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The Ultimate Halloween 60’s Girl Group Playlists

It’s that time again! Tis the season for Halloween favorites courtesy of 60 Degrees with Brian Ferrari, my weekly radio program featuring “60’s chicks and girl groups – the hidden gems, cult favorites and unreleased obscurities of the decade.” The show ran for five years from 2008-2013 and has been back on the air since the relaunch of East Village Radio in July, 2024.

Our first Halloween episode was originally broadcast on October 27, 2008 and aired every Halloween for the duration of the show’s run.

Our second Halloween show took a mere 17 years to come to fruition. Halloween 60 Degrees Part II: Electric Boogaloo is streaming here:

Once again, we’ve got soul witches, rockabilly rabble-rousers, death discs, horror movie theme songs, science fiction sirens, girls driven to madness by love, and more dead boyfriends than you can shake a broomstick at. Plus a whole lot more! As with every episode, the songs are interspersed with vintage commercials, sound effects and movie clips.

Playlist:
The Tammys “Egyptian Shumba”
Carolyn Sullivan “Dead!”
Annisteen Allen “Fujiyama Mama”
Sparkle Moore “Killer”
Jewell Gilbert “Mad Nervous Woman”
La Lupe “Fever”
Teacho & His Students “Chills & Fever”
The Wonderettes “I Feel Strange”
Helene Smith “Thrills and Chills”
Nora Guthrie “Emily’s Illness”
Bernadette Carroll “The Hero”
Twinkle “Terry”
The Shangri-Las “I Can Never Go Home Anymore”
The Pussycats “Dressed in Black”
The Jaye Triplets “(Nightmare) I Didn’t Wanna Fight”
Bette Davis & Debbie Burton “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”
Patti Page “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte”
Josie Cotton “Who Killed Teddy Bear?”
The Peanuts (wi Bear McCreary) “Mothra’s Song”
Josie Cotton “Faster Pussycat”
Linda Cumbo (Clifford) “Did You Ever Lose Your Mind (Over A Boy)”
Reparata & The Delrons “I Can Hear The Rain”
Lesley Gore “I’m Fallin’ Down”
Lori Saunders “Out of Your Mind”
Koko Taylor & Willie Dixon “Insane Asylum”
Sugar Pie DeSanto “Witch For A Night”
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity “Season Of The Witch”
The Rattles “The Witch”
Janie Jones “Witch In White”
Betty Barnes “Requiem (For A Girl Born Of The Wrong Times)”
Twinkle “Soldier’s Dream”
Estelle Bennett “In The Year 2000”
The Pussycats “The Rider”
Shocking Blue “Deamon Lover”
Joi Lansing “Web Of Love”
The Crystals “Vampire”
Laura Gibson “Li’l Red Riding Hood”
Annie Lennox “I Put a Spell On You”

The first Halloween show is also available to stream HERE.

60 Degrees Halloween Show #1 Playlist:
Reparata & The Delrons “Panic”
Babs Tino “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde”
The Centurians “Intoxica”
Sparkle Moore “Skull and Crossbones”
Wanda Jackson “Riot in Cell Block #9”
Southern Culture on the Skids “Torture”
Southern Culture on the Skids “Devil’s Stompin’ Ground”
Southern Culture On The Skids “Theme From “The Cheaters””
France Gall “Frankenstein”
The Crystals “Frankenstein Twist”
Hayley Mills “Jimmie Bean Song”
Claudine Clark “Walkin’ Through A Cemetery”
The Sham-ettes “Hey There Big Bad Wolf”
Hayley Mills “Cranberry Bog”
Nite Hawks “Chicken Grabber”
The Shangri-Las “Give Us Your Blessings”
The Satisfactions “Daddy You Just Gotta Let Him In”
The Goodees “Condition Red”
The Nu-Luvs “So Soft, So Warm (Dressed In Black)”
The Whyte Boots (Lori Burton) “Nightmare”
Glenda Collins “It’s Hard to Believe It”
Judy Garland “Purple People Eater (Live)”
The Kane Triplets “Theme from “Mission Impossible””
Link Wray “The Swag”
Tracy “Strange Love (from “Lust For A Vampire”)”
Mikki Young “Who Killed Teddy Bear?”
Patti Seymour “The Silencer”
Josie Cotton “Maneaters (Get Off The Road)”
Janie Jones “Wiches Brew”
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas “Mobile Lil The Dancing Witch”
Bettye LaVette “Witchcraft In The Air”
Erma Franklin “Abracadabra”
Dusty Springfield “Spooky”
The Lawrence Comp. “Moon Beams”
Marie Applebee “The Boy Who Took My Heart (took my mind)”
The Love Chain “The Love Chain”
Peggy Lee “The Case Of M.J.”
Janie Jones “Psycho”
Martin Sisters “Mother Mother (I Feel Sick)”
Julie Budd “All’s Quiet On West 23rd”
Gayle Haness “Johnny Ander”
The Indigos “He’s Coming Home”
Bobbie Gentry “Casket Vignette”
Cass Elliot “The Costume Ball”
Dusty Springfield “Haunted”

The first Halloween show was also posted to Youtube a few years ago. There are three segments with visuals and some minor alterations.

