SHAKIN’ STEVENS – “Green Door”
“I don’t know what they’re doing but they laugh a lot”. As a kid I had no great knowledge of speakeasies and after-hours clubs, so I projected a different – perhaps more glamorous – meaning onto the song, drawn from a childhood reading Tolkein, Nesbit and endless books of fairytales. The Green Door, quite clearly set into a hillside, or visible only on Beltane Eve, or found on an old street not marked on any map, led into the Otherworld, and the mocking laughter was obviously that of elves or boggarts. With this reading firm in my mind I could sympathise greatly with Shakey’s frustration – though I thought he was probably too old for this kind of adventure.
Some of the magic I projected into the record has clung to it, and it’s now my favourite of Shakin Steven’s big hits, which isn’t saying a great deal. As with “This Ole House”, “Green Door” is straight-down-the-middle rock’n’roll handled more with fondness than wildness. It’s a good song; it deserved revival; Shakey does no great harm to it. I don’t know the original versions: perhaps it was a record sung by and for people who were in on the joke, regulars on an illicit scene – a 50s equivalent of Kicks Like A Mule’s “The Bouncer”. But somehow you know Shakey’s singing it from a square’s point of view – as surely as if it had led to Elfland, he’s never getting in that door.
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Tom in FT / Popular • Pop • 1,487 views • Share/Save
And of course in the week this reached number one, the event of the year took place. Celebrations up and down the land, as we all wished their marriage god-speed and put up the bunting and Union Jacks. As the local pub where we spent our holiday in North Wales put it, in the massive banner which ran the width of the building: “Congratulations Ken and Deirdre”. Corrie right in tune with the zeitgeist there.
Anyway, Shaky – good song, well performed, lots of nice touches (the door slamming etc) a fun thing to spend a few minutes with. You’re a wee bit harsh with the mark there Tom.
this is probably Shakey’s most enjoyable hit to my ears (or least grating) – IIRC it was originally written about a lesbian club – not that you get any sense of that from this performance.
I’m not sure you’d never know from Shakey’s performances that Rock and roll was originally a euphemism for sex. He’s too squeaky clean.
For the (discredited) lesbian club theory; http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/sep/08/popandrock1
Aren’t green doors supposed to signify brothels in urban mythology, in the same way that old people still talk about prostitutes wearing red hats? I thought about this when I was on the top of a bus in Staines recently sitting behind some schoolboys and one informed the others “See that house – it’s a whorehouse!”. I would have craned my neck to see if it had a green door, but I didn’t want to look loke an interested potential punter.
As an eight year old, I liked the easily grasped idea of the song – portal to forbidden place – and the cheeriness with which it was performed. I even once mimed an impersonation of Shakin’ Stevens in public during my brief and torturous stint as a Cub Scout, the type of behaviour that I wouldn’t ever attempt again after puberty…
I can’t say that I think very much of this now, though. The Frankie Vaughan version is an awful lot better, because he sounds like he’s inhabiting the world of the song, rather than larking about. The Wynder K Frog northern soul instrumental is a superior listen, too, though not particularly enticing to dance to.
#2 Watch: A week of Stevie Wonder’s heartfelt and delightful ‘Happy Birthday’ then 2 weeks of ‘Hooked On Classics’ from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – make this horrible medley craze go away!
I really liked all the Stars On 45/Hooked On Classics stuff. (And now I like the Girl Talk album, so plus ca change)
my other half an I both entered our relationship having already formed the belief that shakin stevens cannot read. oddly, a quick google suggests this is not even a particularly established rumour, let alone a fact. nevertheless a reliable way of getting a laugh in our household is to suggests that the story of the song is that poor shaky is standing befuddled before a notice on the green door that explains in exhaustive detail the activities going on within. conceivably this is not the funniest joke anyone has ever heard.
TOTPWatch: Shakin’ Stevens performed Green Door on Top Of The Pops on two occasions;
23 July 1981. Also in the studio that week were; The Vapors, Tight Fit (‘Back To The Sixties’) and Gidea Park (‘Beach Boys Gold’), plus two appearances for Legs & Co, interpreting not only ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’ but also ‘Stars On 45 Volume 2′. Richard Skinner was the host. Far too many medleys.
