{"id":2904,"date":"2012-06-28T15:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T20:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2012-07-20T14:13:43","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T19:13:43","slug":"len-barry-i-struck-it-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=2904","title":{"rendered":"Len Barry – I Struck It Rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nLen Barry<\/strong> <\/strong>
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Listen\/Download Len Barry – I Struck It Rich<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Greetings all.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The end of another week is here, and so is your weekly dose of soul in the form of the Funky16Corners Radio Show<\/strong>. We take to the airwaves of the interwebs this \u2013 and every \u2013 Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio<\/strong><\/a>. If you can\u2019t be there at the time of broadcast you can always fall by the blog and grab the show (or any of the previous 100+ episodes) in MP3 form.<\/p>\n

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Also, in other news, my man Eilon Paz,<\/strong> photographer and founder of the Dust and Grooves<\/strong><\/a> site is having a show of his vinyl portraiture (he featured yours truly back in the day<\/a>) at the Tropicalia In Furs<\/strong>\u00a0store, with an opening event Friday night July 6th from 7-10PM.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There will be photos from his various D&G features, as well as vinyl (natch) DJ sets by my man DJ Prestige<\/strong> and the mighty Supreme La Rock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might even see a picture of me!<\/em><\/p>\n

If time and life allows I’m going to try to make it out to this one. I hope to see you there!<\/p>\n

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The tune I bring you today is an old favorite of mine.<\/p>\n

Len Barry<\/strong> is a name that should be familiar to soul fans, especially with a focus on the sounds of Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Barry \u2013 nee Leonard Borisoff<\/strong> \u2013 got his first taste of chart success as a member of the Dovells.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He first hit big in 1965 with the brilliant \u20181-2-3\u2019 in the summer of 1965, which almost hit #1 Pop and grazed the R&B Top 10.<\/p>\n

When I describe that record as \u2018brilliant\u2019 I\u2019m not kidding. It was written by Barry with John Madara<\/strong> and David White<\/strong> (both Philly mainstays) and sports a stunning arrangement by Jimmy Wisner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barry is one of a number of soulful white singers from the Philly\/Baltimore axis, including Billy Harner<\/strong> (more on him in a moment), Daryl Hall<\/strong> (then in the Temptones<\/strong>), and Bob Brady<\/strong> (of the Conchords<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Barry\u2019s Decca sides from 1965 and 1966 are excellent and worth seeking out (including his improbably cool version of \u2018Somewhere\u2019 from West Side Story).<\/p>\n

The number I bring you today charted regionally in the Northeast in the summer of 1966 (almost exactly a year after \u20181-2-3\u2019).<\/p>\n

The first time I heard \u2018I Struck It Rich\u2019 it was via the version by the aforementioned Billy Harner.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Harner, a Philly-area native (south Jersey actually) recorded a grip of fantastic records in the 60s for a variety of local and nationally distributed labels. His version of \u2018I Struck It Rich\u2019 takes a slightly rougher tack that Barry\u2019s, and a for a while it was my favored version of the two.<\/p>\n

However, as the years went on, and I got deeper into the stylish sounds of Northern Soul, Len Barry\u2019s improved greatly in my eyes (and ears, of course<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Co-written by Barry with the mighty Gamble and Huff<\/strong> (and arranged again, by Wisner) \u2018I Struck It Rich\u2019 is up there with the best of Philly soul.<\/p>\n

As a vocalist, Barry is much closer to the Smokey Robinson<\/strong> mold (not as close as Bob Brady\u2026) than Harner, a rougher singer with a deeper register.<\/p>\n

That all said, I\u2019d be happy spinning either version for dancers.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the tune and I\u2019ll see you all on Monday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a>
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<\/strong>
\nAlso, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
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If you want one of the new Funky16Corners stickers (free, of course) click here for info.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Len Barry Listen\/Download Len Barry – I Struck It Rich Greetings all. The end of another week is here, and so is your weekly dose of soul in the form of the Funky16Corners Radio Show. We take to the airwaves of the interwebs this \u2013 and every \u2013 Friday night at 9PM on Viva Radio. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37,14,24,69,74,12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-eyed-soul","category-funky16corners","category-northern-soul","category-original-versions","category-philly-soul","category-soul","category-soul-45"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-KQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2966,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions\/2966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}