Love You So

A One-Hit-Wonder with some so-so tunes in this collection.

I LOVED this song when I first heard it at age 12!!! I wasn't supposed to even listen to a radio, but my grandfather gave me a tiny transistor radio to hide in my room, and I waited every chance I got to listen to this song!!! I'm so HAPPY TO HAVE IT NOW!!! I can listen at will, since nobody can tell me no, now that I'm 66 years old!! I STILL LOVE THIS SONG!!! I JUST WISH RON HOLDEN WAS STILL WITH US!!!

Every song is awesome!

Born Rolan Holden on August 7,1939 in Seattle, Washington, Ron came by his love of music honestly as his father, Oscar, widely known as the patriarch of Seattle jazz, once played clarinet in the great Jelly Roll Morton band. Ron launched his recording career in 1959 in what can only be described, to use the title of a William Shatner TV show, as "weird or what?" After being linked to a local group known as Little Willie Bell & The Thunderbirds and Larry Nelson and Chuck Markulis , owners of the small local label Nite Owl, they went to the Acme Sound & Recording Studio, located in the North Seattle home of the owner, Fred Rasmussen to cut a song Holden had penned, Love You So, along with hopefully at least one other side.The "studio" turned out to be the Rasmussen living room and, during the recording, there were around 14 people and a dog. According to an account related years later by Holden "Larry Nelson was playing the claves (two short, round wood sticks banged together to give a sharp "crack" sound) and Chuck Markulis was playing the tambourine. Little Willie Bell and I were in the alcove and the other guys were all in the other room. And every time the dog would bark, we'd have to start over! On "Love You So" it was up into the 90s on takes! It was ridiculous!"Ridiculous or not, the song was finally completed, along with My Babe, at which point Nelson took it to Challenge Records with whom they had made a deal to release a single of a group proposed by the duo. Challenge, however, upon hearing it said no thanks, but to live up to their agreement, they pressed some 5,000 copies with blanks where the labels go. So Nelson and Markulis placed their Nite Owl label on it and released it as Nite Owl 10 in late 1959, billed to Ron Holden with The Thunderbirds. It did well enough locally to attract the attention of big band leader Bob Keane who, after leaving Keen Records, had started Del-Fi in 1958 as well as the Donna subsidiary, named after the Ritchie Valens smash Donna on Del-Fi in late 1958. He re-released it early in 1960 as Donna 1315, and by April/May it hit # 7 Billboard Pop Hot 100 and # 11 R&B.Later that August, Gee, But I'm Lonesome stalled at # 106 Hot 100 Bubble Under on Donna 1324 b/w Susie Jane, while Everything's Gonna Be Alright b/w True Love Can Be (Donna 1328) and Your Line Is Busy b/w Who Says There Ain't No Santa Claus? (Donna 1331) closed out 1960 as failures. In 1961 that continued with Let No One Tell You b/w The Big Shoes (Donna 1335), a re-release of The Big Shoes b/w Rock And Roll Call (Donna 1335), So Dearly b/w Bring Me Happiness - a duet with Rosie Hamlin (Donna 1338) billed as Rose & Ron, I'll Be Happy b/w I'll Always Have You (Eldo 117), and in 1962 with Things Don't Happen That Way/ You Got That Lovin' Touch (Baronet 3).Remakes of Love You So for Lana and Oldies 45 in 1964 also went nowhere, nor did cuts for other labels into 1969 (see Comments below). In fact, his next charted side didn't come until April-May 1974 when Can You Talk? reached # 49 R&B on NOW 6, mono on one side and stereo on the other (some pressing had I Need Ya as the flip).Ron Holden passed away at age 57 on January 22, 1997. In terms of CD versions of his music, your choices seem to be the 11-track Del-Fi volume (which is the same as this WEA import from Japan) or the one from Collectables which has 10 slightly different tracks (both also listed in the Comments). The sound quality of both is similar and decent enough. But what we really need is a definitive Ron Holden 20-30 track anthology with detailed liner notes and discography.

