DICK JENSEN "REAL GOOD WOMAN / BIRD YOU MUST FLY" (1970)

Mornings I'm grumpy when you let me sleep too late
I howl about the bacon and the eggs that are broken upon my plate
the toast is cold, the house is warm, the radio is too high
someone's at the back door and the baby decides to cry

But my woman smiles and says "I tried"
there was a time I know she cried
and as I put my love and arms around her
and look into her eyes

And I'm thinking
oh damn, you're a real good woman, no matter what else I say
I didn't get much sleep last night, I'm gonna have a miserable day
you know I'm happy and I'm proud that you're my wife

Cheer up baby, you'll see, I'll see
that we'll have a real good life

The birthday dress I bought you was several sizes large
you go down to the shopping center and pick up whatever you wanna charge
it's saturday night and all goes right, I'll take you on the town
it's about time I woke up and show my girl around

'cause I'm thinking
oh damn, you're a real good woman, no matter what else I say
I didn't get much sleep last night, I'm gonna have a miserable day
you know I'm happy and I'm proud that you're my wife

Cheer up baby, you'll see, I'll see
that we'll have a real good life

[From the lyrics of "Real Good Woman"]



"White Hot Soul", Dick Jensen's debut album was still fresh in early 1970. In those days he was enjoying his engagement with Don Costa Productions and had already performed in the most exclusive clubs all over the U.S. and abroad, such as the Century Plaza and the Copacabana in New York, the Diplomat in Hollywood and the Caribe Hilton hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

During this period Jensen was also regularly featured on many important network variety shows, such as the Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, David Frost shows and other talkathons including the Tonight show.

Once again produced and arranged by Don Costa, "Real Good Woman / Bird You Must Fly" was released in May 1970 by Probe Records - a subsidiary of ABC Records - in a black and white picture cover.

The single you see on this page is a promotional item, regular copies of the single exist but are seldom seen on the market... Just like it seems to have happened for the earlier Jensen's singles on Loma Records, promo copies for this item are more widely available that the proper release.

Showcasing a nice arrangement by Don Costa - and production by Costa and Bob Morgan, "Real Good Woman" is a song written by Tony Romeo who, in his career as a songwriter, has worked - among others - for The Seekers, The Everly Brothers, Richard Harris and David Cassidy. The song was later performed by New York pop group The Changing Scene and Irish singer Joe Dolan.

"Bird You Must Fly" is a cover - with different lyrics - of "Din tid är förbi" a song recorded in 1969 by Swedish singer Tommy Körberg. The original was written by Henrik Salander and Jan Bråthe, with English lyrics by Roger Wallis. Well, a rather obscure choice...





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

01. Real Good Woman (2:47)
02. Bird You Must Fly (2:52)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in October 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 Dick Jensen is available here:

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 weeks, 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!