Hurricane Smith

[Hawkee]

I found a song called Oh Babe What Would You Say? that was performed by a singer named Hurricane Smith and I would like to know what happened to him? Oh Babe What Would You Say became a novelty song in the 70's and then Hurricane Smith had another hit song called Don't Let It Die and for a singer Hurricane had such a fun voice. I first heard Oh Babe What Would You Say when Kelsey Grammer performed it in an episode of Frasier and didn't know that it was a 70's song. I also know that Hurricane Smith passed away in the 90's but was he huge for a short time?

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

I found a song called Oh Babe What Would You Say? that was performed by a singer named Hurricane Smith and I would like to know what happened to him? Oh Babe What Would You Say became a novelty song in the 70's and then Hurricane Smith had another hit song called Don't Let It Die and for a singer Hurricane had such a fun voice. I first heard Oh Babe What Would You Say when Kelsey Grammer performed it in an episode of Frasier and didn't know that it was a 70's song. I also know that Hurricane Smith passed away in the 90's but was he huge for a short time?

" Oh baby, what would you say " was a fun song. I remember it played on the radio a lot back than . I also got the 45 record. I wish I remembered what was on the flip side. " Oh baby, what would you say" is the only song I remember by Hurricane Smith.

[Hawkee]

Originally Posted by Bonniegirl

" Oh baby, what would you say " was a fun song. I remember it played on the radio a lot back than . I also got the 45 record. I wish I remembered what was on the flip side. " Oh baby, what would you say" is the only song I remember by Hurricane Smith.

Did you ever hear Kelsey Grammer's version of Oh Babe What Would You Say on Frasier as well Bonnie? That's where I first heard that song and I thought Kelsey did a fun job singing it even better than Hurricane Smith. I wonder why Hurricane Smith never got that big because from what I listened to of his music it really was fun
Thanks for replying Bonnie,
Hawkee

[ABlairican Pie]

Interesting facts about Hurricane Smith:

Norman Smith was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, England, on February 22, 1923. He would have been one hundred years old last year.

He served as an RAF glider pilot in World War II.

After the war, he played pianos and drums in various jazz combos and began an unsuccessful jazz as a trumpeter and session pianist, he joined EMI as an apprentice sound engineer in 1959.

Smith served as an engineer on all of the EMI studio recordings by the Beatles until the fall of 1965,when EMI promoted him from engineer to producer. The last Beatles album he engineered was 'Rubber Soul'. Smith engineered the sound for almost 100 Beatles songs.

Due to Smith's calm and personable demeanor, John Lennon nicknamed him
'Normal", a moniker which was picked up by the other Beatles.

While working with the Beatles in June 1965, he was offered £15,000 by the band's music publishing company, Dick James Music, to sell outright a song he had written.

In 1967, he began working with Pink Floyd. He produced their first, second, and fourth studio albums, 'Piper At the Gates Of Dawn', 'A Saucerful Of Secrets', and 'Ummagumma'. During the sessions for the song "Remember a Day", drummer Nick Mason became agitated and frustrated that he could not come up with the right drum part for the song. Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played the part himself.

In 1968, Smith produced one of the first rock concept albums, Pretty Things' 'S. F. Sorrow', which was one of the first rock operas.

He produced early recordings by Barclay James Harvest, including their album 'Once Again' in 1971, and many years later was name-checked in John Lees' song "John Lennon's Guitar".

[Steve M.]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

While working with the Beatles in June 1965, he was offered £15,000 by the band's music publishing company, Dick James Music, to sell outright a song he had written.

Here's the full story:

Norman Smith casually told George Martin during the Help! sessions while waiting for the Beatles to arrive that he had written a song and thought John Lennon had the right voice to sing it. When the Beatles walked into the studio, Martin mentioned Smith's song to the Beatles, and the Beatles, who had never issued (and never would issue) a recording of an original song in their time together, said they wanted to hear it. When Smith played it for them, they agreed that John would be perfect to sing lead on that song, and they quickly learned it to record it the following day as the fourteenth and final song for Help! and the seventh and final song for the non-film side. Dick James himself was present, and was the one who offered Smith £15,000 for the song. Smith saw Martin look up at the ceiling as a way of telling Smith to ask for more. Smith said to James that they could negotiate a price the following day.

