The Muse of Bossa Nova, Nara Leão

Nara Loffego Leão (1942-1989) was not only early bossa nova's defining female voice (her sweet, unaffected lilt later became the template for the schoolgirl vocal stylings of Astrud Gilberto). She was an essential part of the movement in its infancy, when as a teenager she opened up her parents' Copacabana apartment as a salon for the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto to practice, earning her the nickname "The Muse of Bossa Nova". Her versions of "Berimbau" and "Consolação" (both by Baden Powell and Viniçius de Moraes) are considered the definitive vocal interpretations of those standards.



With the release of her first solo album "Nara" (1963, on Elenco), Leão began to forge her own identity, opting to record darker sambas by the indigenous composers Zé Keti and Cartola, which explored themes of poverty and violence in the favelas. Following the military takeover in 1964, Leão's music became increasingly political, and the following year she launched the stage show Opinião in Rio with Keti and Bahian composer João do Vale. It was during this show that Leão famously declared (mainly white, middle-class) bossa nova an "alienating" movement. The show's hit songs "Opinião" (Keti) and "Carcara" (do Vale), both featuring hard backbeats and highly-charged political lyrics, helped define a new genre of samba, "canção do protesto" or protest song.



In the mid-to-late 60s Leão would continue her trend of spotting new composers, and was instrumental in launching the careers of Chico Buarque ("Com Açucar, Com Afeto" and "Ole Ola"), Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil and singer Maria Bethania (who would take her place as the star of the Opinião after Leão became ill).



In 1968, she joined Gil and Caetano Veloso's Tropicalia movement and sang on the legendary album of the same name. Although her participation was minimal (she recorded two Veloso compositions, including the gorgeous "Deus Vos Salve Esta Casa Santa"), Nara was at that time the most established act on their repetoire.



Leão would release albums only sporadically during the 70s, while she concentrated on her family and a career in Psychology. She died of an inoperable brain tumor in 1989.

Thanks to YouTube user rmboemer for posting this rare footage of Nara on Brazilian TV performing the Jobim standard "Insensatez".

Evie Sands, Forgotten Babe of Rock

In mid-1960s New York, Drama was the daily special. The Brill Building, international headquarters of the girl group sound and home to many of America's greatest pop songwriters, shook from the onslaught of the British Invasion.

In the search for new talent, veteran songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller signed a seventeen-year-old Brooklyn girl named Evie Sands to their Blue Cat subsidiary. Sands had a rich, deep singing voice that belied her age, and an uncanny ability to sound as if she were on the verge of breaking into tears. Lieber & Stoller wisely matched the young singer with perhaps the most dramatic song in their repertoire (the Trade Martin-penned "Take Me for a Little While"), expecting a sure-fire hit for both their struggling label and for Evie.

Thanks to DailyMotion user SoulPatrol for the rare footage of young Evie performing "Take Me" on TV below:

Evie Sands - Take Me For A Little While
Uploaded by soulpatrol. - Explore more music videos.

But instead of a surefit hit, drama ensued. A double agent stole a test pressing of "Take Me For a Little While" and took it back to Chess Records in Chicago, who in turn had soul singer Jackie Ross record a duplicate version within 24 hours. The lawsuit that followed scared deejays away from promoting either version. Evie had missed her first hit.

Fortunately, the young singer still had allies. Also at the recording session were her producers, up-and-coming Americana songwriter Chip Taylor (straight from his success with The Troggs' "Wild Thing") and his collaborator Allan Gorgoni. Taylor and Gorgoni had penned the B-side, "Run Home to Your Mama", a more upbeat, female-empowering number with a southern flavor (and Thanks to Tracy Hide for posting the video ;).

So Taylor and Gorgoni proceeded to pen another monster, and it was a hit, just not for Evie. England's darlings the Hollies charted their cover version of "I Can't Let Go" before Evie ever had a chance. But Evie's original remains the definitive version, with Taylor & Gorgoni's unique, minimal keyboard and bass arrangement almost certainly inspired a certain ubiquitous Springsteen song two decades later (Born in the Where?).

Thanks to GB356 for posting this on YouTube:

After two failures and the folding of the Blue Cat label, Sands, Taylor and Gorgoni took their act to Philly's once-mighty Cameo-Parkway label for their next single. "Picture Me Gone" was a change of pace, a full-blown Northern Soul dancer with a bittersweet lyric, and indeed Jersey soul-singer-cum-British superstar Madeline Bell thought so too, and recorded a hit cover version (again, to my ears, much inferior to Evie's). On the B-side, "It Makes Me Laugh", Sands somehow manages to outdo her own "sad little girl" act, practically breaking into hysterics by the end of the song. It's enormously affecting, but again it wasn't a hit.

