Exactly the kind of knee slapping highbrow comedy you’d expect from The Nest.
Some of you probably woke up this morning and forgot it was Monday. Why? Because for the first time in the two-plus years I have been starting off your week with a nifty little blast from pop’s past, I wound up not getting the post written and scheduled beforehand. So I would like to profusely apologize for being tardy, and would like to make it up to you with not one, but TWO songs pulled from that refuse bin full of shitty excuses we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! OK, DJ Scratchy would like to clarify that it’s actually two different versions of the same song, so please do not complain about being shortchanged an earworm. The Sponkies are in charge of answering the DVA’s mail, and they’ve already learned some pretty salty vocabulary from the nasty letters Draliman has sent in about the rubbish I play on Mondays…
Already two hours late and with a wordy, shitty intro… I’m not going to spend a lot of time bloviating this week’s featured song. The man is Ace Frehley, lead guitarist for the uber popular glam metal band Kiss during its 70’s heyday. In 1978, all four members of the group simultaneously released an album full of their solo work. Ace was the only one to manage to get a real hit song out of the four-pronged project, and that was this funky little #13 number “New York Groove”…
Not exactly the sound you would associate with a member of the group that ran up huge bills for Halloween makeup, pyrotechnics and fake blood each time they did a concert… but Kiss did much more than rock and roll all night while partying every day. Ace’s vocals seem pretty lifeless during the verses, but the guitar and that awesome beat more than make “New York Groove” a great listen!
Probably not hardcore enough for Gene Simmons, though…
Now, my British and European followers may be familiar with this song having been done by a different artist. That’s because a glam outfit by the name Hello first made the charts across the Atlantic three years earlier with the original version of “New York Groove.” In many ways this sounds similar to the Frehley version Americans are more familiar with, but there are definitely some unique features to this UK version as well…
I admit that the Hello version is also pretty good, though I’d still have to side with Ace just because I knew it first and it’s grown on me so much. And as those of you who were following my blog four years ago know, I’m not much on the New York groove myself… so my enjoyment of both renditions of this song certainly have nothing to do with any affection I have for the Big Apple…
Bullshit! There is no fried chicken in any of the five boroughs!
I’ll be back next Monday with another lost hit, and hopefully a bit more prompt…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I liked Hello a lot … till it turned into hell-o because the lamest music show on slice earth misused that muzak for their 50 minutes of endless boredom …
Maybe they should have changed their name to Goodbye…
I did not hate either version and I’m in the mood to hate everything today!
Well, I guess that’s a positive that neither song is hateworthy!
That is good – this is not Wednesday’s music feature.
ody N biskit…..grate choice two day by dad; this song rocks; never hurd de “hello” version….will give thiz a listen !! 🙂 ♥♥
It’s a little different than Ace’s version… a little less of the guitar, but a whole lot more harmonica!
Hey, what’s all this about my nasty letters getting intercepted by the Sponkies? How do I sneak them through to the head honcho…?
Sadly Ace’s video is not allowed in my country, but Alexa came through again and played it for me. I hate to break the habit of a lifetime, or the last few months anyway, but I admit that it is quite good! The Hello version is also not bad.
Now I can’t wait for Wednesday. I have quite enjoyed one of your offerings, maybe we can make it two for two!
Sorry, but they have to screen all of my mail just in case someone tries to send me an exploding possum or something…
Well, 1 for 2 in my prediction so far that you would have to like both songs this week. Wednesday’s going to be weird though because…. well, you’ll see.
Not familiar with either version……must have had air-play while I was living in a cave many years ago…..(just kidding). Thanks for sharing though – I did like Ace’s version until he sang but the beat is terrific.
Pam
Yeah, he wasn’t much of a singer. This one might have worked out better as an instrumental…
Oh I agree………..
I waited two hours and got those?! 😈 Can’t say either rendition makes me wax on about a New York Groove. Must be because I took Horace Greeley’s advice and went west.
I certainly would not wax about a New York Groove I never had… I didn’t care for the city when I was there. I feel the same way about Chicago, so it must be a big city thing with me…
I always find myself at a loss for something to say about groups to which I never listened in the past and have little to no interest in listening to now. I really want to say something interesting. Witty. Pithy. Meaningful or at least, appropriately insulting. But there’s nothing to say. I never listened to Kiss before this album or since. I should care. I should. I know I should.
If it’s not your thing, then you shouldn’t feel bad at all about not caring. I don’t sweat the things I’m not interested in. I just politely nod and move on. Kiss was a long way from Simon & Garfunkel…
This is a lost hit that can stay lost, in my opinion. I’ve never heard it before. Ditto what Marilyn said above.
I had a feeling this song would get mixed reviews, and it did. It’s kind of a musical oddball done by a member of one of rock’s weirder groups…