Hello, everybody, Hello!
What a cornucopia I have for you today! I have two singles - unrelated in style, background or any other aspect, except that both feature the same odd aspect of having the same word repeated over and over again, and both contain the same vocal sound, not often heard on records.
Before that, I will announce here that I have gone even further back in the archives and corrected three more posts from the initial year of this blog, 2005. That October, I featured a fairly horrible record by Pinky Pinkston (whom I was later to feature in much more detail at WFMU, as mentioned and linked in that post). I also offered, for the very time on this blog, two song poems, and, on what would have been John Lennon's 65th birthday, I shared four favorite excerpts from the often bootlegged "Get Back" sessions. While obviously those have become even more widely available in the more than 16 years since (and been the focus of a marvelous recent documentary), I still want to make this blog look like it originally did, so I have shared those tracks again.
And now, let's climb the Blue Hill
The Blue Hill label seems to have been the creation of a handful of people whose names show up on the eight known songs produced on the label. Seven of those eight tracks came out of the Globe song-poem factory, but here we have one which came from Lee Hudson's production house, with Hudson's go-to male vocalist, Jeff Reynolds.
This record apparently dates from 1962, and perhaps the lyricists expected a twist beat. I mean, it is called "Blue Hill Twist". But as you may know from experience with his productions, Lee Hudson didn't do twists. He did do slinky, bluesy numbers, though, and that's what we have here.
First, I will say that this record sounds great. But second, I will add that I've listened to it at least five times now, and I don't know what the hell he's singing about. And I really don't understand the buzzing bee sound he throws in. And yet, all in all, a very enjoyable record.
If someone out there "gets it", please chime in.
Download: Jeff Reynolds - Blue Hill Twist
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The flip side is from the folks at Globe, as indicated above. And for the third time on the record - including the label name and both songs, we have a reference to Blue Hill. This one is called "Full Moon Over High Blue Hill", and is sung by the inevitable Sammy Marshall. This one has some nice Hawaiian style guitar, but very little else to recommend it.
Download: Sammy Marshall - Full Moon Over High Blue Hill
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And now, something I am VERY excited to share. I have discovered yet another record by Merigail Moreland. If that name means nothing to you, click on her name at the bottom of this post, to find other posts I've made here about her, but also visit my lengthy posts about her at WFMU,
here and
here.
Anyway, I never would have found this record, had I not also been searching for records by her father, Don Moreland, as Merigail, in yet another reworking of her name, is here credited as Merri Gayle (another pair of releases had it as Merri Gail).
The record was released on the Beeline Records label, and (as was true of the record above) BOTH tracks contain the name of the label in their titles. Here's the better of the two sides:
I am increasingly in love with the track titled "Be My Beeline Baby", and it once again plays up how fantastic a singer Merigail was, even in her teen years - which, based on the little I know of her life, is when I'm guessing this comes from.
This was, in fact, the b-side of the single, but it is by far the stronger of the tracks, at least to me. But then again, the calypso shadings of the arrangement and fantastic horn track are right up my alley. All that pales, however, before Merigail's vocal, which I find to be off the charts sexy, particularly in the bridges, and even more so on the lines where she sings "I want kisses by the dozens", etc.
An absolutely stunning vocal and a great record.
Play:
The flip side, "I'm Makin' a Beeline For You!", sung with Don Moreland, was the a-side, but it doesn't do nearly as much for me. The standard late 1950's big band sound is not a favorite style of mine, the song doesn't do it for me, either. Oh, and maybe it's just me, but knowing the singers were father and daughter make the whole exercise sort of weird.
But, as with Jeff Reynolds, on the previous 45, we have some bee buzzing sounds here, tying these records together in another weird way.
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Okay, for the last few posts, by request, I have been sharing some of the best of my "Cut-Up's", reworkings of hit songs and other material that I like, in which replacement words are plugged into key moments of the songs. For more information, please look at my recent posts. Today I'm sharing one of my all time favorites.
But before I share this one, I have a question. Are people enjoying these, and wanting to hear more? This feels sort of self-indulgent to me, but won't feel quite so much that way if people are actually digging them.
Okay, so here's today's "Cut-Up". When Elvis returned from the army, he cut the masterful "Such a Night". It resides in my all time top 25 tracks that anyone has ever recorded, and remains my second favorite Elvis track, behind only "A Fool Such as I", but was shelved as a single in favor of the milquetoast "Stuck On You". Perhaps it seemed out of touch with the softer sounds of 1964. After the Beatles hit, it was belatedly released as a single and made the top 20.
So it was a natural for me to do a cut-up of this record. And the repeated lines, and story nature of the lyric, made it a natural for cut-ups, too. I think this came out great, particularly what I interspersed in with the grunting and chanting at the end.
There is a low level four letter word repeated here, and also another word which is not obscene, but is also not typically used in polite conversations, so this is probably not safe for work.
Play:
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