RARITY #42

MICKEY BAKER - ADAGIO

EP 45 rpm - Disc'AZ,France, 1967?

Here is the another EP from Mickey Baker, this one dating from 1967/68. Probably not that rare in France and neighbouring countries.

Side A is entirely dedicated to Baker’s version of the famous Adagio d’Albinoni.  The Adagio was one of the “tartes a la crème” of the late sixties.  You will probably want to skip this side.  By the way, this famous Adagio was not composed by Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751) but by a XXth Century musicologist, Remo Giazotto (1910-1998).   The genesis of the piece makes for some interesting reading (just google these names). It became a global hit in the mid sixties and is among the most recorded pieces of music ever.

On side B we have a barely recognizable instrumental version of Love is Strange, a hit for Mickey and Sylvia in 1957.    The song is not by Mickey Baker as credited but was written by ... Bo Diddley, under his wife’s name, Ethel Smith (the credits were also claimed by Diddley’s then guitarist, Jody Williams).

Then we have a rocking version of Camp Meeting, again credited to Baker while it was a composition of former Ray Charles’ tenorman and Blue Note recording artist, Don Wilkerson.  The original song was well known in France at the time as it was the theme song for a popular Jazz programme (Pour ceux qui aiment le Jazz) on Europe No1.

So here we are with an EP with three songs all credited to the wrong composers!

As in the previous post, the rip is mine but the cover shots are from the web, found them here with some interesting info on the songs (in French, loosely translated here).