I Used to Dance - Essra Mohawk
Sandy Hurvitz, soon to become Essra Mohawk (see last post) was "discovered" in 1964 by legendary producer Shadow Morton in when she was only 16. Morton is most well-known as the man behind the Shangri-Las' series of wonderful, melodramatic hits in the sixties. He saw Hurvitz as a Brill Building style songwriter in the mould of Ellie Greenwich or Carole King, but didn't bank on her restless spirit or her meeting up with Frank Zappa who swept her off her feet and whisked her west to LA at the age of 19.
I was writing the next post about her and tried to find a picture of her with either Shadow Morton or Mary Weiss from the Shangri-las when this track came up on YouTube, and which, it seems, she recorded or posted on the occasion of Morton's death in 2013. As Essra states, it is the only track written by her and Shadow Morton together. I can't find it on any of her albums, nor does it appear to have been released as a single, but it's so good I have to break the usual Uncle Stylus rules of only posting tunes that have appeared on vinyl.
Have a listen and you'll hear why.
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