Thursday, April 25, 2013

A Sammy Marshall/Kris Arden Globe Acetate!



Another rarity today! Perhaps not as rare as a Stylecraft 78, or a Cubs song-poem, the combination of which was shared a few weeks ago, but a 78 acetate from Globe isn't all that common, either. That's what I have here.

The Globe company released few "records" as such on their own label, mostly limiting their own name to demos of their products on acetates, and putting their actual "releases" out on literally dozens of labels. I have several Globe demos, most of them on 45's, and most of those are simple piano and vocal demos.

But in this case, we have what sounds like a finished product, and a pair of songs that could easily have found release on any of those myriad labels that they were connected with.

First up is label mainstay Sammy Marshall, and the song "Winds of Chance", a song and arrangement which is a perfect fit for Sammy's talents. There are few elements to this record which give it away as anything but a failed attempt at a hit (mostly a few bum notes here and there in the backing, and some less than inspired lyrics).

Download: Sammy Marshall - Winds of Chance
Play:

Over on the flip side is another of those clues to this not being a "real release", that being that the flip is by another artist entirely, in this case Kris Arden. This performance of "Take Your Letters", is, to my ears, a slightly clunkier arrangement and performance of a slightly stronger song than the one Sammy got to sing. I'm not a fan of Globe's reliance on hokey sax solos, however, I am partial to the brief guitar solo here, and a few of the simple, accented fills performed by the drummer, as well as the warm lead vocal.

Download: Kris Arden - Take Your Letters
Play:


3 comments:

Stu Shea said...

There's a couple of draggy numbers there...

I've never heard the phrase "winds of chance" before.

Alonzo said...

This is cool!

Some Of My 78s said...

Strangely enough, I have a copy of this acetate too! I've also got a copy of another acetate with two songs written by the same songwriter, Marvel Berge.
It's on "The Nashville Songwriters Guild" label, and one of the songs is Winds of Chance, the other is Keep On Talkin'. The performers are uncredited, and unfortunately the acetate has seen better days. Let me know if you'd like a copy!