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Part 1:

Reparata & the Delrons – Panic
Babs Tino – Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde
Sparkle Moore – Skull & Crossbones
Wanda Jackson – Riot In Cellblock 9
Southern Culture On The Skids – Torture
France Gall – Frankenstein
The Crystals – Frankenstein Twist
Hayley Mills – Jimmy Bean
Claudine Clark – Walking Through A Cemetery
The Sham-ettes – Hey There Big Bad Wolf

Part 2:

Hayley Mills – Cranberry Bog
The Shangri-La’s – Give Us Your Blessing
The Satisfactions – Daddy You Just Gotta Let Him In
The Goodees – Condition Red
The Nu-Luvs – So Soft, So Warm (Dressed In Black)
The Whyte Boots (Lori Burton) – Nightmare
Glenda Collins – It’s Hard To Believe It
Judy Garland – Purple People Eater
The Kane Triplets – Theme From Mission Impossible
Tracy – Strange Love
Mikki Young – Who Killed Teddy Bear?
Patti Seymour – The Silencer
Josie Cotton – Maneaters (Get Off The Road)

Part 3:

Janie Jones – Witches Brew
Martha & The Vandellas – Mobile Lil The Dancing Witch
Bettye Lavette – Witchcraft In The Air
Erma Franklin – Abracadabra
Dusty Springfield – Spooky
Marie Applebee – The Boy Who Took My Heart (took my mind)
The Love Chain – The Love Chain
Peggy Lee – The Case of M.J.
Janie Jones – Psycho
The Martin Sisters – Mother Mother (I Feel Sick)
Julie Budd – All’s Quiet On West 23^rd St.
Gayle Haness – Johnny Ander
The Indigos – He’s Coming Home
Cass Elliott – The Costume Ball
Teacho & The Students – Chills & Fever
Dusty Springfield – Haunted

There you have it – 4 terrifying hours of 60’s chicks and girl groups. 60 Degrees is always kinda cool, but at this time of year, its downright bone-chilling!

Tony Ward In Touch Magazine (1985)

Madonna’s triumphant return to the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards contained many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos during her performance of “Danceteria.” One of those was her ex-boyfriend and music video co-star Tony Ward.

*Ward & Madonna, 1990 (photo: Herb Ritts)*

I had just recently revisited Ward’s cover photo & layout in the March, 1985 issue of In Touch For Men. (The featured John Waters interview will be posted at a later date). Credited by his full name, baby-faced Anthony Borden Ward was 21 years old when the issue hit the newsstands. He already had four years of modeling experience under his belt, working with photographer Herb Ritts and modeling for Calvin Klein. (Although his socks are not visible in the photos, they are credited to CK.)

Ward also appeared in promotional shots for In Touch later that year:

*An outtake from the original photo shoot later appeared in the January, 1990 issue of* In Touch.

Ward went on to appear in Madonna’s videos for “Cherish” (1989, directed by Herb Ritts), “Justify My Love”(1990) and “Erotica” (1992). He also appeared in Madonna’s 1992 book Sex. He starred in Bruce LaBruce’s movie Hustler White (1996), the 1998 documentary Sex/Life In L.A, and dozen other films and music videos.

Besides his work in front of the camera, Tony Ward is also a painter and photographer. He lives in Palm Springs, CA.

Dolly Parton Ephemera

Ephemera: collectible printed or written items that were originally meant to be used for a short time and discarded.

I love the word. Would it surprise anyone to know that I have a file cabinet full of clippings on my favorite female singers & girl groups of the past… uh… century? Clearly, I do not find ephemera to be ephemeral.

What more can be said about dearly departed Dolly Parton? Plenty have eulogized her since her passing. Here I offer random tidbits from my Dolly Parton file along with a few paragraphs I contributed to an article in The Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger.

First, we have some clippings from Billboard magazine in 1965. Monument records was promoting her latest single – a cover of Margo Sylvia & The Tuneweavers’ “Happy Happy Birthday Baby.” Produced by Ray Stevens, Dolly’s version peaked at #108 – bubbling under the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Her follow-up single, Busy Signal did not chart.

*Belgian 45 picture sleeve for Dolly Parton’s* “Busy Signal” *(1965)*

In August 1982, the Mandate magazine featured an article on Dolly’s latest LP, Heartbreak Express:

Dolly featured in the July 1997 Out magazine cover feature:

Earlier this month, I recounted Dolly Parton’s 2016 show at Forest Hills Stadium for Michael Perlman’s article in the Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger:

Maybe.

Part I – The Early 1970’s

*With my* Susan Sings Sesame Street LP (1971)

When I was two years old, my mother wrote in my baby book that I liked to listen to records. That’s how far back that goes. Among my Disneyland and Sesame Street records were all of my parents’ discarded 45s from their formative years. This was now the 1970’s and albums were what they were purchasing.

Even before I could read, I could tell by looking at the record label which songs I liked. The blue ones with the map on them were good (it was Motown). The ones with the orange and yellow swirl were The Beatles and The Beach Boys. (Capitol records – fun to watch spin on the turntable). My favorite record, though, was the only one with little doggies on the label: “Maybe” by the Chantels, on End records.

“Candy” – my mother’s name – was written on the label in neat pre-teen cursive. She told me many times that she used to listen to this record every day when she came home from school.

By this time, she was no longer quite so fond if it. She didn’t care for any of the old records, really. Not anymore. There wasn’t a lot of nostalgia in our house. The old-fashioned “ba-da-dum-dum dum” piano intro of “Maybe” would start and she’d roll her eyes, asking why I insisted on playing those old songs. But sometimes while doing housework, she would loudly sing along, complete with dramatic gestures that made me laugh.

Part II: 1979

My mom, her boyfriend, and I are sitting around listening to music. They met working at the Pizza Hut. He’s 20 years old and listens to Kiss and Foghat. She’s 33, divorced with three kids and likes Billy Joel and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

I don’t recall how “Maybe” came up, but I went and fished it out of my pile of 45s. Like me, he wasn’t born yet when this record came out. The song intro starts, and he jumps on it. “What the hell is that?” It is decades away from current popular music, and he’s making fun of it. Poking fun at her, really. Not in a mean way. Everyone is laughing.

He keeps starting the record over – playing that creaky piano intro over and over again until she’s laughing so hard, she has tears in her eyes.

Part III: July, 2011

July 30, 2011, I’m at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park for She’s Got The Power! A Girl Group Extravaganza. This is an all-day concert celebrating the girl groups of the 1950’s and 60’s. Former Chantels lead singer Arlene Smith is one of the performers.

By this point, “Maybe” is considered to be one of the greatest records of the 1950’s, paving the way for the girl group era and making a place at the table for female R&B vocal groups. Singers like Darlene Love and The Supremes cite the recording as an early influence.

Arlene Smith takes to the stage draped in glittery fabric, seated in an electric wheelchair that she expertly maneuvers around the stage as she sings the song. 54 years have passed since she recorded this, but her voice is still strong. I decide to call my mother, tell her where I am and hold up the phone for her to hear.

“Oh my god. I haven’t heard that song in years!” she says. She gets a little choked up, and I tell her I’ll call her later when I get home.

In the documentary Girl Groups – Story Of A Sound, Arlene Smith recalled that she had just turned 16 years old when the Chantels recorded “Maybe.” “I was singing about the kind of love that I didn’t know… I loved my parents.”

Part IV: July, 2026

We are enjoying a summer evening in my sister’s back yard, as best we can. A year and a half of cancer treatments has reduced my mother to 90 lbs, but it’s the Alzheimer’s that has now taken the lead in this battle. Earlier in the afternoon, we had her try to draw a clock – a cognitive test used to detect the disease. She couldn’t do it, although she can still tell the time on her watch. It’s a tricky thing to navigate.

I suddenly have an idea. I pick up my sister’s phone and hijack her Summer BBQ Spotify playlist. I tell my mother I want her to listen to something and see if she remembers it.

The piano begins “ba-da-dum-dum dum” …” Her brow is slightly furrowed. When the vocals start, she mouths the words, but she doesn’t sing. I don’t remember the last time I heard her sing.

My stepfather is dozing next to her. Without opening his eyes, he says “What year was that?”

“1958. Do you remember this song?,” I ask.

“Sounds familiar,” he says.

I tell my mother; “This was your favorite record when you were a kid. You said you used to listen to it every day when you came home from school.”

She nods and softly says, “I was heartbroken.”

“Over who?”

“I don’t remember.”

She may not have remembered, but later that night, I did. His name was Jackie. I grew up in the same house that my mother did and sometimes I would find little hearts drawn in hidden places: on the wall inside the linen closet, on the underside of the coffee table. In these hearts she had written “Candy loves Jackie.” I remember asking her about him back then. She told me about the first boy she was in love with, and how crushed she was when it didn’t work out.

Would I have mentioned his name if I had thought of it in the back yard? Are painful memories better left forgotten? Or is it important to keep trying to remember simply as a brain exercise?

Maybe if I play this record for her next weekend, it will trigger a different memory. Maybe she will remember singing around the house, or the Pizza Hut guy. Maybe the memory of my phone call from Lincoln Center will come back to her. Or maybe next time, the song won’t sound familiar to her at all.

