Don’t Just Stand There! Real Gone Reissues Patty Duke, Johnny Lytle

They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike!  You can lose your mind, when cousins are two of a kind!

So went the theme song to television’s The Patty Duke Show, starring the former Anna Marie Duke as “identical cousins” Patty and Cathy Lane.  We’re told in Sid Ramin and Robert Wells’ theme song that the worldly Cathy “adores a minuet, The Ballets Russes and crepe suzette,” but the normal New York teen Patty “loves to rock and roll!”  So, apparently, did Patty Duke, based on the charming albums and singles she recorded for United Artists Records between 1965 and 1968.  Four original LPs, including one that has never been issued in any format, have been lovingly compiled on two new collections from Real Gone Music, marking the first official release of the Duke discography on compact disc.  Unsurprisingly, both CDs are a warmly nostalgic treat.

Don’t Just Stand There/Patty (RGM-0122) combines Duke’s first two UA albums.  The starlet signed with the label in the television series’ second season, and although she was just 18 years of age, she was already an Academy Award-winning show business veteran.  Duke got to use her well-honed dramatic chops on “Don’t Just Stand There,” which became the title track of her debut.  “Don’t Just Stand There” is as musically close to Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” as is legally possible, but it became a full-fledged hit.  Lor Crane and Bernice Ross’ song reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and provided an auspicious start for young Patty’s recording career.

We have plenty more on Patty, plus a review of two albums from vibraphonist Johnny Lytle, after the jump!