Thursday, May 2, 2013

Song of the Week: The Who and Garnet Mimms -- Anytime You Want Me

The Who perform Anytime You Want Me
 Garnet Mimms performs, Anytime You Want Me
On our first post in this week-long look at songs which The Who covered or were inspired by, we looked at the Flip-Side of The Who's third European single (Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere) which was their upbeat cover of Otis Blackwell's Daddy Rolling Stone. Today we look at one that is even more rare. The song is the Flip-Side of the American only release of their Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. It wasn't released in any other country and preceded the release of their first album. The song is Anytime You Want Me by Philadelphia based soul stirrer, Garnet Mimms.

Garnett Mimms' original composition was released on the United Artist label in February of 1964. The Who's version of the song was released in the US on Decca on June 5, 1965, less than three months after they recorded the number. It's a pretty straight forward cover and gives real insight into The Who's early interests and skills. Interesting note, this single was delayed in it's release in the US as Decca returned the master tape to the UK claiming the tape was damaged and the music was warbled and muddied. It turns out they were talking about Pete's feedback frenzy in the middle of Anyway, Anyhow, Anywere. Ahhh, the joys of dealing with a predominantly C&W label!

I've included an A Cappella version of The Who's take on Anytime You Want Me just to show you how much I love you.
Until tomorrow, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

P.S. If you dig this Garnet Mimms tune, check out this even better one right here

5 comments:

  1. I absolutely love The Who. But, man oh, man. Their version pales to Garnet Mimms. Kinda typical white UK kids doing soul...poorly. I've got Th wHo's version on the deluxe My Generation CD (and the vocal only). But I had never heard Garnet Mimms before. Real good. I'll have to check him out more.

    Great series. I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

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  2. Well, I agree that Mimm's version is superior. But you may be a little harsh on The Who here. The A Cappella version is a real nice instructors manual. I really like, in that British way, John's backup vocals.

    Mimms is real nice. He did the original of Cry Baby (made famous by Janis Joplin). And The Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things and Them all covered his work as well.

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  3. Any idea why the writing credits are different on The Who's version? Jerry Ragovoy, author of Time Is On My Side, is listed instead of N. Meade as co-writer with Mimm.

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  4. Jarry Ragovoy and Norman Meade are the same person. N Meade is credited as the composer of Time Is On My Side, I do believe. It is interesting that the Decca release reinstated it to Ragovoy's name. Clerical error? I think he wrote under other pseudonyms too, didn't he?

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  5. I think I knew that. Thanks for the reminder.

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