Soap Opera Relationships, On Sterling Records

Howdy, 

This is an intensely busy moment in my work life, but I really want to get a post up this weekend, so I am doing so, but will be uncharacteristically brief. I meant to offer some thanks and links to a few people, but I want to do that right, and I will wait until next time to do so

I have, however, taken the time to repopulate the links on another month's worth of posts, in this case, all the way back to October of 2009. During that month, I posted a song-poem on the Canary label, a nice Rodd Keith confection, a World's Fair related disc from Sammy Marshall, and a personal favorite on the Allstar label. Be sure to read the comments - there was some interesting information about the Canary label (including contact from a relative of the man behind the label), and for the Allstar release, the actual singer of the song posted a response!

Today, we have Sterling Records' favorite pair of 1960's and early 1970's singers, Shelley Stuart and Norm Burns, one on each side of the 45, helped out by house band "The Five Stars", giving us two songs from the same song-poet, Faye Bottoms. Ms. Bottoms seems to have had a flair for portraying the soap opera type of relationship, as the protagonists heard on each side of this record are dealing with the sturm und drang of a difficult relationship. 

Shelley Stuart goes first, with a song whose title tells you exactly how difficult the relationship is going, "I Am Locked Up in a Prison of Love"

Download: Shelley Stuart and The Five Stars - I Am Locked Up in a Prison of Love

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Over on the flip side, we have everyone's favorite singer, Norm Burns, who, in this case, is portraying a man who has entered into a relationship with a married woman, and now finds himself in love. Here's "Now It's Too Late Darlin'"

Download: Norm Burns and the Five Stars - Now It's Too Late Darlin'

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A Full Song-Poem Album. On Halmark. Yes, it's a HALMARK ALBUM!

Greetings!

Before I get to the site updates and today's amazing offering, I want to let everyone know that I've again been offered the chance to take part in a podcast, about yet another item from my large collection of recordings. 

In this case, it's about the history of, and my history with, an album called "Musical Memories of Camp Bryn Afon", a record made in tiny quantities in 1965, one copy of which I've owned since 1985. It is a deeply obscure choice for this honor, but it is my second favorite album ever. 

The podcast is part of the series "Ephemeral", and is the fourth to feature aspects of my collection. This episode can be found here: 

https://www.ephemeral.show/episode/cba

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I have, as usual, updated yet another month of posts, in this case, October of 2009, a month in which I shared a fantastic and ridiculous Tin Pan Alley bopper, a different Tin Pan Alley record featuring two revealing sets of lyrics, a nice set of tunes from Rodd Keith and a rather insane dance tune from the pen of Norridge Mayhams. 

Finally, that month I also created a fun little mash-up, of two recording acts unlikely to have actually worked together, and I shared that in a post to be found here.  

~~

The big news this week is that, after a long delay, I am honoring a request from a reader, and posting something that I would guess is exceptionally rare: An album on the Halmark label. 

Released in what I believe was the early years of the label - 1969 - it's called "Mercy Drops", and is made up entirely of songs with Christian lyrics, with all twelve songs written by someone named Joe Carmen.

And the Halmark people were already up to their standard tricks, not bothering to hide the fact that they used the same tracks over and over again. One track is featured on a song on each side, and most ridiculously, another track is featured on two songs on the same side (side two). Perhaps they thought the song-poet. 

More likely, they didn't care. 

Whatever the explanation, I think it speaks a high level of contempt on the part of Halmark towards their customers, one that I've thought was clear for a long, long time. 

A few other oddities here. First, the logo on the record is entirely different from the style they used, and frequently modified, on their 45's, and what's more, it looks enough (to me) like the logo of the real (and enormous) Hallmark Cards company that there could have been a lawsuit, had more than perhaps 20 people ever seen this record. 

