DICK JENSEN AND THE IMPORTS "MR. PITIFUL / YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE" (1966)

I said they call me Mr. Pitiful, yeah, baby that's my name
Oh, I said they call me Mr. Pitiful, that's how, that's how I got my fame, yeah
Now people just don't understand, oh, I said what makes a man feel so blue
Oh, they call me Mr. Pitiful, 'cause I lost someone like you

They call me Mr. Pitiful, now everybody know
Oh, they call me Mr. Pitiful, yeah, most every place I go
I said nobody seem to understand, yeah, how a man can sing a sad song
When he lost everything, I said everything he had

Oh, how can I explain to you, for somebody has been so blue
I said how can I tell you my friend, when things just don't seem to end, tell me

Call me Mr. Pitiful, baby, that's, that's my name
Oh, call me Mr. Pitiful, that's how, that's how I got my fame
Oh, I said people don't understand, yeah, what makes a man feel so blue
Yeah, they call me Mr. Pitiful, 'cause I love someone like you

They call me Mr. Pitiful, c'mon now, everybody know, yeah
Oh, they call me Mr. Pitiful, most every place I go, yeah, yeah
Nobody seem to understand, oh, I said how a man can sing a sad song
When he lost everything...

[From the lyrics of "Mr. Pitiful"]



This is the last in a series of three 7" singles that Dick Jensen recorded for Loma Records in 1965-1966. Active during the 1964-1968 period, Loma was a Los Angeles based subsidiary of Warner Brothers for Soul, Blues, Rhythm & Blues, etc. Attempting to cash in on the success of labels like Motown and Stax, it focused on releasing 45 RPM records aimed at the younger generations.

Credited to "Dick Jensen and The Imports" and bearing catalogue number 2055, "Mr. Pitiful / You Don't Love Me Anymore" was released in August 1966 in a Warner Bros. company sleeve; apparently this was available only as a promotional item. Although I'm not 100% sure about this, I never saw a copy for sale clearly advertised as a proper release and having the "official" Loma yellow labels instead of the promo white labels.





Both tracks on this single were produced by Lenny Waronker and arranged by James Carmichael.

On Side A we find a stunning version of "Mr. Pitiful", a track written by Otis Redding and Steve Cropper (...guitarist of Booker T. & the M.G.'s...). The song originally appeared on Redding's second album, "The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads", released in March 1965. This song was written as a sort of joke in response to the fact that, since the majority of the songs in Redding's early repertoire had a slow tempo, several disc jockeys labelled him "Mr. Pitiful".

Side B offers "You Don't Love Me Anymore", a very simple rhythm'n'blues piece written by T. Raye which probably is a pseudonym for Don Raye, but who knows...

Here's the track list for this 7" single:

01. Mr. Pitiful (2:27)

02. You Don't Love Me Anymore (2:33)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in January 2012 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.

More information about Loma Records and Dick Jensen is available here:

http://www.lomarecords.com/

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2006/06/22/news/story02.html

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/22/il/FP606220304.html

http://www.oahuislandnews.com/May05/Home.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Jensen

I'm currently compiling a Dick Jensen biography, the first part of this work-in-progress covers the period 1942-1972 and is available here.

I'm also trying to compile a Dick Jensen exhaustive discography, my work-in-progress is available here.

Last but not least, I'm also trying to build a collection of Dick Jensen pictures and memorabilia, my work-in-progress is available here.

All my posts dedicated to Dick Jensen on this blog are available here.

I will post more Dick Jensen stuff in the next months, if you have any other useful information about him and his releases or if you spot any dead links, just get in touch with me at stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!