THE TAMS – "Hey Girl, Don't Bother Me"

Obscure indeed! I clearly recall the Tams’ “What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am” from my not-quite-adolescent days (c.1963), and while I believe this was recorded not much later, I really couldn’t recall this one clearly. So I turned to iTunes and allmusic.com. I found three (or perhaps four) versions recorded by the Tams. (No doubt the group in some configuration has re-recorded the song for one of those horrid “bargain” discs.) One version is a rather bare-bones arrangement (predominantly bluesy guitar), another that sounds like the previous overdubbed with Stax/Volt brass, and at least one (but perhaps two) “discofied” versions.

I have to imagine that it was one of the first two of the above that topped the UK charts in 1971, as it was a little too early for disco. No matter what version, though, it’s the sort of tune that’s pleasant enough but not particularly memorable. It sounds familiar–but perhaps that’s because it sounds like a lot of other generic soul recordings from the 60s or 70s.

I suppose it had a strong dance appeal–or perhaps a bit of nostalgia for an earlier period of soul music–that put it at number one in the UK. For me, sixty is still a considerable time in the future, but I might have danced to it, even if I can’t quite remember it in any sort of context.

It did strike me that possibly this was the wrong mix – maybe I will upload it and Tams afficionadoes can check! Or maybe I’ll go onto “Maggie May” and forget about it…

That is indeed the version which made number one here (sounds more like a clarinet on the middle eight). The Tams were not spring chickens even in 1964, let alone 1971, and there is something of a pre-rock aura about the record; you can easily imagine the Mills Brothers or the Ink Spots performing it. Indeed their TOTP performance was rather legendary in that at least one of the Tams ran off stage mid-performance due to stage fright.

Its Northern Soul provenance is unclear; it was in reasonable demand as a slow dancer in the “Long After Tonight Is All Over” vein but not a runaway favourite in the way that, say, Tami Lynn’s “I’m Gonna Run Away From You” (a #4 UK hit in ’71) clearly was. Again, as memory recalls, this was yet another one picked up by the omnipresent Mr Blackburn.

Bizarrely they resurfaced in the UK charts in 1987 with “There Ain’t Nothing Like Shagging” which was summarily banned by radio and TV since in Britain “shagging” means something other than a dance craze…

This was one of the songs my big sister (Northern Soul fan but with a “Hendrix for President” sticker on her bedroom mirror) tried to turn me on to. She met with a fair bit of resistance at the time, but nowadays I get a warm nostalgic glow from the likes of this, plus the Elgins’ “Heaven Must Have Sent You” and Doris Troy’s “I’ll Do Anything”. Nice one, sis!

Aficionados (aficionadi??) might be able to help with various theories as to which celebrities were Northern Soul fans back in the day – I’ve seen Dale Winton and Steve Davis mentioned, and depending on what you read Anna Ford was either a regular at Wigan Casino or just did a TV report from there and had a dance or two.

Number 2 Watch: Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood’s “Did You Ever” was held off by the Tams, and no spanners were involved.

Well Lee H did write and produce a UK No 1 (“Boots”).

Other celebrity Northern Soul fans (according to Kevin Roberts’ book The Top 500 Northern Soul Records) include Chris Tarrant and Eric Knowles Out Of Antiques Roadshow.

Tom, for Maggie May you must mention something about Lily Allen’s adventurous dog!

I have always liked this record – it’s not particularly great or powerful or affecting, but I like the lead singer, and it’s pretty. I’d probably have given it a 7 or so.

Having accidentally pushed the wrong button on my car stereo in the dark, I found myself listening to the Long Island oldies station earlier this evening, something I wouldn’t usually do a Sunday night. For the first time in decades (and hopefully the only time for several decades more), I heard Freddie (“Boom-Boom”) Cannon’s “Talahasee Lassie.” I clearly heard the line to the effect that the eponymous heroine is “Stomping to the shag, whoo!” This comes in a series of lines about the dances she does.

So, then, evidence that “the shag” was a dance in the US (c.1960). It was also a haircut in the 1970s, and a type of high-maintenence carpet popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Americans would seem to have very different connotations for the word “shag” than do Brits. But the more I think about that carpet–and even the dance–maybe not.

It’s a real shame that the Tams are best remembered for this sub-standard example of the Northern genre as the aforementioned “Be Young Be Foolish” is everything an NS stomper should be and therefore should have been the number 1.

PS. was this the ONLY Northern Soul number 1??!!

I was rather proud of my ten year-old self over this. Whenever I heard it, I couldn’t help thinking how out of place it sounded in the chart of ’71. Eventually, someone mentioned that it had been recorded “ten years ago”, which wasn’t quite right but the point had been made. Consequently, I was astonished and still am that HGDBM topped the chart. It isn’t even a particularly good record and the description above of a “sub-standard example of Northern Soul” is pretty much on the money, it seems to me. A particularly odd number one, this.

You can bother me all you want, girl: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/time-and-again-nancy-sinatra-and-lee.html Ta for reading, everyone!

I also was struck by that TOTP performance, particularly the bloke in the middle of the trio, who seemed to be struggling with the dance moves, and halfway through.. just disappears. At least with the Pans People “Get Down” dance performance, you see the dog leave.