Beautiful 2-sider by Bessie Banks
- Listen to these songs on youtube: It Sounds Like My Baby, Go Now
- Listen to these 45s in a Spotify playlist here with other 45s from the blog (though note, spotify doesn’t have all / many of the songs featured on the site so some playlists may be incomplete or feature slightly different versions than the original 45s I’m referring to here.
- This song is available on Musical Episode #016: Singles Mixer v. 5
Greetings from Western Massachusetts where, fittingly, we welcomed both the Vernal Equinox and more snow, despite a few weeks of “warm” (read: 39 degree) weather. Still, change is in the air. This is the season where mud represents potential and emergent life, like so many organisms in that primordial soup of eons passed. (Side note: I was just listening to Bill Callahan’s latest album where he refers to spring as “death warmed over” which, in a more cynical moment I maybe would cite, and despite battling a painful stomach bug and some deep exhaustion, I’m going to stay positive here!)
Today’s 45 is so good both sides warrant being posted and discussed for a moment. Bessie Banks was actually a name familiar to me from her much later releases on Volt as the Stax empire was (sadly) winding down operations. Along with Stax, this was also toward the end of Bessie’s recording career though you can clearly hear she’s still got it on that 45.
The A side featured here “Go Now” is most famous because, as the English Invasion was in full swing, it was covered in the same year by The Moody Blues and reached an even larger audience eclipsing and limiting the success of Banks’ version. Not an uncommon story, but one made more unfortunate with this being Bessie’s biggest record to date only to have the rug pulled from under here.
To be fully honest here, I’m actually much more intrigued and moved by “It Sounds Like My Baby,” the B-Side. Driven by a clean lead / melodic guitar interwoven with some playful piano Bessie, backed by Cissy Houston, carries the song so beautifully it’s hard to not hear the footsteps of her baby returning home yourself.
Released on Lieber and Stoller’s Tiger Records label in 1964 Bessie had a few singles after this and a few before, working with her then husband Larry Banks, but ultimately wasn’t able to sustain a career as a recording artist. Though it’s tough to think of all the beautiful records her voice could have given us I’m definitely grateful for these two sides.
Hope you enjoy them!
-George / Snack Attack
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