1) Her seldom-heard originals were better than the hit covers they produced.
2) Music was a lot better than now.
3) What? You mean the Fifth Dimension version wasn't the original? I love Marilyn.
In the period before her 22nd birthday, Nyro wrote all seven of her top hits. Four of them were recorded by the Fifth Dimension:
Stoned Soul Picnic-- The song that brought "surry on down" into the language. Nyro's version and the Fifth Dimension's cover both came out in 1968. Fifth Dimension's reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart, it's a little smoother.
Sweet Blindness-- I loved this song as a teenager. Nyro's 1968 original about her song about teenagers getting drunk (and horny, if "come on baby do a slow float" means what I think it does) has been described by a Youtube commenter as "like a prog-rock Supremes or Shirelles" with its tempo shifts. But nothing matches the Fifth Dimension's video ride in an antique car along the beach in Cannes. Marilyn McCoo is breathtaking, and both girls get kissed by their boyfriends at the end. Their version reached No.13, but I never hear it on oldies stations, it's too subversive.
Wedding Bell Blues-- Written as a circle (the last line of the verse is the first line of the chorus) in 1966, Nyro's soulful version is wonderful even if it's not quite how she wanted to sing it. So is Fifth Dimension's 1969 hit. It was humorously sung on TV by McCoo to her real-life fiancee Billy Davis Jr., and became the only one of Laura's songs to reach No. 1.
Save the Country-- A protest song: "Can't study war no more." Kids on YouTube don't understand "Keep the dream of the two young brothers" is talking about the Kennedys until it's explained to them. It was unusually political for the breezy Fifth Dimension, who recorded it in 1970.
Realizing the Fifth Dimension were working on a groovy thing, other bands started combing through Nyro's albums for songs. Three of them became hits:
And When I Die-- Nyro wrote it when she was sixteen, and how someone that age could come up with those lyrics is an everlasting mystery. She sold it to Peter Paul and Mary for $5,000 and they squandered its emotion in folk-song polyphony like it was "Rock Island Line." Nyro's version came a year later, and is a lot more soulful. In 1968, Blood Sweat and Tears recorded the hit version, reaching No. 2 (they offered Laura the chance to become lead singer, but she wasn't interested). Unlike Nyro's other cover bands, they expanded its vision, with even more tempo changes, adding Western and preaching sections to make it even more surreal.
Eli's Coming-- A crazy song with time and volume changes building to a crescendo. Three Dog Night's hit 1969 version is great, but not any better than Laura's.
Stoney End-- Of all of them, this is the one I think Laura's original is most clearly superior to the hit version, by Barbra Streisand in 1971. Laura's phrasing brings out the lyrics better than Streisand's belting. I'm guessing Stoney End refers to Virginia Woolf's method of suicide, which also goes with the lyric "now I don't believe I want to see the morning."
Save the Country-- A protest song: "Can't study war no more." Kids on YouTube don't understand "Keep the dream of the two young brothers" is talking about the Kennedys until it's explained to them. It was unusually political for the breezy Fifth Dimension, who recorded it in 1970.
Realizing the Fifth Dimension were working on a groovy thing, other bands started combing through Nyro's albums for songs. Three of them became hits:
And When I Die-- Nyro wrote it when she was sixteen, and how someone that age could come up with those lyrics is an everlasting mystery. She sold it to Peter Paul and Mary for $5,000 and they squandered its emotion in folk-song polyphony like it was "Rock Island Line." Nyro's version came a year later, and is a lot more soulful. In 1968, Blood Sweat and Tears recorded the hit version, reaching No. 2 (they offered Laura the chance to become lead singer, but she wasn't interested). Unlike Nyro's other cover bands, they expanded its vision, with even more tempo changes, adding Western and preaching sections to make it even more surreal.
Eli's Coming-- A crazy song with time and volume changes building to a crescendo. Three Dog Night's hit 1969 version is great, but not any better than Laura's.
Stoney End-- Of all of them, this is the one I think Laura's original is most clearly superior to the hit version, by Barbra Streisand in 1971. Laura's phrasing brings out the lyrics better than Streisand's belting. I'm guessing Stoney End refers to Virginia Woolf's method of suicide, which also goes with the lyric "now I don't believe I want to see the morning."
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