Sunday, September 9, 2007

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER - The Distant Cousins - "To Have And To Hold" (1965)

One of the main songs in "Frankenstein Meets The Spacemonster" is "To Have & To Hold" by The Distant Cousins. Do Distant Cousins say "Go Go Go" also, no, they are a little more detached, & actually, it's really hard to figure out how this whole sequence fit into the movie at all, except they had some time to kill, they had a Moped, & they could travel around the island of Puerto Rico filming pretty cheap & easy, so what we get is "Oh, Oh, Oh!" insted of "Go, Go, Go!," and one of the weirdest solos ever recorded.

Distant Cousins

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for including the song "To Have And To Hold" on the website!!!!!! It was great to hear my Uncle Raymond's voice!!!!!!
Raymond Bloodworth was one half of the group "The Distant Cousins". I loved my uncle dearly and it was so good to hear his sweet voice. He died July 18, 2007 unexpectedly and way before his time and I miss him so much. My uncle was still very active in music when he died and had recently enjoyed success when his song C'mon Marianne that he wrote for Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons was revived in the musical "The Jersey Boys" which is still going strong!!!!His voice was still as clear as a bell and he still sang often with my mother(his sister). I would love to get a copy of "To Have and To Hold" just to be able to keep hearing him sing!!!

Thanks again for providing me with the gift of his voice,
Sincerely,
Audrey T. Smith

Anonymous said...

From an internet database:

L. Russell Brown
b. June 29, 1940, Newark, NJ, USA.
Once, when Brown was 15 years old and suffering from the Mumps (a childhood disease), an even younger friend lent him a guitar. In 10 days, Brown could play it fairly well, - his fingers were sore as could be, but he could play the guitar. At one point, a teacher did indeed try to teach him to read music, but Brown found the subject too boring, and much preferred to make music his own way, and his way has turned out to be the right way.

During the 1960s, Brown was a member of the U. S. Army. While in the service, he was one half of a team called 'The Distant Cousins' that toured Europe for the Army. After his service discharge, he and Raymond Bloodworth formed a team that knocked around New York City, mostly playing the Folk Scene in that city's Greenwich Village area.

Songwriter and record producer, Bob Crewe heard his work, and took Brown under his wing. Crewe had written some 'Top Ten' hit songs including "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", "Big Girls Don't Cry", and perhaps 50 others. Working with Crewe, Brown composed his first Million-Seller, "Sock It To Me Baby", which was a huge hit for the group 'Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels.' Following that, Raymond Bloodworth and Brown wrote "C'mon Marianne" which was one of 'The Four Seasons' greatest hits.

In 1971, Russell Brown started writing songs with his very good friend the late Irwin Levine. Together, their works have already sold over 150 million records. One of their songs, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree" has accounted for over 80 percent of that total, with well over 1000 different versions around the globe in just about ever language spoken.

Two years later, in 1973, Levine and Brown wrote another song together "Knock Three Times", which sold 10 million singles in the United States alone. It was also number one Worldwide, however only a dozen or so other people have recorded "Knock Three Times".

L. Russell Brown is still very active indeed. He currently has a new 'single' coming out September 1st (2000) in Europe, and in the rest of the world including the USA on October 1st. The artist is named 'Kaci' and the song is called "Paradise" (Lyric Joel Diamond).

His tune "Butterfly (I'll Set You Free)", with lyric by Irwin Levine was recorded by Perry Como. Several of his tunes were huge hits for Tony Orlando and Dawn.

Greg Goodsell said...

Actor James Karen is still going strong at 80-plus years of age!

Anonymous said...

Hey guys! The song link is broken...darn it!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Uh, Yeah, sorry but the song links are only up for 30 days not 3 Years!

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