13 August 1981. Also in the studio that week were; Duran Duran, Soft Cell and Aneka, plus Legs & Co’s interpretation of ‘Startrax Club Disco’. Simon Bates was the host
Possibly the last drinking den in Soho that had yet to be colonised by new young things is/was the New Evaristo on Frith Street, run by a Scouse lady called Trish, and was still only known by waiters finishing their shifts until about 3 years ago. Yes, it has a green door and nothing to tell you what goes on inside. Now it is packed every night. Bah.
Another thumbs up for Frankie Vaughan’s high-kicking version which trumps Jim Lowe’s more subdued original. Shaky does ok, but his take on This Ole House was a least a fairly radical reworking of Rosemary Clooney’s rickety pre-rock version; this is a little too lazy to get me animated one way or the other. 4 is about right.
What was the least likely/most deperate medley rushed out during this rather fun craze? I think The Hollies’ Holliedaze made it onto TOTP, with Tony Hicks looking about 28 and Allan Clarke looking like his grizzled grandad. The Merseybeats’ This Is Merseybeat? There must be more obscure ‘uns.
I have to tip my hat to the original Stars On 45 just because starting a Beatles medley with No Reply and I’ll Be Back is kinda dada.
re#3 I’m happy to be corrected Billy – although the link doesn’t much information in that regard. Next you’ll be saying ‘Any old iron’ isn’t a gay anthem.
Stars on 45 and its ilk were an appalling blight on the Top 40, and Tom, it’s the only aspect of your musical tastes I cannot fathom (so far anyway…) And it was a bloke out of Golden Earring, Jaap Eggermont, who was responsible for it all. Splicing together other, more talented people’s hits and ruining them with a thudding disco beat for easy cash – it just made me angry, basically.
Mike Sweeney on Piccadilly Radio used to play “Classical Muddly” by the Portsmouth Sinfonia a lot, which was the only one I could bear because it just ripped the piss out of the whole godawful thing. Oh, and Squeeze did their own medley, which they called “Squabs on Forty-Fab” or something. I’d have to grudgingly allow them that one.
Nice to hear a mention of Hooked-On-Classics. At this stage of my life (I was almost 10) the thought that I might like a piece of music enough to own it and therefore hear it when I wanted and not just when it came on the radio or TV, just hadn’t occurred to me. It was actually a good few years yet before I’d implement that particular thought, but I came quite close with Hooked-On-Classics, asking my parents for it, for an upcoming birthday. For some reason they didn’t oblige and I missed out on that winning orchestra/crude-drum-machine combo.
Squeeze maintain that their “Squabs on 45″ on the b-side of Labelled With Love was a semi-pisstake of the whole craze, but actaully works as well as any of the “original” medleys.
EDIT: Oh pants, I see Erithian got there before me :-)
#orange juice also did a medly (i think for a peel session) called ‘blokes on 45′
Of course, I’ve forgotten! We’ll have a feast of medleys to discuss in 1989.
I now know from where the spoiler bunny took his name…
#11 Well I’m not so sure that I’d like them NOW Erithian – I like the concept (“Don’t bore us – get to the chorus!”) but I think the execution may have been a bit lacking compared to the artistic heights of the late 80s Megamix era. (Hey, Ben Liebrand was Dutch too! They obviously have a knack for it.)
And yes, we’ll be able to exhaustively discuss the work of the Godfather Of Mash-Ups in due time.
This is a dull one I have to say – even with the charming “i was a goblin” reading livening it up, this is a really dull retread of territory covered much better ten years earlier – I didn’t LOVE Alvin Stardust and company but they sounded better than this. “This Ole House” has a little more life to it but not much.
I always felt that this was about Shakey trying to get into “Bad Billy’s”, the trendiest of Brighton’s gay bars but being turned away, whining to himself “what’s that secret you’re keeping?” as the bouncer who, looks like the black bloke from “Rising Damp”, apologetically waves him away.
Obviously NOT any old iron, then, lonepilgrim…
Re medleys and megamixes, was this not also the year of ‘The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel’? Now that’s how to do it.
The final time round:
“When I said Joe sent me, someone laffed out loud behind the Green Door, nya ha HAAA!”
.. worth 5 points on it’s own!
