Monday, September 5, 2011

Monday Morning Melody - Penny & The Quarters

Today's melody comes to you from one of the Boredom Abounds sisters and it's quite an interesting one. First, listen to this song - You and Me by a band from the seventies called Penny & The Quarters - it has a gorgeously simple motown feel to it.


Now, for the backstory. This song was recorded sometime between 1970 and 1975 as one of three demo songs in Columbus, Ohio. The song was never released, and was put in storage where they remained for the next forty odd years. In 2006 they were discovered after the record producer, Clem Price's death and were sold to an archival record company. A musicologist (how awesome would that occupation be?) came into possession of the recordings, and this song was released by Numero Group, and subsequently heard by actor Ryan Gosling. The actor recommended it to the director of his recent film, Blue Valentine and it was featured in the film.

But, here's the thing: Numero Group cannot find the original band members or any of their relatives to pay them their increasing royalties. It's a total mystery - they've even played the song to music industry people from the time the song was recorded and no one knows who they are. So they're actively seeking information about the band members (they don't even know all the members' names) or information about their relatives.

So let's put this out into the far reaches of the internet - can you help solve this musical mystery? And, more importantly, how great is this song?

Click through to the youtube page to see the story and lyrics in full.
Pin It

2 comments:

Angela Runci said...

Amazing song...great story...well done Boredom Abounds!!

Julia @ Boredom Abounds said...

Thanks....Angela.