Ronnie Spector: Try Some, Buy Some b/w Tandoori Chicken [1971]

Try Some, Buy Some written by George Harrison
Orchestral Arrangement by J. Barham

Tandoori Chicken written by George Harrison & Phil Spector

Produced by Phil Spector & George Harrison

Weirdly enough, on the exact day that Mike posted the original version of a song from David Bowie's Reality LP, my 45 of the original version of another song from Bowie's Reality arrived in the mail. (In other words, we didn't plan this.)

Here are some notes on "Try Some, Buy Some" from Nicholas Pegg's The Complete David Bowie:

George Harrison originally wrote "Try Some, Buy Some" for the ex-Ronettes vocalist Ronnie Spector, whose version was released as a single in April 1971, inexplicably failing to chart on either side of the Atlantic. "At that time," Bowie recalled, "it was the only single by a solo artist that actually had all four Beatles on it. The Beatles had kind of disbanded, but they all loved Ronnie, and it was George Harrison producing it, so they all crept in at different times to put parts on it." Bowie had already paid tribute to the single many years earlier when he included it in the choice of records he played on BBC Radio 1's Star Special back in 1979. On that occasion he described Ronnie Spector's recording as "absolutely incredible", remarking that it "made me fall in love with the singer... my heart went straight out to her." He also recalled that the track was co-produced by the singer's then husband Phil Spector: "I may be wrong but I think it's the last single he ever made, because he was so depressed that it didn't do anything, that nobody bought it."

I don't have time right now to verify the historical accuracy of anything David says in the quotes above. Maybe somebody else can?

I do want to note that "Try Some, Buy Some" features some knotty harmonic/melodic content on the "Not a thing did I know..." part. I dig it, but it may also explain why this single was not a huge chart-buster...