Today, I just have another record on the Air label, and it's just by Jeff Reynolds, who was just one of the stalwarts with Lee Hudson, who is just one of my favorite people who was in the song-poem universe. I just featured Air just a few weeks ago, but since Air just handled other label's material, and none of their own, I can justify that choice because these two records are from a different song-poem factory than the record I just featured a short time ago.
And both songs are about just being.... something. That's why I just wrote that the way I did.
The better of the two songs, by a wide margin, is the silly but endearing "I'm Just a Lonely Dairy Boy". From the very first second, anyone familiar with Lee Hudson will know this is one of his productions. It just has that bouncy, swinging sound, and what a marvelous sound it is, with great production and wonderful interplay between the instruments and the backing vocals (which appear to me to be a chorus of Jeff Reynoldses). The lyrics tell the painful story of delivering dairy products "from dawn to dark", six days a week. I think we can all relate.
Download: Jeff Reynolds With Orchestra - I'm Just a Lonely Dairy Boy
Play:
The AS/PMA website, by the way, confirms this record to have been released in 1962, based on this page from an issue of Billboard. Have a look - there are at least five other song-poems mentioned, on Air, Roxie and Ronnie, among the records that Billboard's considered to have "Limited Sales Potential" that week. At least those labels were sending the records in to be rated. I'm guessing that most song-poem labels did not.
Turn the record over, and you'll find that Jeff has left his dairy days behind him, has made and lost a fortune, and now is "Just a Hobo". If I can take one lesson from this song it's that I'm going to be sure not to "go that way".
It's another of Lee Hudson's nice sounds, but there's far less to it, and this setting always works better with Cara Stewart singing (because everything works better with Cara Stewart singing). Plus, the lyrics here are sort of stultifying, aren't they? But that "Dairy Song" - good stuff.
Download: Jeff Reynolds With Orchestra - Just a Hobo
Play:
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