Today's post is a little unusual and a lot of wonderful. It is unusual in that these are not records from my collection (therefore, there are no label scans), and are from a label I've never featured before, or even seen. It's wonderful in that these came to me from a family member of the man who owned that label, Jerome Records of Berwyn, IL, and who has seen fit to send me three records from the family collection so far, two of which feature well known song-poem singers, and which represent at least two different song-poem factories. So first, thanks VERY MUCH to Tracy, for sending along these treasures, and here's hoping there will be more to come.
First up is Rod Barton (who is also the only singer from the song-poem world who I've been lucky enough to speak to), with the fantastically titled "Rotating Momma". Often, when there is a fantastic title, the record doesn't live up to the expectations that such a title encourages, but in this case, they are fulfilled, with a rollicking, backwoods, bluesy number, complete with cash register sound effects and genuinely odd lyrics. And then there's the fantastic vocal from Mr. Barton, making the whole thing work another 100% better.
Download: Rod Barton - Rotating Momma
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Next up is someone named Nancy Sherman, whose name turns up here and there on (mostly) the tiny labels which took their recordings from the larger song-poem factories. I'm not sure what the underlying commonality is between the Jerome, Lane and (the particularly obscure) Novart labels, but her name shows up on all three, as well as the larger Air label. This particular track, which boogies along not wholly unlike "Rotating Momma", is titled "Loverman", and it's another nice slice of blues and rockabilly flavored oddness, with some nice guitar, and a slinky lead vocal.
Download: Nancy Sherman: Loverman
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Quite a bit less interesting to me is the third offering, mostly because it comes from the bland Lance Hill, and therefore, from the Globe song-poem factory, whose work I often find bland, as well, particularly in its later years. This one is called "If I Were You", and features a generic backing and standard issue sax bleating, plus a vocal which is downright uninspired, compared with the two other tracks from the label that I sampled above.
Download: Lance Hill - If I Were You
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Again, many thanks to Tracy!
7 comments:
Well, HEY! The first two songs are really good, with witty lyrics and good delivery. I still don't understand the cash register thing going on in the first song. Maybe it's a re-used track?
The final song is blah, as you say. Lance Hill has a lot of Gene Pitney's mannerisms without his ability.
Thanks for posting!!
stu
Loverman was reissued in the 80's on the White Label compilation WLP 8919 out of the Netherlands. You said you didn't have the actual record but is there any way you can get the Jerome record number, the Rite Pressing CP number and the B-Side Title?
Thanks.
Fun stuff, thanks for sharing!
Yes, but I do love the lyric on the last one..."slammed the door of heaven right on my face!". Oof, that's gotta hurt!
It's funny, we shouldn't judge Lance too harshly; after all, he was probably sight-reading, and most definitely only doing it one take. I heard a recording of Dick Kent singing "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands", and my estimation of his vocal abilities went way up. I think that's why Gene Merlino might really be "the king of the demo singers" since he's able to emote and phrase and style the vocal on the fly, at a high level.
As far as the other two tracks, great! They are definitely getting played at the Song Poem Sock Hop! Thanks (belatedly) for sharing them with us, Tracy!
My late Dad, Robert H.Merrill,sang as Rod Barton in that first song. I had to laugh, because the lyrics suggest she was an "easy" girl, but not "free..." thus the cash register! No wonder I never heard this song! Dad protected his daughters!
He also demo'd "Two Sleepy People." From Kansas City, Mo.
Hi, Catherine! As I mentioned, your dad sought me out at one point, because I had posted some of his performances, and I interviewed in a later phone call for about 20 minutes. Later, he thought of more things to tell me, and called me twice to share. He's still the only person from the song-poem world that I've ever spoken to.
Bob
The memories. My father who passed was the one who owned Jerome records.
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