Bob Bonn's Greatest Hit

Okay, so I wrote this post about six days ago, and went in today to start building the next one, and found that I never went live with it. Probably the effects of my then new tooth extraction and related pain - pain which has continued to this day, due to complications. Yay. Today, the pain seems to finally be calming down. 

But anyway, the fact that I did delay going live with this one means that it gives me a chance to publicize something I received in email over the weekend. A correspondent named Michael has found, and posted, a Rodd Keith "Real Pros" release from 1974. And to my ears, it's really something special. The opening couplet is downright weird and may make you think something goofy is on the way. But it's anything but. That weird line notwithstanding, it's a deeply meaningful and affecting lyric and a really pretty record, sung very effectively with deep emotion. 

It's worth keeping in mind that this record is Cinema 7452, that is, a Real Pros record from 1974, and well beyond the halfway point of that year's releases. It's likely this is at least from the summer of that year, and more likely that it's from the fall. Rodd died that December. This is almost certainly from among the last batch of song-poem sessions he took part in. 

Thanks, Michael! Here it is - I highly recommend it!

~~

I am always hesitant to post Fable 45's, or at least to post them and describe them, outright, as song-poems. And that's because I just don't know. Sandy Stanton used that label to release song-poems, but also vanity records and, I think, actual attempts at producing hit records. 

On the other hand, I adore a good percentage of what Stanton released on Fable - I would certainly rank it as one of my five favorite labels within the song-poem world, maybe top three, along with Film City and Tin Pan Alley. And when I get a "good" Fable release I want to share it with the larger song-poem community. 

I don't think this one was in any way an attempt to be "legit", but I could easily see it as either a song-poem or a vanity record, and can't really close the argument in either direction. The songwriter (or song-poet), George Blevins, does not appear to have ever written another song that was released in any way, aside from these two tracks, and singer Bob Bonn similarly does not appear to have ever sung,  under that name at least, on any other records. 

"Ooo Baby" is the winning side to my ears, a fun little 123 seconds of rockabilly, with a spare and effective backing featuring some nice, staccato guitar picking. Bob Bonn does as well as many a rocker of the era (this is from 1957), and the whole thing swings quite nicely. And those stop-chord sixth chords are to die for. 

Download: Bob Bonn, Music by Sandy Stanton - Ooo, Baby

Play:

The flip side features 122 seconds of Country and Western, 1957 style, as Bob Bonn croons about the "Soft Spot in My Heart". He's a little more tentative giving forth with vocal style that requires a bit more accuracy than the flip, but overall, both he and the band submit another winning performance. 

Download: Bob Bonn, Music by Sandy Stanton - Soft Spot In My Heart

Play: