A Great Day... Just Before... A Not So Great Day

Right off the bat, I want to correct an oversight, something I meant to link to two months ago. Sammy Reed has posted several songs from the ultra-rare JOiFU song-poem label, including Gene Marshall singing a song that I posted in a completely different, Tin Pan Alley recording, nearly sixteen years ago. Have a listen!

And now, for something I ALSO forgot to do when I intended to: 

I totally meant to share this one for St. Patrick's day. Perhaps still being in March and only two weeks late will suffice. It's no great shakes, but it does have that St. Patrick's day tie-in, and it's also about someone who was a favorite of song-poets for a while, John F. Kennedy. Now most of the JFK records came out after his death, just as most legit albums about JFK came out after his death. But I don't think this one did. 

No, "A Great Day for J.F.K.", as sung by Sammy Marshall under the name Ben Tate, which was always his credited name when he sang on the Ronnie Label, makes no mention of JFK's death, and quite clearly was a lyric full of pride, by the extremely Irish-ly named Marcella Ridenour, about the current president being Irish. 

The song itself is another one of these nearly soulless Ronnie performances. Sammy provides a nice, warm vocal, but the backing band could be playing any of at least 50 other Ronnie tracks. I wonder how many of these they did in a day or week. 

It's also worth noting that, although there is no copyright date on this 45, dates are known for other Ronnie releases, and 2043 seems to have been the first 1963 release on the label. Then, by Ronnie 2151, it was 1965. The label seems to have released fewer and fewer records per year as the decade continued - and almost certainly fewer than 100 records during 1963. As this is number 2099, I suspect it was made well after the half-point of 1963. If so, or even if it was made in the spring of that year, Ms. Ridenour probably only had a few months - perhaps only a few weeks - to play it for her friends before a certain world famous event caused her to throw it on the pile with Vaughn Meader's "First Family" albums and not think about it for a long, long time. 

Download: Ben Tate (Sammy Marshall) - A Great Day for J. F. K.

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The less said about the lethargic flip side, "Thinking of You", the better. 

Download: Ben Tate (Sammy Marshall) - Thinking of You

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Letter From the Great Beyond!

It's maudlin hour here at song-poem central. Today we have Norm Burns, singing a first-person narrated letter from Billy in heaven to the family down below. It's called "Billy's Poem". I'm going to guess that there was a real Billy and that this composition meant a great deal to the song-poet named on the label. that being the case, I hate to be critical. And yet.... well, I'll just say that if I had the opportunity to write my family from the great beyond - or imagine what a family member might do, given the same chance - I would like to think I'd be more eloquent and say considerably more than the greeting-card level thoughts offered here. 

This is among the last records that Norm Burns made. It's from 1973, and he died unexpectedly in 1974 after a very short illness, from what I've been told. This is number 641 - the last known Norm release (aside from one several months later, which may have been held back for some reason) is number 666. I'd love to have heard a poem from Norm from the hereafter. 

Download: Norm Burns - Billy's Poem

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The flip side is a snoozer of a track called "Someone to Need Me", and it is one of innumerable song-poems on the subject of being alone / looking for love / looking back sadly. I'd really be more interested to hear what happened to the people with whom the song-poet used to enjoy happy times around the fire. The hard swing into religion in the second half is a bit unexpected for this particular breed of song-poem, but even that doesn't pull me out of the stupor caused by the arrangement and performance.

Download: Norm Burns - Someone to Need Me

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A Mike By Any Other Name Would Sing Just As Poorly

Hello! 

First, I want to acknowledge a comment from a poster on my previous post, a Hal(l)mark release that you can find here. That poster wrote that the record was a Rite pressing from 1964. Now, I know nothing about Rite pressings (or any others), how they are determined, etc. And honestly, I don't want to know how this sort of thing is determined - it's enough for me to be told what someone else figured out. 

The reason I mention this here is that the Halmark (or Hallmark) label has been documented to have begun operations in 1967. If this 1964 date is correct, it is a significant new understanding (well, for me anyway) about this label. I have always guessed that the "Hallmark" version of the label was the first one, and have further guessed that a lawsuit from that other "Hallmark" resulted in the permanent loss of one "L" from the label, so this one is probably among their earlier releases. If that poster (or someone else) can confirm 1964, I'd be much interested. 

And now for a voice frequent visitors will know, but not by this name. 

Before getting to this week's songs, I want to acknowledge that my pal Darryl Bullock got to this record first, and shared one side of it on his "World's Worst Records" blog more than a dozen years ago. However, that post's offerings are now dead links, so I thought I'd make it - both sides of it - available. The post in question, though, is well worth reading, being that it contains the memories of a niece of Tin Pan Alley chief Jack Covais. You can read it here. 

And I was excited to get this record, anyway. Not only is their scrawling on one side of the label, written by the song-poet, but it also promised to offer a taste of a previously unknown (to me) Tin Pan Alley warbler, one Mike Yantorno. 

However, one listen to Mr. Yantorno convinced me - surely this is Mike Thomas under another name. And... I'm guessing that's his real name. Perhaps his full name is Michael Thomas Yantorno. I dunno. But that's certainly the same singer who made dozens of half-assed vocal performances for Tin Pan Alley during the mid to mid/late period. A glance at the label numbers does everything short of confirms this - the two documented "Mike Yantorno" records come in sequence immediately before the first known Mike Thomas record - literally no more than three (known) releases before Mike Thomas shows up. 

So, I hear you clambering to know - are the the songs / performances any good? 

NO!!!!

Of course not. "A Beggar's Life" is an Oompah song without the Oompah tuba or bass, but with some less than stellar attempts to stay on the beat. Lyrically, it features the complaint of a man of the street, featuring the requisite mean policeman, the request for money for a drink, repeated verses and second grade level rhymes. Sing it, Mike!

Download: Mike Yantorno - A Beggar's Life

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Aside from the unknown (now known) singer, it was the title of the flip side of this record that drew me to it. What the hell does "I Tried, John (Joan)" mean? Unfortunately, the lyrics of the actual song don't give us a clue, as they are entirely directed at Joan. My guess is that the song-poet meant for the song to be sung by either a man or woman, with the singer deciding who he or she was singing it for. But it's weird to put it on the label like that, isn't it? 

The actual song and performance - dreary and draggy, with our Mike doing his version of the Bob Dylan imitation that popped up on seemingly every tenth record released in 1966. The last word of the song sort of gets buried in the music, but I think it's "me", and if that's the case, at least the song-poet got creative and included a surprise ending to her song. 

Oh, and on this side of the record, the song poet has written "Permanent Request: Play For Me - Kay B." Well, Kay, here's your long distance dedication. 

Download: Mike Yantorno - I Tried, John (Joan)

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