She Wants Him Back. He's Just Passing Through

 Greetings! 

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season, whatever it is you celebrate or don't celebrate. Here's hoping for a fabulous 2024. 

Whatever happens next year, though, it will happen without one of my favorite people in the world. Tommy Smothers died this week, and I want to just say a word or two here. That's because I think The Smothers Brothers - in addition to what they did for the expanding of boundries in television (and for letting Pete Seeger back on the air) - they were, in my opinion, one of the half dozen greatest comedy acts of the 20th century. I'm probably forgetting someone or some team, but I'd put them with Monty Python, The Marx Brothers, Shelley Berman, George Carlin and David Letterman and the staff of "Late Night" on that short list. 

And specifically for Tommy, I'd say that I'm not sure anyone ever had better comic timing or a more fully realized comic persona. And he was a hell of a guitar player, too, something that flew under the radar, but of which he was very proud. 

My favorite political site, Electoral-Vote.com has a nice write up about Tommy, saying far more than I want to here, and doing it better than could. 

Here are my two favorite Smothers Brothers tracks, both of which make my personal all-time favorite top 200 tracks ever recorded: Mediocre Fred and Crabs Walk Sideways.

Also, please keep reading after the song-poem post below, as I am debuting my latest recording, a parody song I've been working on, off and on, for the last seven months or so. 

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For the last post of the year, I have a sweet record from the early days of the Globe song-poem factory, featuring the honey-voiced Kris Arden and the ubiquitous Sammy Marshall, both acoompanied by the usual gang, here identified as "The Keys". This record is from early enough in Globe's existence that they hadn't fallen into the bland, interchangable backing sounds that crop up repeatedly on later releases. 

Oddly, the AS/PMA page for this label has the artists reversed, each credited with the wrong side, and that error has made its way onto other discographies, as well. AS/PMA also dates the release to 1962, but this three star non-recommadation ("moderate sales potential") from Billboard says 1961. I was amused to see, a few slots down from that listing, Eddie Holland's "Jamie" - which is a GREAT record and which did chart top 40 pop and top ten R & B - relagated to a very poor two star rating. 

Kris Arden's offering, "Sundown Valley" is particularly nice, a country flavored shuffle in which the singer tries to coax a someone special to come back to her hometown, with a few enticing things about the town that they experience together. Kris' vocal is just lovely, the equal (in the song poem world) of a Cara Stewart performance, and that's high praise from me, indeed.  

Download: Kris Arden and the Keys - Sundown Valley

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It strikes me that Sammy Marshall's turn, on the flip side, could be considered the answer record to "Sundown Valley", and the fact that both of the songs were written by the same song-poet makes that even more possible, although I have no way of knowing for certain. 

Anyway, in "Just Passing Through", Sammy sings of a woman who has fallen in love with him, despite his best efforts to let her know he wasn't going to stick around, which could certainly explain why Kris' man is no longer in "Sundown Valley". 

The music here is a little less compelling - I could certainly do without the sax solo, for one thing - but I am a sucker for that pained tone on certain words and notes, something that Sammy excelled at. 

Download: Sammy Marshall and the Keys - Just Passing Through

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And now for something completely different. About six years ago, something inspired me - something insistent - to write a parody lyric for the song "Up Up and Away" by the Fifth Dimension. This is not even a record that I like - not when it came out when I was seven, and not now - and although I've written and recorded parodies in the past, all but one were of records that I love. Anyway, it wasn't until April of this year that I decided to make a track of my parody. 

Anyone my age or perhaps even 10-15 years younger will likely know the song this is based on, but for those who don't, the original can be found here. 

I decided along the way that I wanted my music track to sound as close to exactly like the original Fifth Dimension track as I could possibly get out of my Midi set-up, and I think I succeeded to the point that the track sounds like a Karaoke track. It is not - I built it from the ground up, instrument by instrument. I worked on it off and on, sometimes on weekends, mostly when I took days off from work. It took me over seven months! 

I am very happy with the final product.... except that I can't settle on which prospective title is better, the one that reflects the original song's title ("Come, Come in and Play") or the one which better reflects the text of the parody ("My Curio Filled Room"). Regardless, I hope you enjoy it, and would love to hear comments, including thoughts on the better title. 

Download: Bob Purse - My Curio Filled Room (AKA Come, Come In and Play)

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Is It Too Late? It's NEVER Too Late

 

The larger song-poem factories must have turned out dozens of records a year. MSR, Film City and Globe, for example, may have released hundreds of records every calendar year. Small labels such as Noval or Star Crest may have released far under one hundred records over the course of their existence. In the middle are companies including Tin Pan Alley and Sterling, who seem to have released about 25-35 records a year, or somewhere around two or three a month. 

I bring all this up because today's release features related titles, and my strong guess is that it was just a coincidence. If Tin Pan Alley was making four to six song-poems a month, there's no way they had much of a backlog of material waiting for release, or enough "in the can" to pair two songs who's titles both ask and answer the same question. 

Ellen Wayne is the singer, and the question in song is "Is It Too Late For Me?" This record is likely from 1960 or 1961, and this song is a slow, weepy ballad, with triplets - both chorded and played individually - on the guitar (that is, when the guitarist doesn't miss the strings). In theory, this sort of thing should appeal to me, but the whole thing is ham-fisted, particularly her overly wobbly, borderline weepy vocal. 

I wonder if the song-poet here, Richards Simmonds, later dropped one letter from his first and last names and became very famous. 

