If stock copies exist of this, can someone please post a scan.

Also an refo-clip would be greatly appreciated, if that is not asking too much.

And can anyone explain how Philly legend Thom Bell came to produce Connie on a fabulous slice of the Philly sound ?!?!

Edited March 19, 201114 yr by ken
Request not allowed

If stock copies exist of this, can someone please post a scan.

Also an refo-clip would be greatly appreciated, if that is not asking too much.

And can anyone explain how Philly legend Thom Bell came to produce Connie on a fabulous slice of the Philly sound ?!?!

Only seen Demos

Connie Stevens

I have a silver issue and a demo

would do a sound clip but dont know how to sorry.

gasher

Only seen Demos

Connie Stevens

Edited March 11, 200817 yr by GASHER

I can confirm that The Gasher has an issue as I traded it to him.

According to Jm this was Connies Last record

I have been on about this 45 for years and when I played it to John manship down the phone he said it could be the next Joanie Somers.

No-one seems to know the value but it is rare(One went on ebay for £100 some months ago). as for Issue or demo its irrelevant as nobody knows how many demos were issued! and whetehr the issue is rare because it bombed!

Hi Guys

I've got a copy on silver bell - can't upload pic here so will post on facebook page x

There you go.

had an issue, sold it to nige grice about 3 years ago, i also have a date and radio station stamped copy which i got in a trade with gary holyman about 5 years ago. interesting that john has had at least 2 copies which auctioned for £250...of course richard has been doing his fruit about the tune since i did him a cd copy last year, he told me he'd been all over the states looking for a copy...dont know if he has finally secured one , in the event he played my copy at the tower in november and it got a good response....LOOK,.. its a white artist....SO WHAT?......like so many others played over the years, it has the right quality despite the somewhat twee voice and the involvment of thom bell?....cant argue with one of philly's giants in my opinion.

its pretty straight forward, that an established film and tv star with a half decent voice should be looking for one last hurrah on the music front....she was quite successful there afterall, and if you care to notice, she cut the original version ( i presume ) of "SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL" which we all associate with the super rare PLANETARY recording by MARGARET MANDOLPH.

TICK - TOCK of course, is the B-side...... the A-side is a version of "BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW" as originally recorded by THE STYLISTICS......funny that the powers that be decided to change the title to "KEEP GROWING STRONG"??????? more than likely the main reason why it flopped, perhaps they considerd the title...TOO BLACK?, NOT SUITABLE FOR A WHITE ARTIST?.... OR WAS IT JUST THE RACIST CARD BEING PLAYED?....guess we'll never know the answer to that one

summing up then, you could say they picked the WRONG side to issue,...its obscurity has proved its saviour and the scene has benifited thus, had it been known 40 years ago, we may all have acknowledged it as a club classic!!.

just for the record: its release date was 6/3/ 1971 so the record has just celebrated its 40th birthday.

you'll note a devout defence of this record on my part, as i said i think its just got it and WOW!, what a fantastic orchestration from thom bell. i know the establishment will dig their heels in about "pop" records...thats nothing new.....its because the scene is so relevant today with multi-faceted playlists making the dance floor, a vibrant place to be and TICK-TOCK deserves its place in any djs set.....OH, AND BECAUSE MR. SEARLING LOVES IT!!

had an issue, sold it to nige grice about 3 years ago, i also have a date and radio station stamped copy which i got in a trade with gary holyman about 5 years ago. interesting that john has had at least 2 copies which auctioned for £250...of course richard has been doing his fruit about the tune since i did him a cd copy last year, he told me he'd been all over the states looking for a copy...dont know if he has finally secured one , in the event he played my copy at the tower in november and it got a good response....LOOK,.. its a white artist....SO WHAT?......like so many others played over the years, it has the right quality despite the somewhat twee voice and the involvment of thom bell?....cant argue with one of philly's giants in my opinion.

its pretty straight forward, that an established film and tv star with a half decent voice should be looking for one last hurrah on the music front....she was quite successful there afterall, and if you care to notice, she cut the original version ( i presume ) of "SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL" which we all associate with the super rare PLANETARY recording by MARGARET MANDOLPH.

TICK - TOCK of course, is the B-side...... the A-side is a version of "BETCHA BY GOLLY WOW" as originally recorded by THE STYLISTICS......funny that the powers that be decided to change the title to "KEEP GROWING STRONG"??????? more than likely the main reason why it flopped, perhaps they considerd the title...TOO BLACK?, NOT SUITABLE FOR A WHITE ARTIST?.... OR WAS IT JUST THE RACIST CARD BEING PLAYED?....guess we'll never know the answer to that one

summing up then, you could say they picked the WRONG side to issue,...its obscurity has proved its saviour and the scene has benifited thus, had it been known 40 years ago, we may all have acknowledged it as a club classic!!.

just for the record: its release date was 6/3/ 1971 so the record has just celebrated its 40th birthday.

you'll note a devout defence of this record on my part, as i said i think its just got it and WOW!, what a fantastic orchestration from thom bell. i know the establishment will dig their heels in about "pop" records...thats nothing new.....its because the scene is so relevant today with multi-faceted playlists making the dance floor, a vibrant place to be and TICK-TOCK deserves its place in any djs set.....OH, AND BECAUSE MR. SEARLING LOVES IT!!

According to a video on YouTube Connie Stevens' Keep Growing Strong was the first recording of the song. Later retitled as Betcha By Golly Wow for the Stylistics.

According to a video on YouTube Connie Stevens' Keep Growing Strong was the first recording of the song. Later retitled as Betcha By Golly Wow for the Stylistics.

thats interesting geoff, you would have thought straight off, it was the other way around, bearing in mind how blatantly it was done in the 60's. of course that dosnt mean that recording artists then, didnt appreciate what black americans were creating, infact i would imagine a good many considered it a privilage but the necessity to find the next hit by companies resulted in a lot of people being taken advantage of, namely the black american music market.

by the 70's and having broke through in their own right, black artists were having the hits and whites less so with covers. actually, in this case then, the song may have been handed to connie first with a "suck it and see" policy in mind. it didnt work but a year later ( i havent checked the stylistics discography ) 1972 and with the philly sound establishing itself, it was just right for them. the phraseology of the title though is perplexing....betcha couldnt have sounded right for ms. stevens but "keep growing strong" isnt saying anything either!