A 1960 Wolf-Tex / Globe EP

I've only shared two posts this month, but I made both of them EP's, to make up for that low number of posts. Today's offering is from the Wolf-Tex label, a somewhat schizophrenic outfit that seemed to sometimes serve as the outlet for the song-poems of Carrie Biggs and Stanley Herron, among others, while also releasing rockabilly and country records by a few acts, including one Harold Montgomery, the father of John Michael Montgomery, as well as another which fetches over $400 on the rockabilly market. And yet... some of those records may have also been song-poems. 

Their record number system also went through a few revisions, with records sporting three digit, four digit and even five digit label numbers across what were a small number of releases. The song poems on Wolf-Tex seem to have all (or nearly all) come from the Globe song-poem factory. I get much of this information from the Wolf-Tex page at the AS/PMA website, where you can also view a photo of the delightful Carrie Biggs, although I also own several records on the label not reflected on that page, and there are multiple YouTube videos of records on the label - although not this one.

Three of the four songs on this EP are listed as being sung by Kris Arlen and John Hurley. "Kris Arlen" is most certainly the singer variously identified elsewhere on song-poem records as Kris Arden, Joan Auburn and Damita. I have identified her as Kris Arden in the tags, as the Arlen name seems to have been limited to Wolf-Tex releases. Who John Hurley is/was, I have no clue.  

Two of the three songs are most definitely songs sung from a male perspective towards/about a female, and the main vocalist is John Hurley, yet Kris Arlen is listed first for all three, even on our first track, "Be the Little Girl I Used to Know", where she is barely present aside from a few harmonies and wordless backing vocals. 

More curious still: The three Arlen/Hurley tracks are listed as featuring the "MG Orchestra". MG appears to have been a vanity label with no direct link to Wolf-Tex, aside from the common link to Globe, and what's more, the label appears to have only ever issued one album, and it has no songs written by those song-poets whose name appear and recur on Wolf-Tex releases. The mysteries of the song poem world.  

Download: Kris Arlen and John Hurley, MG Orchestra - Be the Little Girl I Used to Know

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The second song on side one is "Little Nobody (Somebody Loves)", and if anything, first-billed Kris Arlen is even less featured on this track, providing multi-tracked harmony backing vocals and not sharing the lead with John Hurley at all.  

Download: Kris Arlen and John Hurley, MG Orchestra - Little Nobody (Somebody Loves)

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The Globe factory's MVP, Sammy Marshall, shows up for one song on this record, curiously also assigned an orchestra, rather than a singing credit, and assigned not to MG, but to the parent company, Globe. The song is "If You Forget Me, I'll Die". Interestingly, this lyric (but not, technically, this song) is available on YouTube, in a version on a Wolf-Tex single (not an EP) and also sung by Sammy Marshall, but that version is completely different - and superior, I'd say - to this one. It's got a different melody, chord structure, rhythm, everything!

Download: Sammy Marshall Orchestra - If You Forget Me, I'll Die

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The record finishes with another "duet" featuring Kris and John, but really mostly John (again). At least on "Miss Belle of the Blue", they due sing in harmony here and there. This song is about a beauty contest in Kentucky. You'll be glad to know that the first two qualities upon which the winner is chosen is her figure and how she does her hair. And as with the previous Sammy Marshall track, this one is ALSO available on another, at least somewhat better Wolf-Tex 45, which is somehow identified on YouTube as Bluegrass (??), and which can be heard here. 

Download: Kris Arlen and John Hurley, MG Orchestra - Miss Belle of the Blue

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