Raindrops Downtown

Just a word at the top of the post to share that fellow blogger, song-poem fanatic and great friend of the site Sammy Reed has returned to blogspot and reopened his "Music from the World of the Strange and the Bizarre" at this location. The link to Sammy's site, below and to the right, has also been updated. There's only one post so far, but it's a doozy - another example of someone literally taking the words, verbatim, from a pop hit and submitting them as his or her own, to a song-poem company. 

On the preview label, Rodd Keith most often appeared under his own preferred name (Rodd Keith), and sometimes, particularly on poppy, lightweight numbers, he was credited along with a backing band labeled "The Raindrops", and, on less than two dozen occasions, Rodd tracks were released credited to "The Downtowners". On even fewer occasions (three which are listed at AS/PMA), those latter releases were credited to "Downtowners", sans "the". This is one of those releases. 

Given it's light pop feel, this certainly could have been one of those records which were credited to "Rodd Keith and The Raindrops". However, in a bit of a coincidence, given that name of Rodd's typical backing band, the song itself is titled "Raindrops". Rodd offers his typical sterling arrangement, melodic excellence and heartfelt vocals. 

Download: Downtowners - Raindrops

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The flip side of this record has actually been available, off and on (currently "on") for several years now, but I thought it was worth posting this record since "Raindrops" doesn't appear to be previously available anywhere, and also, the flip side, "My Wife Ain't Lazy" is downright funny and clever. 

Plus, it gives me an always welcome chance to again link to Darryl Bullock's wonderful "World's Worst Music" blog. This song was part of a full CD length set of mostly terrible song-poems (this was no doubt one of the exceptions, as he explains in the post), that you can download, complete with a CD booklet, in this post, and I heartily recommend doing so. 

Anyway, "My Wife Ain't Lazy" is, as I said, catchy, bouncy and fun, with some great lyrics. The verse that starts around 1:30, and the spoken word section at the end feature one comical image after another.  The band is cooking, as usual, and Rodd again chooses just the right tone and style of vocal to match the material. 

Download: Downtowners - My Wife Ain't Lazy

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Hurt Me! Hurt Me! I'm Sure! No Way!

I offer apologies to Moon Unit Zappa, but her lyrics seemed too good to pass up with regard to today's offering: 

On the first side, we have the queen of MSR records, Bobbi Blake, or, as she was known in the early days of the label, Bobbi Boyle, with a request for some pain - well, at least psychic pain - in a slightly countrified setting, one which reminds me at several moments of one of my favorite song poems, Dick Kent's "In Loving Is the Doing". Not surprising, as that record's label number was barely 20 releases later. Bobbi Blake offers up her typically solid vocal performance, but after four or more listens, I'm still not sure I understand what is exactly being asked for, or why. Maybe the concept is just too foreign to me...

Download: Bobbi Boyle - Hurt Me Just a Little. 

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The flip side of this record is credited to Nancy Cole, a singer credited on only two documented MSR records. I do not recognize this vocalist - maybe someone out there does? She's competent enough, and the makers of smooth music provided a fairly catchy tune for the lyricist's work, which has the unwieldy title "This Little Fool Has Had Her Fill of You". However, the words are almost comically artless, featuring very direct descriptions of wrongs done. And there is only so much you can do fit lyrics which don't fit the same pattern into a repeating melody, so Nancy sometimes has to quickly squeeze in extra words, and other times she has to stretch out lines such as "You Treat Me Like Dirt" over several beats. 

Download: Nancy Cole - This Little Fool Has Had Her Fill of You

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A Veritable Master Class in Bass Playing

Well, I only got two posts up this month. I spent the middle of the month enjoying working (from home) while experiencing a COVID infection, and didn't really feel like doing anything I didn't have to do. 

I'm going to use this space here to respond to a few comments and also link folks to some comments that have been made. A poster calling him-or herself "Doctor Future" offered a very interesting comment, complete with a couple of links, regarding my post about a song-poem regarding Lt. William Calley, which you can find here. 

