Vilma Records

 Howdy, 

Before we get to today's offering, I wanted to call attention to something written by frequent commenter Sammy Reed, in response to last week's Nita Craig 45. He has encouraged people to check out a six part story about the woman who was known as Bonnie on Preview 45's, and which also covers some of Nita's story. He explains it better in the comment at the bottom of this post. He has posts, as well, some of which are of song-poems, and they can be found here. Thanks, as always, Sammy!

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Let me say, right off the bat, that I don't think that today's offerings are particularly outstanding. However, they do represent two tracks from a label which is not on the AS/PMA website, has never been featured here, and has barely been documented anywhere online, with the exception of a listing on discogs (and, I suppose, maybe somewhere else that I may have missed). Plus, it features a song sung by the only person in the song-poem world that I have interviewed, Rod Barton: for me, and for that reason, hearing from him is always nice. 

We'll hear from Rod first, but before that, look how fun the Vilma Records label is!: 

Rod's song is "Drifting Along", and it, like the flip side, is a pretty staid, maybe even stodgy number, not terribly unlike what you'd hear on a George Liberace, Star-Crest or Noval record. Discogs suggests that this record is from 1957, and while I have no idea where they got that, it certainly seems possible, since the actual performance sounds like it's from about 1943. On the plus side, someone put in enough work on this to make it sound like it could have been an actual pop record meant for sales and hoped-for success, if not a terribly good one. 

I also get a kick out of the fact that this record fades in. 

Download: Rod Barton - Drifting Along

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By the way, the author of the lyrics to both of these songs is Paul Bostic, who may have been the mastermind behind Vilma Records (I wonder if he ever created a companion label called "Vred Records"). And Paul Bostic later had at least one of his songs worked up and recorded by Preview records, and sung by another Rod, the much better known Rodd Keith. 

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On the flip side, we have Drake Morgan, who I've featured here once before, and who appeared on the Air and Caveman labels, which AS/PMA seems to think was associated with Globe. If this is from 1957, and is a Globe production, it's fairly early, indeed, for that song-poem factory, at least as to my understanding. 

This song, Lonesome, strikes me as sounding as if it's an even older recording than "Drifting Along". I'm put in the mind of the mid 1930's, perhaps part of that is Drake's singing style, but the sentimental lyrics, specific word choices ("Gee!") and the arrangement add to that impression, as well. 

Download: Drake Morgan - Lonesome

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Switching gears about as violently as possible, perhaps akin to slamming the car into park while going 35 MPH, now I have this week's "Cut-Up". If you haven't seen my recent posts, feel free to review them to find out what I'm talking about here, and if you don't do so, prepare to be surprised. 

Anyway, a few posts ago, I featured a cut-up down with my best pal Stu, circa 1982, of "Jailhouse Rock". Whatever day that was, it was a very productive day in terms of wasting time being funny, because after completing our rearrangement of Elvis, we turned to "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals. 

Now "Da Doo Ron Ron" happens to be my favorite hit record of all time, and certainly one of my top ten tracks that anyone's ever released. As perfect a song, arrangement, production, vocal performance and overall recording as I ever expect to hear. So this was particularly fun for me. 

A couple of thoughts. 1.) Again, this is not safe for work, due to one f-bomb near the start. 2.) The name you might not be able to make out replacing "Ron" in the first verse is Chicago Cubs great Ron Santo, saying his own name. 3.) The name replacing "Ron" in the second verse is that of Ron Selle, a Chicago area native who sued the Bee Gees, eventually unsuccessfully, for stealing a song of his when they wrote "How Deep Is Your Love". 

I think everything else is understandable and, hopefully, humorous. 

Download: The Crystals - Da Doo Ron Ron (cut-up)

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