The next day, Smith arrived all excited, but when the Beatles came in with long faces, he knew something was wrong. John Lennon and Paul McCartney explained to him that the rejection of "If You've Got Trouble" as Ringo Starr's vocal feature for Help! meant that they had to give the last track to Ringo, but they promised they would record his song on the next album, and that of course, didn't happen.

As late as 1982 Smith said that that song was still "around somewhere." Unless he gave that song to someone else later on, it has never been recorded to this day; no one even knows its title. And, of course, the song Ringo recorded for Help! was a cover of Buck Owens' "Act Naturally."

Ringo didn't get a vocal feature on A Hard Day's Night and got compensated for that with a vocal feature on an EP of otherwise unavailable material. John could have recorded Smith's song for Help! and Ringo could still have recorded "Act Naturally" for an EP that could have included their cover of Larry Williams' "Bad Boy" (not released in Britain until December 1966 as a bonus track on a greatest-hits compilation) and two other covers they could have recorded. Because, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the Beatles only put out original songs and covers - never originals written by composers outside the band, or, as I would call them, "outsider originals." So if John wanted to record a song written by his recording engineer, Smith must have written a pretty darn good song.

[i29u]

He died in 2008.

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

Did you ever hear Kelsey Grammer's version of Oh Babe What Would You Say on Frasier as well Bonnie? That's where I first heard that song and I thought Kelsey did a fun job singing it even better than Hurricane Smith. I wonder why Hurricane Smith never got that big because from what I listened to of his music it really was fun
Thanks for replying Bonnie,
Hawkee

No , I never did . But I can imagine Kelsey singing this. It probably was fun !

[Bonniegirl]

Originally Posted by ABlairican Pie

Interesting facts about Hurricane Smith:

Norman Smith was born in Edmonton, Middlesex, England, on February 22, 1923. He would have been one hundred years old last year.

He served as an RAF glider pilot in World War II.

After the war, he played pianos and drums in various jazz combos and began an unsuccessful jazz as a trumpeter and session pianist, he joined EMI as an apprentice sound engineer in 1959.

Smith served as an engineer on all of the EMI studio recordings by the Beatles until the fall of 1965,when EMI promoted him from engineer to producer. The last Beatles album he engineered was 'Rubber Soul'. Smith engineered the sound for almost 100 Beatles songs.

Due to Smith's calm and personable demeanor, John Lennon nicknamed him
'Normal", a moniker which was picked up by the other Beatles.

While working with the Beatles in June 1965, he was offered £15,000 by the band's music publishing company, Dick James Music, to sell outright a song he had written.

In 1967, he began working with Pink Floyd. He produced their first, second, and fourth studio albums, 'Piper At the Gates Of Dawn', 'A Saucerful Of Secrets', and 'Ummagumma'. During the sessions for the song "Remember a Day", drummer Nick Mason became agitated and frustrated that he could not come up with the right drum part for the song. Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played the part himself.

In 1968, Smith produced one of the first rock concept albums, Pretty Things' 'S. F. Sorrow', which was one of the first rock operas.

He produced early recordings by Barclay James Harvest, including their album 'Once Again' in 1971, and many years later was name-checked in John Lees' song "John Lennon's Guitar".

Wow! Interesting ! Now I want to not only hear " Oh babe, what would you say" again but some other songs he did.

[Steve M.]

Originally Posted by i29u

He died in 2008.

Yes, that's right . . . I remember in the five to ten years before he died, I saw him at one of the Beatles conventions in the New York area.

[Steve M.]

In their 1991 book "The Worst Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time," Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell placed "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?" as number 36 of rock's 50 worst singles. However, they loved the Beatles' Rubber Soul, the last album Norman Smith engineered for the Beatles, so it's not like they dismissed him outright.