Brenda Lee - What'd I Say (1964) - with Jimmy Page

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Description

#BrendaLeeRocks Our channel tradition is "videos only", but we make an exception for this audio track. In 1964, Brenda Lee was in London at the invitation of the Queen of England. She sang "All the Way" at the Royal Variety Performance show. In search of an updated sound, she also met with Mickie Most who was the hot producer at the time. They chose "Is It True?" as the A-side of a single and Brenda picked "What'd I Say" as the B-side. She wanted to be the first female to cover Ray Charles controversial 1959 hit. "Is It True?" was top twenty on both sides of the Atlantic and earned a Gold Record. "What'd I Say" was a minor hit in some countries. Meanwhile, in the United States, the marketing geniuses at the evil record company decided to replace "What'd I Say" with "Just Behind The Rainbow" for the US release. Apparently, Brenda Lee was Little Miss Adult Contemporary to them and nothing so raw as this track could be allowed. As a result, "What'd I Say" was never released in the States.

Track Info
Recorded at the Decca #2 Studios at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, North London on 17 August 1964 and the demos went out to the radio stations the very next day on 18 Aug 1964. I think the official release date was 28 Aug. Brenda made 11 promotional appearances for the single. "Is It True?" entered British charts the week of 9/16/64.

Personnel: Arthur Greenslade (1923 –2003) (piano), Jimmy Page(1944- ) later of Led Zeppelin (guitar), Big Jim Sullivan (1941 - 2012) (guitar); Bobby Graham (1940 -- 2009) (drums), Alan Weighell (1922 – 2002) (bass), Stan Barrett (percussion); Terry Johnson (sound engineer), Reg Guest (1930 -? arranger), Mickie Most (born Michael Hayes 1938 -- 2003) (producer).

Bobby Graham recalled the session:
"Some acts stood out, either because they put so much into the recordings. ....... Brenda Lee really did perform. Mickie Most produced that record ('Is It True') at Decca, they wanted this English sound. John Carter and Kenny Lewis wrote the song, and also did backing vocals. Jimmy Page and Jim Sullivan were on guitar, Alan Weighell was on bass, Stan Barrett on percussion and myself on drums.The arranger was Reg Guest. For the B side, 'What I'd Say'. we were messing around, somebody started the lick, Brenda jumped in and Mickie Most said 'let's record that'. It was done in one take". Note: Graham is mistaken about 'What I'd Say' being a spur of the moment decision. Brenda herself says she wanted to do it and I can't imagine they would go into the session without a "B" side.

Availability
UK Import album - Ace CHCHD-1222 "The Queen Of Rock 'N' Roll" Released 2009
German Import album - Bear Family BFB10025 "Brenda Lee Rocks" Released June 14, 2011

A session anecdote:
Mickie Most recalled that Brenda Lee was late getting to the studio. It turned out that the car sent to pick her up had broken down. Mickie worried that time was short for the usual amount of takes. His fears were allayed when Brenda arrived and ran through "Is It True?". Most told the NME reporter "it sounded like she had been singing it all her life!".

At three years old, Brenda Mae Tarpley needed to hear a song only once or twice in order to sing it back in perfect pitch and rhythm. This is according to her mother and older sister. Of course, the Nashville session players had grown used to this extraordinary facility and it was common for them to lay down four to six tracks in one 3 Hr session. When she recorded outside of Nashville, producers were always amazed at how few tries were needed for a Brenda Lee recording.

SG Barnard recollection:
I was lucky enough to be in the recording studio when Mickie Most produced this song for her. Jimmy Page's guitar sounds good as ever. Mickie insisted that the whole company joined in the choruses for 'What'd I Say'. Such amazing times! RIP Mickie, industry genius.

NB: SG Barnard was Brenda's Press Officer in the UK. She posted on another YouTube video: "She [Brenda] was the most professional act I ever worked with".

Songwriter: Ray Charles