Wednesday, June 27, 2018

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: "Beg, Borrow And Steal"

An infinite number of rockin' pop records can be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!


THE RARE BREED: "Beg, Borrow And Steal"

Its origin is not exactly a mystery. But the story's a little bit complicated.


Today's not Friday, but we'll start with just the facts, ma'am: "Beg, Borrow And Steal" was the first single credited to future bubblegum stars The Ohio Express, and it was a minor (# 29) hit in 1967. At the time of its release and modest chart ascension, the band credited with its performance did not yet exist under its famous name; in '67, the soon-to-be Express were still based in Mansfield, Ohio, and playing under the name Sir Timothy & the Royals. And none of the members of the Royals/Express had anything whatsoever to do with this record.


More facts:  "Beg, Borrow And Steal" was a regional hit in 1966 for The Rare Breed. The Rare Breed's single did not make Billboard's Hot 100. But it was the exact same recording that became a # 29 hit the following year for "The Ohio Express."


Not just the same arrangement, the same instrumentation, nor even just the same personnel. It was The Rare Breed's recording, now credited to The Ohio Express.




Complicated. But those are the facts.


Facts may mingle freely with speculation for the remainder of our story, so proceed with caution. Wikipedia's biography of The Ohio Express says that the members of The Rare Breed were from the Bronx, and I have no reason to doubt that. A terrific YouTube video posted, I dunno, nine years ago by musicians John Freno and Barry Stolnick--two of the guys who played on "Beg, Borrow And Steal"--tells some of the history of the song from their vantage point, and it's well worth a view. Go ahead, watch it. I'll wait here 'til you're done. I'll just hum to myself. There's only so much a man can take before his life turns into a tragedy, da da, da da da. So I'm gettin' out now while I can, 'cause I don't wanna crawl, I wanna walk out like a man....




Didja like it? Man, I loved it, and I'm fully prepared to accept their recollection as the Gospel according to The Rare Breed.

Anyway. This a-rockin' and a-rollin' entity we call The Rare Breed was involved with Super K Productions, which was Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz. There was one more Rare Breed 45 ("Come And Take A Ride In My Boat," later covered to sales success by Every Mother's Son as "Come On Down To My Boat") before the paths of The Rare Breed and Super K diverged. The Rare Breed vanished entirely. Kasenetz and Katz did not.


So Jerry 'n' Jeff took this recording of "Beg, Borrow And Steal," this Rare Breed track that had been a shoulda-coulda-woulda release on the Attack label, dusted it off, maybe moved a needle or two (or not), slapped on a freshly fabricated name--The Staten Island Ferry? The Rock Island Line? Ah, I've got it! THE OHIO EXPRESS!--and sold it to Neil Bogart at Cameo Records. Its buzz and promise prompted a need for an actual band to play live dates to promote the damned thing. Enter those Buckeyes, Sir Timothy & the Royals. Hey, you Royals!, K & K must have said. You're The Ohio Express now! Congratulations, by the way. You may have a hit record on your hands. No, no need to thank us. Just get out there and play. Go! Sell some records! GO!!!


This was the start of The Ohio Express act we came to know. Well, sort of know. The act remained Super K puppets, rarely playing on their own records. Their second single was a cover of The Standells' "Try It." Their Beg, Borrow And Steal album includes a fantastic LP cut called "Had To Be Me," which I think may actually be the real Ohio Express, and it's a great rockin' pop track I hope more folks will discover. The Express and Super K then followed Neil Bogart from Cameo to his own new label Buddah Records; "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" and bubblegum history would be made not long thereafter.




But what of "Beg, Borrow And Steal?" It became something of a forgotten record. As the bubble eventually burst for The Ohio Express, their snappin' hits entered the realm of oldies compilations, wadded and stuck under the desk alongside The 1910 Fruitgum Company (another Super K act). The Cameo tracks, including "Try It" and "Beg, Borrow And Steal," were omitted and ignored.


