IT’S MY PARTY! Performance at Media Play

We had a ton of good feedback from our last post, People seemed to dig the Short’s performance from 1988, and some were asking me to look for more vintage performances. So, I searched here and there. Much to my surprise, I found a mother-load of audio and video of the group from yesteryear. The media included cassette tapes (two and four-track), VHS tapes, 8mm, DVD and MiniDV. Fortunately, I found a player for each type of media. I was ready to start watching and listening!

My next step was purchasing some type of interface so that I could transfer these performances to files on my computer. I went online and noticed that BestBuy had Roxio VHS to DVD on sale, so I picked up a copy, loaded it on my desktop, and with some old 8mms in hand, I was ready to start transferring. And then it all broke down, my 8mm playback and record camera made weird noises, so I popped open the door to find it had eaten my tape – no! I removed the cassette and carefully rewound it by hand. Only the first 10 seconds were damaged, but still. I courageously tried another tape from our April 4, 1999 performance at Border’s Books, the performance I had intended to use as the source for a new video. It played okay for a while, and then the audio became distorted. That was the end of the experiment, for now.

So, pressed with something to go along with our 35th-year theme, I decided to use an already available performance from our YouTube page. This performance is a song from our February 21, 1999 engagement at Media Play. Yes, that right, a media store. You bought physical copies of music, movies, and books at Media Play. I believe Rochester had two or three outlets at one time. This show took place at the Greece store. 

The song here is a cover of The Shangi-las, “Give Him a Great Big Kiss.” Cara Rhain and Vanessa do a fantastic job interpreting this one, no small feat as the Shangri-Las a virtually untouchable. They were one of the “tough” girl groups, famous for their death records like “I Can Never Go Home Anymore.” Mary Weiss, the lead singer on the original recording, is affectionately known as “the queen of Queens.” Mary was only 15 years old when she recorded, “Leader of the Pack.”

First, watch our 1999 live version of “Give Him a Great Big Kiss.” Cara takes the lead vocal on this one. Musicians of note here are Bill Eberts on bongos, and his brother Brian Eberts on bass. Andy Pawik is on keyboards, a great guy, and incredible talent. Also, Dean Keller on tenor saxophone. After 21 years, Dean continues to perform with It’s My Party, and it’s great to see him here helping to make this tune sound so good. We thought so much of the girls’ performance of this one that we included it on our 2000 CD Can I Get To Know You Better?

Now to watch the Shangri-las from their performance of the song on Shindig from 1964. I’m sure you will see how much the Shangri-las and the Shindig band influence us. As for Mary Weiss’ performance here, talk about attitude!

On an aside, I wanted to mention that we had set up right in front of a giant Britney Spears display. BMG had just released Baby one More Time, her debut record, in January of that year, and it was selling like hotcakes. This spot on the floor was the only area that would accommodate our large band footprint. Looking back, I remember questioning if this was a good idea. After all, some folks may get upset that they would have to wait until we finished the set before they could snag a Britney album. Well, we start the performance, and though it did not happen during this tune, some guy walked right through us while we were playing to grab a CD, unbelievable.