Download: Ellen Wayne - Is It Too Late For Me?

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The answer to the question comes from a different song-poet - Louis Gallo (this guy?), on the flip side. And the answer, of course is: "It's NEVER Too Late". And this is an almost infinitely better record than the flip. It's bouncy, swingin' and Ellen's style works much better at this tempo. The guitarist handles the part considerably more effectively and the song doesn't wear out its welcome, lasting less than 90 seconds.   

Download: Ellen Wayne - It's Never Too Late

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A Really Interesting Globe Acetate

Greetings!

I am doing a LOT of rearranging the various types of recorded material I have in my basement - shelving things differently, putting some things in boxes to get them out of the way, etc. And last month, I came across a Globe acetate that - according to my carefully saved eBay email - I bought over 11 years ago (for five dollars!), and then seemingly just put with some other 10 inch records in my basement. I'm not sure I ever even listened to it before last week. 

I'd like to correct that oversight right now, because this is a really interesting record. It is, as mentioned, a 10 inch acetate but, like several others I've owned, it is recorded at 45 RPM and only the internal seven inches are recorded, as if it were a standard 45 that just got cut too big. 

The vocalist is Oscar Franck, who does not turn up on any other song-poem releases that I've been able to find. A man with the same name did work for a time as a songwriter, and is listed with more than 50 renditions recorded of his songs on Discogs. The obituary for that Oscar Franck is here. Is this the same guy? Who knows!?!

The writer of both sides is Earl Green, who perhaps is related to Earl Grey of Tea fame, but who also does not show up in the song-poem database. And that's far too common a name to search for. However, neither of these song titles (combined with his name) bring up anything. 

These are not full band performances of the type that you'd have found on one of the many, many 45's that the Globe song-poem factory churned out for literally dozens of labels. Both sides feature very small combos, and these were almost certainly seen as demos. But they both strike me as pretty darn good, for what they are, albeit with that special "something" that sets them apart as the work of  an amateur songwriter. 

The better of the two, to my ears, is "I'll Walk a Million Miles or More". This strikes me as a solid performance of a genuinely well constructed song. But I'm partial to the pop sounds of the late 1950's, anyway. In his best 1958ish Conway Twitty-esque voice, Oscar Franck emotes some (almost) typical pimple-rock lyrics. Meanwhile, the chords leading up to each individual line of the bridge are pretty interesting. I wonder if Earl Green wrote the whole song, or, as was usually the case, someone put the music together for him, and provided those weird guitar patterns. 

About those words, though - this is what I was referring to earlier. Two odd turns of phrase signal this as the work of an amateur, and both would have been cleaned up by someone if this was meant for anything beyond a piece of vinyl for the lyricist to take home. The first is "to kiss your lip". Not lips, lip. And the other is the deeply clunky "I'd walk another million miles, just for you and hold your hand". 

Enjoy!  

Download: Oscar Franck - I'll Walk a Million Miles or More

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The flip side is "Don't Cry Little Girl". On this one, Oscar Franck sounds more like he's channeling any of a number of late '50's or early '60's teen idol types. I hear some Bobby Darin, some Gene Pitney, some Del Shannon and at least one other singer whose name is escaping me at the moment. If the other side sounded straight outta 1958, this one sounds like the music of 1962 to me. It even sounds - as did the flip - like something that, with a bit of professional help, might have been a song actually offered for the 1962. But I think the main conceit of the lyric - that not only does the boy not know "the other woman", all she did was ask him what time it was - would probably have needed to be reworked. 

Download: Oscar Franck - Don't Cry Little Girl

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All in all, a very interesting record. Sorry it took me 11 years to get to it!

This One Can't Wait for March 31st

Christmas is a-coming and it's a-jumping

 Christmas is a-coming and it's a-jumping 

 Christmas is a-coming and it's a-jumping 

Boy it won't be long

 - Lead Belly

I wanted to start out by making sure everyone knew that I know what time of year it is, and that Advent starts this Sunday. Because I'm going to share a record which was created for use on an entirely different Christian holiday, but I just obtained the record this week, and I can't wait four months to share it. It looks like this: 

When a song-poem shows up for sale or auction with a title as ridiculous as "I Love My Little Red Nose Rabbit the Best", the chances are - always - that the actual recording will be a let down. That's absolutely usually the case. But I went for it anyway and was delighted to win the auction at a low price and no other bidders. 

It is, as you've no doubt guessed, an Easter-themed record. And Sammy Marshall, under the frequently used name Sonny Marcell, is the performer. And I think that's almost all I'll say, as I'd like you to experience all aspects of this 85 second masterpiece for yourselves. I'll only say that Sammy gives it his all, and never for a moment sounds like he's contemptuous of the material.  Here 'tis. Happy Easter.  

Download: Sonny Marcell - I Love My Little Red Nose Rabbit the Best

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Incidentally, this song was copyrighted on May 18th, 1964, and song-poet John Hansen clearly had big intentions for it, as he took out classified ads in at least three issues of Billboard Magazine in 1964 and 1965. Curiously, only one of those issue dates was before or anywhere near Easter in those years. Also please note that in one of those ads, Mr. Hansen was additionally plugging his song "I Hire a Monkey". Who wouldn't pay to hear that one?  

