Bad Reputations

The Arco label seems to have primarily been yet another one of the fairly tiny labels that housed the productions of the Globe song-poem factory. That's not the only thing they did - they released some really interesting records by a bandleader named Joe Noto and his "thrush" (as Billboard would have called her), Phyliss Ruby. You can hear my favorite of those records here. Those may or may not be song-poems, although the same writer I mention below wrote one of those songs, as did song-poem master Lew Tobin.

But virtually everything else I've heard on Arco seems to come from Globe. Except, I didn't think this one did. It's by a group, identified as "The Reputations", and has the lowest label number of any Arco release yet documented. For a long time, I hesitated to share it here because I wasn't sure it was a song-poem at all. 

But I saw a copy listed on eBay and listened to the songs again, and also looked more closely at the label. The lyrics are not great, the sound is remarkably close to the standard Globe bland production and antiseptic groove, and, the kicker, one of the two writers listed, Joe Brulo, paid for song-poems on another of Globe's labels, sung by Globe stalwart Lance Hill, who most definitely was a song-poem singer. 

That convinces me that this is a song-poem record. One thing still confuses me, though - the other known Arco records are all documented to be from 1956 to 1962. This one's label number pre-dates all of those, yet it sounds like nothing which would have been made during that period to me. The start of "Runaway Girl", for example, clearly is meant to remind the listener of "Oh Pretty Woman", which was released in 1964. It's all very confusing. 

Download: The Reputations - Runaway Girl

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The flip side is "I'm Burning Up the Telephone", which features the classic lines "My baby went away, you see, rather suddenly", and "I even called the twilight zone" (oh, and he wants her back "rather suddenly", too), along with a couple of delightful clams from the bass player. 

Download: The Reputations - I'm Burning Up the Telephone

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Piano Bar Sammy and Three Song-Poem Lesser-Lights

Today, it's another Air EP for y'all, featuring a Sammy Marshall track where he is heard in a setting I do not recall hearing Sammy in, before. 

I don't really want spend a lot of time recapping the Air Records craziness yet again. Suffice it to say that Air seems to had connections with several of the largely song-poem factories and released some of the product, more often than not with two or three labels represented on the same release. Again, I have no idea how this worked, but Air doesn't really appear to have done any in-house work at all. On this EP, there are tracks from at least Globe and Film City, and maybe another company, as well. 

But hey, whatever their story was, the did use, for a time, one of the best label designs I've ever seen:

Globe is represented - at least, if not more - by Sammy Marshall, identified here as Sonny Marshall. And as I said, I don't think I've heard him in quite this setting before. It's almost demo-simple - Sammy and a piano, in a very Piano-Bar-Like setting. The song is "Footprints on the Moon" - this is the second song I've shared with that exact title, by the way (this one, unlike the other one, does not feature plagiarism). 

This one is an interesting little tribute, naming the Apollo 11 astronauts by name, acknowledging that there were voices in America who thought the whole endeavor was a waste of money, and praising them for having the "courage like a stone". I guess I'll need to start being more aware and impressed by the stones I pass, perhaps even basking in the radiance of their courage. 

Download: Sonny Marshall - Footprints on the Moon

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Next up is another piano-and-voice number, so this could be from the same company (Globe) as the previous track. But compared to the ultra-professional Sammy Marshall - well, compared to 98% of the vocalists ever recorded on a vinyl release - the singer here, identified as Andy Gordon, is a rank amateur, and he offers up a laughably bad performance. It's not quite as bad as Bob Lloyd's greatest hit, but it's in that ballpark. I am reminded of the Stan Freberg record where the producer grabs the first kid he runs into on the street and asks him to sing on his teen pop travesty. 

The song-poet, meanwhile, clearly had Gilbert and Sullivan on his mind when he wrote "Sing Willow, Willow, Willow", but sadly, did not have the lyricism of W.S. Gilbert and did not pay for music to be created at the level of Arthur Sullivan. 

Download: Andy Gordon - Sing Willow, Willow, Willow

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Side two gives us two Christian-themed songs. The first of the two is credited to Jack Carver, but even a momentary listen proves that the singer is none other than Film City low-light Jimmie James, who made a series of terrible records - and one hilariously bad two sided disc - at the very end of that label's existence. You can hear the other Jimmy James tracks I've shared here with this link, two more tracks I've credited to "Jimmy James" are here (including one credited to "Tony Markham"), and the two ridiculous tracks I just referred to ("Free Love For Sale" and "Mini Girl Song" are buried inside this WFMU post. There is also this Christmas song. 

Anyway, if the voice of Jimmie James didn't give away that "There is Something" is a Film City production, there is the omnipresent Chamberlin backing, as well. The song is a somnambulistic two minutes, with the most boring backing imaginable and that inimitable, awful voice. 

Download: Jack Carver (Jimmie James) - There is Something

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We finish up with yet another piano-and-vocal thing. Perhaps all three are from Globe, but I don't recognize two of the three singers, so who knows. The piano and the production does sound the same on all three. 

This one is sung by Margie Murray, who shows up on about a half-dozen Air releases around this time. She's not as bad as Andy Gordon, but she's several steps below good, and at least a few below okay. I'll say this, I'm glad there's not an Andy Gordon/Margie Murray duet on this record. I'm picturing them doing a version of that stupid Lita Ford/Ozzy Osbourne song now. Actually, they'd likely improve on the original...it'd be a challenge not to. 

Anyway, the song is "Jesus Suffered", which, in its construction, sounds to me like the song-poet was trying to capture some of the intense energy and feeling of the song "Where You There?", without any of the effectiveness of that songs tune or affectivity of its lyrics. 

Download: Margie Murray - Jesus Suffered

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Dahrlin..... Danny Dahrlin!

Presenting Song-Poem Singer Danny Dahrlin! 

It just screams out to me that someone's over-active imagination tried to come up with a perfect teen idol name. And failed miserably. And the song-poem website only shows Danny Dahrlin's name on a single Preview 45. However, that 45 is not the one I just acquired. This one is listed in newer databases than the mothballed AS/PMA site. And at one of them, someone has pointed out that the singer on "You Never Lose What You Never Had" might be Rodd Keith. 

Here's a secret - it is undoubtedly Rodd Keith. And I'm not sure how there could have been any question. That same poster posits, with certainty, that it IS Rodd Keith on Sax. How someone could know that is beyond me - maybe someone out there can explain it to me. 

Anyway, this record is a chore, in my opinion - supper club blahs without a beat (or even a drummer), and a weepy tenor sax bleating about as annoyingly as possible. It even fades out suddenly, as if someone hit a clam at the last second and they had to get rid of it. 

Download: Danny Dahrlin - You Never Lose What You Never Had

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The flip side of this record is "A Poor Man's Desire", and it features that loping country groove that Rodd Keith sometimes favored in the 1960's. comes complete. Then comes the talky talk, and we don't get to the singing until the 40 second mark. I guess this is Rodd Keith, too, although I listened twice before I was convinced. It's certainly a high register for him. 

I'd love to know why Preview (or Rodd) felt the need to use pseudonyms for him, at the same as he was releasing record after record under the usual variation of his given name. And why such a teeny-bopper  name for a record with such grown-up lyrics and musical styles. 

Anyway, this one seems to go on forever. Honestly, I don't think either of these are very good, but I did want to get a performance by Rodd under this particular pseudonym out there into the internet. Mission accomplished. 

Download: Danny Dahrlin - A Poor Man's Desire

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