EVIE SANDS
Take Me For a Little While
A Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter whose career spans nearly two-thirds of a century, Evie Sands lacks that one big national hit that so many less diligent artists have had. She was persistent, ultimately embracing the grind that brought many near-misses and a handful of often regional, occasionally more widespread hit records. Depending on where you lived, you might not remember the same songs as people in other parts of the country. I've actually taken the time to ask several acquaintances in various regions which of Evie's songs they remember best (if indeed they're familiar with her music) and I've gotten six different answers that coincide with her best-known recordings.
Listening to R&B radio stations sparked her interest as a pre-teen and she figured playing guitar would be a good way to start, but with no guidance on how to play, she flipped a right-handed guitar to the left, with the strings in reverse order...and got comfortable playing it that way. At age 16 she entered a talent contest put on by a radio station and took the top prize: a recording contract (that only guaranteed one single release). Two songs by singer-songwriter Teddy Vann appeared on an ABC-Paramount 45 in the spring of 1963: "The Roll," a dance tune with shout-outs to various cities and instructions ('take your hands and hold them high, and roll them around in the sky...'), flipped with "My Dog," commenting on how a pet senses his owner's sadness (''My, my, my dog is going to, to cry...I can see a tear in his eye...'). Neither side is as bad as this description. Most important is that Evie's vocals were more soulful and mature than one would expect from a singer in her early teens.
Having gained a few connections in New York, she waxed her second disc in early '64 for Luther Dixon's Gold Records Incorporated. "Danny Boy I Love You So," arranged by Dixon and Joe Jones, is an odd teen love song based on the Irish folk standard "Danny Boy." Its flip, "I Was Moved," penned by Jackie DeShannon, is a Spectoresque production not unlike some of Jackie's own hits. In 1965 Evie, then 19, met producers Al Gorgoni and Chip Taylor (real name: James Voight), who suggested a song by Trade Martin, who as a guitarist was on many New York sessions by top singers and producers (including Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), then produced The Earls' breakthrough single "Life is But a Dream" for Tony Powers' Rome label in 1961. Next, he turned to singing and scored a top 30 hit in the fall of '62 with "That Stranger Used to Be My Girl." Take Me For a Little While," his first notable composition, gave Evie national exposure...but only regional success.
Gorgoni and Taylor booked a studio for the purpose of making a demo of the song; George "Shadow" Morton, who'd recently set himself up as a hotshot producer with The Shangri-Las, was in the building at the time and liked what he heard, suggesting they contact Red Bird Records owners Leiber and Stoller (the songwriting-production team whose decade-long winning streak included hits by "Big Mama" Thornton, Elvis Presley, The Cheers, The Exciters, Wilbert Harrison, Jay and the Americans and several Atlantic Records hitmakers). Red Bird exploded in 1964, establishing The Dixie Cups, Shangri-Las and others and in early '65 the company expanded the operation with the Blue Cat label (scoring with female-led foursome The Ad Libs).
Al and Chip produced the agonizingly passionate song ('...if you don't want me forever, and if you don't need me forever, and if you can't love me forever...take me for a little while, so I can hold you, baby...so i can make you want me...') in the same studio setting as previous Red Bird hits. While preparing it for release, a test pressing somehow found its way to Chess Records in Chicago (slimy music industry spies were everywhere!). Within a day or two a cover by Jackie Ross (whose "Selfish One" had scored big ten months earlier) was rush-released; Chess ran a full-page ad in the July 10 issue of Billboard proclaiming it was "Destined to be number one!" Jackie's version had already begun getting airplay in a few markets and even showed up on the Cash Box "Looking Ahead" listing before the end of the month; the threat of a lawsuit limited its exposure as Evie's original was quickly pressed and issued on Blue Cat.
