{"id":7471,"date":"2018-09-09T12:13:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-09T17:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=7471"},"modified":"2018-09-09T12:13:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T17:13:40","slug":"johnny-maestro-and-the-crests-come-see-me-im-your-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=7471","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Maestro and the Crests – Come See Me (I’m Your Man)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Johnny Maestro (bottom center) with the Crests<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Listen\/Download – Johnny Maestro and the Crests – Come See Me (I’m Your Man) MP3<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

The F16C Summer of Soul<\/strong> has come to a close – thanks to all who donated – , and we return to business as usual here ye olde blogge-space.<\/p>\n

What better way to get restarted than with a certified mind-blower.<\/p>\n

If you grew up in the New York area listening to oldies radio (especially WCBS-FM) the name Johnny Maestro<\/strong> should be a very familiar one. He was one of the most prominent surviving pioneers of the doowop era \u2013 the Crests<\/strong> \u201916 Candles\u2019 is one of the best remembered records of that era \u2013 and he would go on to sing lead for the Brooklyn Bridge<\/strong>, who had a huge hit in 1968 with \u2018The Worst That Could Happen\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, sandwiched in between those two landmarks is one of the most (for me, anyway) surprising records.<\/p>\n

In 1966, Maestro and the Crests recorded what would be the first-release US version (in August of 1966) of J.J. Jackson\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018Come See Me\u2019, which would be released a few months earlier (April 1966) in the UK by the Pretty Things (<\/strong>Jackson’s version wouldn’t come out in the US until 1968).<\/strong><\/p>\n

As much as I love the Pretty Things version, the take by Maestro and the Crests is an absolute killer.<\/p>\n

Arranged by JJ Jackson, this version opens with a one-two punch of bass and drums and takes off like a shot. There\u2019s a great vocal by Maestro and the band, with some groovy rhythm guitar and organ just flies along.<\/p>\n

I love to pull this record out and play it at soul nights because it combines a familiar song, in an unfamiliar version with a monster arrangement. It never fails to turn heads.<\/p>\n

Sadly, it went nowhere at the time of its release, charting (and just barely) at one Albany, NY radio station.<\/p>\n

The flip side, \u2018I Care About You\u2019 is a brilliant blue-eyed soul ballad with a remarkable performance by Maestro.<\/p>\n

These days the 45 is quite expensive, so if you see it, grab it.<\/p>\n

Until next week.<\/p>\n

Also, make sure to follow Funky16Corners<\/strong> on Instagram<\/strong><\/a>, Twitter<\/strong><\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

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

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget!\u00a0Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Johnny Maestro (bottom center) with the Crests Listen\/Download – Johnny Maestro and the Crests – Come See Me (I’m Your Man) MP3 Greetings all. The F16C Summer of Soul has come to a close – thanks to all who donated – , and we return to business as usual here ye olde blogge-space. What better […]<\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37,58,14,12,18],"tags":[166,164],"class_list":["post-7471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blue-eyed-soul","category-cover-songs","category-funky16corners","category-soul","category-soul-45","tag-funky16corners","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1Wv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471","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=7471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7472,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions\/7472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}