The LaSalles – La La La La La

By , February 26, 2017 11:55 am

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The LaSalles aka Kathy Lynn and the Playboys

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Listen/Download – The LaSalles – La La La La La MP3

Greetings all.

Every once in a while you find yourself pulling on a loose thread, and it just keeps unravelling.

Back in the day, during the storied Asbury Park 45 Sessions, one of my compadres dropped the needle on a monstrous banger called ‘Kick-Back’ by a group I’d never heard of before called Willie Tell and the Overtures.

As was often the case, the 45 went right onto my want list, and I set out in search of a copy for my play box.

It took a while, but I finally scored a copy.

While I was searching, I stumbled on another 45 with the same A and B sides as the Willie Tell and the Overtures record, this time by the already familiar Buena Vistas (the exact same recordings, with an earlier release) .

So, down the rabbit hole I went, discovering a whole bunch of cool things in the process.

The Buena Vistas were connected to a pair of Upstate New York characters by the names of Carl Cisco and Tom Shannon, and a band by the name of Kathy Lynn and the Playboys.

The story – at least as I was able to pick it apart – was that Cisco, Shannon and the aforementioned band had varying degrees of involvement (from peripheral all the way down to not at all) with the Buena Vistas 45s, most of which were in fact the work of various and sundry Funk Brothers (I still haven’t figured out how the Buena Vistas 45 got rereleased as Willie Tell et al). Cisco/Shannon also had their hands in records by the Rockin’ Rebels, Revlons and other Western NY/Detroit acts).

That said, Kathy Lynn and the Playboys were a real, working group, and they are (as far as I can discern) the people behind the smoking version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘La La La La La’ that was released on the Motown subsidiary VIP as by the LaSalles in 1966.

Though originally written and recorded by Stevie, ‘La La La La La’ is best known by the hit version by the East LA group the Blendells from 1964.

As much as I love the Blendells version, the recording by the LaSalles (yet another alias) is amazing.

Kathy Lynn (nee Kathy Keppen, who would go on to marry Playboys/Buena Vistas/LaSalles guitarist Nick Ameno) opens the tune with the traditional spoken passage, then rips into it sounding like a crazed version of Brenda Lee.

The band lays into a heavy groove, with organ, drums, bass and soul clapping, making their version of the song perfect for the dance floor.

Lynn went on to record as Lynn Terry, and it appears that a modern version of Kathy Lynn and the Playboys was playing as recently as 2012.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all on Wednesday.

Keep the faith

Larry

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived! The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock. They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US). Click here to go to the ordering page.

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.

One Response to “The LaSalles – La La La La La”

  1. […] For our Girls & Guitars feature this week, our spotlight fell on guitarist and singer, Kathy Lynn, who hails from New York and formed Kathy Lynn & The Playboys back in 1963. They became the resident house band at New York’s popular club, ‘The Peppermint Stick’ and had several hits on the Swan record label. They’re still performing together and possibly still doing our choice from their Swan recording . . . ‘I Got A Guy’. For more background on the band, check out Larry Grogan’s Funky 16 Corners blog. […]

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