The Savage Rose

Artist: The Savage Rose

LP: Your Daily Gift

Song: "Lightly Come, Lightly Go (Song For an Unborn Child - Sarah's Song)"
[ listen ]

Here's another beautiful thing I picked up at the Kirkland record store last weekend, before everyone died. I had never heard of The Savage Rose before, but they've evidently been releasing LPs since 1968 ("Your Daily Gift" is their fourth, from 1970) and they continue to be rather popular in their native Denmark. 

I'm fascinated by the blond, bespectacled and bed-headed identical twin brothers, Thomas and Anders Koppel, that are part The Savage Rose. Singer Annisette Hansen married Thomas and became Annisette Koppel. How did she choose Thomas over Anders? Did she ever get them mixed up? Is that Thomas she stands with, slightly apart from the rest of the group, in the open field in the photo below? And then in the large gatefold photo, we find the Koppel twins huddled together, separated from Annisette by a large, dry-looking tree. The twins look wistfully on as Annisette coyly plays footsies with another blond hunk in the band. Could that be guitarist Nils Tuxen, who replaced Flemming Ostermann after the release of the group's first album? 

Visit Wikipedia here and here and here and here and all will be revealed. 

As I gaze at Anders and Thomas, I can't help but think of the handsome identical twin brothers who work at my local neighborhood Fred Meyer. Swarthy and friendly, they wear the company uniform and sport matching mustaches. They always seem to be working the same shift, doing the same work. Yesterday they were stacking oranges. Once, a few months ago, I entered an aisle containing boxed rice and found the twins standing on footstools across from each other on opposite sides of the aisle. They were conversing good-naturedly as they added more product to the shelves. I had the sudden urge to film a music video right then and there!   

[ The Savage Rose ]

Barry Ryan

Artist: Barry Ryan

LP: 7" single

Song: "Eloise" 
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This 1968 Barry Ryan single is just the sort of "symphonic rock" uplift I need on this grey and rainy Saturday morning in Seattle. Barry used to perform with his identical twin brother, Paul, but Paul couldn't handle the pressures of stardom, so he took to the backstage shadows with pen and notebook in hand, scribbling out smash singles like "Eloise" to keep his brother at the top of the European pop charts. It's weird; you'd think that, as twins, Paul and Barry would be equally adept at handling the three-ring circus called fame. In any case, the hits kept coming for another few years, finally tapering off in 1972. Now Barry's a photographer, but he still pops up every now and again to perform. You can read more about him here.

Alessi

Artist: Alessi

LP: Driftin'

Song: "I Don't Wanna Lose You"
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Song: "Space"
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My friend Trevor and I went to Easy Street Records & Cafe in West Seattle for breakfast yesterday, and while we were waiting for our table I rummaged through some bins and found the Alessi Brothers' third LP! The identical twin heartthrobs invited some other famous and talented musicians to join them this time around, including Seals & Crofts, Lee Ritenour, Melvin "Wah Wah" Watson....and even Paul Stanley stopped by to contribute guitars and backing vocals to one of the songs. Gene Page arranged strings on both "I Don't Wanna Lose You" and "Space," and that's the late Richie Havens contributing the non-Alessi-sounding voices on the latter. 

So does anyone else think it's odd that even though Bobby & Billy are identical twins, one has a sorta' hairy chest and the other one doesn't? I mean men weren't shaving their chests yet in 1978, were they?

[ The Alessi chests: not identical. ]
 

Double Take

Artist: Double Take

LP: 12" single

Song: "What's a Little Time (...In This Universe)"

[ listen ]

Here's a 1986 "Made In Germany" single I found in my collection from a group called Double Take. I don't know anything about these guys except that they're evidently identical twin brothers, they're probably not New England's Premiere Wedding & Dance Band, and they seem to find themselves so attractive that they think people have to look twice because they just can't believe their eyes.

Hein & Oss Kröher

Artist: Hein & Oss Kröher

LP: Songs of the World

Song: "On the Grand Canyon Line"
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What better to listen to first thing in the morning than a pair of German identical twin brothers singing old western-American cowboy ballads? This 1968 LP by Heinrich and Oskar Kröher that I found at 2nd Avenue Records down in Portland, Oregon back in February also features a nice rendition of "Streets of Lardeo." You can read about Hein & Oss here, where the oddly-translated text will inform you that, in addition to singing, "the brothers also operate a writer" and that the twins have performed all over Europe, as well as throughout the USA—"from California to the New York Iceland." The album's liner notes in English and German are included below.

 [ Heinrich & Oskar—or maybe Oskar & Heinrich—in 2007 ]

Alessi

Artist: Alessi

LP: 7" single

Song: "All For a Reason"

[ listen ]

You can read about identical twins Bobby and Billy Alessi here, and visit their website here to get their new CD. Rumor has it that "All For a Reason" is an actual recording of a drunken, late-night phone call Billy made to Bobby back in December of 1977.

[ Billy & Bobby - or - Bobby & Billy ]

DFX2

Artist: DFX2

LP: Emotion

Song: "No Dough"

[ listen ]

Here's a song that pays tribute to our shitty economy. San Diego '80s band DFX2 isn't named after the first thing that probably pops into your head; they actually took their name from the initials of sexy twin brothers Douglas and David Farage, who founded the group and handle guitars and vocals. It's pointed out on Wikipedia that DFX2 sounds a lot like the Rolling Stones, but if you ask me, they sound quite a bit like themselves too. It also sounds like their "Emotion" mini-LP was about five years ahead of its time, since 1983 was the official year of the synthesizer. You can listen to more songs and become good friends with DFX2 on their MySpace page here.

Thompson Twins

Artist: Thompson Twins

LP: 7" single

Song: "The Gap"

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Song: "Out of the Gap"

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I was pretty bummed when I first saw that this 4th single from the Thompson Twins' "Into the Gap" LP was being released without a picture sleeve, since previous singles "Hold Me Now," "Doctor! Doctor!" and "You Take Me Up" all had one... so I made my own. Please note that for my picture sleeve of "The Gap," I did my best to maintain the general color scheme and design of the album and that, on the back cover, I highlighted some of the single's primary themes. I remember bringing this record with me to one of the Mormon church dances in Yakima back in 1984, hoping they would play it there, but the stuffy old man in charge of music said the song was inappropriate. My friend Kelly joked that the guy probably thought they were singing about a vagina. You can read about the Thompson Twins here and listen to the rare b-side "Out of the Gap" to hear a medley of the group's pre-1984 hit singles.

[ Thompson Twins, circa 1984 ]