The Night is Almost Over, and The Year is Almost Over, Too

Happy New Year's Eve! 2026 can't get here quickly enough. Let's hope it's a damn sight better than 2025. As John Lennon once sang, "Can't Get No Worse". 

And speaking of things that are almost over: 

I don't know what was going on at the Tin Pan Alley label around 1969 and 1970, but for a short time, they chose to employ a couple of truly awful sopranos on a handful of releases. Just over a month ago, I wrote my latest post to feature Eleanor Shaw, who made at least a dozen records for the label in quick succession, and whose performances often have to be heard to be believed, and now, for the second time, I am featuring Madelyn Buzzard, who may have made only three or four records for the label. 

I featured her in a Christmas post at the now offline WFMU blog in 2012, and in a follow up post on this blog exactly 13 years ago today (and that one - Chicken House Blues - should be heard immediately by anyone who hasn't already heard it)

(Incidentally, someone with the very unusual name of "Madelyn Buzzard" had a small role in a tiny-budgeted horror film in 1973, titled "Three on a Meathook". I'm guessing that was the same person. Maybe she sang this way because she was dangling from a meathook.)

So anyway, today we have Marilyn warbling - and that is the right word - about how "The Night is Almost Over". The band is providing a pretty credible supper-club samba arrangement - the solo is sort of rote, but effective enough - but Marilyn fails to hold up her end of the bargain. 

And is that actually an encouraging "Yeah!" from a band member at the 2:20 point. Could it be? Someone in this combo actually thought this performance was good? 

Download: Madelyn Buzzard - The Night is Almost Over

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On the flip side, we have "Because of You". Somewhere between the recording of these sides, the bass went out of tune and this was not corrected. It's not as bad as the bass as heard on those ridiculous Bob Gerard records, but it's bad enough to be extremely distracting. And the oompah beat of this one doesn't do Marilyn any favors (as was the case with the nice groove on the flip) by distracting from her vocals, or the places where she lands on the wrong note. 

Download: Madelyn Buzzard - Because of You

Play: