Gypsy Girl/ Girl

From a warehouse find, this is a new, unplayed stock copy in its original picture sleeve. Now here's a very strange record... At first glance (or even second or third...), you could be forgiven for thinking this was a record of Davy Jones singing. I mean, the picture sleeve doesn't even have the real artist's name on it! (I wonder if Davy Jones was ever a teenie bit embarrassed about the brazen gall of issuing singles by other artists with his picture on it rather than theirs... Sheesh!)

It turns out, though, that the record is actually by a guy named Vinnie Basile fronting a garage rock band called the Staccatos. That group had released these tracks under their own name the year before, and presumably Davy added Vinnie to the lineup as lead singer on the strength of his singing and/or his looks (we can't judge the latter, of course, cause Davy chose to promote his own mug rather than Vinnie's). Both sides are uptempo pop-garage rock nuggets, with a sound similar to the Standells or Leaves. In any case, this is a definite must for Davy Jones fans! You may have been looking in the wrong place for great likenesses of your idol.

Oh... did I mention that Davy's face is on not only the picture sleeve, but the custom 45 label as well!? At least on the record label, Davy put Vinnie's name, too. :-)