Rouge

The South African Rock Encyclopedia > Rock Legends > 1970s > Rouge

Album

Eloise Concerto

Tracks

1. Eloise Concerto [17.22]
   1. Eloise (Paul Ryan) Barry Ryan cover
   2. Love Lost (Zane Cronjé)
   3. Eloise Finalé (Paul Ryan) Barry Ryan cover
2. Don’t Stop Singing (R Canes/H Rosenthal) [5.00]
3. Elenore (The Turtles) [3.56] The Turtles cover
4. Set Me Free (R Canes/H Rosenthal) [5.20]
5. Let’s Spend The Night Together (R Canes/Z Cronjé/H Rosenthal) [4.14] not The Rolling Stones song

Recorded at Gallo Johannesburg in 1978

Produced by Hilton Rosenthal
Arranged by Zane Cronjé
Engineered by Peter Ceronio

Musicians

• Zane Cronjé: keyboards, arranger, conductor
• John Weddepohl: vocals
• Tony Moore: drums
• Irwin Keiles: guitar
• Ashley Kelly: bass
• John Davis: trombone
• Braam Verhoef: String Section (4-2-1)
• Malie Kelly, Rene Frangs, Avril Stockley: backing vocals

No musicians are listed on the album cover, but Zane Cronjé supplied the above information in March 2004.

Release information

LP: 1978, CBS, ASF 2088 (South Africa)
LP: 1978, Celebration, CEL 2016 (Canada)
LP: 1978, Epic, 47097 (Argentina)

Comments

That LP was a nightmare to do…. the original vocalist on the album was Dennis East, but unfortunately he was signed to another record company who wouldn’t give permission for him to feature on the album, so we hunted around and found John Weddepohl! John’s voice was a lower range to Dennis’s so we had to fiddle the backtracks to fit his voice! What a pallaver, but it turned out OK in the end… Hooray for analogue tapes!

A reliable source, March 2004

Dennis East recalls he was recruited by Zane as vocalist for Rouge’s Eloise Concerto project. The album was recorded and released by Gramophone Record Company on their CBS label. Soon after the official release, RPM’s Matt Mann claimed that East was still under contract to them and insisted that the album being withdrawn immediately.

Unfortunately for RPM, a few copies of the album were sold before GRC could withdraw it. The original vinyl release is very hard to find and in a way reminded us of the mega rare Elvis and Janis 10” album (SA only) being withdrawn after objections from Presley’s Manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

The Eloise Concerto album, featuring the voice of John Weddepohl, produced the single “Eloise” issued on CBS SSC 1703. In 1981, Avril Stockley, one of the session singers on the Rouge album, recorded the “tongue in cheek” Dennis East compositions “Turn the record over” / ”The other side”. The single was released on the BOOTS label owned by Clive Risko.

MVFB Team, Marq Vas’s Southern African Music Collectibles, 13 October 2019

The full-length “Eloise Concerto” was released on the Disco Fever CD in 1999.

Review

1001 South African Songs You Must Hear Before You Go Deaf

Eloise Concerto – Rouge

By John Samson, 1 January 2013

The song Eloise and the number 8 seem to have an affinity. In 1968 Barry Ryan took the song to number 2 in the UK and number 4 in the US. In 1986, punk group, The Damned, took a cover version to number 3. In between these two chartings of the song, Rouge, a South African group spearheaded by Zane Cronjé, featuring John Weddepohl on vocals and, amongst others, Malie Kelly and Avril Stockley on backing vocals, released an epic concerto version in 1978.

Rouge’s version starts with a piano intro which, if you didn’t know what song they were covering, is not immediately recognisable as Eloise. But this all changes pretty quickly and you are into a pulsing disco version of Barry Ryan’s classic. The song is played through, then there is an instrumental interlude which combines the disco beats with a classical flavouring of piano and strings. The vocals then return, accompanied by brassy horns and soaring strings.

This epic and ambitious cover version clocks in at over 17 minutes and is one of the better examples of how disco covers of rock classics were popular in South Africa in the late 70’s.

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Single

Rouge featuring John Weddepohl – Eloise [4:53] / Set Me Free [3:30]

7″ Single: 1978, CBS, SSC 1703, pressed on red / orange vinyl

The single edit of 4:53 is probably the Finalé section from the original suite, which starts at about 12:00.

Thanks to Discogs