To Leave' isn't better known is that there's never really been a definitive recording of the song that absolutely nailed it and which could have resulted in a hit. No, not even Dionne Warwick who sings it as if she's merely running through the song before the actual recording, backed by a less than inspired arrangement by Bacharach.

[Jim Dixon]

No, not even Dionne Warwick who sings it as if she's merely running through the song before the actual recording, backed by a less than inspired arrangement by Bacharach.

I agree with that...I just put on Dionne when writing the other day in this thread, and was a little surprised at how uninvolved she sounded. Its such a stagey, flag-waver of a song as written (I love it, but it's very Broadway). I guess it could have been a hit with just the right arrangement, but it seems to me like its almost in the Stephen Sondheim ballpark--a tune that is just a little too quirky for office workers to hum along to.

The Carpenters lean into the frantic side of it, which is not the direction I'd go if I was trying to make it a hit. What if they'd decided to do what they did with "Ticket to Ride" and really re-imagine the song?

Dusty Springfield gets into it on a TV special; I wish she had recorded it. I'd happily have it in place of "The Windmills of My Mind" as the oddball track on Dusty in Memphis.

[pljms]

The Carpenters' version of 'Knowing When To Leave' is not only frantic but they also inexplicably change part of the melody in the chorus. Because of the popularity of their Bacharach & David medley this is probably the best known recording of the song and I've heard other versions which actually use a similar arrangement to theirs with the same change of melody in the chorus, the recording by The Mike Sammes Singers being one.

I think one of the better versions of 'Knowing When To Leave' is by English singer Kathy Kirby from 1969, not so much for her slightly mannered vocal performance but for the orchestral arrangement, which is exciting without being over-the-top.


The recording of the song that takes it furthest away from its Broadway roots is this samba version by Joe Bourne.

[Jim Dixon]

I agree on that Kathy Kirby recordings, it's got some nice features.

My searching this week led me to the recordings by Sue Raney and Bambi McCormick--I didn't realize the tune got around this much at the time. (For someone I've never heard of, Bambi's vocal and the orchestra performance on her record did surpass my expectation!)

I like Joe Bourne taking the tune into Latin territory and giving it a double time feel. Alas, I feel like I'm a passenger on The Love Boat when I listen to it.

[pljms]

Re Dusty Springfield not recording 'Knowing When To Leave', to my ears she doesn't seem entirely at ease with the song on the three different TV performances that I've seen on YouTube, sounding breathless, unsure of the song's time resulting in her nearly coming in too early for the chorus on one occasion and being less than word perfect each time.

Two more recordings of the song worth hearing are by Kelly Garrett and Gordon MacRae, although the latter you'll have to hunt down on vinyl because it's not on YouTube or anywhere else online that I could find. It was the b-side of his 'Only Love' 45 and was also included on the album of the same name released in 1969. The album featured mainly show songs from the 60s tastefully arranged by Claus Ogerman and the added bonus for Bacharach fans was that it also included 'Whoever You Are, I Love You'.

[pljms]

Going back to Robert John, I've just listened to his 'Sad Eyes' and despite apparently being a Top 40 hit in the UK in 1979 I don't recognise it at all. In my opinion there was a far superior song with the same title written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and recorded in 1976 by a woman with one of the most beguiling voices ever committed to vinyl or any other format, Maria Muldaur.

[Jim Dixon]

Just hearing it now for the first time, I like the Muldaur song better too! I should investigate her catalog in depth; she does have a terrific voice and she has the right artistic instincts when she uses it.

In the U.S., the Robert John track went to #1, so it was pretty much impossible to be alive and not encounter it in that era of radio dominance. In the U.K., I see it only got to #31, which can be a long way from #1 sometimes. As a kid, I didn't register that John was basically taking the Bee Gees sound and doing some neo-doo wop with it. I also don't specifically remember his banshee falsetto wailing that comes in right after the key change. That guy couldn't help but turn it up to 11 when he got the chance. The people recording in the next studio over that day probably thought someone was being stabbed to death.

[pljms]

Even though Robert John's 1968 UK chart entry 'If You Don't Want My Love' fared even worse than 'Sad Eyes' it's a song I'm at least familiar with, perhaps because it's been covered a few times. It does have a very catchy chorus and I can imagine it being very popular with the Northern Soul crowd.


Maria Muldaur's first three albums all released on the Reprise label in the mid-70s are all worth pursuing, namely 'Maria Muldaur', 'Waitress In A Donut Shop' and 'Sweet Harmony'. They're an eclectic mix of folk, blues, country and jazz and feature brilliant musicianship with pristine production from Joe Boyd and Lenny Waronker.

On the strength of her big hit 'Midnight At The Oasis' her eponymous debut album reached the dizzying heights of No.3 on the US Billboard chart. However, I've selected the track 'Sweetheart' from 'Waitress In A Donut Shop' as a good representation of the sheer quality to be found on these albums concerning the material, Maria Muldaur's highly distinctive vocals, Benny Carter's jazz band arrangement and the warmth of the sound.

[geoff85]

Interesting cover. The timelessness of Burt's and Hal's songwriting can stand the test of artists who are over zealous with the limits of of their range. I hear Freddie Mercury and Neil Sedaka except combined and magnified. I can see how it could be a bit much for some ppl but he had enough taste to cover good songs so kudos for that. I id like the psychedelic twist on the cover.

[geoff85]

As I was listening to this and not quite making it through to the bitter end I found myself starting to mentally compile a list of what I consider to be the worst cover versions of Bacharach songs. One that immediately sprang to mind was Eydie Gorme's 1970 recording of 'Knowing When To Leave'. Go and check it out on YouTube if you want but I warn you it's not for those with delicate sensibilities.

Lol i actually like Eydie's version.