The record fades out as Arlene repeatedly pleads “Maybe…” Her fellow teenage Chantels, forever frozen in time, sing back to her; “Maybe maybe maybe…”

She Knew Something About Love: Brenda Reid (1945-2026)

Brenda Reid, the lead singer and last surviving member of the original Exciters, passed away on April 29, 2026. She was 80 years old.

In the liner notes for The Exciters’ Something To Shout About! CD compilation, Malcolm Baumgart and Mick Patrick wrote, “If Brenda Reid was a foodstuff, she’d be jalapeño peppers. If she was a chemical compound, she’d be nitro-glycerin. A color? Why, flame red! That woman’s voice was the distilled essence of heat. Never was a group fronted by such a torrid vocalist, and never was a group more aptly named than The Exciters.”

It was a voice that stopped a young Dusty Springfield in her tracks on Broadway one night in 1962, when she heard “Tell Him” blasting out of Colony Records. On her way to Nashville to record a country album with her group The Springfields, Brenda’s vocal hit Dusty at such a visceral level that she was forced to rethink her career trajectory. Legendary songwriter/producer Ellie Greenwich was quoted as saying; “Brenda has one of the best voices I’ve heard. As far as I was concerned, she could do no wrong – she would only add to the song, make it greater.”

The Exciters were a trio of Queens schoolgirls (Brenda with Carol Johnson and Lillian Walker) harmonizing with sole male group member Herb Rooney. Although technically not a girl group, Brenda is widely regarded as one of the signature voices of the girl group era. On the strength of their recordings of “Tell Him,” “He’s Got The Power,” and the original version of “Do Wah Diddy,” the group was chosen for the Beatles 1964 American tour. They went on to release a string of excellent records through the 1960’s and 1970’s that have become staples of the Northern Soul scene.

I got to know Brenda through Words With Friends. We were connected on social media – or rather, I had fanboy friend-requested her in 2011 after the group performed at Lincoln Center for She’s Got The Power! A Girl Group Extravaganza . But the WWF algorithm paired us up – possibly because we both seemed to suffer from insomnia and played the game at all hours of the night.

One day as I was listening to my recently acquired copy of The Exciters rare 1971 Black Beauty LP, the app pinged that Brenda had played a word. I sent her a message to tell her that I was listening to her album and that I was very much enjoying it. She responded that she didn’t have a copy of it anymore, so I volunteered to burn a CD and send it to her. I added some rare bonus tracks to the disc that I mailed off, including the sole single by her first group The Masterettes, which morphed into The Exciters.

She later said “When I heard that Masterettes song that you put on there, I said ‘Ok. This guy knows his stuff.'”

One night, after a few servings of liquid courage, I sent a message asking if she would be interested in doing an interview for my East Village Radio show, 60 Degrees. This was in the fall of 2012 – just in time for the 50th anniversary of the release of “Tell Him.” She agreed and invited me to have lunch and conduct the interview at her home in Huntington, Long Island.

I packed up my laptop and microphones and borrowed my mother’s car to head over. Her daughter Trisha cooked a spaghetti lunch and we had a great afternoon talking about music.

During the interview, when we were discussing The Exciters recording of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s weepy 1972 ballad “Alone Again (Naturally),” I mentioned that I had never been able to find a copy, to which Brenda says with a laugh “I will give you a copy to-DAY.” After the interview was finished, she played the recording on her computer and began to sing along. We were sitting at her desk in her home office, but vocally this turned into a full-blown performance, matching the recording she had done 40 years before. I thought I might just die right there.

On paper, the idea of the Exciters recording a song like “Alone Again (Naturally) or a disco version of “I (Who Have Nothing)” sound like terrible ideas. But with Herb’s arrangements and Brenda’s voice, they always knocked it out of the park. In his book Girl Groups: Fabulous Females Who Rocked The World, John Clemente writes, “Two important facts are a testament to the Exciter’s musical integrity; that they lasted longer than most vocal groups, especially when chart success was not always forthcoming; and that they were able to weather stylistic changes in popular music, never once sounding awkward or stale in the mix.”

*Sheet music for “Reaching For The Best”, a Northern Soul hit co-written by Herb Rooney with Ian Levine. (1975)*

One of the lyrics of “Reaching For The Best”, their 1975 UK hit was “I want an evening gown… I can’t afford a house dress… All my life I’ve been reaching for the best…” I am reminded of a story that Brenda shared before we started recording the interview that afternoon. The Masterettes has scored their first gig at the Hillside Theatre in Queens. They were at the bottom of the bill with a half dozen other artists, including Baby Washington. Brenda idolized Baby – she was her biggest musical influence, along with Frankie Lymon. She recalled that Baby arrived backstage at the theater making a star’s entrance: elegant but aloof and beautifully dressed.

