Customer Reviews

Ain't Gonna Lie

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

James Barry Keefer, who was born on May 7, 1949 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, commenced his recording career in the early 1960s with Columbia under his own name and accompanied by a band called The Admirations. The only cut released was Caravan Of Lonely Men b/w Dream, neither of which charted. Of course, not being part of the Mercury label cuts, they are not included here.

A journalist named Kal Rudman liked what he heard, however, and after seeing him perform locally he brought Keefer to the attention of Mercury's Jerry Ross. After changing his label name to simply Keith, in mid-1966 they released Ain't Gonna Lie which, with Our Love Started All Over Again on the flipside, reached # 39 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in late October. Not a bad debut, but the follow-up body-temperature folk-rock release, 98.6, did even better, going all the way to # 7 in January 1967 b/w The Teeny Bopper Song. On both hits he was backed by The Tokens.

Later that spring his cover of The Hollies LP cut, Tell Me To My Face, kept him in the Top 40, settling in at # 37 b/w Pretty Little Shy One, but after Daylight Savin' Time struggled to a # 79 late that summer, b/w Happy Walking Around, he would never again crack the Billboard Hot 100 despite several more single releases. The Mercury LP 98.6/Ain't Gonna Lie, released in 1967, made the lower regions of those charts, but the follow-up Out Of Crank tanked.

A stint in the military was followed by an attempted resumption of his recording career with Discreet, the label owned by Frank Zappa, but In And Out Of Love made no impact at all. Nor did an LP cut for RCA Victor. After leaving the business for a number of years, he tried to get things going again in 1986 under his own name, but without any success. Now calling himself Bazza Keefer, he works primarily as an audio technician, most notably on the TV show Judge Judy.

Ah! Keith...the name, as understated as the straightforward and simple-titled classic, 98.6! His performance of it is still as groovy, expressive and powerful as it was then! Compared to today's inclination of unchangeable arrangements, often invariably performed by generic artists, who overwork the song by frantically over-singing to the point where any substantial melody of the intended well-penned structure is obscured by their extreme performance of it; there is no absence of melody or loss of reasonable sense of any of the songs' original melodic purpose on this compilation, by over-compensating to showcase the artists' busy phrasing at the expense of the song.

Keith's 98.6 still sounds as fresh as the first time it was introduced over the airwaves. What magic it launched, emerging on the heals of the Beatles' Revolver, it reigns in the caliber of other tunes from 1966-67 that have rightfully retained their freshness and longevity, no matter how many times you've heard them. In the league and company of our fellow Brit hitmakers with Penny Lane, On a Carousel and Ruby Tuesday, among other enduring classics of that era, along comes this American dude, Keith, and 98.6, being played all over the U.S. that winter.

Keith's 98.6 conjures up great seventh grade memories for me when I would slip under my bed covers at night with my ear propped to my transistor radio tuned into WLS, Chicago to taste the fresh candy being presented every week. It was sweet and addictive. Wow! What a sensational period of music and to think that Keith is still gigging today. "It's good to have you back again...that music was the medicine that saved me...Oh! I love my baby!"

Thanks, Keith, for one memorable and out o' sight classic, not to mention the other greats on this CD.

The good news is 98.6 is the poppiest song on this. Obviously, Keith was trying to get onto 1967 AM radio, and had all the goods. You were not going to hear this next to King Crimson on the underground station, but that is not where Keith was aiming.

These songs are all pop, but feature vibraphones, fleshy arrangements, and unique chord groupings. What Kieth does is take Motown/Gamble and Huff elegance and apply it to white pop. This stuff goes down smooth, not sappy. His songs run rings around contemporaries like Bobby Goldsboro and Gary Pucket.

And Keith was a lot hipper than he let on: Jerry Ross produced for him here, and Ross has worked with jazz arranger Stan Kenton--not easy listening by any strech. When Frank Zappa wanted to slick up his sound in the early 70s, Keith was the guy he hired,.

Keith may have wrote about being sick, but 98.6 or not, this fever boy knew what he was doing.

i have been a keith fan for a few years now
and must say when first heard 98.6 i was overtaken
by the arrangments , and the over sound of this timeless recording.
the rest of the album is just as great as the single "98.6"
long live Keith !
andy mccormack