But Evie's last single on Cameo was perhaps the singer's biggest missed opportunity. "Angel of the Morning" became a monster charter for Merilee Rush, P.P. Arnold, and later Juice Newton, but Evie's original version was barely pressed and never promoted owing to the bankruptcy of Cameo-Parkway two weeks after the record's release.

Soon after, Evie was picked up by easy-listening dynamo A&M, and released her first album, Any Way That You Want Me the following year. The title song, a reworking of an obscurity Taylor had written for the Troggs years before, became Evie's first hit. The album also included a five-years-later version of "Take Me For a Little While", re-recorded in true Carpenters style by the smooth west-coast ears at A&M. This set the tone for Sands' later career, which included a pop-disco album and several singles co-written for admirers such as Dusty Springfield, Cher and Barbra Streisand. Thanks again to YouTube user Tracy Hide.

Evie's career has undergone a revival recently, and the singer is now again recording and touring. Her early singles remain collector's items.

Mr. Emotion and the Magic Potion: Chuck Jackson and Lou Johnson

Chuck Jackson and Lou Johnson had more in common than just suave good looks, succinct stage names and powerful baritones. Both were trailblazing balladeers, progenitors of a unique and sophisticated brand of uptown soul, and among the foremost interpreters of songwriting giants Burt Bacharach and Hal David at the peak of their powers, if not yet their popularity.

Of the two men, Jackson had the most commercial success. The Pittsburgh-raised singer signed to the Scepter label's Wand imprint in 1961 after spending several years singing with the Del-Vikings and the Versatiles, and scored a near-immediate R&B smash with his own co-penned "I Don't Want to Cry". In addition to Jackon's gospel-y vocal, the single was the first to feature the sweet orchestral accompaniment and bombastic drumming that would become the hallmark of the uptown sound.



Jackson would improve upon the formula with "The Breaking Point", an early Bacharach composition that unfolds at a dramatic pace (and you gotta love that "shag-a-dag-a-dag" lyrical hook).


But Jackson would really hit gold the following year with Lieber & Stoller's incredible "I Keep Forgettin'", a slinky, sinister masterpiece of punchy percussion.



Jackson went on to score more hits for Wand, notably the Bacharach/David classic "Any Day Now" and the humorous "Tell Him I'm Not Home", and was also the first to record the often-covered Bacharach standard "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (a miss for Chuck, but a hit for Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield and many others, right up to the White Stripes).



Jackson signed to Motown in the mid-60s but his output on the label proved to be less enduring. Thanks to Youtube user HeNdOxJeNdo for the following clip of Jackson performing "Any Day Now" live on TV with support from Bacharach on keys:



Lou Johnson had far less luck commercially, yet in many ways his output outshines Jackson's. Signed to the smaller Brill-Building subsidiary Big Top, the New Yorker recorded his first single "If I Never Get to Love You" with Bacharach at the helm. It's a fantastic debut and a big booming introduction to Johnson's thunderous vocal, with many dramatic twists and turns, but it was overlooked on the fledgling label.



His second single, "Magic Potion" had cute lyrics ("Oh Gypsy / Hear My Plea"), and a deceptively complex melody deftly handled by Johnson; however, it was a poor choice for an A-side. The B-side, Bacharach/David's now-classic "Reach Out for Me", was quickly covered by Scepter's rising star Dionne Warwick, becoming her third hit single.



Determined to score one for Lou, Bacharach took Johnson to England, where he performed the timeless "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" on Top of the Pops in 1964. Sadly, a pair of identical covers by British superstar Sandie Shaw, and by Warwick in the US, eclipsed sales of Johnson's original version.



Johnson's subsequent single, "Kentucky Bluebird (Message to Martha)", also became a hit for Warwick, much to Bacharach's chagrin, who insisted it was written for a man to sing. Nevertheless, Lou Johnson continued to record for Big Top, releasing the classic Northern Soul track "Unsatisfied" in 1965 (a favorite of Edwin Starr's), the unusual, Klezmer-influenced "A Time to Love, A Time to Cry" and the giddy "Park Avenue".



After releasing a well-received bluesy LP ("Sweet Southern Soul") for Cotillion in the early-70s, Johnson sank into obscurity until the late-90s, when renewed interest in Bacharach led to a revisiting (and subsequent re-release) of Johnson's excellent 60s discography.