Bob Bonn's Greatest Hit

Okay, so I wrote this post about six days ago, and went in today to start building the next one, and found that I never went live with it. Probably the effects of my then new tooth extraction and related pain - pain which has continued to this day, due to complications. Yay. Today, the pain seems to finally be calming down. 

But anyway, the fact that I did delay going live with this one means that it gives me a chance to publicize something I received in email over the weekend. A correspondent named Michael has found, and posted, a Rodd Keith "Real Pros" release from 1974. And to my ears, it's really something special. The opening couplet is downright weird and may make you think something goofy is on the way. But it's anything but. That weird line notwithstanding, it's a deeply meaningful and affecting lyric and a really pretty record, sung very effectively with deep emotion. 

It's worth keeping in mind that this record is Cinema 7452, that is, a Real Pros record from 1974, and well beyond the halfway point of that year's releases. It's likely this is at least from the summer of that year, and more likely that it's from the fall. Rodd died that December. This is almost certainly from among the last batch of song-poem sessions he took part in. 

Thanks, Michael! Here it is - I highly recommend it!

~~

I am always hesitant to post Fable 45's, or at least to post them and describe them, outright, as song-poems. And that's because I just don't know. Sandy Stanton used that label to release song-poems, but also vanity records and, I think, actual attempts at producing hit records. 

On the other hand, I adore a good percentage of what Stanton released on Fable - I would certainly rank it as one of my five favorite labels within the song-poem world, maybe top three, along with Film City and Tin Pan Alley. And when I get a "good" Fable release I want to share it with the larger song-poem community. 

I don't think this one was in any way an attempt to be "legit", but I could easily see it as either a song-poem or a vanity record, and can't really close the argument in either direction. The songwriter (or song-poet), George Blevins, does not appear to have ever written another song that was released in any way, aside from these two tracks, and singer Bob Bonn similarly does not appear to have ever sung,  under that name at least, on any other records. 

"Ooo Baby" is the winning side to my ears, a fun little 123 seconds of rockabilly, with a spare and effective backing featuring some nice, staccato guitar picking. Bob Bonn does as well as many a rocker of the era (this is from 1957), and the whole thing swings quite nicely. And those stop-chord sixth chords are to die for. 

Download: Bob Bonn, Music by Sandy Stanton - Ooo, Baby

Play:

The flip side features 122 seconds of Country and Western, 1957 style, as Bob Bonn croons about the "Soft Spot in My Heart". He's a little more tentative giving forth with vocal style that requires a bit more accuracy than the flip, but overall, both he and the band submit another winning performance. 

Download: Bob Bonn, Music by Sandy Stanton - Soft Spot In My Heart

Play:

Fables of the Banana Queen for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers, and a big THANK YOU to everyone everywhere who reads and listens to my posts. I have something extremely rare and also, quite entertaining for you today. It's a 78 RPM acetate on the Fable label. And it looks like this: 

My best guess is that only a handful of copies of this record were made, or perhaps only one. Certainly, this record wouldn't have been pressed in anywhere near the number of copies that a "released" Fable (or any other label's records, song-poem or otherwise) would have been. 

Happily, both songs are fairly delightful. I am guessing that these are song-poems, although with Fable, that's not a given - the label released plenty of records which were not. I'd be interested to hear what anyone out there thinks. Normally, the odd subject matter of the first side I'm sharing - "Banana Queen" - would be a clear clue that it WAS a song poem. Yet Fable released several songs of an odd nature which were probably not song-poems. So I'm really guessing. 

Anyway, this is a whole lot of fun. It's got a calypso beat, the sort of reverb-laden production that I love, funny and creative lyrics, and I would venture to say that it absolutely deserved to be released. But it does not appear that a release ever occurred. 

Download: Unknown - Banana Queen

Play:

No performer is listed on either side. The flip side, "Baby You're the Best" does bear the name "Shirley", but as the song is sung by a male, that clearly refers to someone other than the performer. Maybe Shirley was "The Best". 

"Baby, You're the Best" is a rockabilly flavored number. It features a bass line lifted directly from "Don't Be Cruel", a "wild man" sort of lead vocal, with simple backing by a small combo. It's a bit too understated for me, but things perk up briefly on a couple of slightly more swingin' bridge sections.

Given the Calypso influence on one side, and the "Don't Be Cruel" influence on the other, I would peg this release from very late 1956 or some time in 1957. And since nothing, ever, has sounded as great as late 1956 and all of 1957, these are quite wonderful to hear.  