Those 1981 medley hits in full (including chart positions);
Starsound – Stars on 45 (2)
Bill Haley & His Comets – Haley’s Golden Medley (50)
Splodgenessabounds – Cowpunk Medlum (69)
Starsound – Stars on 45 Volume 2 (2)
Gidea Park – Beach Boy Gold (11)
Tight Fit – Back to the Sixties (4)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Hooked on Classics (2)
Lobo – The Caribbean Disco Show (8)
Startrax – Startrax Club Disco (18)
Enigma – I Love Music (25)
The Hollies – Hollidaze (28)
Gidea Park – Seasons of Gold (28)
Portsmouth Sinfonia – Classical Muddley (38)
Ivor Biggun & The D Cups – Bras on 45 (50)
Starsound – Stars on 45 Volume 3 (17)
Tight Fit – Back to the Sixties Part 2 (33)
Starturn on 45 Pints – Starturn on 45 Pints (45)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Hooked on Can Can (47)
The Barron Knights – Blackboard Jumble (52)
Chas & Dave – Stars Over 45 (21)
Holly & the Ivys – Christmas on 45 (40)
Trini Lopez – Trini Trax (59)
In addition, I have my suspicions that these titles may also be medleys;
Mojo – Dance On (70)
Headbangers – Status Rock (60)
Gary Glitter – All That Glitters (48)
Hysterics – Jingle Bells (Laughing All The Way) (44)
My favourite Shakey record too, like it quite a lot in fact. The biggest thing I remember though was the shock of discovering that Frankie Vaughan had recorded a song other than “Give Me The Moonlight”
I’ve lost count of the number of “secret” late night drinking places I knew in and around Soho that were ruined once they got mentioned in I.D or The Face. Kiss of death that was.
I quite like a jolly old Hammond organ rock’n'roll version by Esquerita – except he is my favourite pianist ever, so I always sort of begrudge him his cheery organ numbers.
# 21 – Surely “There Must be a Way”?
There’s only one “secret” drinker I know in Eastbourne – The Hartington, a gay bar, which is usually full of straight birds searching for a fun night out without the threat of their knickers being disturbed. Nice girls.
Billy Smart (20)
Also – This Year’s Blonde – Platinum Pop (46), which I think was a Blondie one, and the Beach Boys’ imaginatively titled “Beach Boys Medley” which hit 47
I’m sure there was a Shadows one as well, but I can’t remember what it was called – “Hot Licks” perhaps. I’m also pretty sure the Hysterics one was just laughter to the tune of Jingle Bells, so not really a medley.
I’m quite surprised that I’m finding nothing to say about this rather poor run of #1s – I was only twenty at this point, and thought I could give you a few years yet. I’ll continue to lurk and see if things change.
“Behind The Green Door” is a legendary 1972 porno flick starring Marilyn Chambers, isn’t it? Per Wikipedia: “the movie depicts her abduction to a sex theater, where she is forced to perform various sexual acts with multiple partners in front of masked audience members”.
I am very taken with the reading that “squeaky clean” Shaky wants in on this world of kinky psychedelic sex, but no one has invited him.
The Shadows medley was Mojo’s ‘Dance On’ (named after one of their number 1’s)and I see that TriniTrax was the smallest hit out of them – believe it or not a friend of mine spent most of the autumn of 1981 saying how great that record was!
I think there was also (shades of Holly and the Ivys) an act calling themselves Santa Claus and the Christmas trees doing a festive one too.Don’t know if it made the charts though.
A co-worker at the time told me deadpan that “Hooked On Classics” was great because they cut out all the crap and just played the good bits from the classics.
Billy (#20), Platinum Blonde (which I think I’ve mentioned before on Popular because I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about the fact it somehow managed to get on TOTP twice despite not making the 40) was a medley of, you guessed it, Blondie hits. Got to 48ish.
“Stars Over 45″. You gotta laugh.
Edit – just seen Vinyl Scot’s post. You’ve got to be quick on here…
I really like this one – but I’ve never heard any of the earlier versions, which probably helps. From the opening rolling piano on, it has a real swagger to it. Definitely my favourite Shaky single (although I have a soft spot for “Give Me Your Heart Tonight” too).
7 for me.
Further research concludes that ‘All that Glitters’ is indeed a medley. So that makes between 26 and 28 in one year!
And isn’t Dave Gilmour supposed to be playing on Holly And The Ivys “Christmas On 45″? I’d love to hear that, but it never crops up on any compilation albums.
That’s Nick Laird-Clowes, of “Dream Academy” fame.
He’s certainly credited w/ the song on the b-side. “Have pity on the boy” or something like it.
Shakey? Harumph !
I don’t get a choice as to who to write about sadly :)
One of the most interesting years of the Fifties (1956) gave us this one, the true original (I think) being that of the singing American disc jockey Jim Lowe, who got to the lower reaches of the Ten with it. Frankie Vaughan then covered it and got it to No.2, while twenty-five years later Frankie sent Shaky a telegram of congratulations when Shaky got it to No.1.
