Musical coincidences # 314

My friend Michael (Hi, Michael!) spotted all of the coincidences in today’s effort. The main song, “Runaway” by The McCoys, reminded him of four other songs. Michael reckons this might set some kind of record for amount of coincidences emanating from one song. (I think he’s right, because I can’t think of any other coincidence I’ve posted that involved five songs all at once.)

Oh, and all the coincidences occur within the first 50 seconds of that McCoys song. Talk about packin’ ’em in.

Here we go:

The McCoys – “Runaway” (1966) (excerpt 1)

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Sue Thompson – “Paper Tiger” (1965) (excerpt)

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The McCoys – “Runaway” (1966) (excerpt 2)

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The Silhouettes – “Get A Job“ (1957) (excerpt)

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The McCoys – “Runaway” (1966) (excerpt 3)

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Herman’s Hermits – “I’m Into Something Good“ (1964) (excerpt)

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The McCoys – “Runaway” (1966) (excerpt 4)

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Dion – “Ruby Baby“ (1963) (excerpt)

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Here are the full versions:

The McCoys – “Runaway” (1966)

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Sue Thompson – “Paper Tiger” (1965) (excerpt)

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The Silhouettes – “Get A Job“ (1957)

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Herman’s Hermits – “I’m Into Something Good“ (1964)

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Dion – “Ruby Baby“ (1963)

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Song of the day: Ross D. Wyllie – "The Star"

Here’s Ross D. Wyllie with one of my all-time favourite Australian songs of the 60’s:

Ross D. Wyllie – “The Star“ (1969)

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Incidentally, “The Star” was written by Johnny Young, an entertainer very well known to most Australians in the 70’s and 80’s for invading the living rooms of virtually every Australia home every Saturday night for years with an incredibly wholesome television program entitled Young Talent Time which Johnny created and hosted. This show was responsible for nurturing the careers of scores of youngsters – and it was all due to Johnny Young. Before Young Talent Time, however, Johnny had a successful dual career as a songwriter and solo entertainer. But nowadays Johnny is most fondly remembered for Young Talent Time. As a songwriter, though, he’ll go down in Australian rock music history for writing “The Real Thing” (which was Song of the day a little while ago).

Back to “The Star.” Johnny never recorded it, but someone other than Ross did…

As a bonus, here’s the almost-as-good-except-for-the-dreadful-singing version by Herman’s Hermits:

Herman’s Hermits – “Here Comes The Star” (1969)

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Update: This post originally had Ross’ last name spelled with one ‘l’. I’ve been assured by my friend Col that Ross’ last name is spelled with two ‘l’s, not one as most places on the Internet have it. Here, at least, “Ross D. Wylie” is now Ross D. Wyllie. Col told me about how he remembered television interviews with Ross way back when, and how Ross complained that people frequently mispelled his last name, even in print. (And now, I dare say, on the Internet…). Sorry, Ross.

(Thanks also to Col for reminding me about “The Star” in the first place, after I’d inexcusably forgotten about it for years.)