Sammy's Tears

First up, here is yet another vintage song-poem ad. This one is from 1948. Unlike the others, this one has a clear and direct link to some of the music I've shared here. It's from Five Star Music Masters, which has its own AS/PMA page here, and which seems to have been either a predecessor to or otherwise intimately linked to the later (and fabulous) Sterling label, home of my all time favorite song-poem singer, Norm Burns. Amazingly, this company seems to have continued to operate (to some degree at least) well into the cassette era of the '90's.

Thanks, yet again, to Pete, for these wonderful ads!

And now, here's this week's feature!

It's everyone's favorite, weepy ol' Sammy Marshall, singing with his copyrighted pained voice on the country tinged "The Next Tear That Falls". This has some nice guitar, too buried in the mix for my taste, and a swinging beat that seems a bit too peppy for the lyric. As you can see, this appeared on the tiny Globe-related Pledge label, whose known output seems to have been limited to 1962-63.

Sing it, Singin' Sammy!

Download: Sammy Marshall - The Next Tear That Falls
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More weepage is featured on the flip side, the much more morose "Tears and Champagne". This has the requisite ugly (at times obnoxious) sax playing, small chorus singing many of the lines with Sammy, and the lead vocal mixed WAY TOO HIGH above the backing track. Enjoy!

Download: Sammy Marshall - Tears and Champagne
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A Subject Rarely Heard About in Song-Poems, Plus, a Full Album!

I know posts have been sparse around here lately, due to other pressing matters in my life, as well as a vacation, so to make up for the lack of four posts a month for the past few months, today, I'm offering up an entire song-poem album. And not just one of those 10 song Film City jobs, but a 20 song, nearly one-hour-long album from the folks at Hollywood Artists! Like nearly all of their albums, this is titled "Music of America", and it is label number HAR-81 in that series, putting it nearer to the end of their run than the beginning.

The entire album is below, but I wanted to offer up a couple of choice items from the album, the choicest of which is this offering from singer Steve Day. I can see without doubt that I've never heard a song-poem written on this particular subject before, and I bet you haven't either. That's all I'll say. It's called "Dark Love":

Download: Steve Day - Dark Love
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Next up is a song from a favorite, and prolific, song-poem lyricist, whose name some of you might recognize, James Wilson, Jr. While this song "We Love the Kingdom", sung by Stephanie Allen, doesn't approach the award winning level of weirdness in the form of lyrical poetry that Mr. Wilson displayed in some of his greatest hits (such as "Isotopic-Spatial Series" and  "Liblanders Cahoot"), there are still some interesting turns of phrase here.

Download: Stephanie Allen - We Love the Kingdom
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And finally, the song that leads off the album, "Don't Leave Me, My Clara", spoken and sung by Carlton St. John. Mr. St. John chooses to talk many of the lyrics (I don't think this really qualifies as "rapping"), but when he does sing, you can tell why the choice was made to have him speak the rest of the words - the lyrics are aggressively unmusical in places, and the good folks at Hollywood Artists did a terrible job of trying to set them to a melody and beat. I'm particularly fond of the section that goes "although we're not married", with the accent on the last syllable of "married".

Download: Carlton St. John - Don't Leave Me, My Clara
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And here are both sides of the album, including the songs excerpted, above. A few people wrote to me some time ago about song-poem instrumentals, and I'm happy to say that there is one here, the second track on the A-side, titled "Sky Light". Titles for all of the songs can be seen in the scans of the labels, below.

Download: Hollywood Artists - Music of America (HAR-81), Side One
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Download: Hollywood Artists - Music of America (HAR-81), Side Two
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Decaying Dick

First, here is another in the series of ads that correspondent Pete has generously contributed to this blog, this one from 1948, and again from the "Cinema Song Company". Get out your pen, paper and checkbook!

Today, it's our old friend Dick Kent, appearing on an early release from MSR records, with a lyric decrying the state of "This Decaying World" and showing some realy mastery, by singing lyrics which simply do not scan in any way with the music that they've been attached to (and certainly, some of them might not have scanned with any melodies). Sing, Dick!

Download: Dick Kent - This Decaying World

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I can't work up anything worth saying about the somnambulist flip side, "My Dear Mary, besides "ecch".

Download: Dick Kent - My Dear Mary

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