Saturday, December 04, 2010

Delicksious!

First, I'd like to say that that the world is suddenly a lot less wonderful, following the death on Thursday of Ron Santo. Those we call sports heroes - and he certainly was one of those - are rarely really heroes, and even with that, their time in the spotlight is usually fairly brief. Ron Santo was a true hero, as a person, if for nothing more (and there was so much more) than for maintaining a positive, infectious outlook, and a real joy in living, despite experiencing an often extremely difficult life. Baseball won't ever be quite the same without you, Ronnie. ... 

And now, on with the countdown:There were few releases on the Delicks label - two 45's and an album that I'm aware of. Everything released on the label was written by Francis E. Delaney, who appears to have been more self-aware than most song-poets, as witnessed by the name of that Delicks album, "The 12 Most Unpopular Songs" (which I'm also lucky enough to own a copy of). Today, in honor of the holiday season (and the first snowfall we've received today, in my home town), the only songs I'm aware of on Delicks to not be contained on that album. Both are sung by someone identified on the label as "Betty Bond", although I'm sure those of you more familiar than I am with female song-poem singers can tell me who she might be. And although the "Unpopular Songs" album was done through Lew Tobin's Sterling label, this single was produced through National Guild, a separate song-poem factory, run by Bob Quimby in Florida (although this record sports a suburban Chicago address - go figure). First up is a rather obvious take off on Rudolph's song, "Blinky, the Blue Nosed Snowdeer": 

Download: Betty Bond - Blinky the Blue Nosed Snowdeer
Play:   

  Apparently someone either really enjoyed this record, or took exceptionally poor care of it - it's beat to hell. Here's the flipside, "Little World of Snow":

Play:   

I get a kick out of the fact that this record came to me housed in a Stax Records 45 sleeve.

6 comments:

Rockin' Jeff said...

I'm a Sox fan, but i agree about Santo. He was one of the good ones.

Stu Shea said...

As anodyne and silly as the a-side is, the b-side is just that charming. Thank you!

KL from NYC said...

I'm guessing:
The melodies on both sides are too pretty for a run-of-the-mill song poem record, plus ASCAP is credited after Ms. Delaney's name -- She could have sent in the music and lyrics to have the demos made (like that one in Kansas, forgot her name. The one that wrote "What's She Got That I Haven't Got" by Betty Jayne -- still love that one).

francis e delaney said...

dsgibinalkirgr1i 2stytractitem Dicksious Blinky
I am the author of that song and it is Mr. Francis E. Delaney ascap cma Thanks for playing it once and a while. There is a new recording of it Blinky the blue nose space deer Will send you a copy of it upon request. It is on our christmas cd Not on web
The Windows Of Christmas All song By Mr. Francis E. Delaney
fed932@aol.com need address

Mike said...

Hello-
I don't know if you'll see a comment 4-years later, but is there any way you can re-up this one? LOL. I hope so. Thank you for the awesome blog!

Bob Purse said...

Hi, Mike,

Thanks for reading and for your comment. But I'm confused, because I've opened this page on two different browsers, and both songs are still there and both still play. If you can't get them, post again with an e-mail address, and I'll send 'em to you.

Thanks again!

Bob