Dick and Dee Dee

Last updated

Dick and Dee Dee
DicknDeeDee mid sixties.png
Dick and Dee Dee publicity photo, mid-1960s
Background information
OriginUnited States
GenresPop, R&B, rock and roll, Folk
Occupation(s) Singing duo
Years active1960–1969
Labels Warner Bros. Records, Liberty Records, Dot Records
Past membersDick St. John (deceased)
Dee Dee Sperling
Website www.DickandDeeDee.com

Dick and Dee Dee (or Dick and Deedee) are an American singer-songwriter duo who reached popularity in the early to mid-1960s. The group was founded by California classmates Richard Gosting and Mary Sperling. They eventually changed their names to Dick St. John and Dee Dee Sperling (currently Dee Dee Phelps). They had their first hit in 1961 when "The Mountain's High" reached No. 2 on the Billboard 100. [1] They toured with the Beach Boys and opened for the Rolling Stones during the Stones's 1964 tour of California. [2] Regulars on the show Shindig! , the duo had multiple hit songs before St. John and Sperling disbanded in 1969. [3] In the 1980s, St. John toured with his wife, Sandy. [4] Dick St. John died on December 27, 2003, after a fall at his home. [3] Dee Dee Phelps began performing with actor/singer Michael Dunn as Dick and Dee Dee in 2008, appearing in large doo wop and rock and roll shows throughout the United States. [5]

Contents

History

Founding

Dick St. John and Dee Dee Sperling met while students at Paul Revere Junior High School in Los Angeles, California. They attended different high schools, only to re-encounter one another after graduation. At the time Sperling was attending college and working at a See's Candy store, and St. John was looking for a job. [6] They realized they were singer-songwriters, and together they began writing songs and singing the vocal parts. The duo were not romantically linked. [7]

The Mountain's High

The first Dick and Dee Dee 45 rpm release ("I Want Someone" backed by "The Mountain's High") was on Lama Records, a small company started by their record producers, the Wilder brothers and Don Ralke. Their recordings were created with four voice tracks. Each of them sang two separate harmony lines. St. John sang the highest and lowest parts including the falsetto, and Dee Dee sang the middle notes. Without telling the duo, the record producers changed Mary's name to Dee Dee, something the duo did not discover until after the record was released. [1] [7]

The rock and roll song "The Mountain's High" became a smash hit in San Francisco. [5] The single was leased to Liberty Records for national distribution [1] [4] and spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. [1] The track reached No. 37 in the UK Singles Chart, [1] [2] [3] and eventually sold over a million copies. [7] Sperling left college to perform with St. John on rock and roll tours in America, Europe, and Japan. [5]

Touring with the Beach Boys, Rolling Stones

In the United States early on in their career, Dick and Dee Dee performed at California high school assemblies with the upcoming surf band the Beach Boys. They eventually sang in 49 of the 50 states, with acts like Roy Orbison, the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, the Shirelles, The Dick Clark Caravan of Stars, Murray the K’s Brooklyn Paramount Theatre review, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Kingsmen, Patti La Belle, the Crystals, the Drifters, Ben E. King, Jan and Dean, the Miracles, the Dovells, Johnny Tillotson, Jackie Wilson, and Sonny and Cher.

Dick and Dee Dee were the opening act for the Rolling Stones when the band came to California for their first tour in 1964. The duo recorded their voices on three Rolling Stones tracks while visiting London in 1964, including "Blue Turns to Grey", and "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind", penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In an interview with BBC Radio recorded in 2006, Dee Dee Phelps revealed that their singing was overdubbed onto backing tracks recorded by the Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger's vocals removed. [2] The songs were officially sanctioned, largely at the behest of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and released on Warner Bros. Records. [4] [7]

