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

Play: