Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind -- Dick and Deedee
(Warner Brothers 5627, 1965 (US)) Producer: Andrew Oldham
Dick and Deedee (Dick St. John and Mary Sperling) were a popular duo who had several huge hits in the early sixties in America including "The Mountain's High" (Liberty 55350) in 1961 and "Thou Shalt Not Steal" (Warner Bros. 5482) in 1964.
They met Andrew Oldham and the Stones at the T.A.M.I show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 29 1964.
In an interview on the Classic Bands website Deedee has this to say about their involvement with the Stones:
"Q - So, you met The Stones?
A - Yeah, the TAMI Show. Dick was hell-bent on getting us on that show. We'd been touring and weren't around when they were booking it. Our manager was somehow under the radar and didn't realize what was going on. By the time we got back, it was completely booked up. Dick was just hell-bent we were gonna do that show. Just to keep us quiet I guess, they said you can come back stage and watch the show. If somebody doesn't show up, you can do the show. So we went there and Dick was hangin' out a little bit with Lesley Gore. She was on the show. That night we were performing at the Long Beach Arena with Tina Turner and The Rolling Stones. It was Ike and Tina in those days. Ike and Tina came on first. Dick and I came on second and The Rolling Stones came on third. After the TAMI Show and they completed filming it, they got us on the bus and said "Why are you gonna take your cars down to Long Beach? The bus is going down there. Why don't you just ride on the bus?" So that's what we did. So, we did the show with The Rolling Stones."
"We went to England and we were in a club with Brian Jones and Andrew Loog Oldham, who was their producer and manager. Dick whispered to me, "I'm gonna try and get Andrew to record us while we're here." That was a real bizarre thought, 'cause we were signed with Warner Brothers and Don Ralke. Dick said "This will give us a big hit record." So, he started talking to Andrew. Andrew started looking at his watch like he had to go somewhere. Dick came running back to me and said "Andrew is leaving. I'm not going to let him out of my sight until he agrees to do this. So, can you get back to the hotel yourself?" I said OK. So Dick took off after Andrew. I stayed there with Brian and this guy named Michael Aldred, who was one of the hosts of the show called Ready, Steady, Go! It was a British Television show in London. We shared a cab and I went back to my hotel. The next morning, Dick called me and said "Well, I've done it. We're gonna have a session." We were only gonna stay in London one more week before coming back to the U.S. He said "First, Andrew needs permission from Warner Brothers." So Dick wanted me to call Joe Smith who was our contact. He said "Joe has a harder time saying no to a girl." So I called Joe and said "You know Joe, if we can record with Andrew Loog Oldham, what would that be like?" He said "Well, you have a contract with The Wilder Brothers, but let me see what I can do." We talked to The Wilders and they gave us permission to do this. They thought it would be a huge career plus to have this session done with Andrew. Andrew told Dick "I can't pull musicians in time, but I'm willing to do this. I've got some old Rolling Stones tracks that we're not going to release and if they're in the right key for you and you like the songs, you can go in and put your voices on 'em and I'll just deck out Mick's voice and you can have those." Dick said "Great!" Dick had in his hand an acetate that Andrew had given him of those songs and they were in the right key. We had the words written on hotel stationery. We sat there, listened and wrote the words. (laughs) It was a Friday night and we went to Decca Studios, which is where The Stones recorded. Keith was there. Brian was there. Andrew was there. At that time Andrew was trying to promote Keith Richards and Mick Jagger sort of like Lennon and McCartney. He was trying to do Jagger / Richards as a songwriting team. Since they'd written these songs, they had interest in seeing other people do their material. The songs were called "Blue Turns To Gray" and "Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind". And so we recorded them. Now, The Stones were playing all the tracks and in some cases singing back-up. We completed this thing in a few hours".
Dick St. John died in 2003 after an accident at home.
The Stones' own version of "Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind" was featured on "Metamorphosis".
(Warner Brothers 5627, 1965 (US)) Producer: Andrew Oldham
Dick and Deedee (Dick St. John and Mary Sperling) were a popular duo who had several huge hits in the early sixties in America including "The Mountain's High" (Liberty 55350) in 1961 and "Thou Shalt Not Steal" (Warner Bros. 5482) in 1964.
They met Andrew Oldham and the Stones at the T.A.M.I show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 29 1964.
In an interview on the Classic Bands website Deedee has this to say about their involvement with the Stones:
"Q - So, you met The Stones?
A - Yeah, the TAMI Show. Dick was hell-bent on getting us on that show. We'd been touring and weren't around when they were booking it. Our manager was somehow under the radar and didn't realize what was going on. By the time we got back, it was completely booked up. Dick was just hell-bent we were gonna do that show. Just to keep us quiet I guess, they said you can come back stage and watch the show. If somebody doesn't show up, you can do the show. So we went there and Dick was hangin' out a little bit with Lesley Gore. She was on the show. That night we were performing at the Long Beach Arena with Tina Turner and The Rolling Stones. It was Ike and Tina in those days. Ike and Tina came on first. Dick and I came on second and The Rolling Stones came on third. After the TAMI Show and they completed filming it, they got us on the bus and said "Why are you gonna take your cars down to Long Beach? The bus is going down there. Why don't you just ride on the bus?" So that's what we did. So, we did the show with The Rolling Stones."
"We went to England and we were in a club with Brian Jones and Andrew Loog Oldham, who was their producer and manager. Dick whispered to me, "I'm gonna try and get Andrew to record us while we're here." That was a real bizarre thought, 'cause we were signed with Warner Brothers and Don Ralke. Dick said "This will give us a big hit record." So, he started talking to Andrew. Andrew started looking at his watch like he had to go somewhere. Dick came running back to me and said "Andrew is leaving. I'm not going to let him out of my sight until he agrees to do this. So, can you get back to the hotel yourself?" I said OK. So Dick took off after Andrew. I stayed there with Brian and this guy named Michael Aldred, who was one of the hosts of the show called Ready, Steady, Go! It was a British Television show in London. We shared a cab and I went back to my hotel. The next morning, Dick called me and said "Well, I've done it. We're gonna have a session." We were only gonna stay in London one more week before coming back to the U.S. He said "First, Andrew needs permission from Warner Brothers." So Dick wanted me to call Joe Smith who was our contact. He said "Joe has a harder time saying no to a girl." So I called Joe and said "You know Joe, if we can record with Andrew Loog Oldham, what would that be like?" He said "Well, you have a contract with The Wilder Brothers, but let me see what I can do." We talked to The Wilders and they gave us permission to do this. They thought it would be a huge career plus to have this session done with Andrew. Andrew told Dick "I can't pull musicians in time, but I'm willing to do this. I've got some old Rolling Stones tracks that we're not going to release and if they're in the right key for you and you like the songs, you can go in and put your voices on 'em and I'll just deck out Mick's voice and you can have those." Dick said "Great!" Dick had in his hand an acetate that Andrew had given him of those songs and they were in the right key. We had the words written on hotel stationery. We sat there, listened and wrote the words. (laughs) It was a Friday night and we went to Decca Studios, which is where The Stones recorded. Keith was there. Brian was there. Andrew was there. At that time Andrew was trying to promote Keith Richards and Mick Jagger sort of like Lennon and McCartney. He was trying to do Jagger / Richards as a songwriting team. Since they'd written these songs, they had interest in seeing other people do their material. The songs were called "Blue Turns To Gray" and "Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind". And so we recorded them. Now, The Stones were playing all the tracks and in some cases singing back-up. We completed this thing in a few hours".
Dick St. John died in 2003 after an accident at home.
The Stones' own version of "Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind" was featured on "Metamorphosis".
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