Later singles

The duo had eight other singles chart with a total of five reaching the Top 30. Their other hits included "Tell Me" (1962), "Young and in Love" (1963), "Turn Around" in 1964 (written by Malvina Reynolds and recorded by Harry Belafonte), and "Thou Shalt Not Steal" (their second-biggest hit, reaching No. 13 in 1965, which included a special picture sleeve issue promoting Triumph Motorcycles). They also performed the song "Bupkiss" (which was also the title of the episode) on The Dick Van Dyke Show . After their last hit "Thou Shalt Not Steal", [5] they remained regulars on Jack Good's television show Shindig! . [4]

Disbanding, revivals

In 1965, Dee Dee married the duo's manager (later executive television producer for Dick Clark Productions), Bill Lee, and had one son. [4] In 1969, St. John and Sperling parted ways. Dick St. John continued as a songwriter, co-writing "Yellow Balloon" for the group of the same name. [5] [7] After her divorce in the early seventies, Dee Dee married Kane Phelps and moved to Big Sur for the remainder of that decade. They raised two other children, moving back to the Los Angeles area in the 1980s, and are still married as of 2011. [8]

In the 1980s, St. John revived the Dick and Dee Dee act with his wife, Sandy. The two of them also authored a cookbook in 1993, The Rock and Roll Cookbook, which featured recipes of various rock and roll artists. St. John died on December 27, 2003, after a fall from the roof of his house, at the age of 63. [4]

Dick & Dee Dee are (sarcastically?) name-checked several times (as rumored to be re-uniting) in the 1980 movie "One Trick Pony" written by, and starring, Paul Simon.

Dick and Dee Dee today

Michael Dunn and Dee Dee Phelps performing in 2011 Michael Dee Dee 2011.jpg
Michael Dunn and Dee Dee Phelps performing in 2011

In 2006, Dee Dee Phelps published Vinyl Highway, Singing as Dick and Dee Dee in the Sixties , [9] [10] and in 2008 she teamed with actor and singer Michael Dunn to again revive the classic Dick and Dee Dee songs on stage. [5] [6]

Dunn was trained at the Juilliard School and had a lengthy theatrical career in his native Chicago. He is also a lyricist, partnering with producer/composer Jim Price for several years in Nashville. He sang the John Lennon lead vocals on Dan Castellaneta’s Beatles tribute, Two Lips: The Lost Album, in 1998. For over a decade he has performed a one-man show as Charles Dickens for Los Angeles audiences.

Discography

Albums

YearAlbumRecord Label
1962Tell Me – The Mountain's High Liberty Records
1963Young and in Love Warner Bros. Records
1964Turn Around
1965Thou Shalt Not Steal
1966Songs We've Sung on Shindig
1995The Best of Dick and Dee DeeVarèse Vintage

Singles

YearTitlePeak chart positionsRecord Label B-side Album
US AC UK
1961"The Mountain's High"237 Liberty Records "I Want Someone"Tell Me – The Mountain's High
"Goodbye to Love""Swing Low"
1962"Tell Me"22"Will You Always Love Me"
"Life's Just a Play""All I Want"
"The River Took My Baby""My Lonely Self"
1963"Young and in Love"176 Warner Bros. Records "Say to Me"Young and in Love
"Love Is a Once in a Lifetime Thing"103"Chug-A-Chug-A Choo Choo"
"Where Did the Good Times Go"93"Guess Our Love Must Show"Thou Shalt Not Steal
"Turn Around"2715"Don't Leave Me"Turn Around
1964"All My Trials"89"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"
"Not Fade Away""The Gift"Thou Shalt Not Steal
"Remember When""You Were Mine"
"Thou Shalt Not Steal"13"Just 'Round the River Bend"
1965"Be My Baby"87"Room 404"
"When Blue Turns to Grey""Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind"
"Use What You've Got""New Orleans"
1966"Till""Sha-La"
"So Many Things We Don't Know""She Didn't Even Say Goodbye"
"Make Up Before We Break Up""Can't Get Enough of Your Love"
1967"I'll Always Be Around""Long Lonely Nights"
"One in a Million""Baby, I Need You"
1968"The Escape Suite" Dot Records "I'm Not Gonna Get Hung-Up About It"
1969"In the Season of Our Love""We'll Sing in the Sunshine"
"Do I Love You""You Come Back to Haunt Me"

