Sugar Fluff Doll

Before I get to this week's posting, I wanted to share with everyone that, as a result of one of my other collecting passions - the collecting and sharing of interesting recordings found on reel to reel tapes - I have now been featured on a major podcast called Ephemeral. The story in question is about Merigail Moreland, who I featured at WFMU many years ago. The show is about 40 minutes long, and can be heard here.

 

And now.....

 

When I first featured the Lutone label, many years ago, I speculated that there was perhaps only one release on the label. Since then, I've obtained a few other records from Lutone, and am now featuring the label for the third time.

 

This isn't a full song-poem label, but more of a hybrid of vanity and song-poem. Label titan Luton Stinson wrote both the words and the music for his songs, unlike the vast majority of song-poets, but then engaged the various song-poem factories to make recordings of his masterpieces. So it was that the Film City company ended up with one of Mr. Stinson's songs, and Rodd Keith (under his Film City guise of Rod Rogers) ended up recording "Sugar Fluff Doll". This is a bouncy, happy little confection, and Rodd handles it beautifully from start to finish, complete with an infectious little solo. I sure do love that Chamberlin sound.

 

Download: Rod Rogers: Sugar Fluff Doll

Play:  

 

~~

 

On the flip side is something a bit curious. The song is "Black Bottom Inn", and Luton Stinson appears to have really thought he was on to something here, as he commissioned its recording at least three times, including once that I have featured before. And this is the least of the three by a long shot. In fact, because I find this version - by Lance Hill out of the Globe factory - so tepid and uninspired, I'm going to fix the link on the previous posting so you can compare, even if you weren't reading this site before the earlier links went down.

 

First, here's Lance Hill's version, complete with little "whoop whoop" vocalizing, which sound to me a bit like someone trying to copy Roger Miller, without even the most basic of understanding of what made Roger Miller's vocalizing so great.

 

Download: Lance Hill - Black Bottom Inn

Play:

 

And now, here's the link to the version I posted five years ago, by Jeff Reynolds - I just think it's fabulous - slinky and sexy and completely in keeping with what's going on in the lyrics. (This post also contains a link to the third version, a '60's rocker which is from Tropical Records, yet another song-poem outfit). The repaired post can be found here.

 

By the way, I'm going to do my best to use this as a starting point to repair the other broken links. Obviously, I haven't even posted every week for some time, so I'm not making promises, but I'm going to try.