SAY, JACK!!!

 First up, a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are celebrating today!

Next, an update on my next round of rehabilitated posts. This week's focus was on November of 2011, and the posts in question featured a Sammy Marshall special, some sociological observations from Gene Marshall, another typically bouncy and lyrically interesting offering from Tin Pan Alley, a weird song from the Noval company, and, also from Noval, one of my half-dozen favorite song-poems ever, "Rock, Rocking All the Time". 

Finally, before today's feature, I want to thank everyone who continues to visit the site, and especially those who comment, and want to particularly single out JW. who has offered up about a dozen comments recently, to posts old and new. Keep those comments coming!!!

And now, let's get back to the countdown!

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I have tended to share records from the Film-Tone label sparingly here, first because I don't have that many, but more importantly, because most of those I do have are God-awful, usually without much in the way of car-crash worthiness to make them interesting. 

Well, they all have a sort of discombobulating out-of-time feel, and often feature their standard "Vocal Trio" singing songs that aren't meant for a mixed vocal group, but aside from that, they're mostly pretty samey. 

So I was delighted when I heard the ridiculous and wonderful first song on this Film-Tone EP (and all of their releases were EP's, as far as I know), "Say Jack", which is thoroughly worth hearing and sharing. The band at Film-Tone only had a couple of stock styles, and here they've chosen a sort of upbeat rock-a-ballad backing. But the pleasure here is in the lyrics, all about some missing money. 

The lyrics tell quite a story, in its on style. The best thing about those lyrics, however, is the way the song-poet endeavored to fit in as many rhymes as possible, of words ending with "ack" - I think he even outdid Billy Joel's similarly rhymed "Movin' Out". 

I like to imagine that the members of Film-Tone's  mixed trio were overjoyed to have something this offbeat to sing. 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Say Jack

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I would love to say the remaining tracks hold my interest to even a fraction of the same degree as "Say Jack", but that would not be accurate. The next track, "I'm Locking My Door On You", is the quintessential Film-Tone number - someone with a heartache submitted lyrics, which were set to a minimalist background in an ancient sounding arrangement, primarily led by piano and a guitarist who thinks he's playing a solo, behind that same Vocal Trio, as well as the obligatory sax solo. 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - I'm Locking My Door On You

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Most of what I just wrote could also apply to "I'll Walk Again With You", although in this case, the author is bemoaning the conflict between lovers, and looking forward to reuniting, rather than being fed up for good. 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - I'll Walk Again With You

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And finally, "I Cannot Marry You Now", which demonstrates the odd choice that the folks at Film-Tone" regularly made: to ALWAYS use the mixed trio even when the lyrics would seem to demand otherwise. In this case, we have a heartfelt lyric from a man about to enter the armed forces, explaining why this will delay his union with the one he loves. 

Appropriately, the two men sing the first verse together, but then, for much of the rest of the song, the woman of the group not only sings the very male-centric lyric, but takes the melody line whenever she sings. I just find that a very weird choice - there is no reason for her to be on this song. 

On the other hand, this song was written by a woman, but the nature of the lyric is such that she clearly meant it to be sung from a man's perspective, at least in that era, when only men trained for battle. 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - I Cannot Marry You Now

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Please note that someone - perhaps one of the song-poets - submitted this record to radio station WDKN in Dickson, Tennessee, as seen by the stamp on the b-side label. I'm sure the program director pushed one or more of these tracks into heavy rotation, immediately. 

Back to the 1930's with Film-Tone!

From the sublime of last week's Rodd Keith two-fer, to the ridiculous of this week's Film-Tone mania. I've written before about Film-Tone, in posts which are sadly, now without their downloadable tracks, due to last year's Divshare meltdown. You can read what I've written about the company (without the files) here (that link will include this post, and three others under it). It's also worth noting that Film-Tone apparently had some sort of link with the larger Star-Crest song poem company, whose album products I've posted  multiple times, including here and here. 

Basically, these companies seem to have existed in the '50's and '60's, producing music which sounded like it was from 30 years earlier. The only Film-Tone releases I'm aware are all EP 45's, featuring a "Vocal Trio" of two men and a woman, backed by a small combo. 

First up is a stereotypical song-poem of longing, perhaps unrequited love, I had a dream. If you close your eyes, you can imagine yourself at a ballroom in 1935, listening and perhaps dancing to the cut-rate group that was all the ownership could afford.