And they wound up belonging to Abkco. Allen Klein, one of the most incendiary hardasses in the long and storied saga of the music biz, assumed control of a great many pop catalogs, including the hits of The Animals, Herman's Hermits, portions of the careers of Sam CookeThe Kinks and The Rolling Stones, and the entire Cameo-Parkway motherlode. Abkco's acquisition of Cameo-Parkway meant that Klein owned the music of Chubby Checker, ? & the Mysterians, and Dee Dee Sharp. And Klein owned "Try It" and "Beg, Borrow And Steal" by The Ohio Express.


A fluke result of Super K's original Rare Breed/Ohio Express shell game allowed "Beg, Borrow And Steal" to return to retail shelves as part of Varese Sarabande's Bubblegum Classics Volume Two in 1995 and in Rhino Records' Nuggets box in 1998. By crediting the track to The Rare Breed and licensing it from Kasenetz & Katz, the folks at Varese Sarabande and Rhino were able to circumvent the prohibitive difficulty of securing it from the notoriously difficult Klein. (Alas, no such workaround existed for the Abkco-owned "96 Tears" by ? & the Mysterians, which a source at Rhino confirmed was the one track the label really wanted but couldn't get for the Nuggets box.)


What's in a name? Tough to say; rockin' Willie Shakespeare never had a hit record, though he was probably due royalties from West Side Story and, y'know, The Reflections' "(Just Like) Romeo And Juliet." "Beg, Borrow And Steal" is the same incredible record, regardless of whether we credit it to The Rare Breed, The Ohio Express, or some other nom du bop. As I've noted in a previous essay about The Ohio Express, I discovered this awesome song as an Express track, played in a Buffalo nightclub by journalist/DJ/pop visionary Gary Sperrazza!, and it was love at first swagger. Rhino somehow managed to include it on a 1983 compilation called Rhino Teen Magazine--The Best Of The Ohio Express And Other Bubblegum Smashes, and I played that LP a time or two in the record store I was managing in the mid '80s.




No matter where we assign credit for this track, one more fact remains: I have always found "Beg, Borrow And Steal" to be flat-out irresistible. The reaction itself is subjective, of course--it's pop music fercryinoutloud, rock 'n' roll, and we should always remain willfully, gleefully subjective about the giddy pleasures we embrace and cherish. That's the whole point of The Greatest Record Ever Made: an infinite number of superlative records, each recognized as THE All-Time # 1 Accept-No-Substitutes Best Thing EVER!!, as long as they take their own individual 45 rpm turns in the spotlight.


You threw me out the night before last

And now you want me back in your arms again
You think I'm a fool, you treat me like dirt
You pull the string and hope I will be your friend
But I know what's on your mind
And I'd rather be out in the street without a dime
I'd rather beg, borrow and steal
I'd rather beg, borrow and steal
I'd rather beg, borrow and steal than go back to you

"Beg, Borrow And Steal" hits that mark for me with every single spin, every single time. Sure, it's a a slightly popped up, tiny bit punkier rip-off of "Louie, Louie." Da-da-da, da-da, da-da-da, da-da. But I'll gladly commit the heresy of insisting that it's even better than any legit rendition of that acknowledged classic. Yeah, better'n The Kingsmen, The Sonics, or the mighty, mighty  Paul Revere & the Raiders.  Folks, I love all of those records. Today, "Beg, Borrow And Steal" is The Greatest Record Ever Made. Its guitar break is simple but brilliant. Its pissed-off mood is infectious and triumphant, buoyant in its transcendent statement of the-hell-with-YOU, ya heartless crumb. I don't wanna crawl, I wanna walk out like a man. It's the shining moment where '60s punk and '60s bubblegum briefly became one. Here's to the collective pop genius of the men who crafted this magic moment called "Beg, Borrow And Steal."


No matter what name we decide to call them.




"Beg, Borrow And Steal" written by Joseph Di Francesco and Louis Zerato

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