I vividly remember hearing Mink Deville's song "Mixed Up Shook Up Girl" on the radio when it came out in the late 1970's. It would be hard to overstate the impact it had on me. And yet, when I went to look for the record at the stores where I lived, it was like searching for the Holy Grail. I had no luck finding it or anything else by this mysterious artist.
Eventually many years later I was overjoyed to find a compilation record by him called "Savoir Faire" that included not only the song that I had been obsessed with for so long but many other incredibly great tunes.
The documentary Heaven Stood Still delves into the mystique that has surrounded Mink Deville frontman Willy Deville for all these years. His first three albums were released by Capitol, but due to disappointing sales he was summarily dropped. Later he recorded in Europe and lived for a time in New Orleans. I was very impressed by the archival footage of the band's amazing early years, but found the warts and all excavation of Willy's long slow decline to be emotionally crushing. I suspected that drug use had contributed to the deterioration he suffered in his later years but I had no idea how pervasive it became.
There's some enlightening interviews with the likes of Ben E. King (Stand By Me) and Peter Wolf, the singer from J. Geils Band. There is also a live performance of "Mixed Up Shook Up Girl" which I'd never seen before that literally gave me chills!
