NY Night Train’s Daily Party Platter YouTube just kicked into gear last week! Visit the playlist every day to see what’s cookin’…

This was recorded directly from the original 1965 Blue Cat Records single Evie Sands’ “You’ve Got Me Uptight”

“You’ve Got Me Uptight” came out right before Leiber and Stoller sold their interest in the Blue Cat and Red Bird to their partner in the labels, pioneering record man George Goldner, for $1. Goldner may have been a music biz genius but wasn’t such a brilliant gambler and his debts left both labels in the hands of his mob debtors before it collapsed. Best known for girl groups like the Shangri Las and the Dixie Cups, the imprints churned out an impressively diverse, prolific, and quality pile of wax for a couple of years before it all evaporated.

Some of Blue Cat’s finest moments were the four sides Brooklyn-born and bred Evie Sands cut in 1965 with writer/producers Al Gorgoni (the amazing studio guitarist you hear on literally hundreds of your favorite platters) and Chip Taylor (John Voight’s brother, who composed “Wild Thing,” “Angel of the Morning” – which Sands was the first to record – and many more). Their first single together “Take Me For A Little While” is a slice of super-solid Supremes-y pop, but the B-Side, “Run Home To Your Mama,” with its strong feminist vocals, “The Boots Were Made for Walking” rhythm guitar, squalling harmonica, and heavy beat is the one nightclub DJs everywhere still turn to get the party going. On this 45 the A-side is a top-notch Motown-style soulful bubblegum killer, “I Can’t Let Go” – which you may recognize from The Hollies. But out of all of these supreme tracks, the mightiest for my money is its B-side, “You’ve Got Me Uptight.”

Hear Al Gorgoni’s guitar figure sparking the fire! Is it a transmission from the future? Does anybody else hear Television’s “Marquee Moon” intro in this intro? And listen to the way the heavy rhythm section storms in – making grooving with tight geometry against the guitar and the high staccato piano pounding that chase each other around in variations through the track. And the supreme Evie Sands caries the tune with some masterful phrasing and soulful shouting.

Despite the wear on this platter (let’s call it character!), it hasn’t left my turntable since the day I found it. “You’ve Got Me Uptight” possesses all of the qualities I look for in music and I’m racking my brain trying to think of anything quite like it.

If you want to learn more, Evie Sands, Chip Taylor, and Al Gorgoni are all still out there making music as I write this…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evie_Sands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Taylor
http://www.gorgoni.net/