The flip side is "My Love Letter Came From Paris", and like "Red Nose Rabbit", it just featuring Sammy and a pianist (as stated in those ads, by the way). The narrated part of this record in the middle has some marvelously lyrical phrases, such as "In the state of New Jersey", "Every time I see long, cold winters", and "annual rainfall". In fact, that entire section is one clunky phrase after another, to the point (at least for me) of hilarity. Oh, and don't miss the end of the sung sections, where we learn that receiving a letter from Paris reminds him of.... their time together in Paris.  

Incidentally, I'd like to dedicate this post to Sammy Marshall - real name Marc Simpson, as I learned only recently that Sammy Marshall/Ben Tate/Sonny Marcell/Marc Simpson/Etc.... died five years ago, in May of 2018. Here is his obituary. 

Download: Sonny Marcell - My Love Letter Came From Paris

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Fables of the Banana Queen for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers, and a big THANK YOU to everyone everywhere who reads and listens to my posts. I have something extremely rare and also, quite entertaining for you today. It's a 78 RPM acetate on the Fable label. And it looks like this: 

My best guess is that only a handful of copies of this record were made, or perhaps only one. Certainly, this record wouldn't have been pressed in anywhere near the number of copies that a "released" Fable (or any other label's records, song-poem or otherwise) would have been. 

Happily, both songs are fairly delightful. I am guessing that these are song-poems, although with Fable, that's not a given - the label released plenty of records which were not. I'd be interested to hear what anyone out there thinks. Normally, the odd subject matter of the first side I'm sharing - "Banana Queen" - would be a clear clue that it WAS a song poem. Yet Fable released several songs of an odd nature which were probably not song-poems. So I'm really guessing. 

Anyway, this is a whole lot of fun. It's got a calypso beat, the sort of reverb-laden production that I love, funny and creative lyrics, and I would venture to say that it absolutely deserved to be released. But it does not appear that a release ever occurred. 

Download: Unknown - Banana Queen

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No performer is listed on either side. The flip side, "Baby You're the Best" does bear the name "Shirley", but as the song is sung by a male, that clearly refers to someone other than the performer. Maybe Shirley was "The Best". 

"Baby, You're the Best" is a rockabilly flavored number. It features a bass line lifted directly from "Don't Be Cruel", a "wild man" sort of lead vocal, with simple backing by a small combo. It's a bit too understated for me, but things perk up briefly on a couple of slightly more swingin' bridge sections.

Given the Calypso influence on one side, and the "Don't Be Cruel" influence on the other, I would peg this release from very late 1956 or some time in 1957. And since nothing, ever, has sounded as great as late 1956 and all of 1957, these are quite wonderful to hear.  

Download: Unknown - Baby You're the Best

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What's The Story?

It's Native American Heritage Month. 

There are certainly a plethora of reasons why its important that there is a Native American Heritage Month, and it would nice if the existence of this occasion was as publicized even a quarter as much as, say Black History Month, or even as much as that thing they do during the World Series when everyone holds up cards for people who fought cancer. 

But it doesn't get that attention. So here's an example from the world of the song-poem that demonstrates in its own small way one reason why it's important that there is a Native American Heritage Month. This record, "Hurry Up Old Man" by Bob Gerard, is certainly nowhere near the most egregious insult that the Native Americans have experienced. Undoubtedly not even the most egregious sin against them that took place in the year this record was made (1967 - the copyright listing is here). 

But it'll do. The co-opting of stereotypical (and no doubt inaccurate) "Indian" musical styles and the catchphrases and tossed-off references in the lyrics would, I'm sure, be insulting to many Natives. 

Beyond that, I honestly don't know what the story here is about. The sound quality of this record is abysmal, and I can't make out just enough words in the second verse to cause me to completely lose the thread of whatever story the songwriters - and it took three people to write this masterpiece, none of whom, oddly was label head Jack Covais, who often claimed a songwriting credit - were trying to tell. There are a couple of other key lines I also can't decipher. And the title line comes at the end, and seems to be almost an afterthought, although given that it is the title, I assume it was meant to have some importance. If anyone wants to share what they think the entire lyric is, I'd be much obliged. 

Download: Bob Gerard - Hurry Up Old Man

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The flip side, "Tell Me", is one of these supper club sort of thing with a Latin lilt, and is about as tedious as a song-poem can be. Jack Covais did credit himself as the cowriter of this one. I hope he was proud. 

Download: Bob Gerard - Tell Me

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Not.... Exactly....

So I try not to feature the same label for two weeks in a row, but last week's post, although it featured a record on Preview, that record wasn't actually a song-poem, being something nearly unique - a vanity release from that label. I decided another Preview record wasn't a bad idea, and here it is: 

It's always fun to see some poor grammar in a song-poem title. I mean, the labels could have corrected any of these, had they chosen to, but perhaps they feared (or actually ran into) song-poets who would complain that "you changed my song title". In this case, "You're Not Exactly What I Ask For" could have been saved with just a little "ed", and if the song-poet had "experience" just a little more ED in her life, mayhap she would have "know" that. 

Anyway, if this was a true "first person" song - that is, if the song-poet was writing about her own life - let's hope she did not play her song for the object of her apparently limited affection. Because the point of the song is that she's pretty sure there is a guy out there that she'd MUCH rather be with, but it's clear to her now that's probably never going to happen, so she's going to settle. And she's going to hope she comes to love the big lug who has given her his life, love and laundry. And his house! God help him if the other guy "comes along". The song of a deeply ethically challanged, er, challange woman. 

Barbara Foster is the performer, and I believe I understand correctly that this is the same singer who became better known as Bobbi Blake on MSR and who also pops up quite frequently a one of The Real Pros on Cinema. 