Download: Unknown - Baby You're the Best

Play: 

 

It's So Easy To Be Breezy!

 

It's been way too long since I posted here- I've been sick the last several days. And there are updates I need to do to some previous posts, as well, but they will wait until next time, as I'm still not doing great. In fact, I'm going to quote from myself in presenting this duo of Fable sides. But first, it's worth noting that the AS/PMA page shows that Fable records numbering started with the 500's, and one other online repository shows a single additional record from the 200 series. So I'm not sure when this is from - it's either just about the first Fable release or some sort of outlier. 

Anyway, here's what I wrote about the label, and this particular lyricist and perhaps songwriter, just about five years ago: 

As I've written before, posting songs from the Fable Label poses an interesting dilemma. Most of the songs on the label were probably not song-poems, but a good percentage of them seem to have been vanity releases. And when a likely vanity release is sung by someone other than the song-writer, that seems like at the very least a hybrid vanity/song-poem release.

Such is the case - and I'm guessing here - with today's feature. Lysle Tomerlin had several songs released on Fable, and wrote at least one South-Pacific-Themed song which was recorded and released by an established artist. Aside from that song, though, everything seems to have been on Fable, making me suspect these as vanity records.

I wrote those words about a record of two Western Swing numbers, by Little Jeannie Greer, and this record, featuring two different female singers, also falls under that genre. The better of the two, and quite catchy, to my ears, is "It's Easy to Be Breezy", sung by Joan Allen (presumably not the Oscar nominated actress of the same name, who was not yet born when this record is likely to have come out), accompanied by a real mouthful of a band, Sandy Stanton and his Rhythm Ranchhands. 

Download: Joan Allen, Music by Sandy Stanton and his Rhythm Ranchhands - It's Easy to Be Breezy

Play:

The flip side is by Lee Esmont (presumably not the Oscar nominated actress of the same name, because there isn't one),with a slower, and less interesting number, titled Stepping Stones. Here and there, the guitarist (at least when he's playing while Lee sings), seems to have thought he had the chops and style of Les Paul. He didn't. No one did except Les. 

Download: Lee Esmont, Music By Sandy Stanton and his Rhythm Ranchhands - Stepping Stones 

Play:

So are these song-poems? Vanity recordings? Something else? I'm really not sure, but in the case of Fable, my goal is simply to share whatever previously unavailable finds I make. And this one seems to have been unknown, before this point. 

Scotty or Sandy?

Today, I'm going to take a bit of a deep dive into one corner of the song-poem world, the world of Sandy Stanton's Fable & Film City career. This might be a bit "in the weeds" for the casual listener, but I'm going to try and be brief and hopefully you'll find this interesting. The record in question looks like this: 

As many of you probably know, Sandy Stanton owned both the Fable and Film City labels, largely having wound down Fable around the time that Film City started up, although he released at least a handful of Fable records many years after the last year of bulk releases. And if you know that, you'll know that Sandy Stanton recorded under his own name from time to time, primarily during the Fable years, but also at a handful of times on Film City. 

Which brings me to this record, "As Long As I Have You" by Scotty (Sandy) Scott and the Rockin' Country Band. My first thought here was that Sandy Stanton decided, for whatever reason, to appear on his label under an assumed name. You can listen to Sandy sing here, here and here or simply click on the link for posts labeled "Sandy Stanton", and then listen to this song. 

Download: Scotty (Sandy) Scott and the Rockin' Country Band - As Long As I Have You

Play:

It's also worth noting that, while Stanton used full bands on his Fable releases, and relied on the limited, but fascinatingly sounded Chamberlin on his Film City tracks, for this one, he seems to have dumbed things down quite a bit, and I believe he's using one of those early basic home synthesizers, of the sort that Leonard Cohen sometimes used (to his detriment, in my opinion) and the use of which always remind me of this song by Robin Gibb.  

Okay, so maybe you're with me now, and agree that Scotty (Sandy) Scott is Sandy Stanton. Or maybe you don't agree. But the thing is, I suddenly remembered that I have another record by Scotty Scott, a completely ridiculous and terrifically entertainingly awful vanity record on Film City. I posted it to WFMU seven years ago. 

As you'll see, there's no "Sandy" mentioned, and Scotty Scott is listed as the co-writer on both sides. And if you listen, I think you'll agree it could be the same singer, yet again, or this record and the one on WFMU could be one and the same, and the voice on Sandy Stanton's records could be a different one. Or Scotty Scott could be one singer, and Scotty (Sandy) Scott another. The writing credit under the name Scott really throws me off - did Sandy Stanton co-write those two awful songs under an assumed name and then sing them under that name?  

In brief - were Scotty Scott and Sandy Stanton the same person? If so, why use the other name, and why give a hint to who he was on one release and not the other. 

While you're thinking about that, here's the flip side of the record, 'You Shot Me Down". 

Download: Scotty (Sandy) Scott and the Rockin' Country Band - You Shot Me Down

Play:

 You may have noticed that I was way overdue for a post - other responsibilities got in the way. That's the same reason that the cut-up / mash-up feature is taking the week off. 

Fables from Sandy Stanton

Happy End of February!

I don't have a lot of time this week, so I'll be brief. 

I only had time to overhaul two of my previous posts, but that does leave with less than a dozen posts to fix, going forward. In this case, they were both from September of 2005. One featured two obscure singles from a favorite 1950's duo of mine, Patience and Prudence, and the other was an acetate featuring some very homely sounding violin playing. 

And now: 

Every now and then, I like to try and feature the Fable Label, which is sort of iffy with regard to a series called "Song Poem of the Week", because Fable releases went from song-poem to vanity release to attempts at legit hits almost throughout the run of the label. 

For today, though, I'm fairly sure these are song poems. Both are country flavored pieces warbled by label owner Sandy Stanton (with the "Fable Chorus" according to the label).

First up is "Time Has No End", which, despite having come out in 1958, sounds to me more like and early 1950's country release. One with some fairly cookie cutter country lyrics, but a rather lovely backing track. 

Download: Sandy Stanton and Fable Chorus: Time Has No End

Play:

The flip side has the unwieldy title "Don't Play With My Heart Like a Toy", and it features a country-ish vocal over a fairly standard late 1950's rock-a-ballad setting. The presence of the moment where Sandy's voice breaks - well, more the fact that they didn't do another take - is another indication to me that this is a song-poem record. 

Download: Sandy Stanton and Fable Chorus: Don't Play With My Heart Like a Toy

Play:

~~

And now, as has been my habit since I was requested to do so, I am featuring another of my early 1980's "Cut-Ups". I think this one is one of the most inspired that I did, and it has a theme running through it, as you'll hear. 

And it all came from the fact that the song in question, "Blue Eyes" by Elton John, could be reworked nicely if I replaced the title phrase with the many different ways that George Carlin said "Blue Food" in one of his recorded routines. 

I hope you enjoy it. 

Download: Elton John - Blue Eyes

Play:

A Civil Rights Fable

Today, I have an extremely interesting record, one that is perfect as well for this particularly moment in history.

But first, I want to say that I have again updated another quartet of posts, this time from June of 2012. These posts include: a fun Gene Marshall record about an honest-to-goodness real sea-bound college, an interesting record from Norm Burns combining social relevance with supper club stylings, a Sammy Marshall special featuring some truly odd and interesting lyrical turns of phrase, and some less than competent garage band material from Mike Thomas and Tin Pan Alley. I must say, that was a particularly strong month of offerings.

And now:

I don't quite know what to make of this record, which I just acquired a few days ago.

I thought I knew that Sandy Stanton largely shut down his Fable outfit in the late '50's, with few documented releases after that point, and with Film City apparently coming to life by 1963 or so. A few much higher-numbered Fable releases exist, including one from the early '70's that I've posted, but nothing has been documented between release record # 714, circa 1958 or 1959, and record # 1060, which is undated.

Yet here's a record that has to be from at least the fall of 1963, based on one of the references (multiple sites indicate that year, but it could be guesswork), it features the Chamberlin, which was the hallmark of Stanton's releases on Film City and its offshoots (and never during the heyday of Fable), and it could be a vanity release or a hybrid or even some other category entirely, rather than a song poem.

Both sides of this record have been available online before, and one still is, but neither has been identified as a Fable release, or listed with the credit seen here, to Sandy Stanton's Orch and Chorus. The artist in question, Bob Starr, seems to have reissued the record, along with other recordings, naming his band "The All Star Band", at some point in the late '60's, entirely removing its link to the song-poem world.

