It's four for the price of two today, here at song-poem central, and what's more, today's EP, on the tiny Brosh label, features four different singers, all but one from the Globe song-poem empire.
First up is frequently used Globe female vocalist Kris Arden, with a song not written by Smokey Robinson, nor sung by Mary Wells, yet still titled "My Guy". The backing track is Globe 101 - if not for the lyrics, I'm sure Sammy Marshall would have been singing this. But just listen to these lyrics - her guy sounds like a dreamboat; he's swell.
Download: Kris Arden - My Guy
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Speaking of Sammy Marshall, he's up next, with a number titled "Just a Few". This is also paint-by-numbers Globe stuff, and Sammy sounds (to me, anyway) pretty darned wistful, as if he believes the songwriter doesn't expect to win the girl. The ache in his voice here doesn't match the promise of the lyrics.
By the way, I'm going to make another file of this record tonight and see if it gets rid of some of the harshness of the sax portions (I didn't notice at the time of making this file that there was so much distortion, and the other tracks seem to be fine, so it might just be the track).
Download: Sammy Marshall and the Keynoters - Just a Few
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Best of the batch by a wide margin is "Makes My Heart Start Flopping Around", sung by everyone's favorite, The Mystery Girl. Here we have a swingin' little track, with a winning vocal, a nice band sound, and a lyric that, with a few improvements, could have sounded like someone's attempt at a hit record, at least during the late '50's (although I'm pretty sure this record is not from the late '50's). I could do without the honking sax, but that's a minor complaint - this is a fun song and record.
Download: The Mystery Girl - Makes My Heart Start Flopping Around
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The final track, on the other hand, is as vapid as they come. It's called "I Love 'Em So", and it does NOT sound like it comes from the Globe world (so to speak). The lyrics here are literally as stupid as I've ever heard on a song-poem 45, and there are so few of them that some sections have to be repeated three times (almost everything is sung at least twice) in the 110 seconds it takes for the record to mercifully end. The bridge is especially inspired:
Nothing but girls
Lots of girls
Nothing but girls
I'm in a whirl
I don't believe I've come across the song stylings of Ronnie May before, and I'm not sure what casa-de-song-poems put this masterpiece together, but I'm sort of interested in hearing more.
Download: Ronnie May - I Love 'Em So
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3 comments:
Hey, thanks for the "e.p."!
"Makes My Heart Start Flopping Around" is Kris Arden. It was released as a Preview single (same recording, credited to Kris) with "It's Hard To Hide A Cry" on the flip side (not as good as "Flopping Around" but still good!). A while back I actually sent you this single, along with label scans.
Interestingly, this vinyl you just posted seems to have more "presence" than the Preview single...at first I thought it might actually be a different mix! Mmy guess (and it's just a guess) is that it was originally on Brosh, and then subsequently pressed on Preview, perhaps just making a dupe off of the original vinyl.
I have always loved this song! The song, and the title!!
Don't know if it's him or not, but doesn't the singer of "I Love 'Em So" sound a lot like the guy who played Grimace and then Barney?
HeyHey hey, i love that song so......................
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