I’ve been enjoying WFMU’s continuing series of blog posts about bands that intentionally imitate the Beatle’s sound. Today, they look at The Poppees, who do a darn good job of capturing the Fab Four’s vibe, circa 1964.
The Poppees cropped up in the early ’70s, begun by rhythm guitarist Bob (Bobby Dee) Waxman and bass player Pat Lorenzo. The Fab Four of the Bowery were rounded out by lead guitarist Arthur Alexander (not the singer/songwriter who recorded the originals of Beatles standards “Anna,” “Soldier of Love” and “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues”) and, later, drummer Jett Harris (not the original bassist for pre-Beatles British rock combo the Shadows). In 1975, Greg Shaw’s Bomp label released the first of two Poppees singles. The A-side was a version of the Lennon-McCartney retread “Love of the Loved,” which Scouse warbler Cilla Black brought to the U.K. hit parade in a brassy, adult version in 1963 and which the Poppees dragged back to its beat-group roots a dozen years later. However, the fake is more fully realized on the B-side, “If She Cries,” a Waxman-Lorenzo original fittingly produced by label head Shaw in appropriate retrophonic sound. Lyrically, the song is a “swallow your pride or you’ll lose that girl” advice song to a third party a la “She Loves You.” Vocally, it nimbly employs all the Beatles’ tricks from their harmony kit bag.
Fake Beatles No. 18: The Poppees – Beat Boys in the Punk Age