One of the many qualities which crop up frequently on song-poem records is that the titles often are the first clue that the record is a song-poem, and that the author hadn't a clue about making a hit record. The song-poem database (and my collection) are full of lengthy, clumsy and half-witted titles. Today we return to one of my favorite singers, Gene Marshall, but the real focus is on the mouthfuls of titles he had to sing in recording BOTH sides of this 45.
First up is one of the clunkiest titles I've ever seen, "My Anna is Agleam, Aglitter, Aglow with Love". I get a kick - as I often do - out of the Preview label's use of the female backing singers to prolong the song by singing either the entire chorus again or elements of the lyrics over the music bed:
Play:
The flip side is not quite as ridiculously titled, but only in comparison. Really, can you imagine a DJ saying, "here's Gene Marshall with 'Two Spanish Guitars Made This a Magical Night'"?
While you're listening, perhaps consider the Preview label design, which I'm looking at right now. It's surely one of the better labels ever devised, and should have been attached to records that were actually going to sell. Here's Gene:
3 comments:
Shouldn't Anna be hugging HIM, er, as snug as a glove?
Also, didn't Jacob Sallo write "Big Beatle"?
"My Anna is Agleam, Aglitter, Aglow with Love" sounds like something out of "The Electric Company"! I can see those words on a screen with a yellow "a" right now!
This record makes me think of gospel radio DJ's when they say "Here's a song simply entitled..." some lengthy name. You could do the same thing with these titles.
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