I'll also note that this song seems to go on forever. Surely, at three and three quarter minutes long, it's in the upper five percent of song-poems in length. 

Download: Barbara Foster - You're Not Exactly What I Ask For

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The flip side is called "But I Need You Most of All", and I'll admit I am not quite processing what this song-poet was on about. Barbara Foster sings again, and musically, this is a bit of a continuation of the flip side - although I really like some of what the guitarist and the pianist do on this track. 

Lyrically, though.... At first, I thought I'd caught on. She loves him just fine, but more than that, beyond her romantic connection with him, she needs him. Got it. But what to make of this?: 

"I really, really do love you, but the love is still there" 

Huh? That "but" doesn't seem like it fits with the rest of that lyric, and the remainder of that verse is about how she thought she'd fallen out of love, but hadn't. Maybe I'm just dense - well, I'm sure I'm dense, in plenty of ways, actually - but that verse seems to be grabbed at random from another song. Except that, as you'll hear, that section is the only part that has lyrics that might be considered a "verse". The rest of the song is essentially the same few words, rearranged a bit, repeated over and over. And over.  

Download: Barbara Foster - But I Need You Most of All

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 Incidentally, based on what's known about a few other songs from this period on Preview, it would appear this release is from 1976. 

A Vanity Record On Preview!

Before I get to today's rather remarkable find, I wanted to say a few other things. 

First, a reader wrote to me some time ago asking if I had a record on the Meloclass label, referring back to this wonderful post, from 13 years ago, and indicating that another release was by the same group. I did not have the record in question, but he has since found a copy, and has posted it to YouTube. You can find the two sides here and here. 

Second, an old friend dropped by to comment on my recent post on the Cape Cod label, to say that he also owns a song on this label, and as it turns out, both songs are about Cape Cod. That pairing is here. And, I will add, that site is also dedicated to song-poems, so click at the top of the page and have a look!

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And now for something a bit unusual. It is not unusual, per se, for a vanity recording to show up on a label otherwise dedicated to song-poems. There are several labels who routinely engaged in this practice, including all of Sandy Stanton's label, and others who did so occasionally, including Halmark. 

But in the listings found on the Preview page at the AS/PMA, I've only found two records which are clearly vanity records (discounting Rodd Keith's recording of his own song on Preview 2000, at least - not sure it counts as a vanity release of a member of the staff wrote and recorded it). 

That is, a record recorded and sung by the same person who wrote the song. That can't really be considered a song-poem, as the listed writer(s) presumably composed the words and music, if he or she is also performing the work. Both of the clear vanity listings I've found among the Preview database feature a band called Eddie Carter and the Sunset Ramblers, who, in the words of my best pal Stu, were "a well known L.A. country band in the 1960s", and what's more that "Carter also was later the touring and session lead guitarist for the Beach Boys"

One of those two Preview sides is by Eddie Carter and his band, and the other features the band backing someone named William "Chick" Sandone. I just obtained a copy of Chick Sandone's release, and am offering it up here for everyone's perusal. Again, as my friend Stu pointed out to me, Sandone also submitted songs in the more typical way, to Preview, and several of his songs were recorded by the regular Preview team, including one of the songs on this 45. What a successful bandleader (Carter, not Sandone) was doing making a record on Preview is indeed a question for the song-poem ages. 

And a bigger question is this: how did Eddie Carter and the Sunset Ramblers become popular at all, with a bass player who clearly has no idea how to play his instrument. The bass playing here is just as incompetent as that heard on my recent Tin Pan Alley posting (and in the other posts reference within that post). I'm not sure there's a single moment here where the bass player hits a note which is consistent with the chord changes of the songs, on either side. 

What's more, Chick Sandone certainly had an idiosyncratic way with a song, and it's to the band's credit that they learned and played it correctly. Coming out of the verses, this first song suddenly goes into 5/4 or 6/4 time! The two songs are fairly interchangeable, so I'll start with the one that has the far clunkier, less commercial title, "That's Where I Want to Be With You": 

Download: Chick Sandone with Eddie Carter and the Sunset Ramblers - That's Where I Want to Be With You

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Everything I said about that side also applies to "I Wish It Could Be Me", except for in this case, there does not appear to be a time signature at all. I defy ANYONE to tell me where the down beat on "1" is going to be in any particular measure. I tried to count out the measures during the parts of the song where he sings, in this one, and found myself completely unable to do so. Interestingly, the otherwise incompetent bass player did seem to know where that down beat was going to be, making me suspect that the bass player was none other than Chick himself. Otherwise, I can't fathom how that musician new where to hit a note with emphasis. Maybe that's how Eddie Carter's band made it - they had an actual bass player who sat out this session in favor of the songwriter/singer. Just a guess. 

Download: Chick Sandone with Eddie Carter and the Sunset Ramblers - I Wish It Could Be Me

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Dorothy and Mary

 Greetings! 

I don't have a lot to blather on about today - I just thought I'd go back into the archives and find a Rodd Keith Film City release which doesn't appear to have ever made it onto the internet before. So that's what I did: 

Song-Poet John Murynski's name does not show up in the AS/PMA website (and neither does this single), so these could possibly be his only two submissions to such a company. And both of the songs contain the names of women in their titles. 

