SATURDAY'S SINGLES : DEEP PURPLE and THE PENGUINS

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Good morning gang and welcome back to the return of Saturday's Singles. It was on this very day in 1971, that the events in the Deep Purple song, "Smoke On The Water" occurred. The band was in Montreux, Switzerland to record their sixth studio album, Machine Head, using a mobile recording studio they rented from the Rolling Stones. Frank Zappa and the Mothers were playing a gig in the casino portion of the building. It was the last show to be played there before the "gambling house" was to be closed for winter renovations. The closing would allow for Deep Purple to record there. Anyways, an audience member fired a flare gun ("But some stupid with a flare gun, Burned the place to the ground) and the casino and The Mothers equipment was destroyed. 

Deep Purple released the song May 1, 1973 on the Warner Brothers label. It peaked at #27 in Belgium, #21 in the UK, #20 in Germany, #11 in Austria and the Netherlands, #7 in South Africa, #4 on the Hot 100, #3 on the Cash Box, and #2 in Canada. It's original B-side is a live version of the track, but our 45 has the single edit as an A side and the album version as it's B-side.

Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Ian Gillan – lead and backing vocals
Roger Glover – bass guitar
Jon Lord – Hammond organ
Ian Paice – drums

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Fast forward 22 years to the date December 4, 1992 and the world is saddened by the death of  musician, singer, composer, songwriter, and bandleader, Frank Zappa, whose life is cut short by prostate cancer, at the age of 52. One of Frank's first recordings with Ray Collins (pre Mothers Of Invention) was the song "Memories of El Monte" by The Penguins. In 1960 DJ and producer Art Loboe released an oldies compilation titled Memories of El Monte, that collected the doo wop groups that he booked for shows at  El Monte Legion Stadium in El Monte, California. After hearing of this Frank started to write a song with the same title.  He showed it to Collins who had actually attended some of those shows and they finished the song. It was  released April 8, 1963 on the Original Sound label and featured Cleve Duncan on vocals. Although credited to The Penguins, Steve is actually backed up by another group, The Viceroys. In the song Steve imitates and references other doo wop groups, such as  The Five Satins, The Shields, The Heartbeats, Marvin & Johnny, Tony Allen & The Chimes, and the Penguins. 

It's original B-side was "Be Mine" by The Penguins, but our copy is the 1984 release with "Heavenly Angel" on the flip side.

Cleve Duncan – lead vocals
Walter Saulsberry – tenor vocals

The Viceroys – backup vocals
James Conwell
Andrew "Jack" White
Charles Jones
Oliver Williams
Herbert White

Frank Zappa – xylophone

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