Inspired by the Prime commercials featuring the original 60s version of the Burt Bacharach classic.
(1) Lou Johnson “Always Something There To Remind Me” & “Kentucky Bluebird” - YouTube
Hot Butter- Popcorn
Came out two years after I was born, that style seemed to populate the latter half of my life in Disco, Pop, Raves, Hip Hop, Dubs and all this pussy music that they have been putting out since 2000.
I had never heard that. I assumed that the Dionne Warwick version was the original although we got the British Sandie Shaw cover at the time. It is amazing to find that it was only a demo and Bacharach recorded it with Lou Johnson to release it. Seems a baffling decision because his version seems insipid in comparison to Warwick’s.
And, thus, Dionne Warwick is a household name and Lou Johnson is, like, who?
The obscure is intriguing.
I don’t know which year Warwick’s version came out, but 1969 saw a version by R.B. Greaves* which I remember being popular. That’s the version I thought of the first time I heard Naked Eyes’ (whose one version had the Supremes as an outro).
*Whose “Take A Letter, Maria,” was popular around that time.
I apologize for the lame-ass repetition of certain words in this post. It’s Sunday and it’s early (for me).
Funny, in the Naked Eyes’ version, which I’ve heard a million times but never really listened closely to, the 5 notes after the sung line “always something there to remind me…” always sounded to me like the words “…that I don’t love her” in a talk box sound effect form. But in the Lou Johnson version it’s clearly just a musical riff, and now that I read the lyrics, that line would make no sense, since the song is about a guy pining over a lost girlfriend who doesn’t love him any more.