None of that would be terribly interesting to much more than a few people, were in not for the fairly fascinating content of the record. For both songs on this record are about aspects of the civil rights movement in the early and mid 1960's. What's more, both are catchy and well made. They sound nothing like anything else I've ever heard on Fable, and I'm fairly certain that the drummer here is NOT the Chamberlin, but rather an actual drummer playing along with the Chamberlin player. which I'm not aware of ever being done on a Film City production.

The listed A-side, and the better of the two, to my ears, is the swinging, R and B flavored "The Freedom March". After the martial opening, the movin' and groovin' begins. The opening lines remind me of "Rockin' Robin" of all things, and I'm fairly certain that "Old Abe Lincoln" did NOT sign the Bill of Rights, but putting that aside, I find this record fairly addictive and even intoxicating in spots.

Download: Bob Starr with Sandy Stanton Orch and Chorus - The Freedom March
Play:

The Flip Side, "The Jail House King" is no slouch either. It features a righteously proud lyric about Martin Luther King, Jr., referred to here are "Luther King", no doubt because it fit the pattern of the lyrics better.

This is a decent ballad-style record, especially for a song-poem record, and I really enjoy Bob Starr's Folk-Blues style of singing.

Download: Bob Starr with Sandy Stanton Orch and Chorus - The Jail House King
Play:

I would be very interested in hearing anyone else's thoughts, information, insights or other input about this unique record.

The Onliest Jack Carlin on Fable Records

Greetings!

I have again endeavored to re-up another months worth of earlier-posted song poems, in this case the three records I shared in January of 2015. This is a slow process, but at least it's started. Starting today, you can again enjoy a truly wonderfully ridiculous record by Phil Celia on Tin Pan Alley, a very rare Star-Crest single, featuring two songs that total 189 seconds between them, and the lovely and talented Norm Burns, who is not letting mom off the hook!

~~

And now..... 

Posting songs from the Fable label is sort of a crap-shoot. While there are a handful which are almost certainly song-poems, and plenty more which seem very likely to have been attempts at hits, that leaves a bunch which are just goofy enough or off-kilter in some way to make them seem likely to be song-poems, or at best vanity records, with Fable doing the honors of providing the performers for someome's completed lyrics and music.

I actually suspect the latter of today's record, but I'm posting it anyway, because a.) it deserves to be heard and b.) I've received requests over the years to continue sharing Fable releases, of which I have many, and which are starting to go for higher and higher prices at auction.

Both sides of this record were written by the wonderfully named Calasanz Joseph Jones & Thelma Hester Jones - I got this information from the Catalog of Copyright Entries, where the Jones' are listed as composers of a few songs. Again, my guess is that they paid Fable to record their songs - perhaps they even picked the singer, Jack Carlin, who does not appear on any other cataloged Fable release. Fable even went so far as to send this record to Billboard in late 1956, where it was dutifully reviewed (every record Billboard received got a mention, in those days), and given very poor prospects for any success.

On both sides, Carlin is backed by label honcho Sandy Stanton and the Fabel Label All Stars, billed just like that: "Fabel". I will have to look to see if any other Fable release has that billing.

Oh, and the songs? Well, for one thing, they may both qualify as the two longest titles I've ever shared on this site, each of them having a lengthy main title and a significant subtitle. And the subject of both songs is, generally speaking, laziness.

First up is "I Got One Foot in the Grave (And the Other Won't Behave)". If nothing else, the prominent bum guitar note a the 1 1/2 second mark gives me the impression that making this as professional and hit-bound a record as possible was not on the agenda that day. But the whole thing is clever and funny, and quite enjoyable, well never quite sounding completely on the level.

Download: Jack Carlin, Music by Sandy Stanton and the Fabel Label All Stars - I Got One Foot in the Grave (And the Other Won't Behave)
Play:

Continuing the theme, in a minor key this time, the flip side is titled "The Onliest Thing I Won't Do (Is Work Work Work). This side sounds considerably more song-poem-ish to me, with its thudding beat and a guitarist who occasionally sounds like he's not following the same chord changes as the rest of the band. Jack Carlin also sounds far less like a professional singer on this track.I find this side to be a genuinely odd combination of sounds and arrangement choices.

Download: Jack Carlin, Music by Sandy Stanton and the Fabel Label All Stars - The Onliest Thing I Won't Do (Is Work Work Work)
Play:

Little Jeannie Greer

As I've written before, posting songs from the Fable Label poses an interesting dilemma. Most of the songs on the label were probably not song-poems, but a good percentage of them seem to have been vanity releases. And when a likely vanity release is sung by someone other than the song-writer, that seems like at the very least a hybrid vanity/song-poem release.

Such is the case - and I'm guessing here - with today's feature. Lysle Tomerlin had several songs released on Fable, and wrote at least one South-Pacific-Themed song which was recorded and released by an established artist. Aside from that song, though, everything seems to have been on Fable, making me suspect these as vanity records.

Today's 45 - from 1955 - features two Western Swing flavored numbers, featuring a singer identified as "Little Jeannie Greer". She does sound young, although not necessarily like a child. Perhaps she was a teen, or perhaps she was short in stature. I find her singing a bit on the amateur side, but very engaging and sweet, and the backing is just lovely. Here's one side of the single, "Slyly":

Download: Little Jeannie Greer - Slyly
Play:

The flip side has the unwieldy title of "Who, What Where, When, How and Why". That title comes out sounding just as clunky and difficult to sing as you'd imagine, and the song is not as well put together as is "Slyly". But the performance is nearly as fun, cute and memorable as the one on the flip side:

Download: Little Jeannie Greer - Who, What Where, When, How and Why
Play:

COOL THAT MOTOR DOWN!

I'm ending the year with a fairly wonderful release on the Fable label (a label which had a much higher percentage of wonderful to other-than-wonderful releases than virtually any other song-poem label). And the A-side of this one gives me pause, in describing it as a song poem, because a.) it's so strong a song, arrangement and performance and b.) not all of Fable's releases were song-poems, although a good majority of them were song-poems or vanity releases.

But a little digging found that the author of the song, one Jack Jaquay, had a minimal background as a writer, at least based on the Catalog of Copyright Entries. Add that to the dismal quality of the material on the B-side, and I'm pretty sure this is either a song-poem or a vanity release.

The inspiration for 1959's "Cool Cool That Motor Down" (sung by the previously unknown Mickey Frey) is likely the songs "Hot Rod Race" and its sequel, "Hot Rod Lincoln", at least in the arrangement and structure of the song, and its automotive subject (for the first two verses, anyway), if not the specifics of the story told.

And to these ears, it sounds mighty good, complete with sound effects, peppy guitar and drums, and an effective lead vocal. See if you don't end up singing the chorus after the record's over.

Download: Mickey Frey with Sandy Stanton's Panics - Cool Cool That Motor Down
Play:

As alluded to above, the overall quality of the flip side, "Just For You", leaves little doubt in my mind that this side, at least, is a song-poem. No effort appears to have gone into making this into a good record. The pianist makes multiple errors, the singer sounds like he's seeing the words for the first time, and the entire band sounds like they are on autopilot. Then there are the words, which suggest a first attempt at writing a love poem. Well, at least it's sort of bouncy.

Download: Mickey Frey with Sandy Stanton's Panics - Just For You

Play:  

Flying Saucer Freight!

Howdy, folks! First, here's another gift from Pete, a song-poem ad from a 1931 issue of "Modern Screen Magazine". You get a FREE BOOK, too!:

 

And now:

 

 

Determining the provenance of Fable Records releases is a real challenge. A good percentage of them seem not to be song-poems, but rather a mix of vanity records, label honcho Sandy Stanton's own compositions done by friends and hangers-on, and attempts at legitimate hits. I shared many of my favorite the (likely) non-song-poem Fable releases back at blog.wfmu.org, and I suggest you look for "Fable Label" there.

 

 

Regarding this record, though, I have no doubt. If you search through the "Catalog of Copyright Entries" (a really fun read), you'll find that today's song-poet was later credited with co-writing songs with both Jack Covais and Lew Tobin, each of whom was the head man at a song poem outfit (Tin Pan Alley and Sterling, respectively). That settles the matter for me.

 

Here we have the previously unheard Jimmy Wasson, with the ever-present Sandy Stanton Combo, performing Ms. Murray's most excellent "Flying Saucer Freight", at a rollicking good, freight train styled tempo. I'm personally mystified as to what the Flying Saucer references mean, as none of the rest of the song seems to be concerned with Outer Space, but maybe someone more in tune with the jive of them time (or, perhaps, familiar with train lingo) can hep me to what she might have meant.