On a completely different subject, Sammy Reed took me up on my wish to hear a song called ""HOOPA LOOPA HOOPA LOOPA DOOPA", which you can read about here, and, in the comments therein, provided a link to that song! 

And Rock Smith of Spectropop just wrote TODAY to offer up a photo which features Rodd Keith among several others, at a party in 1974. That picture is at the bottom of an article here. 

Thanks to all of you! 

Also, a fantastically named poster ("Bob") wrote asking if I own a couple of specific Tin Pan Alley singles. Due to the fact that I am not provided the e-mail address for the sender of most of the comments I get, including this one, I will offer up here that, sadly, I do not have those records. If anyone has early TPA releases by Carmen Taylor, please let me know and I'll let that other Bob know in a future post. 

I'd also just like to again thank everyone else who has written in offering thoughts and comments. They are deeply appreciated. 

Okay, let's hear some amazing bass playing!

For a short period - perhaps no more than 15 releases, which might very well have been only one or two recording sessions - Tin Pan Alley used the talents (sic) of a stand-up (double) bass player who seemingly picked up the bass for the first time that week. The records I own or have heard him documented on range from around TPA-390 to around TPA-405. It's almost enough to make me wonder if no professional musician was available that day, so someone from the business end of things stepped in and tried to fill in. 

The most spectacularly awful of these are "Snow Man" (TPA-390) and "The Proon Doon Walk" (TPA-402), the latter of which is among the most amazingly incompetent things I've ever heard. 

Happily, I've now found another record featuring this giant of bass playing originality, and it features Cathy Mills singing a tribute to Johnny Appleseed, who here has been renamed "Apple Seed Johnny". Our hero happily plucks essentially the same two notes, with a tiny bit of variety throughout the 93 seconds of the song. As a bonus, the guitarist screws up the little ending figure, then he and the rhythm guitarist seemingly can't quite agree on how to play the final chords. Delicious!

Download: Cathy Mills - Apple Seed Johnny

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On the flip side, "What Can I Do?", the bass player has expanded his or her attempts, playing a series of three notes - same notes, same pattern of four beats- through out the 111 seconds of this number. The lyrics also take a sort of startling turn - the singer spends the first 2/3rds of the song wailing about how alone she is and wishing her man would return. He seemingly does return, very suddenly, between 1:17 and 1:19 of the song, over the course of which the lyrics go from "I'm so all alone" (before) to "Thank you for coming back" (after). Glad that was solved. 

Download: Cathy Mills - What Can I Do?
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LIVE FROM THE HOLIDAY INN LOUNGE! A REAL PRO!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at song-poem central, and if I don't get this out today I probably won't for another week. So I'm not going to say much about these sides, in order to get y'all some music. 

Today's offering is another one of those early Cinema releases where the label's credited band, "The Real Pros" was actually one guy with one of them all-in-one home chord-and-rhythm accompaniment organs. And this is from the earliest days of Cinema, when they were also crediting each song-poet as a co-producer of his or her track, for some odd reason. 

As they have in the past, this guy's recordings on today's 45 put me in the mind of a particularly chintzy act, performing (in 1971, of course, when this record was produced) in the corner of a Holiday Inn Lounge, being ignored by roughly 90 of the 12 people present. 

And while I do adore some of the records this guy made (one of them is in my top five favorite song-poems ever), both of these sides leave something to be desired. "Where Has She Gone?" has a bit more energy and slightly less (very slightly) hackneyed lyrics, so we'll spin that one first. Have at it, dude!:

Download: The Real Pros - Where Has She Gone

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I chose the word "hackneyed" up there on purpose, because... well, let's just say that if the dictionary came with sound file links, the word "hackneyed" might come with a clip of "Be the Girl of My Dreams". Our man at the organ has chosen equally dumbed down musical backing for this masterpiece. 

