The Great Joe Noto/Phyllis Ruby Team

It's vacation week here, and although we're still at home (we're the ones being visited by relatives), I'm still spending next to no time online, hence this posting will be short and sweet.

I've only heard a handful of records on Arco, but I have really liked, or even loved, at least one side from each of those 45's. I previously featured my favorite Arco record (so far) about three years ago, here, and today's release has some similarities to that one.

Again, the prime billing goes to the backing band, Joe Noto and his Diplomats, with the actual star of the show, singer Phyllis Ruby, getting second billing. Honorable mention simple must go to the writer of "Hey There Baby", just on the strength of his rockin' name, Roston Ranson, Jr.

"Hey There Baby" is a wonderfully raucous approximation of Rock and Roll, although performed by a conglomeration which was clearly more at home with swing music. The instrumental bridge is very reminiscent of my aforementioned favorite Arco record, "My Lover".

Download: Joe Noto and His Diplomats, With Phyllis Ruby - Hey There Baby
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For "Do You Suppose", the Diplomats provide a nice, if sparse, Rhumba beat, while Phyllis Ruby unfortunately shows some of the limits of her abilities - I think she sounds a bit over her head, although that doesn't spoil the song for me. As they do on several of their Arco tracks, the band segues into another style of music for the instrumental section (in this case, a sort of loose Swing feel), then slip right back into the Rhumba sound for the return of the vocal. A very enjoyable disc on both sides!

Download: Joe Noto and His Diplomats, With Phyllis Ruby - Do You Suppose
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The Arco Label

Until recently, I had only ever heard one record from the ARCO song-poem label, but it was such a winner, that I made Arco one of the labels I routinely search for. And I finally came up with a record by the same group of artists that made the initial record that I like so much. 

Making it more difficult is the fact that there have been at least two other labels called "Arco" over the years, both of them unrelated to the song-poem game. There is little information about the Arco song-poem label at the Song-Poem archives website. Before the site was mothballed, the only information available had indicated that it was associated with the Globe family of labels, no doubt because of one Kris Arden record which had been found on Arco. 

My new find suggests another link, between Arco and the Sterling label and/or the Preview label, as the name of Lew Tobin, a significant name in both of those labels' histories, shows up on this disk. 

First off, today, I'm featuring the record I recently bought, which features the clunky billing of "Joe Noto and His Diplomats with Phyllis Ruby and the Rea Sisters". While it's not quite as good as the first Arco record I heard (which is posted, below), "The Rock and Roll Beat" has a lot to offer, including some genuinely good musicianship - I love the three part harmonies - combined with some iffy lyrical choices, and an interesting match of words about Rock and Roll combined with an arrangement which (outside of the solo section) only seems to be marginally related to rock and roll.

Download: Joe Noto and His Diplomats with Phyllis Ruby and the Rea Sisters - The Rock and Roll Beat

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  The B-side is a fairly stereotypical 1950's rock-a-ballad, in which Phyllis Ruby is actually allowed to live up to her solo billing. The song-poem website has this song listed as "Be Here, My Heart", but it's actually titled "Believe My Heart":

Download: Joe Noto and His Diplomats with Phyllis Ruby and the Rea Sisters - Believe My Heart

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  And now, for a bonus. I've shied away from featuring songs on this blog that I don't actually own on the original records, but having brought up my reasons for wanting to own more Arco records, I thought I should share that first Arco record I heard. Because I don't own this record, I cannot share a JPG of the labels. This was shared with me, along with many other song-poems from the most offbeat corners of the genre, to my eternal gratitude, by a huge song poem collector in New York, with whom I exchanged MP3's, many years ago. Thank you, again, Michael. The song in question is "My Lover", again by Joe Noto and Phyllis Ruby. This is first-rate stuff, a great set of words, a creative arrangement for the vocal section, a wonderfully peculiar vocal, and a completely unexpected moment in the middle of the record.  

Download: Joe Noto and His Diplomats with Phyllis Ruby - My Lover

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The flip side of this record is another really fun one, "Mr. Dee-Di-Jay", by Nancy Jordan and the Blue Rockets.

Download: Nancy Jordan and the Blue Rockets - Mr. Dee-Di-Jay

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ADDENDUM, January, 2022: I am VERY late in adding this picture of and an news clipping about Joe Noto, which were sent to me by a very enthusiastic song-poem fan (and fan of this blog) just over a year ago. Here are Joe Noto and His Diplomats (no word on whether that's Phyliss Ruby on the left, but I wouldn't be surprised: 

And on a sadder note, here's a 1961 obit for Joe Noto, who didn't even make it to 50 years old: