Joey and Holly at the Uncle Floyd Show in 1982.
In the middle of the song Joey hands over a bunch of beets to his duett partner, Holly Beth Vincent. She starts throwing them around while she is trying, without much success, to sing playback. Joey has left his leather jacket back home and temporarily returned to his hippie years, dressed in a pink shirt, a west and tall brown suede moccasins.
This is not the Ramones – and Johnny wasn't happy.
But it's a decent version of Sonny and Chere's classic lovesong
I Got You Babe.
The performance is from the Uncle Floyd Show that aired in New York and New Jersey and the song was released as a single in 1982 under the name Holly & Joey.
During the interview in the TV-show "Uncle" Floyd Vivino asked Holly Beth Vincent "how this record came about?".
"Fuck if I know", she answered.
"Uh, Holly, you know we're on the air, right?", Floyd replied.
In 1982 the Ramones had released their sixth studio album,
Pleasant Dreams. The New York Times wrote that the new album
"sounds like a New York version of The Beach Boys". In many ways it was Joeys record, his favorite albums by the time was 999's
Obsessed, U2's
I will Follow and Phil Spector's
Greatest Hits. With this in mind this duett seems quite logic.
Holly was the leadsinger of the Los Angeles based New Wave pop band Holly And The Italians who toured together with the Ramones in the US.
The song was recorded at Manor Studios in England over christmas 1981 during the making of Hollys second album. Thomas Dolby was playing keyboards.
Later on Holly Beth Vincent had a bit more to say about the duett:
"It was a dream come true for me. I'd started out listening to a Ramones test pressing from a girlfriend of mine from high school who was working for ABC records. A couple of years later I'm singing with Joey!", she says in Everett True's book "The Story Of The Ramones".
Despite adverts in the music press with the two singers in a heart bubble the single flopped. 2012 Holly Beth Vincent sang together with Joey Ramone again – this time on Joeys posthumously released second sola album
...Ya Know? The song is the Spector sounding
Party Line.
Here are the different pressings of the Holly & Joey-single that I have found. There are also a repress from 1997 on Ramo Records.
And
here is the clip from Uncle Floyd Show.
Songs: I Got You Babe (Holly & Joey)/One More Dance (Holly & The Italians)
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Songs: I Got You Babe (Holly & Joey)/One More Dance (Holly & The Italians)
Country: Canada
Notes: No PS, released in a Polygram company sleeve.
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Songs: I Got You Babe (Holly & Joey)/One More Dance (Holly & The Italians)
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Songs: I Got You Babe (Holly & Joey)/One More Dance (Holly & The Italians, wrong artist on label)