Download: The Real Pros - Be the Girl of My Dreams

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Sammy Marshall's Greatest Hits

It was five months ago, when, while writing a post about an Inner-Glo records release, I discovered, to my great surprise, that I'd never featured my favorite two Sammy Marshall recordings, which are on the two sides of the same 45. I'd like to rectify that now. The record, as you might surmise from that introduction, also came out on the Inner-Glo label, and like all Inner-Glo releases, was written (or, in the case of these two songs, co-written) by label creator and head honcho (honcha?) Edith Hopkins, my all time favorite song-poet. I've rhapsodized about her quite enough, including in the post linked above, so I'll get right to the music. 

Now, I write that these are my favorite Sammy tunes, and labeled this post "Sammy Marshall's Greatest Hits" knowing full well that many, if not most of you out there - at least those who have a favorite Sammy Marshall record - probably prefer one of his rock and roll rave-ups, or maybe even one of his all-to-few (and excellent) atmospheric numbers such as "Picture in the Fire". 

(I also recognize that he's identified here as "Sonny Marcell", but I'll go with his most common song-poem name, here and in the labels.)

But these two teen idol styled numbers are the gold standard for me, with "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" getting the nod as the better of the two. Both of these songs, but particularly "Nothing Ventured", sound to me like records that could easily have been hits, and which are better than most of the pimply-pop-rock offerings of the various Bobbys and Brians and other teen and post teen warblers of the 1960-63 era (except, I hasten to add, nowhere near what Gene Pitney was doing - he was phenomenal). 

As I said, I think this one is the better of the two. They're both really good, but this one has an indelible melody, excellent lyrics, a sparkling arrangements - I love that effect laden guitar at the beginning and end (shades of George Harrison's Leslie'd guitar from several years later!) - fabulous, thick harmonies on the choruses and first rate vocals - did Sammy ever sing more effectively with heart-on-his-sleeve emotion ? I'm very pleased to offer up a record I consider to be among the best song-poems ever released. 

Download: Sonny Marcell - Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

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Two other things I'll mention. First, this seems to date from around 1962, which is before the folks at Globe fell into a sort of bland sameness, which is to its advantage. And second, this is among the first song-poems I found, in 1997, less than year after I started looking for song-poems. 

The flip side, "I'll Do It For You", is no slouch, either. A loping beat, another wonderful melody, and sweet, love-struck lyrics, complete with a few humorous asides ("my canoe a-leakin'). And then there are even more close harmonies on the chorus - I swoon over those. Just another damn good song by Edith Hopkins and a record that does good by her. 

Download: Sonny Marcell - I'll Do It For You

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I rarely ask specifically for comments, but I am interested in this case to hear if other people here what I hear in these two songs, and if you also think these are among (or are) Sammy's Best. 

Thoughts on Life and Words from Adam

Before I get to my most wonderful Norm Burns offering for the week, I have forgotten, several times, to offer up thanks to the always faithful Sammy Reed for identifying that this record, on Halmark, was pressed up in 1977. I think I have this fixed point in my head that most Halmark records are from before 1974, but there's no reason for that, besides the fact that they sounds like they're from 1950 and the first time I saw a Halmark record (my very first song-poem, although I didn't know it at the time), was in 1974, when I was 14. 

Somehow, it's more jarring for me to think that a Halmark song-poem came out in 1977, the same year as major hits such albums as Little Criminals by Randy Newman, News of the World by Queen and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, then it is to think that a Halmark song-poem came out in 1974, when the vast majority of what was topping the charts that year sucked about as much as... a Halmark record. (Your mileage may, of course, vary.)

Anyway, as always, thanks, Sammy. I was genuinely surprised by this news. 

Today's record is quite fun, on both sides. Because what is more fun than a song observing that we all grow old and become forgotten? Maybe a song sung from the point of view of Adam after being cast out of the garden? 