"Take Me For a Little While" was a top ten hit in a few Southern California markets including Los Angeles and San Diego. Evie made numerous TV appearances (Shindig!, Where the Action Is, Shivaree, The Lloyd Thaxton Show and Hollywood a Go Go, where she also lip-synced the disc's impressive flip, "Run Home to Your Mama"), though all this exposure in the late summer and fall of '65 failed to get the single going nationally. In November, Blue Cat released another strong single by Evie, "I Can't Let Go," written and produced by Gorgoni and Taylor; The Hollies picked up on it immediately and had a mid-sized hit in the U.S. and U.K. a few months later (the offshore pirate stations contributing largely to its success). Meanwhile, covers of "Take Me" popped up by lesser-known singers Steve Lewis and Johnny Gustafson in the U.K., Liverpool band The Koobas (whose main claim-to-fame was opening for The Beatles on a '65 U.K. tour) and Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles (whose version briefly reached the national chart at the end of December 1966). The composer, Trade Martin, even got around to doing his own rendition in 1971.
Evie made L.A. her permanent home around that time. Chip Taylor struck gold in the summer of '66 with "Wild Thing," honed to unruly chart-topping perfection by The Troggs, but he and Gorgoni didn't abandon their discovery; Evie Sands signed with the Philadelphia-based Cameo Records and released her first two (of four) singles in 1966, Al and Chip's "Picture Me Gone," followed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "The Love of a Boy." Then Chip came up with what seemed a sure-fire winner, "Angel of the Morning," but it too faltered...at least until a cover by Seattle's Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts soared to the top ten the following year. One final release was squeezed in before Cameo-Parkway, plagued with financial difficulties, closed its doors forever.
"Billy Sunshine," a Gorgoni-Taylor song with an upbeat arrangement and yearning lyrics ('...why'd you leave me...hangin'?'), even had a promo film made with Evie riding various above-ground trains in New York City. The song made a brief appearance near the bottom of the "Bubbling Under" chart in April '68, but with the label defunct, how could a smattering of airplay amount to anything more? It was another "could've been" for Miss Sands. Meanwhile, more remakes of "Take Me For a Little While" surfaced: Cher took a decent shot at it as did girl group The Lovables, then Vanilla Fudge had the most success, applying their signature psychedelic arrangement and hitting the top 40 in October 1968.
Moving to A&M Records late in the year with Taylor and Gorgoni tagging along, Evie landed on the Hot 100 at long last with Taylor's "Any Way That You Want Me," previously released in 1966 by British bands The Liverpool Five and the aforementioned Troggs, then by The American Breed in '68. Her unrestrained remake was the biggest, landing mid-chart over a run of several weeks in the summer of 1969 (and a film was made of this one also). This sparked a whirlwind of television appearances (Johnny Cash, Della Reese, Joey Bishop, Mike Douglas, Glen Campbell, Merv Griffin and The Everly Brothers had her as a guest on their variety series in addition to Hef's Playboy After Dark and Clark's American Bandstand). One disc that skirted the edge of the Bubblers in 1970 was "Crazy Annie," based on actress Jennifer Salt's character in the Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy (which starred Dustin Hoffman and Chip Taylor's brother, Jon Voight).
In the 1970s she focused more on songwriting and had two mid-chart hits in 1975 on Capitol's Haven label. "You Brought the Woman Out of Me," with a more rocking arrangement than previous works, revealed a grittier vocal style, while "I Love Making Love to You," on which she was credited with two other songwriters, went with a horn-based top 40-friendly sound (though the song landed ten spots shy of that benchmark, it was the strongest chart performance she would ever achieve). As a songwriter, she enjoyed considerable success during this period; artists who recorded her songs include Barbra Streisand, The Manhattans, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Helen Reddy, Frankie Valli, Dusty Springfield and Shirley Bassey. Often working with cowriter Ben Weisman, there was a brief stint at RCA in 1979 that yielded one album; afterwards she stopped performing but continued writing songs.
In 1996 she joined Chip Taylor in Los Angeles for an impromptu performance and that was all it took to convince her to get back onstage and into the studio for something like 30 more years. So, how does Evie Sands feel about the struggles and near-misses that embodied her music career? Quite simply, she's just fine with it and loves writing and recording music while carrying her trusty upside-down guitar to each show, performing for and meeting new as well as longtime fans. "Take Me For a Little While"? That just wouldn't have been a long enough gig. How about several decades?