Download: Film Tone Productions: I Had a Dream
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Next up is "Have Faith in Love", a religiously inspired lyric from a wife to her husband. Unlike the previous track, I can't even imagine a scenario in which I'd be listening to this material, performed live.

Download: Film Tone Productions: Have Faith in Love
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Flipping the record over, we hear "My Every Dream Came True". Here, the band has adopted a light Latin beat which one might have heard, again, in the 1930's, and I find myself back in the ballroom from the first track. I remain confounded, as I always do with this label's material being sung by a mixed group, as the lyrics - many of which tend to be written with one gender in mind, singing to the other - are indiscriminately given to a male singer to sing solo, followed immediately by the group, led by the female singer.

Download: Film Tone Productions: My Every Dream Came True
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I'm definitely speaking in relative terms, but the best is saved for last. The one redeeming thing I've found on a few Film-Tone EP's is that there have been a few lyricists who submitted attempts at humorous, or at least clever, lyrics. "You're My Only Problem Now" fits that description, with its comparison of school work (many years ago) with today's relationship issues. And I do like "I ask absolution while I work some solution". It doesn't make up for the stodgy music, but it helps a little bit

Download: Film Tone Productions: You're My Only Problem Now
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Not Every Song is Meant for a Mixed Vocal Trio...

Today, the second half of a little two week jog into the true fringes of the song-poem world, and another EP from the folks at the Film-Tone label. Clicking on the Film-Tone link at the bottom of this page will take you to the three previous EP's I've shared from the label, as well as the very little I know about the label. The key point here is that the only credits you'll typically find on a Film-Tone 45 are the director credit (usually Vincent Poli) and the fact that the performance is by a vocal trio.

This trio, and the group behind them, play and sing as if it was still the 1930's, and regardless of the lyric, it's always the same two men and a woman. Often, this works okay, but other times, I have to wonder what the song-poet thought of the results of his or her submission - more on that in a bit.

Within the limits of their chosen genre, the trio works well enough on the first song, "Butterfly at Play", although I swear I hear a phone ringing at the 1:46 point - it would be a perfect summation of the quality of song-poem industry products if that's exactly what it is, and if they kept the take anyway:

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Butterfly At Play
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Then there's the awkwardly titled "Singing the Song of the Blues", which also works, I guess, with this arrangement, although it features some truly stultifying lyrics, particularly those song in the solo section by the bass singer, who curiously only sounds like a bass when he's singing alone - the rest of the time his voice seems considerably higher.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Singing the Song of the Blues
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Side two kicks off with "Restless", which features some more words from the creativity challanged end of the lyricist spectrum, and, unusually, some unsure moments of vocalizing from our trio, brief moments where the three part harmony seems close to going off the rails.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Restless
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And finally, the one referenced in the title of this post, "Everybody's Girl". These lyrics fairly scream out for a solo male performance, or at least a group male performance (or, on the off chance that it was meant to reflect a gay relationship, at least a consistent performance from vocalists of a single gender). And sure enough, it starts out with the two men singing. But then, quickly, the woman of the trio comes in and takes over the melody for the remainder of the song. I have to think this was not what the lyricist had in mind, and although I suspect it was just another job for this particular singer, I do wonder, while listening to this piece, what the hell she might have been thinking, while taking on the lead part in this particular song.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Everybody's Girl
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Great Films, Great Tones!

As I write this, the annual Oscar telecast is in full swing. Assuming you read this post later, did you enjoy the show? Did you like the way they paid tribute to the world of Film? Did you think the show set the right Tone? Well, in the spirit of Film tributes and Tone setting, today I'm offering up a fairly wretched EP from our friends at the Film-Tone. Every Film-Tone EP I've found (and EP's seem to be the only thing they released), featuring a male/female trio singing with simple backing, often with the only credit being to arranger Vincent Poli, and this one is, of course, no exception. Sorry about the horrid quality of this record. I don't know if it was loved to death (which seems unlikely) or neglected to death, but it's sure scratched up. There's really not a lot of difference between the tracks here (in fact, three of the titles contain the same two word phrase, "My Heart"), although I'm a bit partial to track two, if only for its title. Rather than offer up a lot of pithy comments, I'll just rack 'em up, and count 'em down. Here's track one, "I Don't Want to Fall Out of Love With You". 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - I Don't Want to Fall Out of Love With You

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Next, the wonderfully named "I've Got a Hot Spot in My Heart for You": 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - I've Got a Hot Spot in My Heart for You