Song-Poet Stephen Karvec seemingly had quite a bit to get off of his chest - sounds like his friends left him behind at some point, and he was downright philosophical about it. Unfortunately, philosophy is not always expressed in phrases that fit nicely into musical patterns. As a result, we get to hear Norm Burns - one of my favorites - doing all he can to sing the following: "you'll have to face life as it is, as it was, and how it will be later on". Catchy!

Download: Norm Burns and the Satellites - Life

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The flip side, "Divine Love", is, as I've alluded to, pretty clearly sung from the point of view of the legendary first man. He's deeply sorry for listening to that serpent and greatly relieved to have been the recipient of forgiveness and, as the title says, "Divine Love". The final line, repeated three times, is a masterpiece of half-assed lyric writing: "I'm so grateful, father, that you still love me, still". 

Download: Norm Burns and the Satellites - Divine Love

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Gene's Mammie

I had great hopes. 

When I saw the title of this mid-to-late period Preview record by Gene Marshall, I dared to hope that a record called "Our Mammie" might be something special. Then, I was lucky enough to win it on eBay for the princely sum of $6.00. Plus shipping. I hoped it would be worthy of presenting in this forum. 

I had no idea. 

For those of you who have heard "Green Fingernails", you know what you thought and felt when you heard the big finish of the verse, where Gene sings "You make me sick"? I think this is weird on that same level. If anyone can tell me what song-poet Edna Templeton was on about here, specifically the last line of her poem, please let all of us know. It's off the charts odd, at least to these ears. 

And I think that's all I'll say. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Our Mammie

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The flip side, "Special Feeling", isn't really much to write home about as a song, but that would be almost too much to ask for a flip side of a song like "Our Mammie". However, I will give a shout-out to the guitarist, who clearly thinks he's playing on a much better record than this one. Then again, the missed chord at 0:47 wouldn't have been left on a much better record. It's also in although interesting enough, I think, that this was also written by a woman named Edna. \

Download: Gene Marshall - Special Feeling

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Four Great Titles from Dolly-O!!

A few weeks ago, a record popped up on eBay for a very reasonable price, one which I dedicated myself to obtaining. As it turned out, I needn't have worried about cost; no one else bid. 

I'm more than a little surprised by that, although certainly pleased, given the prices that accompany a lot of song-poem sales these days. 

But maybe this one was such a niche item that the vast majority of those who look for song poems were either uninterested or didn't catch onto what this is. Because it's on the tiny, but wonderful, Dolly-O label and sung by a definite second-tier singer in the song-poem world, Frank Perry. The usual Sandy Stanton group names, such as "Singing Strings" or "Film City Orchestra" has been superseded here by the appellation "The Busy Bees Orch.", which seems almost definitely to have been the choice of the woman behind the Dolly-O label. (Technically, this 1972 release would have been made for Stanton's later label "Action", and not the soon-to-be mothballed "Film City", but he was still using the Chamberlin for the "Action" label, as well.)

For that person was the one and only Dolly-O Curren, who sent out her masterwork lyrics to various song-poem concerns, initially allowing them to come out on those various labels (including the great "I'm the Wife" on Preview) and then later, with her husband Jack Curran, set up the Dolly-O label in order to share them with the world in a more Dolly-O-Centric manner (including re-releasing, on her label, some of the previously released Preview/MSR/other tracks, such as "I'm the Wife"). 

Several of Dolly-O's lyrics are concerned with Indiana-related themes, and she just seems to have been an interesting person with a cockeyed way of expressing things at times. Her magnum opus, from where I sit, is "Lady Off Pedestal at Notre Dame", which she commissioned with the folks at Halmark, and which resulted in fairly insane mashup of idiosyncratic lyrics, marching band music and Bob Storm ridiculousness. (I should mention that the song is credited, on the record label, to Halmark's resident tenor, Jack Kim, but it's very clearly NOT him.) For a time, early in my life collecting song-poems, "Lady Off Pedestal at Notre Dame" was my favorite song-poem of all, and it's still way up there on my list. You can hear that song, and 26 other song-poems (including a whopping 15 from my own collection) in this post. 

