THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: Since You've Been Gone

Drawn from a previous post, this is not part of my forthcoming book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

CHERIE AND MARIE CURRY: Since You've Been Gone

Written by Russ Ballard

Produced by Jai Winding

Single from the album Messin' With The Boys, Capitol Records, 1979

Had I heard Cherie and Marie Currie's cover of Russ Ballard's "Since You Been Gone" on the radio before I bought the 45 at Brockport's Main Street Records in 1979 or '80? 

It's possible, though it's just as likely I picked it up on a whim...maybe more likely, given the conservative nature of Rochester radio, which served the Brockport market. The single was too pop to find its way into the playlist of 97 Power Rock, the Sunday night alternative showcase on Buffalo's 97 Rock, but not sufficiently mainstream-approved for CHR or AOR. WCMF-FM was (by far!) the cooler of Rochester's two main rock stations; its competitor Magic 92 was relentlessly boring. CMF did play Shoes, the Diodes, and a few other gems that dinosaur stations wouldn't program in a million years, and I remember CMF DJ Marty Duda (a fellow Brockport alum) playing my request for a Two-for-Tuesday spin of the Ramones :"WCMF rocks Brockport!" Thanks again, Marty.

A lot of my Main Street purchases were impulse buys, prompted by something that clicked in my noggin while I was shopping. I bought the Beat's eponymous debut album because I recognized Paul Collins from the Nerves. I got a ton of records because I'd read about them in Trouser Press or CREEM. And sometimes--especially with 45s--I'd look at a record's graphics, its look, its personnel, and weigh the probability of its grooves playing well within my sovereign airspace.

With "Since You've Been Gone" (notice the Curries' grammatical adjustment of the title), I knew the song from radio play of Rainbow's 1979 version, and of course I knew Cherie Currie from the Runaways. Currie had run away from her former band by the time I saw the Runaways with the Ramones and the Flashcubes in 1978, and in 1980 I hadn't yet heard any of her post-Runaways recordings. I recall seeing her 1978 solo debut Beauty's Only Skin Deep on the racks at Korvettes on Staten Island in '79, but it was an import LP at an import LP price, so I passed (just as I passed on similarly-priced sets by the Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls). Trouser Press compared Beauty's Only Skin Deep to the MOR of Helen Reddy, so maybe it was a good thing I didn't indulge the impulse to buy it, its sultry-seeming image of Currie notwithstanding.

"Since You've Been Gone" was the first single from Messin' With The Boys, the album Cherie did with her twin sister Marie. Neither the single nor the album did all that well on the charts, but the sisters did appear on TV's Sha Na Na to promote it, lip-syncing its title tune and messin' with the faux greaser boys. I never did get the album (which also included their cover of the Raspberries' "Overnight Sensation"), nor have I heard much of it, nor anything at all from Beauty's Only Skin Deep. I should remedy all of that, just in case there's something for me in there, though I'm skeptical that much of it will be my music.

But I did like the single. I still do. Whether it was an impulse buy or an informed purchase, it suited my sovereign airspace just fine.

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Carl's book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will be published in July. Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

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