The A-side was partly written by Winters and Paul Simon as Jerry Landis. It's a standard doo-wop ballad, and is actually not bad at all. The B-side is fairly up-tempo, and fun to listen to. Tough record to find, but worth searching for.

These recordings are fun ear candy. I'm a little surprised that this record didn't chart, given how catchy both sides of this record are. It's worth getting a hand on if you can locate a recording. The CD set The Best Of Amy Records, vols. 1-3, should have recordings of both sides.

As you can see on the label, this is an advance copy, and yes, the wax is actually Carolina blue. I should mention, however, that I've never seen a copy of this record that did not have blue wax, so it's possible that all the copies were produced with it.

From listening to this record, it seems that The Fashions are an all-female group. Apparently, Paul Simon (credited as Jerry Landis) was not the only one involved in the production of this single. This advance copy has a silver label, black print, and black vinyl.

Paul Simon produced this record as Jerry Landis, too. "Play Me A Sad Song" is the same song he co-wrote and recorded on Warwick 619 in 1961, but this recording is far different, featuring a much more soulful tone to it (as well as a female perspective). This seems to have been the last Amy release with any Paul Simon involvement. At the right is the original sleeve. Amy Records was in fact owned by the Bell label, which explains why both companies' logos appear on the sleeve (not pictured).

Simon co-wrote "Red Rubber Ball" when he met Bruce Woodley of The Seekers while in England in 1965. In perhaps one of the least-shrewd moves of his career, he later offered this song to The Cyrkle, a group who "used to be good friends of ours," according to Art Garfunkel. At the time of the offer, The Cyrkle was apparently on the verge of dissolving, but some aggressive touring helped lift their recording to #2 in the US in the summer of 1966, much to the dismay of Simon & Garfunkel. During the introduction of this song on each of the two concert recordings from 1966-7, Garfunkel notes with obvious disgust that The Cyrkle sold some 890,000 copies of this hit (including this one to a radio station). It's also interesting to note that the record label shows Woodley's name misspelled without the "e".

This record was originally recorded and released in the United States in 1967, then in Britain ten years later; Side 1 was written by Paul. If the Columbia catalog number is any indication, it was actually released before Simon & Garfunkel released "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" as the B-side to "Fakin' It." Paul does a spoken-word rendition of the lyrics "You don't begin to comprehend," on Side 1. Valery's cut also leaves out the interlude "Indications indicate/Running the same riff will turn you around", etc., which Simon voices over in spoken word on the studio recording by Simon & Garfunkel. The orchestration is also fuller on this cut, with a full string section, trumpets and I believe a trombone, as well as the guitar and drums (though my ear is not trained to pick up every instrument featured on this track). In my opinion, this is the best arrangement/rendition of "You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies" recorded anywhere.

Side 1: 1. Urubamba 2. El Corazon del Inca [The Heart of the Inca King] 3. Canten Cantores [Singers] 4. Fugitivo en el Altiplano [Fugitive on the High Plains] 5. El Eco 6. Caballo de Madera [Wooden Horse]

Side 2: 7. Kacharpari 8. Campanas de Santa Cruz [Death in Santa Cruz] 9. Buena Nueva [Good News Pan Pipes] 10. Para Pelusa 11. Uña

Paul Simon produced this album by Urubamba, the group of South American musicians whom he had met in 1965 while performing on the same bill at the Theatre de l'Est Parisienne in Paris. At the time they were known as Los Incas, and their membership was slightly different. Under that name, they provided almost all of the instrumentation heard on the single "El Condor Pasa" from Simon & Garfunkel's album Bridge Over Troubled Water when that track was recorded in 1969 (all Simon did was write an English lyric for the song). Simon asked them again to provide much of the instrumentation for "Duncan" when he recorded his self-titled LP Paul Simon in 1972. He took them on tour in 1973 along with the Jessy Dixon Singers, and the kickoff track to Side 2 of this album is taken from that tour; they're also featured on the several other recordings from that tour found on the "Albums" section of this website. Paul Simon wrote most of the promotional notes found on the album cover and sticker. Presumably his help in producing and releasing the album was done in part as thanks to Urubamba for their collaboration with him over the previous decade. "Urubamba," meanwhile, is the name of the river that runs past the Inca ruins at Macchu Picchu, in Peru. The album is very good, and I recommend it for anyone who likes Simon's incorporation of the South American sounds into his own work. You can also tell that the front cover photo of this album is taken from one on the reverse of Simon's own Live Rhymin' album from the same year.

While in England in 1965, Simon and Garfunkel both befriended the folk singer/songwriter Jackson C. Frank. That year, Simon produced Frank's only album, Jackson C. Frank, which was released as EMI Columbia 33-10788X and included these two tracks. A single version of "Blues Run The Game" was released as well on 45 at the same time, but with the B-side track "Can't Get Away From My Love." Despite his considerable talent, Frank had disappeared from the music scene by the late 1970s, and the re-release of his album, retitled Jackson Again, on B&C Records in 1978 prompted the pressing of this single, which seem to be the same cuts as those off of the album. Frank's album is rare to find in its original pressing, and even the re-release is difficult to locate. However, it has recently been re-released on CD, which Simon & Garfunkel fans should enjoy. Frank's own version of "Blues Run The Game" takes a slightly slower tempo than the cover demo done by Simon & Garfunkel and released on Old Friends, and includes at least one extra verse. His original recording of this song is still arguably the best. "Milk and Honey" is another one of the top tracks from Frank's LP.