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Side two kicks off with "The Blues Have Had My Heart": 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - The Blues Have Had My Heart

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And we finish up with "The Song That Reached My Heart":

Download: Film-Tone Productions - The Song That Reached My Heart

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The Filmy Tones of Film-Tone

Before I share this week's EP, I wanted to make sure that anyone reading this blog knows that I posted an entire song-poem album to the WFMU blog over the weekend. That post can be found here. And now, on with the countdown: The Film-Tone label is one of the murkier ones in the song-poem world. I posted a single Film-Tone song early on in this project, but today we have a full EP. ASPMA has documented a link between this late '50's label and the 1960's Star-Crest label. There's no suprise there - both feature arrangements which were long out of date, sung in a sort of sterile style. But Star-Crest tended to feature a soloist singing what were clearly demos, often barely rehearsed, backed by a pianist or at best a minimal combo (I posted a full Star-Crest album here, a few years ago). At Film-Tone, on the other hand, they went in the other direction, featuring a small combo (piano, guitar and sax, here), and almost always (on the records I've owned and/or heard) a mixed trio of voices - usually fairly intricate in arrangement and (almost) well rehearsed, even - as you'll see - when the choice to use this vocal combo clashed with the lyrics. Every Film-Tone record I'm aware of is a 45 EP, and although some actually have a name of the orchestra on them (plus "vocal trio"), the three I own do not, reading just "vocal trio". There are a couple of winners here, if you're willing to wade through two others which are quite tepid. The final track, in particular, should prove very entertaining. The first one, "I Don't Think I Could", does feature some heartfelt, painful lyrics, but the performance is fairly soulless, and it's perhaps my least favorite of the four:

Download: Film-Tone Productions - I Don't Think I Could

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With "The Moonlight, The Prairie, And You", things take a definite step up, in my opinion. Maybe I'm just a sucker for this sort of thing, but this actually sounds like something one might hear on a nostalgic album of "songs from long ago". That it was actually written in the late '50's, commissioned, song-poem style, adds a level of weirdness that I enjoy. 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - The Moonlight, The Prairie and You

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Herve LaPlume's "Send Me Away with a Smile" is notable mostly for the melody, which seems to have been constructed almost entirely from random notes, and I'm amazed that the trio gets through it with as few errors as they do. I don't think I could have sung it: 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Send Me Away With a Smile

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 The award winner here, though, has to be "Steppin' On the Gas". First of all, am I wrong, or do these lyrics make no sense, particularly the line after he's been stopped by an officer: "I had to do some speeding or pay a fine, you see"? Also, what is the line after "the car sped down the highway"? Those specifics aside, these lyrics are an endless source of pleasure to me, as is the peculiar decision (alluded to above) to use the mixed trio - with the two women on lead for most of the performance - to sing a song which is written from the view of a man.

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Steppin' On the Gas

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Great Moments In Marriage

One of the most peculiar records in my collection is an EP on the Film-Tone label. I don't remember where I bought it, but I do remember being pretty sure, upon looking at it, that it was a song-poem record. And I was correct. If you're familiar with the Star-Crest label, and their rather old-fashioned style of song-poemetry (and example of which I posted here, some time ago), you probably won't be surprised by the sound of Film-Tone records, an associated label. Supposedly, within the industry, Star-Crest was known as Star-Crust, due to their outdated style.

On the other hand, as moldy as this style is, the song lyrics are more clever than those of most song poems, and the vocal arrangement actually shows that some thought went into it. No artist was named on this record. Please enjoy Film-Tone's "Flying Saucers": 

Download: Film-Tone Productions - Flying Saucers

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The second song today is linked with the first song only in that the subject of the song, Nancy Reagan, may have believed in another type of flying saucers, or perhaps in that she sometimes seemed to have originated from outer space. And also, of course, the subject of the first song - marriage - was the biggest reason why Nancy remained famous, after her retirement from acting.

Michael Kasberg, the author of this song, probably deserves a page dedicated to his singularly bizarre song-poem output, of which this is barely a taste. Still, the twists and turns in this lyric, including Gene Marshall's final comment, are worth the price of admission.

This track is taken from a private compilation made by a friend of mine, several years ago, and the beginning of the song is cross-faded with another track by a non song-poem artist. Here's Gene Marshall with "Lovely Nancy": 

Download: Gene Marshall - Lovely Nancy

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