Both of these are sort of Middle-of-the-Road, mid-tempo numbers. Rodd is, of course, heard here is his guise as "Rod Rogers", with his one man Chamberlin band identified, as it so often was, as "The Swinging Strings". First up is "Dorothy". It's pretty standard issue for Rodd, but, as is so often the case, I have great admiration for what Rodd did with the various setting and voicings of the Chamberlin: 

Download: Rod Rogers and the Swinging Strings - Dorothy

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Turning the record over, we encounter "Goodbye Mary", in which a sailor bids his love farewell until some unknown future date (betcha she doesn't know about the flip side, in which he's trying to find "Dorothy"). Rodd really sells this one - summoning as much smarmy sincerity as Paul Anka, only with a much better voice.   

Download: Rod Rogers and the Swinging Strings - Goodbye Mary

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Today's BROSH-Ball Score: Cara 3, Sammy 1

This is post # 700. Wow. 

Today, let's attend a little BROSH-Ball game. You remember the BROSH label, right? I don't actually understand how this works, but it released the products of a variety of other small and large song-poem outfits, often mixing two to four different outfits on one EP. And what's more, given the address on this record, it seems to have operated out of a non-descript four bedroom house in the middle of nowhere, better known as the furthest reaches of the Chicago suburbs, a town called Carpentersville, IL

Today's game features a match-up between the Globe company stalwart Sammy Marshall, playing against Lee Hudson's favorite chanteuse, Cara Stewart 

Sammy Marshall, playing for the Nashville Globes, scores first, with "The Chimes of Heaven", although given the nature and low quality of this song and performance, I imagine his run came in on a cheap error or a wild pitch, 'cause he didn't earn his run honestly with this track. It's as sappy as they come - it's a wedding song, backed by a truly bland and boring band arrangement, and bathed in echo. 

Download: Sammy Marshall - The Chimes of Heaven

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Up comes Cara Stewart, the star player of the California Lee Hudsons, and she ties the game, hitting one - a number called "Dance With Me" - right out of the park. The debt owed to Les Paul and Mary Ford has rarely been more clear on a Lee/Cara record than it is on this number. Slinky and sexy, with some great guitar, and yet another killer vocal from Cara, and a lovely overuse of reverb (there is no such thing as too much reverb, in my book). The song is cool, too. And instead of the usual Lee Hudson "downward chord" effect at the end, in this case, the chord moves up a notch for the final bit.  

Download: Cara Stewart - Dance With Me

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The Lee Hudsons take the lead for good, with what must have been a workmanlike series of walks and hits, with the second side opener. This one isn't really much better, as a song, than Sammy's number, sort of draggy and some stale "poor little me" lyrics, but Lee and Cara elevate the material, as they so often do, with that same winning combination of slinky guitar, sexy vocal and irresistible reverb. 

Download: Cara Stewart - Love, What Is It All About

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Cara scores an insurance run with the final number, "I'm Coming Home to You", perhaps a single and a double, or vice versa. Honestly, much of what I wrote about "Love, What Is It All About" would apply here, and yet.... well, Cara Stewart is one of those proverbial people who could sing the phone book and make it sound great. I'll just let her voice wash over me, and wish that I was the one she was coming home to. 

Download: Cara Stewart - I'm Coming Home to You

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Raindrops Downtown

Just a word at the top of the post to share that fellow blogger, song-poem fanatic and great friend of the site Sammy Reed has returned to blogspot and reopened his "Music from the World of the Strange and the Bizarre" at this location. The link to Sammy's site, below and to the right, has also been updated. There's only one post so far, but it's a doozy - another example of someone literally taking the words, verbatim, from a pop hit and submitting them as his or her own, to a song-poem company. 

On the preview label, Rodd Keith most often appeared under his own preferred name (Rodd Keith), and sometimes, particularly on poppy, lightweight numbers, he was credited along with a backing band labeled "The Raindrops", and, on less than two dozen occasions, Rodd tracks were released credited to "The Downtowners". On even fewer occasions (three which are listed at AS/PMA), those latter releases were credited to "Downtowners", sans "the". This is one of those releases. 

Given it's light pop feel, this certainly could have been one of those records which were credited to "Rodd Keith and The Raindrops". However, in a bit of a coincidence, given that name of Rodd's typical backing band, the song itself is titled "Raindrops". Rodd offers his typical sterling arrangement, melodic excellence and heartfelt vocals. 

Download: Downtowners - Raindrops

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The flip side of this record has actually been available, off and on (currently "on") for several years now, but I thought it was worth posting this record since "Raindrops" doesn't appear to be previously available anywhere, and also, the flip side, "My Wife Ain't Lazy" is downright funny and clever. 

Plus, it gives me an always welcome chance to again link to Darryl Bullock's wonderful "World's Worst Music" blog. This song was part of a full CD length set of mostly terrible song-poems (this was no doubt one of the exceptions, as he explains in the post), that you can download, complete with a CD booklet, in this post, and I heartily recommend doing so. 

Anyway, "My Wife Ain't Lazy" is, as I said, catchy, bouncy and fun, with some great lyrics. The verse that starts around 1:30, and the spoken word section at the end feature one comical image after another.  The band is cooking, as usual, and Rodd again chooses just the right tone and style of vocal to match the material. 

Download: Downtowners - My Wife Ain't Lazy

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Hurt Me! Hurt Me! I'm Sure! No Way!

