Linda Martell (June 4 birthday)

[uiwangmike]

Linda Martell and the Anglos (1962)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT4FMDyHgTY
Typical 60s girl group, and Linda Martell’s only appearance on YouTube. I don’t think I’ve heard anything else by her, and I can’t even find a picture. But she does have a particular claim to fame: in 1969, she became the first black female vocalist to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, after having a hit with a cover of the Winstons’ Color Him Father. She made a total of twelve appearances, the last one in 1974. She was reported in 1998 to be working as a school bus driver in her home town. The Pointer Sisters also did the Opry in the early 70s, but I can’t find any mention of any other black females appearing.
Linda Martell was not the first black performer on the Opry (and nor was it Charley Pride). That was Deford Bailey, one of its founding members, in 1928.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaepQHFe ... re=related
More recently, James Brown sang Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag on the Opry stage in 1979 at the invitation of Porter Wagoner, and to the stern disapproval of Roy Acuff. I would think it was on musical, rather than racial grounds; Stevie Wonder’s appearance the same year seems to have been less controversial (though I might rate JB as being more country).
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/01 ... 2047.shtml

Recommended further reading:
http://www.freewebs.com/blackyodelno1/b ... rtists.htm

[john poole]

Thelma Bynem pka "Linda Martell" - born 4th June, 1941 (Leesville, South Carolina)

I can't add anything to what Mike wrote last year but since Linda's last birthday, a couple of items from her country days have been posted to YouTube -

'Bad Case of the Blues' (seems to have been filmed off-screen, but still rather wonderful)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE6WX1Nwwts

'Color Him Father' (1969 - audio only) - I prefer this version to The Winstons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNaHdYMTmk

[john poole]

Now Linda is 75, and I was intending to post ‘Backfield in Motion’ by her group the Angelos, until a search reminded me that I had already done so here a couple of years or so back...
viewtopic.php?f=54&t=23137

So instead here is ‘The Things I do For You’, the ‘B’ side to the 1962 Linda Martell and the Anglos 45 that Mike posted above seven years ago, at a time when she only had one song on YT and no photos of her could be found online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1BntIlQ1bM
song written by Johnny McCullough and Phil Gernhard, the producers of ‘Stay’ by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
http://doo-wop.blogg.org/linda-martell- ... a125979598

A Swedish TV crew for the show Jill's Veranda with the Swedish country singer Jill Johnson tracked Linda down in 2014 and she can be seen here one minute into this YT extract being visited by the Swedish singer Titiyo Jah (who wikipedia informs is the half sister of Neneh Cherry)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv3QJ6Vsr8M
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titiyo

[uiwangmike]

Here's a song I first came across a couple of years ago in a film called C'est Si Bon, set in the Korean folk song scene of the late 1960s. It was originally done by Connie Francis, and later, I see, by Connie Smith. The tune appears to have been recycled by Kris K.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9_DoEXaFLg
And the Korean version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMDnUW6GLno

[john poole]

Another by Margaret Lewis & Myra Smith; also recorded by Jeannie C. Riley. A well known song in Korea or an obscure choice?

[uiwangmike]

The film was an extremely fictionalized biopic of a real duo called Twin Folio - the same singers who appear, a few years on, in the clip. Wedding Cake was one of the songs they recorded. Here's a more contemporary clip of them performing another song featured in the film which you may recognize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FAvYuuGuUI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%27est_si_bon_(film)

[john poole]

Here's a more contemporary clip of them performing another song featured in the film which you may recognize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FAvYuuGuUI

I didn't of course, but a comment below identified it. I doubt that C'est Si Bon made it over to the UK unless it was shown at a film festival. 'A Girl at My Door' was the last Korean film I saw, one of the more memorable from last year.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3661798/

[uiwangmike]

There was a one-off showing last month, which may have been your last chance.
http://londonkoreanlinks.net/2016/05/10 ... t-the-kcc/
As you can see from the synopsis, the film added a fictional third member to the group, rather in the manner of the S&G biopic, Paul, Art and Fred, despite which I enjoyed it. I liked Girl at My Door too when I saw it at the 2014 Busan Film Festival. Bae Du-na is worth seeing in almost anything.

[uiwangmike]

The film was an extremely fictionalized biopic of a real duo called Twin Folio

I've just seen the Chet Baker biopic Born to be Blue, which if anything, seems to heve been even more fictional. Was Miles Davis really such a miserable bugger? Still, quite a gripping film.