Wednesday, September 24, 2014

It's Bob Storm Time!



On those rare occasions when a new Bob Storm record makes itself available to me, I make every effort to be first in line to buy it. My hope against hope is that the resulting record will not only actually feature Bob Storm (and Halmark - or in this case "Hallmark" - records bearing that name aren't always actually Bob Storm records - some are even women!), but that it will also feature Mr. Storm in his ultra-unctuous singing mode.

After listening to tons of Bob Storm records, and debating those that seem questionable with other collectors, it seems likely to me that ol' BS had at least two or three styles he could switch on and off, ranging from Standard Big Band Belter to that otherworldly, Robert Goulet on steroids voice I love so much.

So, even though I might not have said so in the past, I do think that the Big Band style vocalist on "My Teen Age Queen" is Bob Storm. That leads to a bit of disappointment, but this is more than made up for by the fact that here we have a vocalist who sounds at least 40 years old paying tribute to his teen sweetheart. That, to me, would have benefited from the more over-the-top Storm vocal style, but this one will do.

It's also worth mentioning that although this backing track is right in Halmark's wheelhouse, I don't remember hearing it on any of their records.

Download: Bob Storm - My Teen Age Queen
Play:

On the flip side, "Only Because I Love You", we have a more intermediate step in the Bob Storm stairway to Unctuosity. He never quite steps into the abyss of that wonderful ridiculousness, but it's still fun to hear him emote over the canned music behind him.

On a side note, it's interesting to me that these two songs barely reach 4 1/2 minutes together, a real rarity for Hallmark/Halmark records, which tend to reach or pass the 3 minute mark on most sides.

Download: Bob Storm - Only Because I Love You
Play:



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bob, thanks for the Bob Storm!! As far as the needle, I just happened to see this on another blog (don't know if you are using Audacity):
" I am testing my new AT95E needle here, but it turns out my Audacity software I have used over the last year was the real problem and the Guitar Center employee who recommends it was a DJ with 35,000 vinyl rips over 10 years (and bad teeth) and he finally admitted to me after I asked the right question that Audacity is just a freeware and no DJ's would ever buy files ripped using it! I think he was protecting the market for his rips is what I think as I told him it was for a blog originally. Good news is the ACLAB Magix I used before I moved in June 2013 for 2500 of my 3000 rips is good software/rips. I switched because I lost the higher frequency settings when I moved and didn't have internet at home so I must have been using a patch. Oh well, live and learn! He says Sound Forge is acceptible so I will look for that for whatever, $30 - $40 big deal!"

Stu Shea said...

My God, this is awful. But yes, I don't think it's the "real" Bob Storm.
Thanks!