Okay, so that's a long way around explaning, for perhaps the third time, why I would be jazzed to buy a Dolly-O 45 EP. But in this case, there was even more about this record that had me jumping up and down in front of the eBay screen. Four - COUNT 'EM FOUR - good to great song titles. Now, it's a song-poem truism that a great title often reveals itself to be attached to an average or even flat out sucky song. But what were the chances that all four of these titles, particularly the two on the A side, were going to let me down. 

As it turns out, they didn't. To my ears, Dolly-O goes three for four here, with the double play A side hitting it out of the park twice, to mix my baseball metaphors. Let's dig in. 

The record starts out strongly, with a song dealing with a subject which is not the focus of musical forms nearly often enough: Bowling. I find "A Bowler's Glee" delightful. In just over two quick minutes, Dolly-O explores the reasons to join a bowling team, the movement of the bowler, the preferred results of any given frame, the reaction of the crowd, the amount of pins found in a decent score, and the need for a team to avoid "washout" players, among many other points. Being that I am someone who watches televised bowling whenever it's on - All Hail Jason Belmonte! - this was, like I said, a delight. 

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - A Bowler's Glee

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But as much as I love bowling, and that song, the killer track here has got to be the second one, "The Nose". This one goes on quite a bit longer, because Dolly-O had a lot to say. It starts off as a tribute to the nose owned by the protagonist's beloved, but quickly turns into a treatise on the larger subject of noses, everything from famous noses of the day to the importance of smelling, and all the ways that the nose and its functions enhance our daily lives. Then we are told: 

"Each Nose is Special to the Face it Grows On"

The rhyming phrase that comes after that line is worth the price of admission to this entire record. 

As with all of the other songs on this weird little record, the odd... no, that's not a strong enough  word... the fairly bizarre backing provided by the Chamberlin adds a certain "Je ne sais quoi" to the proceedings

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - The Nose

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~~

For my money, the song that leads of side two of the EP is easily the weakest of the four, a bit of pathos that doesn't really move me (but your mileage may vary) called "Two Little Glasses". 

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - Two Little Glasses

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The last of the four songs is the one I find genuinely intriguing. First, we again have the downright weird Chamberlin arrangement, with unusual voicings chosen and some clattery percussion that I've rarely heard out of that contraption. 

But more than that, it seems like a song such as this - in which the narrator is extoling the unusual virtues of a person - typically identifies the person being described by the end of the song. And particularly in the song-poem world, a song of praise of this style is about someone famous, and again, somewhere along the way, that someone is identified by name. 

In this song, that's not the case. This engaging, friendly and happiness-providing man is never identified by Dolly-O, beyond a list of very specific descriptions. an interesting choice, and fairly far off the beaten path. 

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - The Man of a Million Smiles

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By the way, you can see a trade paper advertisement for this 1972 release on the AS/PMA Dolly-O page. 

BANG! BANG! MR. BADMAN!!

I have a single for you today on which I find both sides highly enjoyable. I bought it because of the ridiculous title on one of the sides, and I think the song lives up to the title, but I found that I enjoyed the flip side just as much. Oddly enough, this record popped up twice on eBay a few weeks ago, from two different sellers. I thought its title would make its price zoom upwards, but mine was the only bid for either of the copies. 

As you can see above, it's called "Bang! Bang! Mr. Badman" and it is sung by the inimitable Sammy Marshall on the impossibly tiny "Cape Cod" label. This may well be the only record released on the label, a label which encourages us to "March and Dance". 

And what of the song? It is, as the title might suggest, a song that tells a story. After I've listened to it a handful of times, however, I'm really not sure what that story is. Perhaps he's living out the life of a child pretending to be a cowboy, but that's only a guess. The music is about as far from cowboy or western music as you're going to get, but that said, it's surely peppy and infectious music, and as he almost always does, Sammy gives it his all. 

