I'll Take "Song-Poems About Utah" For 400, Alex!

Happy Post-Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it yesterday! 

Today's song poem does in fact involve Utah, and was "Song Poems About Utah" to actually be a category on Jeopardy! (I wish), I suspect there might only be two answers in the category, used across the five slots. There is a song on the Roxie label called "Utah, The Beehive State" (which, sadly, I do not own), and then there's today's offering: 

Technically, of course, this is not about Utah, but rather, it deals with "My Utah Sweetheart". And who better to sing it (who, better to sing most anything song-poem related) than Norm Burns, and his backing group, named to differentiate them from what Norm is doing I guess (?), as "Singers". 

This waltzy number has everything you'd want in a song about a sweetheart from Utah, including that ringing guitar, some sweet backing vocals, the echoey production on Norm's voice, and, of course, a reference to beehives. 

It's also worth noting that, via an instrumental solo section (shame about that missed note) and a lengthy instrumental coda, the good folks at Sterling managed to stretch the song-poet's two short verses and one bridge into a robust 134 seconds. 

Download: Norm Burns and Singers - My Utah Sweetheart

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On the flip side is a religious number, "My Fate". I find this title odd, given that it's a hymn of devotion, the choice to follow the writer's savior, and self-assuredness within that faith, rather than anything about heading unseeing into something that "Fate" has in store for him. And "My Fate" is not heard anywhere in the lyrics, either. "My Faith" would be a better title, so much so that I really wonder if there was a mistake somewhere along the line in printing the label. 

Oh, and one more thing. There is a pretty dang weird line early on. Among those lines of devotion, we hear that God "tempts me to stray". I'm a lifelong Episcopalian and that concept stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Perhaps there are other branches of Christianity that believe that God plays GOTCHA with his worshipers, sort of a cosmic version of "Survivor" or "Fear Factor"? 

Anyway, this is tedious stuff, and seems a lot more than 44 seconds longer than its flip side. 

Download: Norm Burns and Singers - My Fate

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Where Else Would You Put a Rainbow?

I find that it's been more than six months since I featured Sammy Marshall, and thought I'd better remedy that. Here he is, on the tiny, tiny Sigmar Records label. This label seems to have been created in order to have a place for the Globe Records song-poem factory to release songs written by a Mr. or Ms. Severtson, and is only documented to have released two 45s (although there may, of course, be more).

The first side - "Rainbow in Your Sky" - is a pretty typical Globe production, sounding like it's from early in their existence. It's got a bouncy feel, some nice echoey production and guitar playing that sounds a bit like Les Paul on an off day, but otherwise a bit sterile (Globe leaned further and further into that sterile sound as time went on). 

Download: Sammy Marshall - Rainbow In Your Sky

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On the flip side, "The Old Songs", is about just that. It's just about as bouncy as the other side, but less engaging, at least to my ears. And the song-poet made his or her job a bit easier by shoehorning in the names of at least a half-dozen "old songs", rather than writing a complete lyric from scratch. 

Download: Sammy Marshall - The Old Songs

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Fred Hastings Sings For You

In the late '60s and into about 1970 or so, the Preview label's releases were dominated by Rodd Keith, and to a lesser degree by Teri Summers and Bonnie Graham, among a few others, as well as records released by one of them under a pseudonym or three. There were plenty of other credited artists, as well, but their releases were relatively sparse. Around the time that the label numbers hit 1500, the volume of Rodd's releases slowed, and by label release 1600, he had virtually disappeared from the credits on Preview labels, with only about a dozen further releases for the company after that. I imagine this is about the time he moved over to MSR, but that's completely supposition on my part. 

Anyway, if you look at the Preview page on the AS/PMA website, you'll find that it is also not long after release number 1500 that Preview seems to have begun trying out various alternate vocalists. Some of these may well be Rodd under pseudonyms (again), but there sure are a bunch of them, each of whom seems to have made anywhere from one to six records for the label before disappearing for good. Then, a short time later, Gene Marshall and Barbara Foster (who I think.... someone correct me... is also the singer known as Bobbi Blake?) show up and they dominated the label for the rest of its existence. It  sort of looks like they were casting out for whoever could be their next main vocalist. 

Anyway, during that period, someone named Fred Hastings made about a half-dozen records for the label. The one I am sharing today is the only one I've heard, and what I find curious about it is that it's very clearly, to my ears, a Rodd Keith arrangement. Why didn't Rodd sing it? Was he helping Preview find his successor? Whether he was or wasn't, Fred Hastings wasn't going to be it, based on this record, anyway. 

"Left Over Love" is the better of the two songs. The arrangement - and again, it sounds like Rodd's work - isn't bad, and something more listenable could have been made out of this with a better singer. But Fred Hastings reminds of a cross between Harry Burgess of "Chicago Policeman" fame and the sort of pompous hotel lounge singer that Vivian Stanshall liked to parody, And I like both of those records I just linked, for extremely different reasons, but here, the style, such as it is, just puts me to sleep. 

Download: Fred Hastings - Left Over Love

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The flip side "My Dream", doesn't even have that interesting arrangement, although it still puts me in the mind of Rodd Keith. The lyrics here are also dimwitted - assuming one believes in angels, my guess is that no one who does, ever imagined a situation in which one of those angels asked "would you like some company". But maybe I'm wrong. 

Download: Fred Hastings - My Dream

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