TV, film performances

Television
Motion Picture

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan and Dean</span> American musical duo

Jan and Dean was an American rock duo consisting of William Jan Berry and Dean Ormsby Torrence. In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music styles popularized by the Beach Boys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon & Garfunkel</span> American folk music duo

Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They rank as one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number ones: "The Sound of Silence" (1965) and the two Grammy Record of the Year winners "Mrs. Robinson" (1968) and "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970). Other successful songs include "The Boxer" (1969), "Cecilia" (1970) and the four 1966 releases "Homeward Bound", "I Am a Rock", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" and "A Hazy Shade of Winter", as well as the 1968 album track "America".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Garfunkel</span> American singer (born 1941)

Arthur Ira Garfunkel is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainted with Simon through an elementary school play of Alice in Wonderland and sought a partnership. Their combined presence in music began in the 1950s, and throughout the 1960s, the duo of Simon & Garfunkel achieved great chart success with tracks such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "Scarborough Fair", "The Boxer" and "Bridge over Troubled Water", whose title also served as the name of Simon & Garfunkel's final album in 1970. Simon & Garfunkel split for personal reasons, but the pair have occasionally reunited in the years since. Both men experienced success in solo careers in the years following the duo's breakup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Everly Brothers</span> American rock duo

The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Ronettes</span> American girl group

The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett, her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. They had sung together since they were teenagers, then known as "The Darling Sisters". Signed first by Colpix Records in 1961, they moved to Phil Spector's Philles Records in March 1963 and changed their name to "The Ronettes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hall & Oates</span> American pop rock duo

Daryl Hall and John Oates, commonly known as Hall & Oates, were an American pop, rock, R&B duo formed in Philadelphia in 1970. Daryl Hall was generally the lead vocalist; John Oates primarily played the electric guitar and provided backing vocals. The two wrote most of the songs they performed, either separately or in collaboration. They achieved their greatest fame from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s with a fusion of rock and roll, soul music, and rhythm and blues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ike & Tina Turner</span> American musical duo

Ike & Tina Turner were an American musical duo consisting of husband and wife Ike Turner and Tina Turner. From 1960 to 1976, they performed live as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, supported by Ike Turner's band the Kings of Rhythm and backing vocalists called the Ikettes. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue was regarded as "one of the most potent live acts on the R&B circuit."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Preston</span> American R&B musician (1946–2006)

William Everett Preston was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, backing Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, the Everly Brothers, Reverend James Cleveland, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He gained attention as a solo artist with hit singles "That's the Way God Planned It", the Grammy-winning "Outa-Space", "Will It Go Round in Circles", "Space Race", "Nothing from Nothing", and "With You I'm Born Again". Additionally, Preston co-wrote "You Are So Beautiful", which became a #5 hit for Joe Cocker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlene Love</span> American singer and actress (born 1941)

Darlene Wright, better known by the stage name Darlene Love, is an American R&B and soul singer and actress. She was the lead singer of the girl group the Blossoms and she also recorded as a solo artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Eva</span> American singer (1943–2003)

Eva Narcissus Boyd, known by the stage name of Little Eva, was an American singer, well known for her 1962 hit "The Loco-Motion".

Shindig! was an American musical variety series which aired on ABC from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966. The show was hosted by Jimmy O'Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles, who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley, British producer Jack Good, and production executive Art Stolnitz. The original pilot was rejected by ABC and David Sontag, then executive producer of ABC, redeveloped and completely redesigned the show. A new pilot with a new cast of artists was shot starring Sam Cooke. That pilot aired as the premiere episode.