Download: Sammy Marshall - Bang! Bang! Mr. Badman

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The flip side has the bland title "Be My Girl", and both musically and lyrically, it reminds me of one of my favorite Sammy Marshall sides, "I'll Do It For You", which I'm just now discovering I have never shared - horrors! - I'll have to rectify that, and soon. 

Anyway, in "I'll Do It For You", Sammy promises to do such things as "Work in the Rain", "Outrun a Train", and most spectacularly, "Buy you the Balloon with a Gold Star In It". Two of those three promises don't seem to me to be the sort of thing that will inspire life long devotion 

"Be My Girl" is much the same, right down to the same beat, and even similar chord structure at times. In this case, Sammy's promises include trying to stay freshly bathed, wearing clean socks (that are fully intact!), trying to wear a tie and working odd jobs, among many other behaviors which would probably be the base expectation from just about any woman out there. I hope this was written to be humorous, and if so, it succeeds, and Sammy and the band make it work by not doing a thing to indicate how ridiculous the material they're performing is. I love it.    

Download: Sammy Marshall - Be My Girl

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Howden Records, Part Three

Five years ago, and again 2 1/2 years ago, I shared two of four records I had acquired on the previously unknown Howden records label. As I wrote at the time, this appears to have been one of the dozens of vanity labels that Tropical Records set up, in this case for one HOWard DENington. 

The first two items I shared featured the equally previously unknown Ella Howard and Bill Clifford. Today, I'm going to offer up the third of the four items, which starts with this song: 

Betty Bond is not totally unknown. She is documented to have appeared on Tropical and a few of its spin-off vanity labels, and I featured her here once before. 

Anyway, here she is again with "Face of an Angel". I enjoy the warm band sound here, and both that sound and the chord changes strike me as a bargain basement version of some of the late 1950's and early 1960's country arrangements that I just love. I could do without the chirpy backup singers, but several moments of Betty Bond's aching vocal appeal to me. 

Download: Betty Bond - Face of an Angel

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The flip side of this record is Betty Bond's take on "It's the Natural Thing", which was also on the first Howden record I shared, sung there by Ella Howard. I'm quite partial to the Ella Howard version, entirely because the arrangement is better. I think I like Betty's vocal better, but the backing here is tinny, the backing vocalists are chirpier and less appealing here, and the track is not as interesting as  is Ella's version. You're mileage may vary. 

Download: Betty Bond - It's the Natural Thing

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Bonnie Graham on Preview

First, I was alerted to the fact that this site was recently added to a site called "The 35 Best Obscure Music Blogs and Websites". This is part of a larger website called Feedspot. I'm hoping - and pretty sure - that they mean the music I share here is obscure, and not that the site is obscure. Both statements are probably true, however. In looking around the internet, I've found multiple references to Feedspot, a couple of which say it is a scam of some sort. If anyone out there has information about this, please let me know and I will remove this section of the post and the link. 

Anyway....

I am surprised to find that I have gotten through 14 years of this song-poem project without ever featuring Bonnie Graham. I know I own a least a few of her two dozen or more releases on Preview, but perhaps I've found, over the years, that those have been shared elsewhere (I try not to feature music that's already been posted). I'm really not sure. I posted one record which an online site claimed featured her, but a quick listen to that record proved that it wasn't her, and, in fact, that it was likely a different singer on each side of the record! You can read about Bonnie Graham (aka Charlotte O'Hara) here. 