I offer apologies to Moon Unit Zappa, but her lyrics seemed too good to pass up with regard to today's offering: 

On the first side, we have the queen of MSR records, Bobbi Blake, or, as she was known in the early days of the label, Bobbi Boyle, with a request for some pain - well, at least psychic pain - in a slightly countrified setting, one which reminds me at several moments of one of my favorite song poems, Dick Kent's "In Loving Is the Doing". Not surprising, as that record's label number was barely 20 releases later. Bobbi Blake offers up her typically solid vocal performance, but after four or more listens, I'm still not sure I understand what is exactly being asked for, or why. Maybe the concept is just too foreign to me...

Download: Bobbi Boyle - Hurt Me Just a Little. 

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The flip side of this record is credited to Nancy Cole, a singer credited on only two documented MSR records. I do not recognize this vocalist - maybe someone out there does? She's competent enough, and the makers of smooth music provided a fairly catchy tune for the lyricist's work, which has the unwieldy title "This Little Fool Has Had Her Fill of You". However, the words are almost comically artless, featuring very direct descriptions of wrongs done. And there is only so much you can do fit lyrics which don't fit the same pattern into a repeating melody, so Nancy sometimes has to quickly squeeze in extra words, and other times she has to stretch out lines such as "You Treat Me Like Dirt" over several beats. 

Download: Nancy Cole - This Little Fool Has Had Her Fill of You

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A Veritable Master Class in Bass Playing

Well, I only got two posts up this month. I spent the middle of the month enjoying working (from home) while experiencing a COVID infection, and didn't really feel like doing anything I didn't have to do. 

I'm going to use this space here to respond to a few comments and also link folks to some comments that have been made. A poster calling him-or herself "Doctor Future" offered a very interesting comment, complete with a couple of links, regarding my post about a song-poem regarding Lt. William Calley, which you can find here. 

On a completely different subject, Sammy Reed took me up on my wish to hear a song called ""HOOPA LOOPA HOOPA LOOPA DOOPA", which you can read about here, and, in the comments therein, provided a link to that song! 

And Rock Smith of Spectropop just wrote TODAY to offer up a photo which features Rodd Keith among several others, at a party in 1974. That picture is at the bottom of an article here. 

Thanks to all of you! 

Also, a fantastically named poster ("Bob") wrote asking if I own a couple of specific Tin Pan Alley singles. Due to the fact that I am not provided the e-mail address for the sender of most of the comments I get, including this one, I will offer up here that, sadly, I do not have those records. If anyone has early TPA releases by Carmen Taylor, please let me know and I'll let that other Bob know in a future post. 

I'd also just like to again thank everyone else who has written in offering thoughts and comments. They are deeply appreciated. 

Okay, let's hear some amazing bass playing!

For a short period - perhaps no more than 15 releases, which might very well have been only one or two recording sessions - Tin Pan Alley used the talents (sic) of a stand-up (double) bass player who seemingly picked up the bass for the first time that week. The records I own or have heard him documented on range from around TPA-390 to around TPA-405. It's almost enough to make me wonder if no professional musician was available that day, so someone from the business end of things stepped in and tried to fill in. 

The most spectacularly awful of these are "Snow Man" (TPA-390) and "The Proon Doon Walk" (TPA-402), the latter of which is among the most amazingly incompetent things I've ever heard. 

Happily, I've now found another record featuring this giant of bass playing originality, and it features Cathy Mills singing a tribute to Johnny Appleseed, who here has been renamed "Apple Seed Johnny". Our hero happily plucks essentially the same two notes, with a tiny bit of variety throughout the 93 seconds of the song. As a bonus, the guitarist screws up the little ending figure, then he and the rhythm guitarist seemingly can't quite agree on how to play the final chords. Delicious!

Download: Cathy Mills - Apple Seed Johnny

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On the flip side, "What Can I Do?", the bass player has expanded his or her attempts, playing a series of three notes - same notes, same pattern of four beats- through out the 111 seconds of this number. The lyrics also take a sort of startling turn - the singer spends the first 2/3rds of the song wailing about how alone she is and wishing her man would return. He seemingly does return, very suddenly, between 1:17 and 1:19 of the song, over the course of which the lyrics go from "I'm so all alone" (before) to "Thank you for coming back" (after). Glad that was solved. 

Download: Cathy Mills - What Can I Do?
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LIVE FROM THE HOLIDAY INN LOUNGE! A REAL PRO!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at song-poem central, and if I don't get this out today I probably won't for another week. So I'm not going to say much about these sides, in order to get y'all some music. 

Today's offering is another one of those early Cinema releases where the label's credited band, "The Real Pros" was actually one guy with one of them all-in-one home chord-and-rhythm accompaniment organs. And this is from the earliest days of Cinema, when they were also crediting each song-poet as a co-producer of his or her track, for some odd reason. 

As they have in the past, this guy's recordings on today's 45 put me in the mind of a particularly chintzy act, performing (in 1971, of course, when this record was produced) in the corner of a Holiday Inn Lounge, being ignored by roughly 90 of the 12 people present. 

And while I do adore some of the records this guy made (one of them is in my top five favorite song-poems ever), both of these sides leave something to be desired. "Where Has She Gone?" has a bit more energy and slightly less (very slightly) hackneyed lyrics, so we'll spin that one first. Have at it, dude!:

Download: The Real Pros - Where Has She Gone

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I chose the word "hackneyed" up there on purpose, because... well, let's just say that if the dictionary came with sound file links, the word "hackneyed" might come with a clip of "Be the Girl of My Dreams". Our man at the organ has chosen equally dumbed down musical backing for this masterpiece. 

