"Put on Your Red Dress Baby..."

When I heard David Cassidy's eponymous release of 1990, one song stood out: "Hi-Heel Sneakers". I liked the sound of it but thought the lyrics daft. Well, turns out that it's the only song on the album that wasn't co-written by Sue Shifrin. It's actually an old R&B tune by Robert Higginbotham who scored a Billboard Hot 100 hit with it in 1964 as Tommy Tucker. The song has been covered by over 200 artists, so chances are good that I was the only one in the dark about it. Here is the original version by Tucker (Higginbotham), Jerry Lee Lewis' cover and David's, of course. Also found a version by Elvis Presley but can't embed the video. The link is at the bottom of this post - it's worth a listen.

Hearing the song performed in its original R&B style, the butchery it suffered at the beat of those drum machines is even more evident. It would be cool to hear DC perform it today without the electronic trappings that saddle his comeback album and indelibly time stamp it 1990. Someone should remind him of this classic.







Elvis's version.

I Think I Mock You?

A couple of eagle-eyed readers - flexing more Google muscle than this blogger has, obviously - have spotted a David Cassidy CD entitled "I Think I Love You: Greatest Hits Live" to be released on February 9, 2010. The CD/DVD combo is available for pre-sale on a couple of sites, including Amazon, but information as to content and origin of recordings is scantier than Mariah Carey's latest attire.

Two things give me hope that David Cassidy is not driving this project:
1) the publisher is Cleopatra Records, an independent record label specializing in compilations and reissues of out-of-print releases
2) the lack of mention on DC's own website (means zilch, I know, but I take what I can get).

Otherwise, will I be alone in thinking he's really singing "I Think I Mock You" to his fans with yet another Greatest Hits?!?