 

Regardless, here is yet another mover and groover from Sandy Stanton's wild combo, and a fairly inspired lyricist:

 

Download: Jimmy Wasson, Music By Sandy Stanton Combo: Flying Saucer Freight

Play:

 

As seems to be a recurring refrain here, I have no such glowing words for the flip side, also supplied by Ms. Murray, the exceptionally earnest and dull, "No Matter What You Do", also sung by Jimmy Wasson:

 

Download: Jimmy Wasson, Music By Sandy Stanton Combo: No Matter What You Do

Play:

 

 

 

 

On a personal note, I don't want the day to go by without acknowledging that this would have been my dad's 95th birthday. Wish you were here, dad!

Telling Fables

Of all of the labels I learned about, via my expanding knowledge of song-poems, my favorite long ago became Sandy Stanton's Fable Records. I'm not calling it my favorite song-poem label,.because plenty of its releases, perhaps most of them, were not song-poems. Stanton did go on to start Film City Records and discovered Rodd Keith after winding Fable down, but during the Fable years, it seems to have been a catch-all, with song-poem releases, novelty numbers, vanity records and perhaps some attempts at producing honest-to-goodness hits. 

Because of its multi-hybrid nature, quite a while ago I decided to stop featuring Fable on this site, and instead, put together posts at WFMU featuring multiple Fable tracks. You can find those here and here. Unfortunately, I even stepped away from that project, for a few different reasons. 

Now, with the WFMU blog closed, and no other outlet for these wonderful records, I'm going to throw them into the mix here and there, with the caveat that I know some of them are not song poems, and that I'm not sure about most, if not all of the rest. I hope you enjoy them, regardless of each record's individual provenance.

From the category of "maybe a song-poem record?"... comes a 45 sung by Roberta May, featuring two similarly titled songs by someone named Sidney Whitacker. First up is a bopping, swinging number called "Don't Tell Me That Jive". As do many Fable records of this period (this is from 1957), this features some fairly wonderful rockabilly guitar playing. I've been told a couple of times that the guitarist on these sessions was the highly respected (by a few, and woefully obscure to everyone else) Roy Lanham, who was later a member of the Sons of the Pioneers.

Download: Roberta May - Don't Tell Me That Jive

Play:

The flip side, with two of the same words as the first song, is "Tell Me", a fairly standard, and fairly bland rock-a-ballad, indistinguishable from a hundred other records from the era, except for some truly awful backup singing near the end...

Download: Roberta May - Tell Me 

Play:

I got a lot of good feedback from my Fable posts, back in 2010 and 2011, and by all means, please let me know if you'd like to hear more, or not hear more from this label. In fact, please let me know in general what you'd like to hear more and/or less of. I aim to please!

Bob

A Little Housekeeping

Shortly after I began this song-poem-of-the-week project - exactly four years ago this week, as a matter of fact - commenters began requesting that rather than share just one song, that I post both sides of any single that I choose, and that I scan and include the labels from both sides. I aim to please, and with very few exceptions, I've done that in all of my posts since early in the project. 

But I didn't do so in my recent WFMU post of ten Christmas song poems (which, in case you missed it, can be found here). So, in a little act of end-of-the-year housekeeping, here are nine of the ten flip sides from the tracks featured in that WFMU post (as mentioned in that post, the tenth record, "Picolo, The Christmas Elf", had a significant, crescent moon shaped crack in it - the flip side was virtually unplayable, and in trying to make it playable, I broke that crescent shape right out of the record. Ah, well...)

Here goes!

I actually believe this record, and one other (below) have been available online at some point, and may circulate among collectors, but I can't find that either of them are currently available, so, in the interest of completeness, I'm including them. The flip side of the Norris Mayhams Christmas single "Jingle Mint Twist", also by Mayhams, and sung by "Singing Sammy Marshall", is "Come Back to Me": 

Download: Singing Sammy Marshall - Come Back to Me
Play:

The flip side of Norm Burns' "Christmas With You" is the rather bland "Living Rose":

Download: Norm Burns - Living Rose
Play:

"Xmas and You" may have been a bit of sweetness from Eleanor Shaw, but the flip side is anything but sweetness. Have a listen to "Scars On My Broken Heart": 

Download: Eleanor Shaw - Scars On My Broken Heart

Play:

The high-end song-poem outfit Stylecraft brought us "Christmas in Ireland" in my WFMU post, and on the flip side, the same batch of performers, headed by Lynne Richards, offers up "You've Got to Live to Love":