I’ve always liked this tune and so went to my pile of 78s and found Frankie’s take on it, together with 45s of Jim Lowe’s and Shaky’s, and played them in succession…and if anything I liked it even more. Jim Lowe’s version majors on piano, while Frankie Vaughan’s majors on just about everything – there’s a piano in there too, but also a big band (we’re at the extreme tail end of the big band era – and the beginnings of rock – in ’56) and a sax solo. It’s vigorous, it grabs the listener’s attention and makes them want to hear it again and check it all out a second time. Shaky’s version is as one might expect more modern but respectful and in the spirit of the song. But Frankie’s is still my favourite, so I must be careful not to break that 78. I think 4 is a bit low – a six from me, with maybe another six for Jim Lowe’s version and an eight for Frankie.
In Who’s Who in Popular Music, the author credits Shaky (born Michael Barratt) with ‘an uncanny ability to make old hits his very own’ and I suppose that’s **almost** true. But this one **really** belongs to Frankie Vaughan
Stars on 45 (along w/ curiosity caused by the events of 8 months previous)was what got me into the Beatles! it was many many years before i could hear the original version of Drive My Car without always expecting it to go into Do You Want ToKnow A Secret…
Whats that 60s megamix that they ALWAYS play at weddings etc that lasts about 20 minutes that goes from Black is Black to Bend Me Shape Me to (i think) You Really Got Me? I have never heard Black is Black in any other context to this godawful medley….
Have to agree, Tim, a rare instance of the UK version trumping the US original. Possibly because Frankie’s party sounds more rocking, and with better looking birds, than Jim’s. But Frankie always put much gusto into his semi-rock singles (see also My Boy Flat Top, Garden Of Eden).
I have to say plenty of Shaky’s originals were stronger than his covers: You Drive Me Crazy, Give Me Your Heart Tonight (already flagged by Conrad), A Love Worth Waiting For. An NYE party 3 or 4 years back was greatly enlivened in the early hours by the ’84 Greatest Hits set.
Was this the one where he semi-Anted in the video? Jumped into a party scene through a window or some such?
PS A pedant adds, it’s Shaky, not Shakey isn’t it? Unless he’s the same bloke behind some of Neil Young’s more half-arsed work. Which is about as likely as him being the same Michael Barrett who presented Nationwide.
On which note, before I evoke the spirit of Stuart Maconie too strongly, I’ll take my leave… only to add
re 36: That’ll be Back To The Sixties by Tight Fit, before they morphed from faceless boom-clack medley pirates into a trio who once made a single better than anything on Led Zeppelin III.
And, likewise, I didn’t know a bunch of the Beatles songs on the Stars On 45 45 when it came out (I was 16), which suggested that these Dutch interlopers were genuine fans passing on the information. So I tip my hat.
Also love the suggestion of Stars On 45 Vol 2 that Abba were second in line to the throne.
WOW! I can’t believe that Jacko totally ripped off Shakey’s pic sleeve for Thriller.
#38, Yes – good spot! I’d like to have seen a dance-off between Shaky and MJ, Shaky’s wobbly knees would have been a good counterpoint to Michael’s moonwalking.
at the risk of seeming completely pretentious – the pose in both cases is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Adam from the Sistine chapel – but it also looks like the kind of cliched beefcake/cheesecake pose that Roxy Music used to pastiche on their sleeves
“The Front Door!”
A public information film telling all you housewives to put that security chain on when answering a knock in the afternoon, because who might it be? …
“is it a smooth cool conman who will take you in outside the FRONT DOO-OOER!?”
“Or a mad mad axeman with an evil grin outside the FRONT DOOERRR?”
.. I’m sure this film had been used, probably since the mid sixties, until just before Shakey’s hit! Either way, this is the version I knew the song from.
Meta Shaky: “When I said said Joe sent me someone laughed out loud.” Could be one of the Johnston Brothers cackling who, on how to gain entrance secret nite klub Hernando’s Hideaway, suggest “just knock three times and whisper low that you were sent by Joe.”
It’s purely subjective of course but for me the Golden Age of Pop began when Wuthering Heights got to number 1 and ended when this dethroned Ghost Town. Not that there hasn’t been anything good in subsequent years but I’ve never liked the majority of the records in the charts since.
Does anyone else have a similar turning point ?