Donnie Brooks was an American pop music singer. Brooks is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

<i>Alice Cooper Goes to Hell</i> 1976 studio album by Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper Goes to Hell is the second solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A continuation of Welcome to My Nightmare as it continues the story of Steven, the concept album was written by Cooper with guitar player Dick Wagner and producer Bob Ezrin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chad & Jeremy</span> British band

Chad & Jeremy were a British musical duo consisting of Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde, who began working in 1962 and had their first hit song in the UK with "Yesterday's Gone" (1963). That song became a hit in the United States in the following year as part of the British Invasion. Unlike the rock-music sounds of their peers, Chad & Jeremy performed in a soft, folk-inflected style that is characterised by hushed and whispered vocals. The duo had a string of hits in the United States, including "Willow Weep for Me", "Before and After", and their biggest hit, "A Summer Song". After some commercial failures and divergent personal ambitions, Chad & Jeremy disbanded in 1968.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Medley</span> American singer (born 1940)

William Thomas Medley is an American singer best known as one-half of The Righteous Brothers. He is noted for his bass-baritone voice, exemplified in songs such as "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". Medley produced a number of the duo's songs, including "Unchained Melody" and "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dee Dee Phelps</span> American singer-songwriter and author

Dee Dee Phelps is a singer-songwriter and author from Santa Monica, California, best known as half the popular 1960s musical duo Dick and Dee Dee. She became a professional writer in 2007, publishing her award-winning memoir Vinyl Highway. In 2008, Dee Dee joined with singer/actor Michael Dunn to revive the Dick and Dee Dee act live. More recently, in 2013, Dee Dee is now teamed with Deke Detanna, lead singer of Deke and the Blazers. The duo performs all over the country, singing classic Dick and Dee Dee hits.

<i>T.A.M.I. Show</i> 1964 American film

T.A.M.I. Show is a 1964 concert film released by American International Pictures. It includes performances by numerous popular rock and roll and R&B musicians from the United States and England. The concert was held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964. Free tickets were distributed to local high school students. The acronym "T.A.M.I." was used inconsistently in the show's publicity to mean both "Teenage Awards Music International" and "Teen Age Music International".

David Ernest White, also known as David White Tricker, was an American singer and songwriter. He formed the doo-wop quartet Danny & the Juniors, as well as being a founding member of the pop trio The Spokesmen. He wrote "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" and co-wrote a number of other hit songs, including "At the Hop", "You Don't Own Me", and "1-2-3".

25x5: The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones is a documentary featuring rock group the Rolling Stones, charting the period between the band's formation in 1962 and the release of its then latest album, 1989's Steel Wheels. It was directed by acclaimed British documentary-maker Nigel Finch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lonely Teardrops</span> 1958 single by Jackie Wilson

"Lonely Teardrops" is a song written by Berry Gordy Jr., Gwen Gordy and Roquel "Billy" Davis, first recorded and released as a single in 1958 by R&B singer Jackie Wilson, on the Brunswick label. The single was commercially successful, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, and number-one on the R&B chart. It is ranked as the 57th biggest U.S. hit of 1959.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs (2nd ed.). London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd. p.  134. ISBN   0-214-20512-6.
  2. 1 2 3 Leigh, Spencer. "Dee Dee Interview". BBC Radio. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 154. ISBN   1-904994-10-5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Leigh, Spencer. "Dick St. John (1940-2003)". Spectropop. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 James, Gary. "Gary James' Interview With Dee Dee Sperling of "Dick and Dee Dee"". Classic Bands. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  6. 1 2 Aushenker, Michael (June 11, 2008). "New 'Mountain': Dick and Dee Dee Return!". Palisadian Post. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 James, Gary (2008). "Dick St. John Interview ("Dick and Dee Dee")". FamousInterview.ca. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  8. "Show Stars: Dee Dee Phelps". Chuck Stevens Oldies. Archived from the original on December 13, 2010. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  9. Waxler, Jerry. "Memoir Interview with 1960s Celebrity Dee Dee Phelps". Memory Writers Network. Retrieved January 31, 2011.
  10. Phelps, Dee Dee (2007). Vinyl Highway: Singing as "Dick and Dee Dee" (1st ed.). Los Angeles: Altergate Publishing. p. 335. ISBN   978-1-934321-75-1.

Further reading