Download: Lynne Richards with the Bill Lawrence Orchestra - You've Got to Love to Live
Play:

Next up, two songs which I really should have included in that WFMU post, because they are both Christmas songs. But I was paying attention to titles, and not having a re-listen before making the files, so I didn't pay any attention to that fact. Here, a week or so late, is the flip side to "Christmas Tree", Sandy and Patty's Fable label rendition of "Oh, Lovely Night": 

Download: Sandy and Patty with The Panics - Oh, Lovely Night

Play:

And another Christmassy one, here's that other record that I think probably floats around in trading circles, Rod Rogers' flip to "Smile, It's Christmas", in which he expresses a holier thought for the day, "Let's Share a Prayer":

Download: Rod Rogers - Let's Share a Prayer
Play:

Eleanor Shaw is back again, with the flip side of "Dear Santa", which is titled "Come Back":

Download: Eleanor Shaw - Come Back
Play:

As was often the case on MSR records, labelmates shared a release on MSR 2377. On the reverse of Dick Kent's "Everywhere You Go on Christmas" lives Bobbi Blake's very un-Christmassy "Wicked Woman":

Download: Bobbi Blake - Wicked Woman
Play:

Saving the weirdest for last, here is Madelyn Buzzard. At WFMU, I shared her song "Christmas is the Love Within Your Heart". For the flip, we have the mid-winter saga "Chicken House Blues", which pairs deeply strange lyrics with half-assed musical performance, and Madelyn's relentlessly terrible singing for true song-poem trifecta. Enjoy!

Download: Madelyn Buzzard - Chicken House Blues
Play:

HAPPY NEW YEAR - It's been a challenging, at times wretched year, for family, friends and neighbors. Aside from a bright spot at the beginning of November, there's not much I would want to relive, and I'll be happy to see a new, hopefully better year come along. Despite all that, I have greatly enjoyed, yet again, sharing all of this wondrous, odd and unique music with you, and one bright spot has been the feedback that I've received here, and at WFMU, and for that I am thankful.

Bob

A Missing Link?

Today's record is among the most intriguing and mysterious to me of any that I've recently posted.

Some of you will be aware of the career of Sandy Stanton, who I've rhapsodized about here, and more extensively, at WFMU. Many of his 1950's Fable releases are highlights of my collection.

After Fable made the trip from curious but often effective rockabilly into all manner of novelty records and then more solidly into the song-poem arena, Stanton has been said to have closed up shop at Fable, bought a Chamberlin, discovered Rodd Keith and started the Film City family of labels, with Rodd (as Rod Rogers) his star attraction on a wonderland of records and label designs often featuring a Chamberlin masquerading as some sort of band whose name would show up in quotes, often with "strings" being the last word of the band name.

Here's the curious part: All but a handful of Fable releases are known to have been released before the end of the 1950's, with label numbers under the four-digit mark, and Film City appears to have started up in the early 1960's. Although there is some overlap in time and billing style - AS/PMA lists four Fable records with higher numbers, all of which have the Stanton fake band names as part of the billing - I'd never heard any of them before getting this record.

And the differences between the two labels couldn't be more severe - Fable records generally feature real bands, often with a driving rock beat or solid country sound, and prominent guitars. Film City records are almost always one-man band productions, with not a single "real" instrument heard. I've always been amazed that the same person was behind both labels, and that he seemingly made the switch from one style to the other, virtually overnight.

Then comes this record, which features a modified Film City sound on the Fable imprint. It has a label number of 1250, a Fable Label design nothing like the one used in the '50's, a Stantonesque "Rockin' Strings" band name, and a singer name which turns up on no other song-poem that I'm aware of ("Bob Rogers"). It also features what sounds like an some sort of early keyboard instrument, but not like any Chamberlin record I've ever heard. The keyboard player's style certainly convinces me that it's Rodd Keith, but as to the singers.... well, the "Bob Rogers" on the first side might be Rodd Keith, but it only sort of sounds like him to me. I'm almost sure that the "Bob Rogers" on the second side is Frank Perry.

This record can't even come from the earliest days of Film City, nor right after the last batch of more typical Fable records. The ZIP code on the label demonstrates that it comes from at least 1963. The more sophisticated keyboard sound makes me suspect it's from at least a few years after that date, as well.

