The hand jive was supposed to sweep the nation in 1958. The clapping game, which originated in England and was later depicted in the film Grease, was "destined to become the biggest teenage fad in the history of the record business."
So said London Records, the label that released the original version of "Hand Jive" by the Betty Smith Group. Billboard reported that Smith's "Hand Jive" was the hottest selling record in Denver at one point, and London's ads said that one spin of "Hand Jive" in New York had elicited over 1,000 inquiries from listeners.
London promoted the record heavily, taking out full-page ads in the trade magazines to offer DJs free records and free instructions on how to do the hand jive. The clapping game was said to be a great alternative to dancing in spaces where "the dance floor is too crowded" or "where dancing is not allowed." The label issued an entire hand-jive album by Betty Smith, Music For Hand-Jiving, which was accurately billed as the "first hand jive LP."
Smith sang the lead vocal on "Hand Jive," but—despite all of these promotional efforts on behalf of the hand jive—American DJs flipped her record and played the instrumental B-side instead. The B-side was a smoky saxophone version of the song "Bewitched," a tune from the 1940 musical Pal Joey that was originally known by its full title, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." The song had been a hit for several artists in 1950, including Doris Day and Gordon Jenkins. Somewhat surprisingly, Smith herself was the saxophone soloist on her group's rendition of "Bewitched." The record reached #51 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A competing hand-jive song, "(Six-Five) Hand Jive," was released in two versions: one by Don Lang & His Frantic Five and one by the Show Brothers. Both groups were British. Neither of these records were hits either.
It would take an American act, Johnny Otis, to break through with a hand-jive song. That song, "Willie and the Hand Jive," was a Top 10 hit on the pop and R&B charts in 1958. Eric Clapton put the song in the Top 40 again with his 1974 remake.
Betty Smith playing her saxophone
As for Betty Smith, she released a few more singles on London, but none were hits in England or the United States. Malcolm Lockyer was the musical director on Smith's early recordings, and she continued to work with him into the 1970s. In 1974, they released an album titled I'm Old Fashioned on the British label Contour Records, which specialized in easy listening and budget recordings.
G Stands for Go-Betweens is a lavish—and expensive—four-LP and four-CD box set from Domino Records that compiles the first five Go-Betweens singles, the first three Go-Betweens albums, a live set from 1982, three discs of rarities, and a thick booklet that Robert Forster wrote. (The first 600 copies included books from the library of the late Grant McLennan, and Music Weird is compiling a list of those titles here.) Despite the deluxe presentation, a number of listeners have noted speed problems on some of the tracks. This post will provide details on the tracks that need speed correction.
Archie Moore's review on Sound It Out from January 25 noted the speed problems:
All of the non-single material from the 1999 release 78 ‘Til 79: The Lost Album
appears here, but it’s significantly slower than on that CD,
sounding slightly sluggish and tuned-down (i.e. it seems that the slower
speed is incorrect and accidental, a tape transfer error, not a
correction). It is possible that this has been addressed and/or fixed
since I got the digital review copy.
This problem hasn't been addressed, because my standard release copy has the same problems.
The songs from The Lost Album aren't the only ones that sound slow, though. Here's the breakdown:
Life as Sweet as Lemonade Tracks 3-22 are slow
Skeletons That Cry Tracks 7-11 are slow
I haven't heard from Domino Records yet about whether these CDs will be remastered to correct the speed problems. At the very least, the downloads for purchasers should be corrected, but the best possible outcome would be for the affected discs and LPs to be remastered and replaced. Considering the price of the set and the attention to detail that otherwise went into it, these problems are surprising and upsetting.
If you have additional comments about the speed issues on G Stands for Go-Betweens or run across additional reviews that mention them, please let me know and I'll add them to this page.
Update (March 19, 2015): Another review has noted the speed issue. This is from Boston Hassle:
Previously heard selections appear here at significantly slower speeds, which begs the question as to whether the Lost Album contained sped-up mixes to make the band sound more sprightly, or if this box set contains slowed-down mixes. Because there can be no logical reason for the latter, we must conclude that we are now hearing the Go-Betweens’ earliest demos at their original speed, and it’s not a flattering discovery.
[Updated Jan. 8, 2025] The first 600 copies of Domino Records' limited-edition Go-Betweens box set G Stands for Go-Betweens: Volume 1 and the first 400 copies of G Stands for Go-Betweens: Volume 2 included books from the library of Grant McLennan, who died in 2006. I'm using this page to compile a list of the books that buyers received. If you are one of the lucky fans who received one or more of Grant's books, please send the authors and titles and I'll add them to the list.
These titles include the three books I received with my copy of the first volume as well as titles that have been posted on go-betweens.net, stevehoffman.tv, Twitter, and Right Here: The Go-Betweens Appreciation Society group on Facebook.
