"Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" | ||||
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Single by Larry Williams | ||||
B-side | "Slow Down" | |||
Released | March 1958 | |||
Recorded | February 19, 1958 | |||
Studio | Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California | |||
Genre | Rock and roll | |||
Length | 2:25 | |||
Label | Specialty | |||
Songwriter(s) | Larry Williams | |||
Larry Williams singles chronology | ||||
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"Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" is a rock and roll song written and recorded by Larry Williams in 1958. Although identified as a "genuine rock & roll classic", [1] it had limited success on the record charts. Seven years later, the Beatles recorded the song, and John Lennon performed it with the Plastic Ono Band in 1969.
At the end of 1957, Williams scored with one of his biggest hits, "Bony Moronie". On February 19, 1958, he entered the Radio Recorders studio in Hollywood, California, to record a potential follow-up. [2] He was again backed by some well-known session musicians, including René Hall, who is credited as the band leader and with supplying the distinctive guitar riff. However, it is Williams' vocal that makes the song stand out, according to music journalist Gene Sculatti, "at ease with its own intensity [that is] finally out of Richard's shadow." [2] (Little Richard and Williams were both signed to Specialty Records).
Specialty released "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" in both the 78 rpm and newer 45 rpm record formats. Williams had several completed recordings to choose from for the B-side, but the label decided to go with "Slow Down", a track he had recorded at the same September 11, 1957, session that produced "Bony Moronie". [2] Both sides received notices in Billboard magazine, but only "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" reached the "Top 100 Sides" chart. It peaked at number 69 during the week ending April 19, 1958. [3] Both songs were included on Williams's first album, the Specialty compilation Here's Larry Williams (1959). [4]
"Dizzy Miss Lizzy" | |
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Song by the Beatles | |
Released |
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Recorded | May 10, 1965 |
Studio | EMI, London |
Genre | Rock and roll |
Length | 2:54 |
Label |
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Songwriter(s) | Larry Williams |
Producer(s) | George Martin |
In 1965, the Beatles recorded "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" in response to requests from Capitol Records (their US record label) for new material. The song, recorded the previous year by another Liverpool group The Escorts, is included on the UK album Help! and the US album Beatles VI . They recorded it along with another Williams tune, "Bad Boy", on the same day. [5]
Group biographer Ian MacDonald describes the song as "an unprepossessing shambles of ersatz hysteria and jumbled double-tracking". [5] However, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine comments "'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' gives John an opportunity to flex his rock & roll muscle." [6]
Lennon later recorded "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" at a performance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival on September 13, 1969. The song is included on the Plastic Ono Band album Live Peace in Toronto 1969 . [7]
In Revolution in the Head , MacDonald lists the following: [5]
Help! is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965 by Parlophone. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride", appeared in the film and take up the first side of the vinyl album. The second side includes "Yesterday", the most-covered song ever written. The album was met with favourable critical reviews and topped the Australian, German, British and American charts.
Lawrence Eugene Williams was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, and pianist from New Orleans. He is best known for writing and recording some rock and roll classics from 1957 to 1959 for Specialty Records, including "Bony Moronie", "Short Fat Fannie", "Slow Down", "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" (1958), "Bad Boy" and "She Said Yeah" (1959). John Lennon was a fan, and the Beatles and several other British Invasion groups recorded several of his songs.
Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band, released in December 1969 on Apple Records. Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, it was the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together. John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono received a phone call from the festival's promoters John Brower and Kenny Walker, and then assembled a band on very short notice for the festival, which was due to start the following day. The band included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and drummer Alan White. The group flew from London and had brief unamplified rehearsals on the plane before appearing on the stage to perform several songs; one of which, "Cold Turkey", was first performed live at the festival. After returning home, Lennon mixed the album in a day.
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions is the second of three collaborative experimental albums of avant-garde music by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, released in May 1969 on Zapple, a sub label of Apple. It was a successor to 1968's highly controversial Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, and was followed by the Wedding Album. The album peaked in the United States at number 174, 50 places lower than the previous album. The album, whose title is a play on words of the BBC Radio show Life with The Lyons, was recorded at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London and live at Cambridge University, in November 1968 and March 1969, respectively. The Cambridge performance, to which Ono had been invited and to which she brought Lennon, was Lennon and Ono's second as a couple. A few of the album's tracks were previewed by the public, thanks to Aspen magazine. The album was remastered in 1997.