So did Stanton temporarily revive Fable, to release a few records, at least four years after largely shutting it down, and have Rodd Keith put together two songs (each by the same two writers), using a higher quality keyboard of some sort than the ones used on Film City records? And is that Rodd singing on the A-Side? I am curious to think what any of you reading this may think. Here is the A-side, "Rock and Roll Star".

Download: Bob Rogers - Rock and Roll Star

Play:  

And the somewhat odder b-side, "Rock and Roll Date":

Download: Bob Rogers - Rock and Roll Date

Play:  

The Fable Label

A quick link which might be of interest to song-poem fans of a certain stripe. My most recent post to WFMU features 12 songs (6 45's) from the Fable label. This is one of my favorite labels, and it often released song-poems. As I wrote in the post, a few of those records I posted there might be song-poems, but I'm betting most or all are not.

On the other hand, they are quirky records in the same way that many of the best song poems (especially 1950's song-poems) can be, and you might enjoy them as much as I do.

The post can be found here

CalypSong-Poem

Today's song-poem offerings come from two labels which are not featured as often as others, when song-poems are a compiled, shared or discussed. In the case of both these labels, it appears they released song-poems, legit singles and vanity recordings. I am sure today's first offering is a song poem, and am not quite as sure to which world the second one begins.

First is a record on the Tin Pan Alley label. Tin Pan Alley dated back earlier than most of the song-poem labels which get more attention, and released enough legit or borderline legit records to have been the subject of an anthology of their "best doo-wop records", although whether that CD is, itself, legit, is anyone's guess. They soon moved into the song-poem game full time, and produced some of the weirdest records I've heard from the genre, including "It's Spring", which I recently featured here. Today's featured record comes from the earlier years of the label, however.

And this one seems made just for me, as it combines the song-poem concept with perhaps my favorite genre of music, Calypso. Phil Celia, previously heard on this site performing the classic "Atom Dynomic Dance", here tries his hand at "If Mama's and Papa's Would Stay At Home". Views reflected in this song-poem do not necessarily reflect those of the management: 

Download: Phil Celia - It Mama's and Papa's Would Stay At Home

Play:  

Next up is a favorite from the Fable label. This label seems to have been all over the map. I have vanity pressings, novelty records, and song-poems on Fable, and I've seen early rock and roll and doo-wop from the label go for hundreds of dollars on eBay. Whether today's feature was an attempt at an actual country hit or a song-poem is a mystery to me. It does feature label head Sandy Stanton doing the music, but so do some of the label's legit releases. Whatever it is, you're not likely to hear anything else quite like it today. Enjoy Little Donnie Lane with "Go Away":

Download: Little Donnie Lane - Go Away

Play:

RATE A RECORD!!!!

Today I'm sharing three of my newest 45 rpm acquisitions. All three come from labels associated with the song-poem field, but I suspect that only one, and perhaps two, of the three. are technically song-poem records. 

That one I'm sure is a song-poem, is "Atom Dynomic Dance" by that man about town, Phil Celia. One doesn't come across a twist styled record suggesting a dance based on an atom bomb explosion every day. Not only the words strike me as some amateur's attempt to clever, but the fact that the melody (at least as sung by Mr. Celia) doesn't quite fit the chord changes, tells me that this wasn't designed to be promoted as an actual hit. The Tin Pan Alley label on the record helps, too. And is "Dynomic" even a word? Okay, everybody! "Let's Go Boom and Mushroom, Let's Be an Atom Blast...!" 

Download: Phil Celia - Atom Dynomic Dance

Play:

Next up is Barney Spencer and the Vellaires, on the Vellez label. I have only a few records on this label, and each of them is odd in its own unique way. This is just a cute little song, pushed over that line between fun and really fun by the singer's Scandinavian accent. I have a suspicion that this one - "Beginner's Luck" - was a vanity release, but I could be wrong.

Download: Barney Spencer and the Vellaires - Beginner's Luck

Play: 

And then there is "Shakespeare Rock", by the Eligibles. Records on the sometimes song-poem related label Fable never cease to amaze me, whether they are song-poems or not. The lyrics of this one strike me as far too knowingly ironic, and it also seems too well arranged, musically, to be a throwaway song-poem. Plus, the flip side was a cover of a minor hit song. I suspect this record was meant as a deliberate joke, and whether I'm right or not, it sure as hell makes me laugh. It's well done, all the way around. I'll let you discover its charms yourselves.

Download: The Eligibles - Shakespeare Rock

Play:  

Comments welcomed and greatly appreiciated!