Download: The Real Pros - Be the Girl of My Dreams

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Sammy Marshall's Greatest Hits

It was five months ago, when, while writing a post about an Inner-Glo records release, I discovered, to my great surprise, that I'd never featured my favorite two Sammy Marshall recordings, which are on the two sides of the same 45. I'd like to rectify that now. The record, as you might surmise from that introduction, also came out on the Inner-Glo label, and like all Inner-Glo releases, was written (or, in the case of these two songs, co-written) by label creator and head honcho (honcha?) Edith Hopkins, my all time favorite song-poet. I've rhapsodized about her quite enough, including in the post linked above, so I'll get right to the music. 

Now, I write that these are my favorite Sammy tunes, and labeled this post "Sammy Marshall's Greatest Hits" knowing full well that many, if not most of you out there - at least those who have a favorite Sammy Marshall record - probably prefer one of his rock and roll rave-ups, or maybe even one of his all-to-few (and excellent) atmospheric numbers such as "Picture in the Fire". 

(I also recognize that he's identified here as "Sonny Marcell", but I'll go with his most common song-poem name, here and in the labels.)

But these two teen idol styled numbers are the gold standard for me, with "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" getting the nod as the better of the two. Both of these songs, but particularly "Nothing Ventured", sound to me like records that could easily have been hits, and which are better than most of the pimply-pop-rock offerings of the various Bobbys and Brians and other teen and post teen warblers of the 1960-63 era (except, I hasten to add, nowhere near what Gene Pitney was doing - he was phenomenal). 

As I said, I think this one is the better of the two. They're both really good, but this one has an indelible melody, excellent lyrics, a sparkling arrangements - I love that effect laden guitar at the beginning and end (shades of George Harrison's Leslie'd guitar from several years later!) - fabulous, thick harmonies on the choruses and first rate vocals - did Sammy ever sing more effectively with heart-on-his-sleeve emotion ? I'm very pleased to offer up a record I consider to be among the best song-poems ever released. 

Download: Sonny Marcell - Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

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Two other things I'll mention. First, this seems to date from around 1962, which is before the folks at Globe fell into a sort of bland sameness, which is to its advantage. And second, this is among the first song-poems I found, in 1997, less than year after I started looking for song-poems. 

The flip side, "I'll Do It For You", is no slouch, either. A loping beat, another wonderful melody, and sweet, love-struck lyrics, complete with a few humorous asides ("my canoe a-leakin'). And then there are even more close harmonies on the chorus - I swoon over those. Just another damn good song by Edith Hopkins and a record that does good by her. 

Download: Sonny Marcell - I'll Do It For You

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I rarely ask specifically for comments, but I am interested in this case to hear if other people here what I hear in these two songs, and if you also think these are among (or are) Sammy's Best. 

Thoughts on Life and Words from Adam

Before I get to my most wonderful Norm Burns offering for the week, I have forgotten, several times, to offer up thanks to the always faithful Sammy Reed for identifying that this record, on Halmark, was pressed up in 1977. I think I have this fixed point in my head that most Halmark records are from before 1974, but there's no reason for that, besides the fact that they sounds like they're from 1950 and the first time I saw a Halmark record (my very first song-poem, although I didn't know it at the time), was in 1974, when I was 14. 

Somehow, it's more jarring for me to think that a Halmark song-poem came out in 1977, the same year as major hits such albums as Little Criminals by Randy Newman, News of the World by Queen and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, then it is to think that a Halmark song-poem came out in 1974, when the vast majority of what was topping the charts that year sucked about as much as... a Halmark record. (Your mileage may, of course, vary.)

Anyway, as always, thanks, Sammy. I was genuinely surprised by this news. 

Today's record is quite fun, on both sides. Because what is more fun than a song observing that we all grow old and become forgotten? Maybe a song sung from the point of view of Adam after being cast out of the garden? 

Song-Poet Stephen Karvec seemingly had quite a bit to get off of his chest - sounds like his friends left him behind at some point, and he was downright philosophical about it. Unfortunately, philosophy is not always expressed in phrases that fit nicely into musical patterns. As a result, we get to hear Norm Burns - one of my favorites - doing all he can to sing the following: "you'll have to face life as it is, as it was, and how it will be later on". Catchy!

Download: Norm Burns and the Satellites - Life

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The flip side, "Divine Love", is, as I've alluded to, pretty clearly sung from the point of view of the legendary first man. He's deeply sorry for listening to that serpent and greatly relieved to have been the recipient of forgiveness and, as the title says, "Divine Love". The final line, repeated three times, is a masterpiece of half-assed lyric writing: "I'm so grateful, father, that you still love me, still". 

Download: Norm Burns and the Satellites - Divine Love

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Gene's Mammie

I had great hopes. 

When I saw the title of this mid-to-late period Preview record by Gene Marshall, I dared to hope that a record called "Our Mammie" might be something special. Then, I was lucky enough to win it on eBay for the princely sum of $6.00. Plus shipping. I hoped it would be worthy of presenting in this forum. 

I had no idea. 

For those of you who have heard "Green Fingernails", you know what you thought and felt when you heard the big finish of the verse, where Gene sings "You make me sick"? I think this is weird on that same level. If anyone can tell me what song-poet Edna Templeton was on about here, specifically the last line of her poem, please let all of us know. It's off the charts odd, at least to these ears. 

And I think that's all I'll say. 