And second, two singers are credited: Bob Storm and Marshall Young. The songs credited to Bob Storm do not sound like the Bob Storm who is credited on some of the Halmark singles. But Marshall Young - on some tracks he does sound like, and quite clearly IS, the same singer so often identified as Bob Storm on those later records. But I perceive at least three singers here, labeled as these two men. It makes me wonder if "Bob Storm" doesn't exist the way that another label stalwart, "Jack Kim" clearly does or did exist, as we know his real name, Jack Kimmel. Maybe "Bob Storm" was a catchall for more than one singer, and not even clearly delineated as the unctuous over-emoter we all know and love until later. 

Halmark is just one mystery after another. 

Here's what the front cover looks like: 

And here's the label on side one. 

The tracks and credited singers on side one are: 

Mercy Drops - Bob Storm

God's Great Love - Bob Storm

Jesus At Calvary - Bob Storm

Fill My Heart, Dear Lord - Marshall Young

Our Father's Great Love - Marshall Young

How True Are You to Jesus - Marshall Young

Download: Mercy Drops, Side One

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The tracks and credited singers on side two are: 

When Jesus Came To Our World - Marshall Young

Christ is the Worlds (sic) True Light - Marshall Young

There Are Changes in the Heart - Marshall Young

Where is God - Marshall Young

The Last Word in Jesus is Us - Bob Storm

Jesus Did All Things Well - Marshall Young

Download: Mercy Drops, Side Two

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Here is the back cover: 

In case you can't make it out, the address of Halmark is listed as being in the small town of Lapel, Indiana (not far, I'm guessing, from Cuff Link, Indiana and Button Down Shirt, Ohio, but quite a ways north of Inseam, Kentucky), and was pressed by a company in Richmond Indiana, both far away from Halmark's actual headquarters in Massachusetts.

Here is the label for side two: 

Rockin' With Sammy

Greetings, 

Today, I have yet another update of a month's worth of posts to share with you. I've gotten all the way back to November of 2009, a month when a shared a whopping 16 tracks across five posts. 

These include a simply fantastic rocker on the Vellez label, a set of six fairly eccentric songs from Tin Pan Alley, the amazing "Let's Lay It On the Line" and three other tracks from a Halmark EP, an early - and wonderful - Norridge Mayhams release, and a very late Rodd Keith item. Enjoy!

And now!: 

My hope, when obtaining a previously unknown Sammy Marshall (or, in this case, Sonny Marshall) record, is that at least one of the songs will be one of of Sammy's patented rock and roll numbers. Happily, in today's case, we have an EP on Air featuring three upbeat numbers of such a distinction, two of them very likely unheard until today, at least by anyone reading these words. 

All four of these tracks were written by the same gentleman (wonder how much that cost him), who seems to have been prone to a certain repetitiveness in his lyrics. The record starts with the only ballad contained therein, "Bridge of Make Believe". The narrator of the song is quite unhappy, it would seem, as he is not crossing the bridge into "Make Believe", but rather, has left it, via the bridge, into the harsh world of reality. 

Download: Sonny Marshall - Bridge of Make Believe

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Now we cross the bridge of early '60's rock and roll, and encounter "My Little Dove". This is, to my ears, quite a bit less convincing than most of Sammy's efforts in the genre. Everyone seems stiff, like they are holding back a bit, and the drumming is poor enough that I could imagine it being the drummer's first day behind the kit. 

Download: Sonny Marshall - My Little Dove

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Side two features to sound-alike tracks, pressed in far lower quality, but performed in much more authentic style. A Duane Eddy style guitarist leads us into a chugging rhythm for "My Second Home", and if one didn't know better, one could easily mistake this for a 1962 attempt at pop radio airplay. 

Download: Sonny Marshall - My Second Home

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Finally, we have a song that readers of this site have heard before (which explains a comment I made, above). This exact same rendition of "A Little Bird" - sounding exactly like "My Second Home" - appeared on an EP from the Cardinal label, which I featured in a post nearly three years ago. On that disc, "A Little Bird" was the clear winner; here, I'd award that prize to both the songs on this second side. 

But the real question is: why is the song credited to a different song-poet on the Cardinal release and on this Air release? Weird. 

Download: Sonny Marshall - A Little Bird (Air Records)

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