Out Of The Closet - Part 1

This is the first in a series of posts by Jean Thomas-Fox (former lead singer of the ‘Rag Dolls’) on her music and sessions as a back-up vocalist in New York during the 1960s. “ I wanted to say thanks for all the hard work and devotion shown by so many people still interested in the early 60s New York music that I was associated with.  I never imagined that all this would come alive again.  Nice to know there are still people out there who care so much about this music. I've really enjoyed being able to put together songs I worked on contributed by Spectropop members.  How amazing to have all this music we created with so many other artists now on CD so I can hear it anytime I want, or drive people crazy by playing it all to them  !!! I was going through my closets over the Christmas holiday and found some records I don't think many of you will have ever heard. So I’ll feature the story behind some of them here. Click on the images of the label scans for writer and production details" Tony Pass  ‘Spring Fever/ True True Love’ (Atco Records 6421) This single was a session on 10th May 1966 for two sides written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Jeff and Ellie did the production and Ellie, Mikie and myself did the background vocals." Mike ‘Doo-Wop Daddy’ Miller told us……"Tony Pass real name Tony Passalaqua, was lead singer of The Fascinators, a late 1950's doo wop group. They had a few real nice songs like "Rose Marie". Later he recorded under other names, Tony pass, Tony Michaels, then hooked up with Steve Tudanger of The Four Evers, and Ellie Greenwich, doing backup work, and was in a group called the Definitive Rock Chorale which Jean was in with Ellie Greenwich. Tony Pass was lead singer on one side, a Steve Tudanger song, "Let Me Be Forever" as well as that he may have done some work with The Bob Crewe Generation. “   "In response to a question about how Ellie, Mikie and I created our "special" sound and what were the special ingredients, I'd like to say I have no idea.  We were just lucky our voices blended so well together.  Mikie, who sang bottom, and Ellie, who sang middle, had powerful voices.  I had power in my chest voice, which was my normal singing register, and a lighter sound in my head voice.  Since I sang top, I spent a lot of time in my head voice or upper register.  It seemed to all come together and make everyone happy. We would learn our parts on the spot when we got to a session.  It didn't take more than 10 or 15 minutes to be ready to record.  Sometimes we didn't even have that much time.  You had to be fast or you didn't work.  There were usually no rehearsals before a session." "I found a really good version of Martha and the Vandella’s hit, ‘Dancing in The Streets’ which we’ve posted to my player. It’s by Trade Martin from 1976. I did lots of work with Trade who was also a very good singer. I can’t remember who else was on this session with us. It was Trade’s record and production and he asked me to sing on the session. That’s the whole story. Maybe Trade has that information . He’s a terrific guy. We also sang some commercials together. He was very active in this area too. We did “Campbell ’s Soup” (um um good spots) as a duet and they were on radio and TV for a number of years" "I also found that some sessions from 1968  matched up to a single I have. I sang in a group called the Tompkins Park Singers. They had a sound somewhere between the Rooftop Singers and Peter, Paul and Mary. Len Maxwell produced the session. The A side was ‘Did You Give The World Some Love Today Baby’, b/w ‘Gee, It’s A Lovely Day’ The first session was on18th March with another on 10th April when we recorded ‘The Man In The White Mustang’ and then again on the 18th June when the A side of the single was recorded. I can’t remember anything else about the group nor can I identify the other singers. If anyone can it would be great. The B side is very appropriate for Valentines Day so I hope you enjoy it.” Check out the details of Jean's log books here. We are currently working through 1965. And if you can add to the info let us know. Please note….. The tracks in the players will be available for a limited period. More 'Out Of The Closet' lost tracks soon.. Casey Chameleon

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Comments

[Ken Charmer]

Visit Jean's web site Tony at www.jeanthomas.info or write me and I'll put you in touch with her. She would love to hear from you.

[Tony Passalacqua]

I guess i'm a bit late coming to the party, judging by the dates of the posts. I just found this website. It's good finding things that I have done in the past, in a form that brings back good old memories. Why not post what Jean has been doing since those days? Hopefully she is enjoying life today , on a par with yesterday.

[Cleftonefan]

What a great site! I came across this as I was thinking about the loss of Ellie Greenwich today. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Ellie and you were involved with some of Tony Passalaqua's songs. Tony should have been a big star, but at least he's still singing with the Legends of Doo Wop, and this is part of his great gift to us fans. I knew Tony had worked with Jeff, but this entry was new news to me. Thanks for making my day and giving me some great sounds and good thoughts to counter the bad news on this sad day. Keep the writings coming.

[Charmermrk]

Our work with Jean Thomas includes writing her bio which we are doing at present. In the New Year we will update the web site with more info (www.jeanthomas.info) and the story of how the Rag Dolls sessions came about. But one thing that is not correct is that the Rag Dolls included Tracey Dey or as someone suggested Diane Renay. Read John Clemente's 'Girl Groups' for an outline story and read Jean's full story next year via this blog.

We featured Kingsleys Book in our current Newsletter (Nr 52) so see our blog preview of this on 14th Oct 2008 including Jean's comments.

Ken Charmer

[Alan Brett]

Great stuff!!!! - just picked up on JT even though I've been a Crewe/ Gaudio/ Calello/ Spector fan for absolute yonks (I'm nearly 60...) over here in lil' ol' England... Here's a Q for U - my Billboard book says a girl called Tracey Dey "was the actual voice on The Rag Doll recordings" - how does this fit with JT's recording diary..? Just heard "Dusty"/ "Out in the Sun"/ "Little girl tears" all for the first time tonight, courtesy of a dear friend of mine - Kingsley Abbott. Wonderful!! He has recently written a book on great 60's singles which he feels are "lost gems" and names both Rag Dolls US hits and the wonderful Beach Nuts "Out in the sun" as classic examples (understandably the book was written primarily for the UK market). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Gems-Sixties-Kingsley-Abbott/dp/1905959079
LOL, AB xx

[rob pingel]

This is just so great! Thank you for sharing all this wonderful material. Words cannot adequately express how much I appreciate what you do.