Ginza Lights

This is my cover of “Ginza Lights”, originally a track on the Ventures 1966 album, “Go With the Ventures”. This album is primarily covers of then recent hits like “Monday Monday”, “Good Lovin'”  and “Eight Miles High”.

“Ginza Lights” is one of the “filler” tracks — which I usually find more interesting — written by members of the group. An up-tempo rocker, songwriting credit in this case is shared by all four: Bob Bogle, Nokie Edwards, Mel Taylor and Don Wilson.

Ginza is a district of Tokyo, and is a popular upscale area of Tokyo, with numerous internationally renowned department stores, boutiques, and restaurants. By 1966, the Ventures were enormously popular in Japan (and they still are) and had already toured the country many times.

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The End of the World

This is my instrumental cover of “The End of the World”, which was a big hit for country singer Skeeter Davis in 1962. It was a major crossover success, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by written by composer Arthur Kent and lyricist Sylvia Dee, who often worked as a team.

The Skeeter Davis track was produced by Chet Atkins and featured pianist Floyd Cramer. The song was performed at Atkins’s 2001 funeral as an instrumental by Marty Stuart and was also played at Davis’s own funeral in 2004.