Brenda was quite intimidated and upset about her own inexperience and her group’s simple costumes. She was crying in a corner backstage when Baby came over to ask her what was wrong. She told her that she was embarrassed at her own appearance, that Baby looked so beautiful and she wished that she could have a career like hers. Baby comforted her and assured her that one day, she would achieve it.

*A Family Affair: The 1980’s Exciters featured Brenda and Herb with their children: Tracy & Cory, and Herb’s son Jeffrey.*

When I knew that we had recorded plenty of material to fill a 2-hour program, I ended the interview. I had decided beforehand that I would not pry into the later years, when she had to get a retail job after she and Herb split. Brenda looked surprised that the interview was over. She later conveyed to me that she WANTED to talk about the lean years. She wanted to talk more about the ups and downs of their relationship, and also the loss of their daughter Tracy to leukemia. She was inspired by Tina Turner’s memoir and wanted to tell her own story in her own way. She had been working on a book for quite some time – speaking on tape to get her thoughts recorded. Her son Cory, now a very successful producer and record executive, had put her in touch with a writer to assist. Nothing ever came of it and she was still without a publisher. We agreed to meet again for another interview, which would hopefully coincide with the book coming out.

And then what happened? Life went on. We both moved on from our late night Words With Friends habit. 60 Degrees went off the air the following spring when East Village Radio shuttered. We stayed in touch on Facebook and were reunited at events for the Piece Of My Heart Off-Broadway musical and a Bert Berns documentary screening in New York City. Brenda eventually moved to California to be near Cory and his family.

*Opening night party for the Off-Broadway musical* Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story. (July 14, 2014)

On some level I felt like I had failed her – she never got to tell the rest of her story. There was much more she wanted to say. “I really need help with it but I’m not going to give up,” she wrote in an email. I felt some responsibility to help her do that, even though she had other people in her life that felt the same way. And that’s how it was left.

After I heard that she had passed away, I listened back to a voicemail that she left me after our interview had aired in 2012. She said “I just wanted to thank you for such a wonderful interview. You made me feel very special today… you made me feel very proud of myself and I just wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your life to want to come over and interview me and let the world hear what I had to say… Thank you so much. God bless.”

Thinking back to our conversations about the book, I don’t recall the title she had chosen. In my mind, it could only be one thing: I Know Something About Love. The opening line of the song that introduced the world to that flame red nitro-glycerin voice, bursting from a 17 year-old school girl from Queens. It was a declaration so strong and memorable that you can sing that line to people of any age and they will recognize it from someplace in their pop culture memories. They may not know her name or The Exciters, but they understand this: she knew what she was talking about.

The Exciters performed at Lincoln Center, NYC for She’s Got The Power! A Girl Group Extravaganza on July 30, 2011. Alongside original members Brenda Reid and Lillian Walker were Beverly Warren and Brenda & Herb Rooney’s son Cory Rooney. Backing them up (as The Boyfriends) were Jeremy Chatzky and members of Yo La Tengo. Among the backing singers: Barbara Harris (of The Toys), Delron Nanette Licari, Susan Collins, Mikie Harris, Jean Thomas, Lesley Miller, Toni Wine and Ula Hedwig.

East Village Radio re-broadcast the 2012 60 Degrees show with Brenda Reid on Sunday, 5/17/2026. You can listen to it here:

Madame Spivy: I Love Town

“This is my answer to a man who tried to induce me to live on a farm…”

Ladies and Gentleman, it is time once again to revisit that late great lady of song, Madame Spivy LeVoe (1906-1971), also known simply as Spivy. A lesbian entertainer, nightclub owner and character actress, Spivy has been described as “The Female Noel Coward” – to which I add “…. if he had been born in Brooklyn as Bertha Levine.”

*Spivy photographed by Max Ewing (1932)*

This is our 9th in a series of posts focusing on individual songs recorded by Spivy. Previously, we featured:
T he Alley Cat
The Tarantella
Auntie’s Face
100% American Girls
A Tropical Fish
I Brought Culture to Buffalo In The 90’s
I Didn’t Do A Thing Last Night
Why Don’t You?

“I Love Town” is an ode to urban living, specifically New York City. Decades before Alicia Keys and Madonna sang of their love of The Big Apple, long before Liza started spreadin’ the news, before Judy happened to like New York, Spivy loved town. The song appeared on her 78 rpm album Seven Gay Sophisticated Songs, first released in 1939 on the Exclusive label. Later reissues on Commodore and General Records switched out the original cover photo for a Carl Van Vechten portrait.

Of the15 songs Spivy is known to have recorded, 5 of them were written or co-written by John LaTouche. This is one of two that he co-wrote with Goetz Eyck, a German-born musician who would go on to a film career as Peter van Eyck.

