Hegel 2-displays

Liner notes by Tony Sclafani. I first heard it wafting out of my old clock radio, the one I had in my bedroom as a teenager. When I heard the talking in the song, I stopped whatever I was doing and stared to listen closely. It was a song about a guy who didn't seem all that different from me - a teenager asking his buddy about a girl he had a crush on because he clearly didn't know how to handle situation. Beyond the lyrics, it had one of those grand, rousing choruses you just have to sing along with. The song, I later learned, was Tommy, Judy & Me, done by veteran songwriter Rob Hegel. Although it only topped out on the Bubbling Under chart at #109 (in Aug., 1980), it's since become a cult classic. Years before the Beastie Boys or filmmaker John Hughes tapped into the teenage psyche of the 1980s, Hegel had cleverly captured all the anxieties, fears, worries and silliness of American teendom in just over three minutes. It left such an impression on me that when I grew up and became a music writer, my first blog entry for the Lost in the Grooves Web site was about the song. It's a classic American rock track that should have been heard by more. Tommy, Judy & Me, which is included on this CD in it's original demo form, is just one of the many first-rate tunes penned by Hegel, a Dayton, Ohio native-turned-Californian. Hegel started his career when he was a teenager, with his 1960s garage band Bittervetch (a 2006 CD on Gear Fab Records presents their demos and Pixie Records single, and tells the first part of Hegel's story). After Bittervetch split, Hegel attended the University of Cincinnati, where he was discovered playing piano in his dormitory and drafted into recording with a local band, Me & the Other Guys. It went nowhere, Hegel says, and afterward I played in a lot of bars and just kept singing and writing. Hegel's love of music led him to work at WFIB, his college's radio station, where he befriended the local record promoters. He liked what they were doing so much he took a position as a promo man for RCA Records in 1972. Rob went into a studio and recorded New York City Girl (a Tony Orlando & Dawn / New Orleans jazzy-pop style song) and was signed to a record deal by his boss at RCA. More importantly, it led to Hegel's first publishing deal, which was with Chappell Music. His first professional songwriting resulted in the two expressive love songs from 1974 included in this package, All Beginning and Here You Are Again (Lovely Lady). Soon after, some songs by Hegel and co-writer Amanda George caught the ear of one of the biggest names in the music business, Don Kirshner. The Don of the music biz was excited: We went into his office, remembers Hegel. And he said, 'OK, forget Sedaka, and Diamond; you guys are the best writers I've ever heard! And I'm gonna make you the most famous people you could imagine.' Kirshner soon had Hegel and George writing for the NBC Saturday morning children's show The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. and the prime time Norman Lear sitcom A Year at the Top, starring Mickey Rooney, Paul (David Letterman) Schaffer, and Greg (My Two Dads) Evigan. During this time Hegel and George also wrote Sinner Man for former Labelle singer Sarah Dash, which became a major disco hit. Hegel was itching to record an album, but Kirshner had other plans. Hegel and George were set up by Kirshner to co-write a musical version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with a book (originally written by Kurt Vonnegut) by Dan Greenberg and Suzanne O'Malley. It was around this time Kirshner heard Hegel's demo of Tommy, Judy & Me (included here) and insisted the lyrics be altered so it could be included in the musical. Hegel had other plans; he kept the lyrics intact and pocketed the song for his own solo release. Hegel landed his long-awaited record deal with the company with whom he originally got his start: RCA. His 1980 album Hegel (which included Tommy, Judy & Me) is now out of print. But contained within this CD are a passel of demos recorded before and after the album's release. These include Parad