C.C. Rides Again

There wasn’t time to come up with a fresh batch of new songs for CC. Berry wanted to get her in the studio, yesterday. So, there also wasn’t the time to come up with a true identity for CC, or a total concept for the LP. I just thought to myself, ‘You’ve got to work fast, Deke and don’t look back..’ So far, I only had four original songs and tracks and only one was complete. I had to figure only two out of the four would make it to the album. I needed six to eight more tunes and arrangements … right now. Hey, no problem Deke. I knew exactly what I was going to do. This was a job for … SUPERMAN.

It was time to get some songs together. The minute I thought of changing Chris Clark’s name to CC, I thought of the Chuck Willis classic, “CC Rider”. Mitch Ryder had also put it in his ‘Jenny Take A Ride’ single in ‘66, but it was more 'Jenny’ than ‘CC’. Besides, I wasn’t out to copy his version. Next, I just thought of doing a few covers of songs that were big hits. This was the fastest and easiest way I could show off CC. So I just opened up my Billboard and started looking over the titles. All of the tunes I chose, fell within a 60 day period. I picked tunes that either been a hit, were a hit now, or were moving up and I believed, would be a hit.

I remember thinking … A Program Director would just HAVE to hear how she handled The Beatles smash, “Get Back” On the other hand, a PD might say, “ …now just what could this chick possibly have done to the Joe Cocker classic, "With A Little Help From My Friends”“ or, "a girl doing the Elvis classic, "In The Ghetto”? This I have to hear!"