Anyway, here's today's offering: 

I really enjoy both of today's sides, for different reasons, and had a hard time deciding which one was stronger. I ended up with "The Future of My Heart". I don't want to overlook the stellar vocals, although that's pretty much a given on a Bonnie Graham record. But yeah, this is really great singing. But I also love what's going on behind her - particularly the flute part, and that loose snare sound that recurs on many of the better Preview records of this period. This has Rodd Keith written all over it. Plus, if you listen closely - in headphones - you will hear a few moments where members (or perhaps one member) of the band call out, perhaps in excitement, perhaps for other reasons. I hear three shouts between 0:40 and 0:53. Then there's a shout at 2:03, followed by another a few seconds later, and they continue here and there for the rest of the track. Those moments add a feeling of being in the studio, at least for me. Last, but hardly least, these are better lyrics than you're going to find on most song-poems, and whoever set them to a melody did a damn fine job. 

Download: Bonnie Graham - The Future of My Heart

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The flip side appealed to me immediately because of the backing track used. Those who have the song-poems compilations (released some 20-25 years ago now) will recognize this track immediately, and I'm going to guess many of those who do have greatly fond memories of the Rodd Keith records in which it was previously used. Aside from that, Bonnie Graham's most excellent vocal performances are again the star of the show here. 

Download: Bonnie Graham - I Need You

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A Mother's Poem.... From Hallmark Cards.... err, no, From Halmark Records

Happy Mother's Day!

The Hallmark people have certainly made a mint off of mother's day, but the Halmark label didn't do to shabbily in separating folks from their money, when it came to songs about Mother, either. Or songs about Christianity. Or songs about mother AND Christianity. 

I actually don't think I know of two song-poems that veer into both mother and Christianity, but I do know of one, and it's a humdinger of a bizarre entry. 

The song is titled "Mother's Poem", although the first time listening, I was absolutely certain that the piece was mislabeled, because there is precious little in it about being a mother, and a whole lot about being (apparently) happily free of a late husband who never gave her a wedding ring, but in whose memory she refuses to re-marry, as well as being about the world going to hell (quite literally - she clearly thinks Armageddon is approaching, or, as one of my favorite song-poems says "The old world will end in a fire". 

The song is sung by Mary Kimmel, Halmark's resident thrush, with pointless repetition of some of the phrases, like someone suffering from echolalia, by her husband Jack, who was often credited (if at all) as Jack Kim. What I missed the first time is that one of Jack's responses is, in fact, to label the song (such as it is, most of it is spoken) as "Mother's Poem". 

So let's just guess this was a poem written by the mother of song-poet Etta Coon and enjoy it for its lugubriousness and downright otherworldly lyrics. 

Download: Halmark Productions - Mother's Poem

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If Mrs. Coon's mother went to the ends of the earth (and literally described the end of the earth) for some of her images and thoughts in "A Mother's Poem", the "lyricist" of the next song, "In the Beginning" went to the other extreme, as she seems to have simply opened her bible to various verses and strung them together, with a few passing phrases in between. 

This is not as obnoxious, I guess, as the "writer" who submitted The Lord's Prayer, verbatim, and called it his own work, but it's not a lot different, either. And yes, I know that Pete Seeger took the same opening biblical words that start this song, and many more lines from that chapter of the bible, and made his own song out of it, and the subsequent biblical verses, but at least he wrote the music to his song and added a refrain of his own. This person submitted lyrics to Halmark, which always provided the music and tune. So, as in the case of that Lord's Prayer submission, what, exactly is this person claiming to have written? 

Download: Halmark Productions - In the Beginning

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The remaining two songs from this EP are also religious in nature, and to my ears, don't contain much worth commenting on, or even worth sharing, but for the fact that I've always promised to share the entirety of each record. The first one is "Turn On Your Light"

Download: Halmark Productions - Turn On Your Light

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Finally, we have "The Parade of Miracles", which I was hoping was going to be about Smokey Robinson's singing companions, but it's not. This doesn't sound like Mary Kimmel to me, but maybe it is. I haven't honestly spent enough time listening to Halmark's female singers to recognize who it might be if it's not Mary, and what else she might have sung. 

Download: Halmark Productions - The Parade of Miracles

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