The Tragedy of Evie Sands (Revised)

     Not exactly the newest thing, but I'd love to just share an older blog post as made by "junkfoodphilosophy" about the former 60s pop singer Evie Sands from 2007. Unfortunately, the blog seems to be very dead in activity, so I'd like to take the time to replicate the original post and share it with others. The link to said blog post is here if one wishes to see it (or here: https://junkfoodphilosophy.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/the-curse-of-evie-sands/). (Any post-commentary by me is seen through bold text in parenthesis, like here.) As a final note, the original writer states of this being "an oft told tale", but in today's music, said often-toldness has quickly faded away in the giant swashes of newer music. Also of note is a Shallow Rewards video titled "Your Mother Should Know", where Mr. Chris Ott talks of how he found of the way Evie Sands had left an influence on future artists such as the whole of Spacemen 3 (Spirtiualized and Spectrum also included) right here.

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This is becoming an oft told tale, but was Evie Sands the unluckiest woman in 60’s pop?

In 1965 a teenaged Evie was signed by Leiber & Stoller’s Blue Cat label and teamed with producers Chip Taylor & Al Gorgoni. (Taylor is, of course, the brother of Jon Voight and the guy who wrote “Wild Thing” made famous by The Troggs.) Taylor and Gorgoni recorded a classic debut single with Evie called “Take Me For a Little While.”

Evie Sands – Take Me For A Little While
Uploaded by soulpatrol (The Youtube video had been deleted by the account owner, so I'll replace it with a different video. However, the Dailymotion video/channel is still up, so I'd advise others to go to that link.)
So far so good, but here’s where the bad luck starts. A pre-release copy of the song fell into the hands of an A & R man from Chess Records. Chess artist Jackie Ross had just had a big hit with “Selfish One,” and the label were looking for a follow up hit. The white label of “Take Me For a Little While” was taken to Chicago, and a version recorded with Ross and rush released before Evie’s original came out officially.  DJs around the US started playing the Ross version (previous version was removed) believing it to be the original & dismissing Evie’s as the cover. A legal dispute between Blue Cat and Chess resulted in the Jackie Ross version being withdrawn – but the damage was done and Evie’s single never gathered the neccessary momentum to become a hit.

“Take Me For a Little While” was written by Trade Martin, the follow up  “I Can’t Let Go” was written by Taylor & Gorgoni themselves. Another classic, but somehow not a hit for Evie. Perhaps the whole Jackie Ross “Take Me for a Little While” affair had left some with the incorrect impression that it had been the Evie Sands camp who’d been in the wrong. Whatever the reason, the single went nowhere, but the following year the song was an international smash hit for The Hollies.

(Evie Sands - I Can't Let Go)
(uploaded by sunshinetunes67)

Although Evie left Blue Cat and joined Cameo records she continued to work with Taylor & Gorgini, who produced further singles.  In 1967 they must have thought they’d struck gold – Chip Taylor came up with arguably the greatest song of his career, and it was  the perfect vehicle for Evie. It was recorded as a single. It came out. It started to get air play. It started to sell – but the curse of Evie Sands struck again.  The Cameo label folded and the single disappeared. The song was “Angel of the Morning.”

(Evie Sands - Angel of the Morning)
(Uploaded by weng2c)

Yes, that “Angel of the Morning.”
P.P. Arnold, Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts:
“Just call me Angel of the Morning, Angel.” 
A song so robust even Shaggy couldn’t kill it, though he gave it a damn good kicking in 2001.

And so, despite 3 or 4 years of trying and producing a bunch of great singles including three stone cold classics, Evie Sands just couldn’t get a hit. If the material wasn’t up to par, if Evie was untalented or unattractive there might be an excuse, but not only is she a fox, she has a really good voice, an impressive range and a distinctive sound. Taylor and Gorgini had found or written & arranged material that suited her down to the ground. And anyway, to steal a line from Steve Jordan, you could’ve had Deputy Dawg singing these songs and still have had hits.  How could she miss? And yet miss she had.
Strike three – but Evie wasn’t out quite yet.  Chip Taylor hatched a plan. He’d given Evie his best new songs only to see other artists get the hits. So, this time, he took a song of his that had already been a hit, on the basis that no one was likely to record a spoiler version. The song was “Any Way That You Want Me” previously recorded by The Troggs. Chip came up with a new arrangement and a new bridge with more than hint of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and the result was – at long last – a monster hit in 1969. Here she is performing it live in 2006 with the BMX Bandits (a long-running (for almost over 30 years!) Scottish pop group) in Glasgow.

(Evie Sands & BMX Bandits - Any Way That You Want Me (Radio Session))
(Uploaded by BMXBanditsTV)
 
Evie is still musically active – check out her Myspace page, I think she maintains it herself.  She’s still in great voice as demonstrated by “While I Look at You” the track you’ll hear there. You can hear clips from her last album Women in Prison, here. (She also had a split album with Billy Vera in 2014 called "Queen of Diamonds/Jack of Hearts" on Train Wreck Records.) And you can buy CDs of her two early 70s albums from those nice people at Revola Records, and I recommend that you do.

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And that's the whole post. I'd like to give much thanks to the original writer of said post, and for the many people who had uploaded and archived all of the original audio and footage and whatnot. Also credit to be given to Evie Sands and all of the other people behind the wonderful music itself.