Songwriters John LaTouche & Goetz Eyck, aka Peter Van Eyck

*Spivy photo by Carl Van Vechten (1944)*

I Love Town

I Love Town
Take your old hound dogs with their yelping litters
Give me Pekingeses that have the jitters
Take your old oaked buckets, I’ll have gin and bitters
I Love Town

I feel down
in woodlands lousy with deer and squirrels
Where the women get coy and the men get virile
Mother Nature’s a dirty old girl:
Think of rabbit’s habits

In the sacred portals of New York, the footmen stand in livery
There are no traveling salesmen offering Rural Free Deliveries

I want to live in town
where you hunt in Jaekal’s when you want a fox hide
And you see fair hair of purest peroxide
And you breathe fresh air of carbon monoxide
I Love Town

I hate farms
where the food is freshest and the life the crudest
Give me nightclub life though it seems denudest
Where a gal gets paid for going nudist
I Love Town

I love garbage
give me grapefruit rinds with coffee grounds in ‘em
As for athletics, I’m all again’em
Though I drink at bars, I never chin ‘em
Muscle gives you a bustle

I can’t sleep in lonely country rooms, I rush and buy a ticket
Yet I snore through the traffic’s boom without a goddamn cricket

I Love Town
Where Carnation cows have contented faces
And you get your tan in a jar at Macy’s
And sand doesn’t get into awful places
I Love Town!

_________________________________

I highly recommend Ana Matronic’s Good Time Sallies podcast, which featured two episodes profiling Madame Spivy, with commentary by yours truly.

Marianne Faithfull After Dark (1980)

“Like an apparition of decadence and dissipation, she is an all too appropriate picture of innocence fallen prey to the evils and excesses of that most glamorous unholy trinity – drugs, sex and rock-and-roll.”

Depending on your calculations, Marianne Faithfull was entering the second or third act of her career when she was featured in the March, 1980 issue of After Dark magazine. The willowy chanteuse first achieved fame as part of the British Invasion with her 1964 hit “As Tears Go By,” a song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She worked her way through the Rolling Stones – first with Brian Jones, then Richards and finally Jagger, to whom she was linked romantically through rest of the 1960’s.

Faithfull’s singing career waned as she transitioned into acting roles. She was a poster child for the swinging London set, and then a cautionary tale of its excesses. By the early 1970’s, her career had been eclipsed by a series of scandalous headlines detailing drug use, breakdowns, arrests, and then homelessness. She eventually kicked her heroin habit, although complete sobriety continued to be elusive. A foray into country music in 1976 was not well received.

In the beginning… Marianne Faithfull sings “As Tears Go By” (1964)

Then came the critical and commercial success of Broken English – her 1979 LP proved to be her definitive album. She emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of the 1970’s with a punk-infused declaration that she still had something to say. How she chose to say it – with explicit lyrics that got the album banned in several countries – certainly didn’t hurt her reputation as a rock and roll survivor.

The Guardian revisited the album in a 2013 review, with Alexis Petridis writing “…her husking vocals on Broken English seemed not merely ravaged, but imperious and defiant with it, a sensation heightened by the arrangements her rasp was set against… she sounded like she was telling someone to go fuck themselves even when she wasn’t.”

It doesn’t bode well that writer Brant Mewborn begins the After Dark feature with the observation, “Marianne Faithfull is nodding out.” She’s recovering from a car accident and exhausted from a European publicity tour. “Marianne seems overworked and over-sedated. She’s obviously not ready for an interview, and I’m definitely not ready to play interrogating nursemaid to a strung-out girl who may need to publicize her reemerging career but could use a bed even more.”

One can’t help but wonder if the reporter would have been as forthcoming if he was describing Mick Jagger or Keith Richards in such a state. But that holds true for most of the judgement hurled at Faithfull throughout her career.

She does pull it together though, and Mewborn later describes her as “surprisingly candid and coherent.”

It’s interesting to note that one of the quotes highlighted in the article is “I’m not a dyke, but I like to make love with young beautiful people. Whether they are boys or girls doesn’t make an awful lot of difference.” This is actually attributed to Faithfull in the lurid tell-all Up And Down With The Rolling Stones, a book purportedly written by the band’s drug dealer Tony Sanchez but ghost written by British music journalist John Blake. In any case, she does not confirm or deny the quote here.

Reporter Brant Mewborn went on to become a senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine. He was just 38 years old when he died in 1990. Marianne Faithfull passed away at age 78 in January, 2025.

Broken English is also the title of a new documentary about Marianne Faithfull. The film screened at the Venice Film Festival and will have a theatrical release in the UK later this month. Read more about it here.

Two other singers featured elsewhere in this issue of After Dark: Cindy Bullens and France Joli.

