Early early days

Here’s one of the early hits the Righteous Brothers had in 1965: “Just Once In My Life”

Not bad, huh?

But here’s the original demo that the song’s composer played for Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield:

I didn’t know until this week, but two years ago Carole King released an album called “The Legendary Demos,” thirteen cuts of the original songs she and her then-husband Gerry Goffin pitched to artists as diverse as The Righteous Brothers, Aretha Franklin and The Monkees. It’s excellent. It’s raw and warm and exciting. Imagine you’re a singer and you get called up by your producer to say “Hey, Carole and Gerry wrote a new song they think you’d like.” How fast do you run to the studio?