The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band and Fluxus-based artist collective formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968-9 for their collaborative musical and sound art projects, films, conceptual art projects and eventual solo LPs. The creation of The Plastic Ono Band, which began in 1967 with Ono's idea for an art exhibition in Berlin, allowed Lennon to separate his artistic output from that of The Beatles.
"Instant Karma!" is a song by English rock musician John Lennon, released as a single on Apple Records in February 1970. The lyrics focus on a concept in which the consequences of one's actions are immediate rather than borne out over a lifetime. The single was credited to "Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band", apart from in the US, where the credit was "John Ono Lennon". The song reached the top five in the British and American charts, competing with the Beatles' "Let It Be" in the US, where it became the first solo single by a member of the band to sell a million copies.
Lennon is a four-CD box set compilation, featuring highlights from the solo musical career of John Lennon. It was released in 1990 and is not to be confused with the 2015 box set of the same name, which comprised Lennon's eight original studio albums on vinyl LPs.
"Slow Down" is a rock and roll song written and performed by Larry Williams. Recorded in 1957, AllMusic writer Stewart Mason describes it as "raucous enough to be punk rock nearly a full two decades before the concept was even in existence." Specialty Records released it as a single in 1958, but only the second-side "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" reached the record charts. Both songs were later covered by the Beatles.
"Bad Boy" is a song written and recorded by American R&B musician Larry Williams. Specialty Records released it as a single in 1958, but it failed to reach the U.S. Billboard charts. However, music journalist Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls it one of Williams's "genuine rock & roll classics" and notes its popularity among 1960s British Invasion groups, such as the Beatles.
Sweet Toronto is a documentary by D.A. Pennebaker of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, a one-day festival held September 13, 1969, at Varsity Stadium on the campus of the University of Toronto and attended by some 20,000 people. The event was produced by John Brower and Ken Walker. John Lennon, who seven days later would unofficially resign as a member of the Beatles, played as part of the Plastic Ono Band, whose members also included Yoko Ono, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Eric Clapton. Their set was released as the album Live Peace in Toronto 1969.
"Bony Moronie" was the third single by Larry Williams, released in 1957.
"Well Well Well" is a song by English musician John Lennon from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The eighth and longest track on the album, "Well Well Well" features an aggressive guitar sound, screaming vocals and a pounding backing track.
Instant Karma: All-Time Greatest Hits, a three-disc compilation album of music recorded by John Lennon, is a budget release targeted for sale at warehouse-type stores such as Sam's Club and Costco. The album was released in 2002 by Timeless/Traditions Alive Music under license from Capitol/EMI Special Projects.
Roots: John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits is a rare mail-order album issued by Adam VIII consisting of rough mixes of John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll album. It was available through television sale for three days in January 1975 before Lennon and Apple/EMI pulled it off the market. Lennon then rush-released his "official" version in February 1975.
"New York City" is a song written by John Lennon that was first released on Lennon's and Yoko Ono's 1972 Plastic Ono Band album Some Time in New York City.
"Why" is a song written by Yoko Ono that was first released on her 1970 Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band album. In the U.S. it was also released as the B-side of John Lennon's "Mother" single, taken from his John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.
"Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)" is a song by Yoko Ono that was originally released by Plastic Ono Band in October 1969 as the B-side of the "Cold Turkey" single, and was later released on Ono's 1971 album Fly. Several live versions have been released, including on Plastic Ono Band's Live Peace in Toronto 1969 and the John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band With Elephant's Memory album Some Time in New York City in 1972. An early version was titled "Mum's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow". It has been covered by several other artists.
"Move Over Ms. L" is a song written by John Lennon. It was originally intended to be released on his 1974 album Walls and Bridges but was left off shortly before the album release, and was eventually released as the b-side to Lennon's "Stand by Me" single. In the interim it was released by Keith Moon on his album Two Sides of the Moon. Moon also released it as the B-side of his "Solid Gold" single.
Here's Larry Williams is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Larry Williams, released by Specialty Records in 1959. The album includes two of Williams's hit singles, "Short Fat Fannie" and "Bony Moronie", and also features the song "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy", which would later be covered by the Beatles.