Download: Gene Marshall - Our Mammie

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The flip side, "Special Feeling", isn't really much to write home about as a song, but that would be almost too much to ask for a flip side of a song like "Our Mammie". However, I will give a shout-out to the guitarist, who clearly thinks he's playing on a much better record than this one. Then again, the missed chord at 0:47 wouldn't have been left on a much better record. It's also in although interesting enough, I think, that this was also written by a woman named Edna. \

Download: Gene Marshall - Special Feeling

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Four Great Titles from Dolly-O!!

A few weeks ago, a record popped up on eBay for a very reasonable price, one which I dedicated myself to obtaining. As it turned out, I needn't have worried about cost; no one else bid. 

I'm more than a little surprised by that, although certainly pleased, given the prices that accompany a lot of song-poem sales these days. 

But maybe this one was such a niche item that the vast majority of those who look for song poems were either uninterested or didn't catch onto what this is. Because it's on the tiny, but wonderful, Dolly-O label and sung by a definite second-tier singer in the song-poem world, Frank Perry. The usual Sandy Stanton group names, such as "Singing Strings" or "Film City Orchestra" has been superseded here by the appellation "The Busy Bees Orch.", which seems almost definitely to have been the choice of the woman behind the Dolly-O label. (Technically, this 1972 release would have been made for Stanton's later label "Action", and not the soon-to-be mothballed "Film City", but he was still using the Chamberlin for the "Action" label, as well.)

For that person was the one and only Dolly-O Curren, who sent out her masterwork lyrics to various song-poem concerns, initially allowing them to come out on those various labels (including the great "I'm the Wife" on Preview) and then later, with her husband Jack Curran, set up the Dolly-O label in order to share them with the world in a more Dolly-O-Centric manner (including re-releasing, on her label, some of the previously released Preview/MSR/other tracks, such as "I'm the Wife"). 

Several of Dolly-O's lyrics are concerned with Indiana-related themes, and she just seems to have been an interesting person with a cockeyed way of expressing things at times. Her magnum opus, from where I sit, is "Lady Off Pedestal at Notre Dame", which she commissioned with the folks at Halmark, and which resulted in fairly insane mashup of idiosyncratic lyrics, marching band music and Bob Storm ridiculousness. (I should mention that the song is credited, on the record label, to Halmark's resident tenor, Jack Kim, but it's very clearly NOT him.) For a time, early in my life collecting song-poems, "Lady Off Pedestal at Notre Dame" was my favorite song-poem of all, and it's still way up there on my list. You can hear that song, and 26 other song-poems (including a whopping 15 from my own collection) in this post. 

Okay, so that's a long way around explaning, for perhaps the third time, why I would be jazzed to buy a Dolly-O 45 EP. But in this case, there was even more about this record that had me jumping up and down in front of the eBay screen. Four - COUNT 'EM FOUR - good to great song titles. Now, it's a song-poem truism that a great title often reveals itself to be attached to an average or even flat out sucky song. But what were the chances that all four of these titles, particularly the two on the A side, were going to let me down. 

As it turns out, they didn't. To my ears, Dolly-O goes three for four here, with the double play A side hitting it out of the park twice, to mix my baseball metaphors. Let's dig in. 

The record starts out strongly, with a song dealing with a subject which is not the focus of musical forms nearly often enough: Bowling. I find "A Bowler's Glee" delightful. In just over two quick minutes, Dolly-O explores the reasons to join a bowling team, the movement of the bowler, the preferred results of any given frame, the reaction of the crowd, the amount of pins found in a decent score, and the need for a team to avoid "washout" players, among many other points. Being that I am someone who watches televised bowling whenever it's on - All Hail Jason Belmonte! - this was, like I said, a delight. 

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - A Bowler's Glee

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But as much as I love bowling, and that song, the killer track here has got to be the second one, "The Nose". This one goes on quite a bit longer, because Dolly-O had a lot to say. It starts off as a tribute to the nose owned by the protagonist's beloved, but quickly turns into a treatise on the larger subject of noses, everything from famous noses of the day to the importance of smelling, and all the ways that the nose and its functions enhance our daily lives. Then we are told: 

"Each Nose is Special to the Face it Grows On"

The rhyming phrase that comes after that line is worth the price of admission to this entire record. 

As with all of the other songs on this weird little record, the odd... no, that's not a strong enough  word... the fairly bizarre backing provided by the Chamberlin adds a certain "Je ne sais quoi" to the proceedings

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - The Nose

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~~

For my money, the song that leads of side two of the EP is easily the weakest of the four, a bit of pathos that doesn't really move me (but your mileage may vary) called "Two Little Glasses". 

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - Two Little Glasses

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The last of the four songs is the one I find genuinely intriguing. First, we again have the downright weird Chamberlin arrangement, with unusual voicings chosen and some clattery percussion that I've rarely heard out of that contraption. 

But more than that, it seems like a song such as this - in which the narrator is extoling the unusual virtues of a person - typically identifies the person being described by the end of the song. And particularly in the song-poem world, a song of praise of this style is about someone famous, and again, somewhere along the way, that someone is identified by name. 

In this song, that's not the case. This engaging, friendly and happiness-providing man is never identified by Dolly-O, beyond a list of very specific descriptions. an interesting choice, and fairly far off the beaten path. 

Download: Frank Perry and the Busy Bees Orch - The Man of a Million Smiles

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By the way, you can see a trade paper advertisement for this 1972 release on the AS/PMA Dolly-O page.