One of my three books was Fireworks by Angela Carter. I was excited to get it, because Grant wrote a song titled "Angela Carter" for the 1995 Jack Frost album Snow Job. The book is signed by Grant and dated 1982. Grant must have kept his books in alphabetical order by the authors' last names, because a lot of people have received bundles of books by authors whose last names start with the same letter. People are finding interesting things inside Grant's books. Many of the books, like my Angela Carter one, are signed and dated by Grant. Photos, receipts, and tickets have also been found. For longtime Go-Betweens fans, it's a magical experience to hold these little scraps of Grant's life.
Chinua Achebe – Things Fall Apart
Diane Ackerman – The Moon by Whale Light
Alice Adams – Rich Rewards
Robert Adamson – Waving to Hart Crane
Donald Allen, ed. – The Selected Poems of Frank O'Hara
Michelangelo Antonioni – Blow-Up
Michelangelo Antonioni – L'Avventura: A Film by Michelangelo Antonioni
Max Apple – Zip: A Novel of the Left and Right
Roy Armes – A Critical History of British Cinema
John Ashbery, Lee Harwood, Tom Raworth – Penguin Modern Poets 19
Steven Bach – Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven's Gate
Nicholson Baker – A Box of Matches
Nicholson Baker – The Size of Thoughts
Russell Banks – The Sweet Hereafter
John Banville – Athena
J. M. Barrie – Peter Pan and Wendy
Jean Bedford – Sister Kate: A Novel
Madison Smartt Bell – Ten Indians
Dianne Benedict – Shiny Objects
Pinckney Benedict – The Wrecking Yard and Other Stories
John Berger – About Looking
John Betjeman – Collected Poems
Caroline Blackwood – The Fate of Mary Rose
Maurice Blanchot – The Sirens' Song
Louise Bogan – The Blue Estuaries
Paul Bowles – Collected Stories
Blanche McCrary Boyd – The Redneck Way of Knowledge: Down-Home Tales
Michael Bracewell – England Is Mine: Pop Life in Albion
Kate Braverman – Wonders of the West
Joe Bob Briggs – Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In
Bill Broady – Swimmer
Kevin Brownlow – The Parade's Gone By
Luis Bunuel – My Last Breath: The Autobiography of Luis Bunuel
Robert Burns – Auld Lang Syne and Other Songs
James M. Cain – Double Indemnity
Ethan Canin – Emperor of the Air
Ethan Canin – The Palace Thief
Peter Carey – Illywhacker
Kent E. Carroll – Closeup: Last Tango in Paris
Angela Carter – Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces
Brian Castro – Birds of Passage: A Novel
Raymond Chandler – The Blue Dahlia
John Cheever – The Stories of John Cheever
Tracy Chevalier – Girl With a Pearl Earring
Mark Childress – A World Made of Fire
Rene Clair – Le Silence Est d'Or, La Beaute du Diable, Les Belles-de-Nuit, Les Grandes Manoeuvres
Nic Cohn – WopBopaLooBop LopBamBoom
John and Dorothy Colmer – The Penguin Book of Australian Autobiography
Laurie Colwin – Another Marvelous Thing
Joseph Conrad – The Secret Agent
Robert Coover – Gerald's Party
A.E. Coppard – Dusky Ruth and Other Stories
Neil Corcoran, ed. – 'Do You, Mr Jones?': Bob Dylan with the Poets & Professors
Richard Corliss, ed. – The Hollywood Screenwriters: A Film Comment Book
Alfred Corn – A Call in the Midst of the Crowd
Douglas Coupland – Hey Nostradamus!