Although Bullens put out a dozen LPs throughout her career, she is probably best known for her contributions to the 1978 Grease motion picture soundtrack, singing “It’s Raining On Prom Night” and “Freddie My Love.”

Bullens came out as transgender in 2012 and is now known as Cidney. See a recent interview posted below:

A 2023 interview with Cidney Bullens:

France Joli had just turned 17 years old when this issue of After Dark hit the stands. She was still riding high on the strength of her debut LP and the disco hit “Come To Me.” Her performance the previous summer in the Fire Island Pines is the stuff of legend and previously covered here in New York City In Touch (1979).

Dusting Off The Holiday Favorites (2025)

*Volunteer Santas, NYC (1977) photo: Susan Meiselas*

I know I am not alone when I say that I take comfort in the annual repetition of the holidays: revisiting holiday-themed music, films, television shows… and now internet posts. Dave Holmes’ account of Patti LaBelle’s disastrous performance at the 1996 National Christmas Tree lighting is worth an annual revisit. Trust me.

Not to get meta or anything, but the post you are currently reading has been reworked and updated each year since 2020.

While we’re mining the past and dusting off our chestnuts, here’s the intro to the 1999 holiday episode of Bri-Guy’s Media Surf, an NYC Public Access show that featured yours truly lip-syncing a little Esquivel:

Whenever the song pops up on my holiday playlist, I still do this.

I find it interesting that we immerse ourselves in certain pop culture favorites for exactly 6 weeks of the year and then pack them up in mothballs with the ornaments until next year. I mean, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is currently at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Burl Ives, Bobby Helms and Andy Williams are also in the top 10. Are any of them on your 4th of July playlist? They aren’t on mine.

*Gabe Pressman (left) with Marilyn Monroe (1956)*

I used to look forward to the annual Christmas Eve tradition on NBC New York’s evening news when reporter Gabe Pressman would read “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.” I taped it in 2011, knowing that the tradition wouldn’t last forever. The self-described “little Jewish kid from the Bronx” was 87 years old at the time and continued to work at NBC until his death at age 93.

NBC New York reporter Gabe Pressman’s annual segment on Virginia O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to the New York Sun Newspaper.

But wait! There’s more: My other blog posts of Christmas past are back to haunt you like A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge.

I recently updated Your Guide To Gay Disposable Holiday Movies, highlighting 16 of the gayest Lifetime/Hallmark/Netflix movies of the past few years:

We now have four 60 Degrees Girl Group Christmas playlists! These have been running each week this month on East Village Radio. Click here for streaming:

11/30/2025 Christmas Show #1: Holiday 60’s chicks and girl groups featuring lots of songs about snow and snowmen, winters warm and cold, blue holidays and Christmas trees.

12/7/2025 Christmas Show #2: The Classic Christmas Episode – our first holiday show from 2008. Featuring Darlene Love, Carla Thomas, The Supremes, Honey & The Bees and more.

12/14/2025 Christmas Show #3: British singers, obscure soul Christmas tracks, favorites from the Spector stable of artists, Motown and more!

12/21/2025 – Christmas Show #4: Featuring soul divas, duets, a boogie woogie Christmas, country ladies, Chess gospel soul and some ladies that really want a Beatle for Christmas.

I recently posted about Truman Capote’s classic short story A Christmas Memory, which includes the entire text, Capote’s 1959 reading of the story, and a link to watch the Emmy Award-winning 1966 television version starring Geraldine Page. Highly Recommended.

There’s a new Motown Christmas Special this year that has already aired in prime time this month, featuring Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves and The Temptations. Here is my take on the 1987 Motown Christmas Special – which featured very few Motown acts.

Here are 10 Things You May Not Know About March of The Wooden Soldiers, the Laurel & Hardy classic holiday film.

My Canine Christmas Tail is a true story about my dog Sunshine, a basset hound with an appetite for tinsel.

Have you watched Christmas In Connecticut yet this year? How about that delivery woman? After years of speculation, last year I was able to identify the actress as Daisy Bufford.

The original version of “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” is featured in “Llamacita,” a 2024 Amazon Prime holiday commercial. Here’s a little backstory on the song & Augie Rios, who sang the original version.

Also – would you like to hear my Spotify holiday playlist?

Way back in 2002, when Limewire was a thing and people listened to music on silvery discs, I started creating Christmas CD mixes that I would mail out or give to people. These were received with a heartwarming combination of feigned delight, veiled indifference and deafening silence. None of these CDs had a pressing of more than 20 copies. I’d like to call them “much sought after” – but no, that’s not really the case, although every once in a while, someone really got into them and would ask for copies of other volumes.

And so, I’m offering this simple playlist…. for kids from 1 to 92. Unfortunately some of the tracks on these dozen CDs are not on Spotify, but I keep adding songs that would be on the current CD volume… if there was one. And now the playlist is over 18 hours of holiday tunes. I recommend listening on shuffle – there’s something to irritate everyone. Enjoy!