Born Rolan Holden on August 7,1939 in Seattle, Washington, Ron came by his love of music honestly as his father, Oscar, widely known as the patriarch of Seattle jazz, once played clarinet in the great Jelly Roll Morton band. Ron launched his recording career in 1959 in what can only be described, to use the title of a William Shatner TV show, as "weird or what?" After being linked to a local group known as Little Willie Bell & The Thunderbirds and Larry Nelson and Chuck Markulis , owners of the small local label Nite Owl, they went to the Acme Sound & Recording Studio, located in the North Seattle home of the owner, Fred Rasmussen to cut a song Holden had penned, Love You So, along with hopefully at least one other side.The "studio" turned out to be the Rasmussen living room and, during the recording, there were around 14 people and a dog. According to an account related years later by Holden "Larry Nelson was playing the claves (two short, round wood sticks banged together to give a sharp "crack" sound) and Chuck Markulis was playing the tambourine. Little Willie Bell and I were in the alcove and the other guys were all in the other room. And every time the dog would bark, we'd have to start over! On "Love You So" it was up into the 90s on takes! It was ridiculous!"Ridiculous or not, the song was finally completed, along with My Babe, at which point Nelson took it to Challenge Records with whom they had made a deal to release a single of a group proposed by the duo. Challenge, however, upon hearing it said no thanks, but to live up to their agreement, they pressed some 5,000 copies with blanks where the labels go. So Nelson and Markulis placed their Nite Owl label on it and released it as Nite Owl 10 in late 1959, billed to Ron Holden with The Thunderbirds. It did well enough locally to attract the attention of big band leader Bob Keane who, after leaving Keen Records, had started Del-Fi in 1958 as well as the Donna subsidiary, named after the Ritchie Valens smash Donna on Del-Fi in late 1958. He re-released it early in 1960 as Donna 1315, and by April/May it hit # 7 Billboard Pop Hot 100 and # 11 R&B.Later that August, Gee, But I'm Lonesome stalled at # 106 Hot 100 Bubble Under on Donna 1324 b/w Susie Jane, while Everything's Gonna Be Alright b/w True Love Can Be (Donna 1328) and Your Line Is Busy b/w Who Says There Ain't No Santa Claus? (Donna 1331) closed out 1960 as failures. In 1961 that continued with Let No One Tell You b/w The Big Shoes (Donna 1335), a re-release of The Big Shoes b/w Rock And Roll Call (Donna 1335), So Dearly b/w Bring Me Happiness - a duet with Rosie Hamlin (Donna 1338) billed as Rose & Ron, I'll Be Happy b/w I'll Always Have You (Eldo 117), and in 1962 with Things Don't Happen That Way/ You Got That Lovin' Touch (Baronet 3).Remakes of Love You So for Lana and Oldies 45 in 1964 also went nowhere, nor did cuts for other labels into 1969 (see Comments below). In fact, his next charted side didn't come until April-May 1974 when Can You Talk? reached # 49 R&B on NOW 6, mono on one side and stereo on the other (some pressing had I Need Ya as the flip).Ron Holden passed away at age 57 on January 22, 1997. In terms of CD versions of his music, your choices seem to be the 11-track Del-Fi volume or the one from Collectables which has 10 slightly different tracks (both also listed in the Comments). The sound quality of both is similar and decent enough. But what we really need is a definitive Ron Holden 20-30 track anthology with detailed liner notes and discography.

il est vrai que toutes les chansons ne sont pas des tubes comme Ben E. King maisil se défend bien ! Love you so est la chanson à emporter sur la Lune ou alorsl'écouter et mourir n'est plus un problème !

ロン・ホールデン（1939年8月7日、ワシントン州シアトル生まれ。1997年1月22日没）ロン・ホールデンは、麻薬所持の罪で、刑務所に収監されてしまったらしいですが、そこで元警察官のラリー・ネルソンと出会います。ラリー・ネルソンは、警官をやめた後、NITE OWLというマイナー・レーベルを設立。ラリーは、ロンに声を掛け、「LOVE YOU SO」を最初、このナイト・オウルからリリースしました。1959年のことでした。しかし世の中、何が起こるかホントにわからないものですね...（笑）カリフォルニアのデル・ファイ・レコードの社長、ボブ・キーンは、「LOVE YOU SO」を気に入り、この曲の権利を買い取ってデル・ファイのサブ・レーベルとしてスタートさせたDONNAレーベル（リッチー・ヴァレンスのヒット曲から命名）から発売。ボブの思惑通りにこの曲は、全米ポップ・チャートの7位、R&Bチャートの11位まで昇る大ヒットとなります。このヒットを受けて、アルバムを制作することとなり、ボブはデル・ファイで契約プロデューサーとして働いていた若きBRUCE JOHNSTON（もちろん後にビーチ・ボーイズに加入するブルース・ジョンストンその人です）に、アルバムのプロデュースを命じました。こうして生まれたのが本アルバムです。収録曲11曲中、じつに9曲でブルースが作曲者としてクレジットされています。中でも、バラッドの「ジー・バット・アイム・ロンサム」などは、いかにもブルースらしい甘いメロディで、出色の出来となっています。ロンは、けっして歌の上手いシンガーではありませんでした。「ラヴ・ユー・ソー」は、演奏も褒められたものではないかもしれませんが、独特の雰囲気や間を持った曲調や、ロンの歌唱表現はエヴァー・グリーン・ヒットたる輝きを持っています。個人的な話で大変申し訳ないのですが、20年も前にカリフォルニアを旅行した際に立ち寄った中古レコード・ショップにて、このアルバムを発見しました。擦り傷だらけでモノラルのボロいレコードでしたが、当時で100ドルもの値が付けられていました。さんざん迷いましたが、結局購入したのは良い思い出です。しかしまさかそのアルバムを、国内盤1000円の値段でクリアーなステレオの音質で楽しめる日が来ようとは....夢にも思いませんでした。我が国の音楽ファンの間では、山下達郎氏のカヴァーでも有名なこの曲ですが、是非ともオリジナル・ヴァージョンも一聴していただきたいと思います。

01. HERE I COME ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Bruce Johnston〕02. EVERYTHING'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT ◆ 〔Bruce Johnston〕03. GEE, BUT I'M LONESOME ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Bruce Johnston〕04. SUZIE JANE ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Bruce Johnston〕05. LET NO ONE TELL YOU ◆ 〔Ron Holden〕06. LOVE YOU SO ◆ 〔Ron Holden〕07. MY BABE ◆ 〔Ron Holden〕08. TRUE LOVE CAN BE ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Bruce Johnston〕09. SEEING DOUBLE ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Robert Kuhn, Bruce Johnston〕10. DO I HAVE THE RIGHT ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Bruce Johnston〕11. YOUR LINE IS BUSY ◆ 〔Ron Holden, Bruce Johnston〕