Harry Crews – The Hawk Is Dying
James Crumley – Bordersnakes
Beatrice Davis, ed. – The Illustrated History of Australian Verse
Marele Day – Lambs of God
Alain de Botton – How Proust Can Change Your Life
Don DeLillo – Great Jones Street
Don DeLillo – Libra
Rick DeMarinis – The Burning Women of Far Cry
Joan Didion – Play It as It Lays
Isak Dinesen – Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales
Harriet Doerr – Stones for Ibarra
Stella Dong – Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City
Michael Dransfield – Drug Poems
Michael Dransfield – Inspector of Tides
Robert Drewe – The Bodysurfers
Carl Theodor Dreyer – Four Screen Plays
Andre Dubus – Broken Vessels
Lawrence Durrell – Monsieur
Bob Dylan – Chronicles: Volume One
Nick Earls – Zigzag Street
Umberto Eco – The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
Page Edwards Jr. – Touring
Modris Eksteins – Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
Louise Erdrich – The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year
James Fenton – Terminal Moraine
William Fifield – Modigliani: The Biography
F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Last Tycoon
Ross Fitzgerald & Ken Spillman, eds. – The Greatest Game
Lydia Flem – Casanova, or the Art of Happiness
Richard Ford – Independence Day
Richard Ford – Rock Springs
Raimond Gaita – Romulus, My Father
John Gardner – The Wreckage of Agathon
Helen Garner – Monkey Grip
William Gaunt – Victorian Olympus
Theofile Gautier – My Fantoms
Tim Gautreaux – Next Step in the Dance: A Novel
Kaye Gibbons – A Virtuous Woman
Ross Gibson – Seven Versions of an Australian Badland
Ellen Gilchrist – Drunk with Love: A Book of Stories
Mikal Gilmore – Night Beat: A Shadow History of Rock & Roll
Fran Gordon – Paisley Girl
William Goyen – Had I a Hundred Mouths
Sara Gran – Come Closer
Robert Gray – Selected Poems 1963-1983
Henry Green – Caught
Andy Greenwald – Miss Misery
Geoffrey Grigson – Collected Poems 1963-1980
Todd Grimson – Brand New Cherry Flavor
H.A. Guerber – The Myths of Greece and Rome
Kirsty Gunn – The Keepsake
Rosalie Ham – The Dressmaker
Dashiell Hammett – The Dain Curse
Knut Hamsun – Hunger
Seamus Haney – The Spirit Level
Barry Hannah – Airships
Jim Harrison – After Ikkyu and Other Poems
Jim Harrison – Dalva
Anthony Hartley, ed. – The Penguin Book of French Verse 3
Sonya Hartnett – Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf
Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell to Arms
Ernest Hemingway – A Moveable Feast
Amy Hempel – Reasons to Live
Kristin Henry – One Day She Catches Fire
Harry Heseltine, ed. – The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Verse
Edward Hoagland – Heart's Desire
Philip Hodgins – Dispossessed
A.M. Homes – The End of Alice
Maureen Howard – Natural History
Ted Hughes – Birthday Letters
Josephine Humphreys – Rich in Love
Jim Hunter, ed. – Modern Poets Two
Frank Huyler – The Blood of Strangers
Rachel Ingalls – The Pearlkillers
Paulette Jiles – Blackwater
Diane Johnson – Lying Low
Denis Johnson – Resuscitation of a Hanged Man
Edgar Johnson – Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph
R.S. Jones – Force of Gravity
Ben Jonson – Three Comedies
Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas – Star Wars: A New Hope
Janet Kauffman – Places in the World a Woman Could Walk
Anna Kavan – Julia and the Bazooka: The First American Collection of Stories
Frank Kermode – Shakespeare's Language
Chip Kidd – The Cheese Monkeys
Sibylle Knauss – Eva's Cousin
Malcolm Knox – A Private Man
David Krauss – Sean O'Casey & His World
Hanif Kureishi & Jon Savage, eds. – The Faber Book of Pop
Jean de La Fontaine – Selected Fables
Julia Leigh – The Hunter
Craig Lesley – Winterkill
Rosina Lippi – Homestead
P.J. Livingston – Flacco's Burnt Offerings
Kate Llewellyn – Dear You
Lorca, selected and translated by J.L. Gili – Lorca
Bret Lott – The Man Who Owned Vermont
Alistair MacLeod – Island: Collected Stories
Naguib Mahbouz – Palace Walk
David Malouf – Fly Away Peter
David Malouf – 12 Edmondstone Street
Christopher Marlowe – The Complete Plays
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – No One Writes to the Colonel
Douglas A. Martin – Outline of My Lover
Peter Matthiessen – At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Peter Matthiessen – Far Tortuga
Peter Matthiessen – Men's Lives
Peter Matthiessen – On the River Styx
F.M. Mayor – The Rector's Daughter
Iain McCalman – The Seven Ordeals of Count Cagliostro
Geraldine McCaughrean – Fires Astonishment
Melissa McCord – Outback Women
Roger McDonald – Shearers' Motel
Cyra McFadden – Rain or Shine: A Family Memoir
John McGahern – Nightlines
John McPhee – The Control of Nature
Gillian Mears – The Grass Sister
Anne Michaels – The Weight of Oranges/Miner's Pond
E.H. Mikhail, ed. – J. M. Synge: Interviews and Recollections
Andrew Miller – Casanova
Henry Miller – The Books in My Life
Rick Moody – The Black Veil
Frederic Morton – A Nervous Splendor
Andrew Motion – The Lamberts: George, Constant & Kit
Les Murray – Subhuman Redneck Poems
Vladimir Nabokov – Look at the Harlequins!
Vladimir Nabokov – Pale Fire
John Nichols – An Elegy for September
Jon Nicholson – Cowboys: A Vanishing World
Lewis Nordan – The All-Girl Football Team
Howard Norman – The Bird Artist
Dan O'Brien – Spirit of the Hills
Robert Olmstead – America by Land
John Osborne – Inadmissible Evidence
Ignacio Padilla – Shadow Without a Name
Rob Pascoe – The Winter Game: The Complete History of Australian Football
Noel Perrin – First Person Rural
Joan Perucho – Natural History
Valerie Phillips – I Want to Be an Astronaut
Lilian Pizzichini – Dead Men's Wages
George Plimpton, ed. – Poets at Work: The Paris Review Interviews