Here’s one more nugget to stuff in your stocking: This vid went viral in 2011. Choreographed and performed by Alex Karigan & Zac Hammer of the Amy Marshall Dance Company, it was filmed in one continuous take at the New 42nd St. Dance Studios. There’s something infectious about it: the joy, the corniness, the celebratory queerness of it all. It makes me want to dust off my jazz shoes. Once a year.

Some Thanksgiving Treats For You (2025)

Ok – I admit it: I am one of those people who started playing Christmas music last week. Yesterday the Christmas lights went up. I don’t normally rush this, but this rotted year has really done a job on me. However, I am comfortable enough in my middle-aged fruitiness to freely quote Auntie Mame at you: We need a little Christmas. Now.

One of my favorite holiday CDs of recent years is Tracey Thorn’s Tinsel & Lights – a smart collection of original and non-traditional holiday-themed songs perfectly suited to the Everything But The Girl singer’s melancholy voice.

The lead track, Joy (written by Thorn) has been on repeat in my home every December since its 2012 release. When I first posted this in 2020, the song felt like it was tailor-made for that pandemic holiday season.

The opening lyric:
When someone very dear / calls you with the words “Everything’s all clear.” / That’s what you want to hear / but you know it might be different in the new year. / That’s why / That’s why / We hang the lights so high: Joy.

Now, as 2025 limps to a close, it’s a different lyric that strikes a chord:

So light the winds of fire / and watch as the flames grow higher / we’ll gather up our fears / And face down all the coming years / All that they destroy / And in their face we throw our Joy.

Here are some other Thanksgiving-themed goodies I have previously posted:

When it comes to holiday music, unfortunately Thanksgiving is lost in the long shadow of Christmas. There’s a severe lack of Thanksgiving songs, aren’t there? All we’ve got is “Let’s Turkey Trot” by Little Eva, and even then it is not really about Thanksgiving at all. The song’s title refers to the Turkey Trot, a dance step popular back in the early 1900’s.

“Let’s Turkey Trot” was Eva Boyd’s third single, released in 1963 with the hopes of recapturing the #1 success of her debut platter, The Loco-Motion. It had a respectable showing on the charts, peaking at #20, although it should have been billed as Little Eva & The Cookies, as the backing group is as much a part of the success of the record as the lead. Group member Earl-Jean McCrea delivers solo lines echoing their own hits Chains & Don’t Say Nothing Bad About My Baby, which also featured Little Eva on background vocals.

Here’s an abbreviated performance by Little Eva on Shindig in 1965. Darlene Love and the Blossoms stand in for the Cookies in what must be one of the proudest moments of their career. Gobble Diddle It!

The Dollyrots also covered this track in 2014. Besides using footage of Little Eva’s Shindig performance throughout the video, they also namecheck “Little Eva back in ’63”:

Want some “Mashed Potatoes” with your “Turkey Trot?” Here’s Dee Dee Sharp with her own ode to a Thanksgiving staple / dance move:

Aaaaand some “Gravy” for your mashed potatoes:

Here’s a newly updated and expanded version of a post that originated in 2019: 10 Things You May Not Know About March of The Wooden Soldiers, the Laurel & Hardy classic holiday film that is required viewing on Thanksgiving morning.

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On the darker side… one of the faux trailers from Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse is the hilariously spot-on Thanksgiving, directed by Eli Roth. It is entirely plausible that someone would have jumped on the bandwagon of grade-z holiday themed horror films that followed the success of Halloween. But this one is a fake. In 2023, Roth did put out a full movie version of Thanksgiving. The original trailer retains it’s own seedy charm:

During the Thanksgiving episode of SNL in 1997, Lilith Fair stand-up comic Cinder Calhoun (a recurring character played by Ana Gasteyer) & singer Sara McLachlan paid a visit to Norm MacDonald and the Weekend Update desk, singing the Thanksgiving classic “Basted In Blood.” It would not be nearly as funny if they didn’t sing it so well.

Unfortunately this segment seems to have fallen off the annual SNL Thanksgiving Eve prime time special.

In 2019, Ana Gasteyer released a holiday album: Sugar & Booze. Highly recommended!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A NEW Halloween 60’s Girl Group Playlist

It’s hard to believe that it has been 17 years since I put together the first Halloween show for 60 Degrees with Brian Ferrari, my weekly radio program featuring “60’s chicks and girl groups – the hidden gems, cult favorites and unreleased obscurities of the decade.” The show ran for five years and has been back on the air since the relaunch of East Village Radio in July, 2024. This Halloween episode was originally broadcast on October 27, 2008 and aired every Halloween for the duration of the show’s run.

This year we have a new show! Halloween 60 Degrees Part II: Electric Boogaloo is streaming here: